TEACHER'S TALKING TIME CARD

 

Shared by Alberto Barrigón:

The strategy I use in class may sound silly and perhaps simplistic, but I find it quite effective. It addresses the habit we usually have as teachers of talking too much during our lessons, preventing our students from making the most of the opportunities they have of speaking in class. My strategy is double-sided. On the one hand, I provide one of my students (or all of them, if the class is not too big) with a laminated yellow card with the letters TTT printed on it. (Those three letters stand for Teacher's Talking Time). When I, as a teacher talk for too long, I can be shown that TTT yellow card as if I were a footballer and the student a referee. On the other hand, when I ask a question, or simply want to avoid getting in the way of a student who is talking, I raise my hand to my mouth and put a finger of two over it. That gesture physically reminds me of the fact that it is not the right time for me to say anything, but the student's chance to do so. It also turns me into a sort of meditative and attentive person any of us likes to talk to. Humm... That sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?