Tools for Creating Calm in the Midst of Chaos
If you had a rough first day at your new afterschool program, I hear you. When I first walked into a classroom to ask children about afterschool life, I couldn’t get a word in. Children were running every which way, belting out jolly screams and happy hoots with the combined volume of a cross-country freight train. It took some time to get their attention, and when I left the building just an hour later, my voice had withered like a flower in a dry summer heat.
Perhaps the first thing every new afterschool professional learns is how to bring a gleeful chorus of kids from chaos to calm. It’s a lot easier when you have the right tools.
We can start with a little science background. Don’t worry. My textbooks are staying on the shelf, but I will share a few simple but powerful secrets from the research on attention, student engagement, and classroom management. When you start your next shift, you’re going to have an easier day.
The easiest way to get the attention of two-dozen children in a pandemonium-induced dopamine dash is to make listening more rewarding than not listening. You don’t need a bag of candy either. If you know the key social and emotional needs that drive behavior, you can offer your children something better than a fresh-baked, chocolate chip cookie. (Well, almost.) Don’t worry, cookie… you’re still the best.
Whether you’re five years old or 50, attention is drawn to sources of emotional fulfillment, like meaningful social interactions and things we’re curious about. [etc cont.]
What’s Your Opening Act?
[quick intro to “teacher-directed opportunities to respond”, call-and-response, attention getters, etc and link to SEL… ]
[brief overview of social and emotional needs: connection, belonging, worth, novelty, etc.]
Attention getters are often used as a remedy when children are bored. How do researchers define boredom?
“boredom occurs when an individual experiences both the (objective) neurological state of low arousal and the (subjective) psychological state of dissatisfaction, frustration, or disinterest in response to the low arousal”
Vogel-Walcutt, Fiorella, Carper, and Schatz (2012)
Translation: At any age, we need a certain amount of new, interesting activity. Ideally, we get enough of a challenge to encourage participation but not so much that we feel defeated.
[more text… what is your opening act? how does it create a space where children believe they can experience connection, belonging, worth, etc.]
Level It Up
[about call-and-response… it is offering meaningful interaction where their voices matter… how can we “level up” the call-and-response practice?]
Create Your Signature Attention Getter
[the call to action for this post, invitation to get creative and personalize the attention getter or call-and-response, integrating warmth etc.]
Summary
This post will give QTurnGO visitors a fun launch point for engaging with the content in the website. The first thing many new front-line staff think of when they walk into a room full of children. Not part of a lesson yet but a good appetizer. The purpose is to get them started. Show what they can learn and how useful it can be to them personally. Get them interested in coming back to the site.
This is just a nugget of QTurn wisdom, but it can encourage staff to sign up for the more involved online trainings and help program directors get staff on board.
It might be possible to build post content like this from casual interviews of experienced afterschool staff.
End the post with a badge, a vector graphics image featuring stars or levels (or “XP” which stands for “experience”). Create a sense of accomplishment. Then link to next post in short “Adventure” series.
