Post for Cherie Jones

I thoroughly enjoyed Marcia Tate. She kept my attention the
> whole time. I appreciated her humor. I have already heard of many of
> her strategies and perform them currently. Some strategies I use already are:
> I use a bell to get my class back to order and I repeat myself several times
> when I am telling them something extremely important. Ms. Tate is right,
> one of the ways we remember is through repetition of information. My
> students will laugh at me when I repeat myself over and over again. I
> explain to them the reason behind my repetition and they understand
> and seem to agree with me, because they do not forget when I do that.
> Another thing that I do is role play. They seem to retain the
> information that I am trying to get across when I do that. Especially when I provide them with
> some kind of visual that goes along with the text and lecture. I always
> make them draw a picture of the concept. I also use graphic organizers. My
> favorite is comparing and contrasting using a Venn Diagram. I also agree
> with her about keeping the children moving! That is what I try to do a lot.
> I use a lot of hands on activities for learning. I have also used the
> jigsaw method and let them teach a concept from the chapter to the class.
> They love to do that! It gives them a wonderful feeling of
> accomplishment and they feel they are part of the teaching process
> because they have gained enough knowledge over the concept in order to teach it.
>
> One thing I want to try that Ms. Tate recommended is the music in
> the classroom. I use acronyms to help the students remember things
> like the colors in the rainbow or the order of the planets from the
> Sun. However, I would like to come up with songs to help them
> remember. I also would like to try to let them listen to some
> classical music as they are working. I feel as though it will help
> them stay focused on their work and that it will provide a calming
> effect for them in the classroom. I plan on reading her book that she
> wrote and gave us a copy of in order to try and implement some more of her strategies in my classroom.
>
> Thanks! Cherie Jones