February 11, 2025 • 13 mins
This episode explores effective strategies for maintaining quiet in classrooms without resorting to yelling. By sharing anecdotes and practical tools, we aim to help teachers create a positive and engaging learning environment while managing noise levels.
• Importance of follow-through in discipline
• Symbolic gestures promote quietness in elementary classrooms
• Auditory cues like clapping help student engagement
• Sharing personal experiences in classroom management
• Dealing with energetic students through seating adjustments
• Establishing quiet time with clear consequences
• Humor as a tool in managing classroom disruptions
• Encouraging community feedback on classroom strategies
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Greg (00:00):
Greg Collins.
Substitute Teacher's Lounge,episode 278 for February 11th
2025.
I'm talking softly for effect.
We're going to talk about todaysome tools I've seen used in
schools trying to keep studentsquiet.
(00:21):
I'll let you know some of theones that I use, probably
accidentally, I just kind of usethem on the fly.
I'll let you know some thingsthat I see in the schools that I
don't know, some of them Idon't like, but I'm not going to
tell you which ones I don'tlike because I don't want to
offend the teachers.
But I will tell you severaldifferent tools that we've seen
(00:51):
and then maybe, hopefully,you'll send me an email or get
on our Facebook page and postsome of your favorite quiet
tools too.
So let's see what we got.
Substitute Teachers Loud.
All right.
First I'm going to share acouple of stories to kind of set
(01:12):
the base.
It won't help us that much, butI think they're kind of funny
stories.
My son was telling us the otherday that what is it about kids?
He was talking about his ownchild when he challenged her
don't touch that again or you'regoing to be in big trouble.
(01:33):
And he said she held up herfinger and put it down just a
little bit and just had to touchit one more time.
It reminds me of a scene fromfrom Super Mario Brothers movie
where they did the same thing.
They were told not to dosomething.
They had to do it one more time.
At church camp one year I wasthe director in charge of a
(01:57):
cabin.
I couldn't get them settleddown.
They wanted to go outside andgoof off at midnight and I said,
all right, here's what I'lltell you.
I'll do.
If you, if y'all, can staycompletely quiet for a half an
hour, we'll all go outside andcause a ruckus.
Guess what?
They were all asleep in a halfan hour.
(02:18):
So it worked.
There are quiet tools that work.
I'll tell you what worked bestwith me.
But first let's set the base.
I'm going to tell you a fewtools that I've seen used in
schools and I think they workwith varied degree of success.
Some of them work.
(02:39):
Let me go down to theelementary school first.
I know the procedures I've seenin elementary school.
As an example, they make it agame, whereas kids hold their
arms in the air and make a zero,and that means that's the level
of talk you're supposed to have.
(03:00):
Now some kids could care less,but probably the majority of the
kids are doing that.
So that symbol the teachershave taught them that your
symbol to be quiet and of courseyou need to follow through with
discipline if they're not.
That's the thing I asked my son.
I said, all right, she touchedthat one last time.
(03:21):
Did you think it was cute andlaugh, or did you follow through
with the discipline and all ofthese quiet things that we're
talking about today?
If you don't enforce what yousay you're going to do, well,
it's over.
I mean, they could care lesswhat you tell them, because they
know you're not going toenforce it.
(03:42):
And that's true raising kidsand everything else.
But that's one thing we'll keepin mind.
So we've got the arm in the airholding up the zeros.
Another tool, I think this onewas at a middle school, I know,
when a teacher thought the classwas getting too loud.
He would say cue, that, I wantyou to get quiet.
(04:09):
And everybody that would hearhim would clap once Now.
Not everybody heard him, buteverybody that did hear him
clapped once Now.
Everybody heard the clap.
And then after that, after hehad said it, you know, clap once
if you hear me.
He would say clap two if youhear me.
And then by that time everystudent in there had heard the
(04:31):
first clap.
So now they all clap too andthey're supposed to be quiet.
Now that made it into a gameand they kind of enjoy doing
that.
It doesn't mean that they'regoing to be totally quiet.
It works for the moment.
It definitely works for themoment.
I think they will settle downimmediately after that.
Whether it's an ongoing thingthat will work, I'm not sure.
(04:56):
But none of these tools are likethis.
Just because you get a classsettled down, they're not going
to be quiet forever.
So that's one thing to keep inmind too.
And of course there's theold-fashioned way of just
yelling shut up at everybody,but I don't think that's proper.
I have never used that.
(05:16):
I have said be quiet and loudly.
For the most part students willbe quiet.
For you it's no different.
I mean, I got in trouble mostin school for talking, and I
will tell them.
Sometimes I said now I'll behonest with you guys, I probably
talked more than anybody inthis classroom when I was in
(05:40):
school, but I got punished forit too.
So make sure that if you comeup with your tool, make sure
you're following through with itand make sure it's something
that works.
So we've talked aboutelementary school.
We've talked about middle andhigh school.
I'm going to tell you now thetools that I have come up with
(06:01):
that seem to work for me.
I used it last week, as amatter of fact, and in fact I
had one kid accuse me of gettinginto their personal space and I
wasn't going to enter into thatbecause it was obviously.
That was a tool that he used totry to prove a point, even
(06:21):
though he was sitting in otherpeople's personal space.
He took offense, or wanted meto think he took offense, when I
was in his personal space.
So I backed off and I said, allright, we need you all to be
quiet and since everybody waslooking at them at that point,
they were actually quiet therest of the period.
(06:41):
That's not something I want todo again, but, generally
speaking, here's the ones that Ihave used that I think have
been effective for me.
Now I'll start with the oldesttool I've ever used.
I probably started using.
I know I started using this sixyears ago when it just came to
(07:02):
me and it worked well then.
I don't think it works as wellnow.
It works best with studentsthat are what's the word?
Self-motivated.
They tend to keep theirconcentration level high.
So it works for the most part.
(07:22):
But this is when I'll give themmaybe two warnings and then
I'll say okay, here's what we'regoing to do.
And now that I'm thinking thisthrough, I used a lot in middle
school.
I don't think it would be aseffective in middle school these
days.
I don't know if it's agenerational thing I mean, we
haven't really crossedgenerations in six years, so to
(07:43):
speak.
But here's what I would do.
I would say all right, we'regoing to be quiet for 10 minutes
.
I am going to let you talkagain after those 10 minutes.
Here's the work you will bedoing Now.
If you are quiet for 10 minutes, then no problem, you can go
(08:03):
back to talking at your table.
If anybody talks during those10 minutes, I add another five
minutes and I'll even tell them.
I said listen, fake coughscount.
That's distracting.
If I think you're faking acough or a sneeze or moving a
chair, anything that makes noise, it's my.
(08:24):
It gets to be my judgment.
I'm going to bump it up fiveminutes for that too.
So that takes care of this.
Doing things to get around therules and all that kind of thing
, and that actually workedfairly well for me.
They like to get that privilegeof talking.
(08:45):
I guess that's sort of like thecamp story I told you about.
Maybe that's where I got theidea, but that worked fairly
well.
The other one that I usestarted using it six years ago,
in fact to this day.
I used it for some students inthe sixth grade six years ago
and they're seniors now in highschool and they still say I
(09:05):
can't believe you made me dothat, mr Collins.
But here's what I would do, andthis is so basic.
I use it all the time.
It's the set with me rule.
Okay, if you can't be quiet, ifyou're being too noisy, then
I'm going to make you come backand sit with me for a while.
I'm just going to tell them, bythe way, all right, come back
(09:29):
and sit with me for the rest ofclass and as long as they don't
bug me to death, as long as theydon't say, oh, Mr Collins is
going to go back, I will givethem about five minutes to
settle down and then send themback to their regular chair.
Did it again last week you comeback and sit with me for a
while and they settled down.
You know, it's just a type ofstudent that was so hot what's
(09:52):
the proper word?
So much energy, it's hard forhim to sit still.
We had a presentation very goodpresentation, by the way, if
any of you students arelistening about agriculture and
these were eighth graders andsome of them could take ag next
year and just the trips they'reinvolved with it was so cool.
I wish they.
And if you get in and go intostuff like horticulture, it will
(10:13):
count as an art credit.
I would have much rather takenhorticulture than art.
Anyway, this student came backand after about I don't even
think it was five minutes causehe quietened down quickly.
I looked down and I said youwant to go back to your other
chair?
And he said he just nodded hishead.
He was quiet, even in noddinghis head, and I said go on back
(10:37):
as long as you're notdistracting.
He said OK, now he still talkeda little bit, but you know, I
thought he did well in thatdegree.
So that's that's probably themain tool I use.
You could take away Chromebookprivileges.
You could, you know, use theold Jolly Rancher method where
(10:59):
you give everyone a JollyRancher if they're quiet for the
next 15 minutes and if onestudent is not quiet, that ruins
it for everybody.
Nobody gets Jolly Ranchers.
Then that's kind ofself-policing, because they
don't want to lose that JollyRancher and the student feels
(11:22):
really bad most of the time.
Some of them could care less,but most of the time the student
feels bad about costing a jollyrancher for the whole class.
One last little small thing I'vedone I don't like telling kids
they can't talk.
There are certain situationswhere you have to test projects
(11:43):
that have to be so low thatyou're not really supposed to
ask your classmates for help.
But sometimes I will hearstudents talking too loud and
I'll just say listen, I amacross the room from you and I
can hear you above everybodyelse.
Let me show you something.
So I sit down at the tablefurthest away from them and I'll
(12:07):
say can you hear me?
And I'll say can you hear me?
And everybody at my table canhear me, just talking like this.
I said you can over there, youcan talk at this level and
everybody at your table willhear you.
So why aren't you doing that?
Now, some of that's unfairbecause some of them just have
(12:28):
naturally loud voices, becausesome of them just have naturally
loud voices and if they everenter in a whispering contest
they would lose because theyjust can't do it.
But anyway, those are the toolsI use.
I know you have your own.
It's the age old story of how doyou keep students quiet in the
classroom.
(12:49):
There's two ways to do it.
There's one that just yell toyell at them to get quiet.
I prefer not to do it that way.
You do what you want to do.
I prefer to be more diplomaticand try to teach a lesson so
that maybe in the future theother students don't want to be
up there or sitting with you allby themselves later on.
(13:09):
But quiet tools and we're outof here for the episode.
Greg Collins.
Substitute Teacher's Lounge,episode 278 for February 11th
2025.
I'm talking softly for effect.
We're going to talk about todaysome tools I've seen used in
schools trying to keep studentsquiet.
(00:21):
I'll let you know some of theones that I use, probably
accidentally, I just kind of usethem on the fly.
I'll let you know some thingsthat I see in the schools that I
don't know, some of them Idon't like, but I'm not going to
tell you which ones I don'tlike because I don't want to
offend the teachers.
But I will tell you severaldifferent tools that we've seen
(00:51):
and then maybe, hopefully,you'll send me an email or get
on our Facebook page and postsome of your favorite quiet
tools too.
So let's see what we got.
Substitute Teachers Loud.
All right.
First I'm going to share acouple of stories to kind of set
(01:12):
the base.
It won't help us that much, butI think they're kind of funny
stories.
My son was telling us the otherday that what is it about kids?
He was talking about his ownchild when he challenged her
don't touch that again or you'regoing to be in big trouble.
(01:33):
And he said she held up herfinger and put it down just a
little bit and just had to touchit one more time.
It reminds me of a scene fromfrom Super Mario Brothers movie
where they did the same thing.
They were told not to dosomething.
They had to do it one more time.
At church camp one year I wasthe director in charge of a
(01:57):
cabin.
I couldn't get them settleddown.
They wanted to go outside andgoof off at midnight and I said,
all right, here's what I'lltell you.
I'll do.
If you, if y'all, can staycompletely quiet for a half an
hour, we'll all go outside andcause a ruckus.
Guess what?
They were all asleep in a halfan hour.
(02:18):
So it worked.
There are quiet tools that work.
I'll tell you what worked bestwith me.
But first let's set the base.
I'm going to tell you a fewtools that I've seen used in
schools and I think they workwith varied degree of success.
Some of them work.
(02:39):
Let me go down to theelementary school first.
I know the procedures I've seenin elementary school.
As an example, they make it agame, whereas kids hold their
arms in the air and make a zero,and that means that's the level
of talk you're supposed to have.
(03:00):
Now some kids could care less,but probably the majority of the
kids are doing that.
So that symbol the teachershave taught them that your
symbol to be quiet and of courseyou need to follow through with
discipline if they're not.
That's the thing I asked my son.
I said, all right, she touchedthat one last time.
(03:21):
Did you think it was cute andlaugh, or did you follow through
with the discipline and all ofthese quiet things that we're
talking about today?
If you don't enforce what yousay you're going to do, well,
it's over.
I mean, they could care lesswhat you tell them, because they
know you're not going toenforce it.
(03:42):
And that's true raising kidsand everything else.
But that's one thing we'll keepin mind.
So we've got the arm in the airholding up the zeros.
Another tool, I think this onewas at a middle school, I know,
when a teacher thought the classwas getting too loud.
He would say cue, that, I wantyou to get quiet.
(04:09):
And everybody that would hearhim would clap once Now.
Not everybody heard him, buteverybody that did hear him
clapped once Now.
Everybody heard the clap.
And then after that, after hehad said it, you know, clap once
if you hear me.
He would say clap two if youhear me.
And then by that time everystudent in there had heard the
(04:31):
first clap.
So now they all clap too andthey're supposed to be quiet.
Now that made it into a gameand they kind of enjoy doing
that.
It doesn't mean that they'regoing to be totally quiet.
It works for the moment.
It definitely works for themoment.
I think they will settle downimmediately after that.
Whether it's an ongoing thingthat will work, I'm not sure.
(04:56):
But none of these tools are likethis.
Just because you get a classsettled down, they're not going
to be quiet forever.
So that's one thing to keep inmind too.
And of course there's theold-fashioned way of just
yelling shut up at everybody,but I don't think that's proper.
I have never used that.
(05:16):
I have said be quiet and loudly.
For the most part students willbe quiet.
For you it's no different.
I mean, I got in trouble mostin school for talking, and I
will tell them.
Sometimes I said now I'll behonest with you guys, I probably
talked more than anybody inthis classroom when I was in
(05:40):
school, but I got punished forit too.
So make sure that if you comeup with your tool, make sure
you're following through with itand make sure it's something
that works.
So we've talked aboutelementary school.
We've talked about middle andhigh school.
I'm going to tell you now thetools that I have come up with
(06:01):
that seem to work for me.
I used it last week, as amatter of fact, and in fact I
had one kid accuse me of gettinginto their personal space and I
wasn't going to enter into thatbecause it was obviously.
That was a tool that he used totry to prove a point, even
(06:21):
though he was sitting in otherpeople's personal space.
He took offense, or wanted meto think he took offense, when I
was in his personal space.
So I backed off and I said, allright, we need you all to be
quiet and since everybody waslooking at them at that point,
they were actually quiet therest of the period.
(06:41):
That's not something I want todo again, but, generally
speaking, here's the ones that Ihave used that I think have
been effective for me.
Now I'll start with the oldesttool I've ever used.
I probably started using.
I know I started using this sixyears ago when it just came to
(07:02):
me and it worked well then.
I don't think it works as wellnow.
It works best with studentsthat are what's the word?
Self-motivated.
They tend to keep theirconcentration level high.
So it works for the most part.
(07:22):
But this is when I'll give themmaybe two warnings and then
I'll say okay, here's what we'regoing to do.
And now that I'm thinking thisthrough, I used a lot in middle
school.
I don't think it would be aseffective in middle school these
days.
I don't know if it's agenerational thing I mean, we
haven't really crossedgenerations in six years, so to
(07:43):
speak.
But here's what I would do.
I would say all right, we'regoing to be quiet for 10 minutes
.
I am going to let you talkagain after those 10 minutes.
Here's the work you will bedoing Now.
If you are quiet for 10 minutes, then no problem, you can go
(08:03):
back to talking at your table.
If anybody talks during those10 minutes, I add another five
minutes and I'll even tell them.
I said listen, fake coughscount.
That's distracting.
If I think you're faking acough or a sneeze or moving a
chair, anything that makes noise, it's my.
(08:24):
It gets to be my judgment.
I'm going to bump it up fiveminutes for that too.
So that takes care of this.
Doing things to get around therules and all that kind of thing
, and that actually workedfairly well for me.
They like to get that privilegeof talking.
(08:45):
I guess that's sort of like thecamp story I told you about.
Maybe that's where I got theidea, but that worked fairly
well.
The other one that I usestarted using it six years ago,
in fact to this day.
I used it for some students inthe sixth grade six years ago
and they're seniors now in highschool and they still say I
(09:05):
can't believe you made me dothat, mr Collins.
But here's what I would do, andthis is so basic.
I use it all the time.
It's the set with me rule.
Okay, if you can't be quiet, ifyou're being too noisy, then
I'm going to make you come backand sit with me for a while.
I'm just going to tell them, bythe way, all right, come back
(09:29):
and sit with me for the rest ofclass and as long as they don't
bug me to death, as long as theydon't say, oh, Mr Collins is
going to go back, I will givethem about five minutes to
settle down and then send themback to their regular chair.
Did it again last week you comeback and sit with me for a
while and they settled down.
You know, it's just a type ofstudent that was so hot what's
(09:52):
the proper word?
So much energy, it's hard forhim to sit still.
We had a presentation very goodpresentation, by the way, if
any of you students arelistening about agriculture and
these were eighth graders andsome of them could take ag next
year and just the trips they'reinvolved with it was so cool.
I wish they.
And if you get in and go intostuff like horticulture, it will
(10:13):
count as an art credit.
I would have much rather takenhorticulture than art.
Anyway, this student came backand after about I don't even
think it was five minutes causehe quietened down quickly.
I looked down and I said youwant to go back to your other
chair?
And he said he just nodded hishead.
He was quiet, even in noddinghis head, and I said go on back
(10:37):
as long as you're notdistracting.
He said OK, now he still talkeda little bit, but you know, I
thought he did well in thatdegree.
So that's that's probably themain tool I use.
You could take away Chromebookprivileges.
You could, you know, use theold Jolly Rancher method where
(10:59):
you give everyone a JollyRancher if they're quiet for the
next 15 minutes and if onestudent is not quiet, that ruins
it for everybody.
Nobody gets Jolly Ranchers.
Then that's kind ofself-policing, because they
don't want to lose that JollyRancher and the student feels
(11:22):
really bad most of the time.
Some of them could care less,but most of the time the student
feels bad about costing a jollyrancher for the whole class.
One last little small thing I'vedone I don't like telling kids
they can't talk.
There are certain situationswhere you have to test projects
(11:43):
that have to be so low thatyou're not really supposed to
ask your classmates for help.
But sometimes I will hearstudents talking too loud and
I'll just say listen, I amacross the room from you and I
can hear you above everybodyelse.
Let me show you something.
So I sit down at the tablefurthest away from them and I'll
(12:07):
say can you hear me?
And I'll say can you hear me?
And everybody at my table canhear me, just talking like this.
I said you can over there, youcan talk at this level and
everybody at your table willhear you.
So why aren't you doing that?
Now, some of that's unfairbecause some of them just have
(12:28):
naturally loud voices, becausesome of them just have naturally
loud voices and if they everenter in a whispering contest
they would lose because theyjust can't do it.
But anyway, those are the toolsI use.
I know you have your own.
It's the age old story of how doyou keep students quiet in the
classroom.
(12:49):
There's two ways to do it.
There's one that just yell toyell at them to get quiet.
I prefer not to do it that way.
You do what you want to do.
I prefer to be more diplomaticand try to teach a lesson so
that maybe in the future theother students don't want to be
up there or sitting with you allby themselves later on.
(13:09):
But quiet tools and we're outof here for the episode.
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