A summary of my short attention span and why you need to make sure you get your students moving EXACTLY every 11 minutes.
Whilst I don’t literally have ants in my pants (thank goodness for that!) I do have them living in my laptop (that’s a fun fact, isn’t it?!), which honesty is not an ideal situation. This is my work laptop, which I use quite frequently, and each time I’m typing up lesson plans lately, a minimum of 5 little anties come out of their cosy home in the depth of laptop’s hardrive and crawl graciously across my screen. Just today, while planning for RE, I had a picture of a church on my screen, and there were about 10 little ants “sitting” on the electronic church pews. One was on the wine chalice. I kid you not. I was amused and infuriated all at the same time. I’m not a huge fan of creepy crawlies. I’m terrified actually, that if I unscrew those teeny tiny screws at the back of my laptop, I’d be presented with a scene out of a horror movie. Billions of eggs on the verge of hatching and millions of live ants that will crawl all over me until I’m buried alive………Am I just being dramatic?! I’ll leave you to decide……
To be honest, I feel a little better for sharing that. Hopefully tonight I will not have that reoccurring dream of billions of ants, crawling all over me! I am sure that if I verbally told a colleague that: “So, get this? I was just doing some planning, minding my own business, and some little black ants decided it would be appropriate to enter my church, sit down on the pews....all with the exception of one little guy, who was trying to get a swig of the sacramental wine on the altar” they would probably think I was MORE crazy than they no doubt, already think.... To be honest, they’d probably be full of sensible solutions to this issue, but they don’t know that I’ve made a truce with these ants, and I’ll allow them to reside within the depths of my laptop if they promise not to hatch all at once and bury me alive…..if they want to pop out a few at a time, to say hi, then I’ll allow it, I suppose......
Ok, so really, I should move on with the main point to today’s post. ANTS. In my PANTS. They’ve been there, in my pants, for 2 full days now. Is it a coincidence that I started back at work 2 days ago?! Absolutely not. The students don’t arrive for another week, so my days at work thus far, have been full of teacher professional development sessions, preparing us for another year. Preparing us for the best year yet, full of change, positive vibes and energy. And don’t get me wrong, I completely understand the value of these days, and I absolutely think it’s essential……but I am not a person who is made to sit, in a hard plastic seat, for more than an hour at once. I try. Don’t get me wrong. I try pretty damn hard.
I read somewhere once that students should be able to focus for their age in minutes. I find myself wondering whether this applies for adults?! Should I be able to sit and listen attentively for 28 minutes, and my older colleagues for an hour?! Does the presenter take this into account when preparing a presentation?! Do they know what the average attention span of an adult is? Do they care?! Do you know?! If you don’t, you’re in luck because I just typed into google “Attention span of an adult”……and........drumroll please.........it said 20 minutes! This makes me happy. ECSTATIC even! I have just found evidence, that I am not THAT abnormal (in regards to my attention span at least!). You see, for the past 2 days (and the hundreds of other PDs I’ve attended throughout my career) after about the 20 minute mark, I’m looking out the window, looking at the ceiling, counting the tiles, counting the lights, crossing my legs, uncrossing my legs, clicking my pen, doodling in my notebook, cracking my fingers, counting my fingers, stretching my legs out, having a drink, applying pawpaw ointment to my lips and then I go back and repeat all of the above, numerous times until the session is over. So consequently, I really only take in half of the information being delivered to me after that 20 minute (maybe 30 minutes if I’m having a really good day!) mark. Now this is a VERY valuable learning experience as a teacher, which is reinforced at the start of each school year, whilst I sit and attempt to take in every word being delivered to me. And I know not all adults are like me (lucky you!). I do not live a sedentary lifestyle. I couldn't even sit through a full movie until I was at least 15, unless I was desperately ill. I do not have a well-developed attention span for someone who is 28 years of age, and while I am very well-mannered and can sit quietly for the required time, does not mean I am engaged or actively listening for the required time…..I am “there, but not there” if you know what I mean!
So why is my inability to sit and listen to an hour speech, as an adult, so VALUABLE to me as a teacher? Why should I even be sharing that I cannot sit still, listen actively and absorb 100% of the content being delivered to me? BECAUSE, if I can’t do this, how on earth can I expect my 11 year old students to sit and listen to me for long periods of time in my class?! Quite simply, I cannot. It’s unfeasible. Impractical.
As I mentioned, I once read that “children have an attention span which is relative to their age in minutes”. So, 11 year old students, should be able to sit and listen for 11 minutes. This has been like gospel to me and for those who know me, I have a some (just a few!) OCD tendencies, so naturally after EXACTLY 11 minutes, I make sure I let my students get up and do 10 star jumps and high five the students around them. Then I change activity. And after a further 11 minutes the students have to get up and sit somewhere different and tell their partner something they have learnt. They get up, swap seats again, and this time tell their partner something they are having trouble with. We share a few, which is a valuable little learning checkpoint, go back to our original seats and it’s time for a new activity. This I have found creates PRODUCTIVE and ENGAGED middle school learners. They cannot be expected to sit and listen to me teach them for 20 minutes and then sit in silence and work on activities individually for the remaining 30 minutes. They are young and energetic. They will get ants in their pants. I can relate, 100%.
So, I am thankful for Teacher PD days, to remind me that it’s not okay to expect my middle year’s students to sit, focus and most importantly ABSORB information for long periods of time. I would actually be thankful as an adult, if the presenters stopped us every half an hour to stand up and have a stretch, do a few push ups, jump up and down, give the people around us a high five and then sit down ready for more information.
Here are my top 10 “activity transition” or “physical breaks” I use with my middle years classes:
1. “Beach Ball Freeze” Very simple, and you don’t need a beach ball. I like to use a beach ball because I feel like there can be NO INJURIES at all with an inflatable ball. I put on some music and the students pass/throw/hit the ball around. When I stop the music whoever is holding the ball gets asked a review question.
2. “Paper, Scissors, Rock Contest”. Very self-explanatory. You lose, you’re out. Play until there’s one man standing.
3. “Human Pac-Man” review. Students stand up and choose a spot in the room. I ask a question and the first person to put their hand up attempts to answer. If they get the question right they can take two steps in any direction, and if they can tap a student that student is out. Students who are out could get back in if nobody standing can answer the question. Last man standing wins.
4. “Would you rather”. Simple game that the students love. They jump up, find a partner, are presented with a scenarios: eg. “Would you rather be able to speak to animals or be able to control the weather”, and they have 30 seconds to share with their partner. They then swap partners and this continues.
5. “Silent Ball”. This is simple and always a hit. All you need is a ball. The rules are very simple. NO TALKING. If you talk, you’re out. If you drop the ball you’re out.
6. “Timed Talking”. Also simple. I put a timer on the board, and the students are allowed to get up and walk around the classroom and chat to their friends. They love this and return to their seat ready for learning as soon as the timer goes off.
7. “Just Dance”. Have students pick a song. Put it on and they can sing/dance like crazy for the duration of the song. Get rid of some of those ants in their pants. As soon as the song is over it’s back to learning. Works a treat.
8. “Tell a Joke”. Students can volunteer to tell the class a joke. There is always plenty of laughter, and a good distraction before going back to work.
9. “Four Corners”. All you need to do is choose 4 vocabulary words, and put a sign with each word in each corner of the room. Put some music on, students choose a corner. The teacher draws out one of the vocabulary words and students in that corner are out. Easy, yet effective.
10. “Post-it Note” review questions. This is very simple. I write a few questions relating to the topic of study on the board and give each student some post-it notes. They have a time-limit (usually 1 minute depending on the complexity of the question) to scribe their answers, write their name and come and stick it on the board. Sometimes when I’m out of post it notes I write some questions on A3 paper, blu tac them around the room and students get up and write their answers/opinions on each A3 page. That way they are moving, getting out of their seats and reviewing content.
Really the moral of this post is:
a. If you’re presenting to adults, give them a “Brain Break”. This should not be exclusively for children!
b. If you have ants living in your technology, probably get them removed.
c. Bring energy to your middle school classrooms! Don’t expect the students to sit, listen and absorb everything you say for long periods of time. Even if they sit there, ever so politely, in silence, does not mean they are taking in what you are saying. They might be “there but not there”, if you know what I mean!
Bring on the student’s arrival next week! The best time of the year, for sure!
I'll leave you with this image, which I think is a pretty powerful summary of what I've discussed above, for presenters and teachers alike!
Also if you did read this far, CONGRATULATIONS, you have an ABOVE AVERAGE attention span for an adult! That is no mean feat! :-)
