The blog I read about is actually on a Smart Classroom Management blog I happened to find. The blog discusses reasons why it is important for teachers to stand in one place when giving directions to the students, instead of moving around the classroom. The blog states that students will be more attentive if you stand still while giving directions, it’s easier to focus for the students, removes obstacles, and keeps you in contact with the students. Interesting…..
I actually read this blog before class today but was unable to finish my post. i am actually glad this happened. During class today Katia walked around the room constantly while we were having a class discussion. At no time when she was walking around the class did I become disengaged from the discussion, feel less focus or felt that there were obstacles in the way. I actually felt like she was trying to engage all the students by making a point of walking around the room.
The post I read in the blog doesn’t fit my sense of classroom management. I want to interact with my students as much as possible. I also believe that walking around the room will make them pay more attention to what I am saying because they may feel that I am checking up on them (which I may be doing in ‘stealth mode’)!!! If students are possibly doing something that they maybe shouldn’t be, the close proximity of a teacher will soon change that. After all isn’t that the point of lectures is to have students listening and engaged?
I feel the blogs remarks totally fit into the anti-oppresive ideals of the education program we are now learning about. As future teachers we are being taught to engage our learners, connect with them, interact with them. In my personal opinion, I don’t believe that standing in front of a class and giving directions is beneficial to any students. Part of my working classroom will have me interacting with students, engaging them in what I am saying and making sure they are listening to what I am saying.
Click here for blog link.
Cindy Bear 
How do you distinguish between productive movement/behaviour and distracting movement/behaviors? I haven’t spent much time in a classroom, but when I did, I was unsure of this distinction.
That’s a great question. I think any movement in the classroom is a little bit of both. However, I think that I would want to move around the class to make sure the students are engaged in what I am speaking about and not fiddling on their phones, computers or anything else.
I agree with you. The only thing a standing still teacher does is make me bored. The teacher that interacts with me as a student was always the one I would learn the most from. I get distracted very easily so a teacher moving keeps my attention better because I have to always focus on changing with them.
Lusia,
Another benefit of moving around rather than standing still is that a teacher can correct unwanted or unnecessary behaviour without stopping their lesson and drawing unwanted attention to the student causing such behaviour.
This is really interesting. In my first pre-internship one of the things that my faculty advisor emphasized the most was the importance of moving around the classroom to ‘keep tabs’ on all my students. As you are walking around even just a small, silent tap on a students desk or setting down their pencil can bring their attention back to you, as the teacher. If a teacher were to just stand at the front of the room and talk and when a student was distracted verbally tell them to stop what they were doing, it would disrupt the whole class, draw attention to the student and most likely cause embarrassment. Therefore, I know that as a teacher I will be one to walk around the room as I am reading or instructing. I think that it helps to keep students attentive and also allows more opportunities for formative assessment.
Thanks Lindsay! I also agree that moving around the classroom allows me to watch the students more closely. I never want to call out a student in front of the class, I believe that just walking by their desk or standing by them sends the message without disrupting the entire class.