This is the time of year when all teachers are hard at work establishing themselves in the classroom. They know that the key to learning is to get the atmosphere right: calm, purposeful and the kind of place where children can have a go, try things out, and not worry about what is going to happen to them if they get it wrong while they do that. Leaving the room is one of the key moments when, instead of calm there can be cause for calamity.
There are lots of way that teachers can use to ensure an orderly classroom exit. One of the simplest is to allow the children who are sitting up the straightest to leave or line up first (make sure you specify where this should be). However, this tiny part of the day can provide you with a moment to build the relationship between you and them, and the atmosphere, the ethos, that is most conducive to learning – one of joyful trust.
Tidy table competition
Something for the end of the week, perhaps, or the end of the day. A minute spent inching desks together, stacking rulers and pencils to their respective places in tidy tubs, a quick scan on the floor for bits and voila! The teacher may patrol the room and decide which children have made the most effort and therefore deserve to leave their clutches first.
Birthdays
Children who are born in particular months may leave first. Or, if you wish, children who are either side of the year within which your class is contained.
Gender divide
I used to shy away from this one, early in my career, but, out of respect to children’s growing sense of their own identity, of which gender forms a part, I do occasionally use it.
Random features
Type of socks, lace up or Velcro shoes, cardigans, jumpers, long hair, short hair, colour of hair, hairstyle, right handers, left handers, gappy teeth; the array of possibilities is (almost) endless.
The Silent Game
Games are a brilliant way to develop the relationship with a class – a reward for finishing early, something to do when they finish early by mistake, a way of binding the group together, and, if I dare mention it, adding a bit of fun into the learning (there are plenty of educational games, it doesn’t have to be Heads Down, Thumbs Up). This one, the Silent Game, is an excellent one for managing the exit of large numbers of children through a small door.
After you get the children sitting nicely and waiting for your signal to leave, the game is to challenge individual or groups of children to leave the room without making a single noise. Not a scrape of the chair, not a footstep, a creak, a giggle, nothing. If they fail, they sit down again. If they succeed they (and their group/friend – the choice is yours) they may leave.
It’s as simple as that.
*Overacting on your part is probably essential.
I have no idea who invented this game. I stole it from the teacher in whose class I completed my first teaching practice, who probably stole it from someone else. And just the fact that I write it that way shows how old it is. Enjoy.
Class Teaching Tips 