It is essential that teachers have timers that can count up, as well as count down.  Maybe not necessarily one that can do both, but this would make for an easier way of living.

I was in an unruly 5th grade class today (which really wasn’t too bad) when I noticed we were wasting a lot of time trying to get (and keep) everyone’s attention before giving directions, walking in the hallway, etc.  So at the beginning of the day, I found a timer on the teacher’s desk, and came up with my brilliant plan.  I announced to the kids (who had asked me this 10 times in the first 5 minutes of school) that we would be playing mum ball (or having free time) at the end of the day, HOWEVER…I would be keeping track of how much time it took for everyone to get and stay quiet.  Every time someone talked out of turn, I would start the timer, and keep it going, until they had stopped talking.  At the end of the day, that accumulated time would be taken away from their Free Time.

It worked for the most part.  I carried it around with me all day: in the hall, during class, etc.  Most of the time, all I had to do was hold it up and start it, and the few that were paying attention wasted their voices trying to get their classmates to be quiet.  I guess I was a little lenient with them, and definitely would start and stop it more often next time, because they only “earned” 2 minutes of quiet time.  During this time, we sat with the lights off, and our heads down.  Otherwise, it would be too much like free time to really count as a consequence.  And, it’s making up for all of the time when they should’ve been quiet and listening in the first place.

Highly recommend giving this one a shot.