I am a veteran teacher of K-6 music, both General Music and Choral discipline, as well as high school theater. I have begun to employ the Power Teaching methods in my current K-5 music classes with great success to this point. The response has been very positive -- I do not have the negative, critical tone when asking the class to be quiet when they understand that "Class, Yes" is ALL that will be said and that the expectation is that they will be quiet and have their eyes on me.

Visual signs are great learning tools, I have discovered, as some people are auditory and some are visual -- this covers two different learning styles. I teach sign language to my students as another language to communicate our songs -- for example, "Silent Night" is a tradition. I have taught my students ASL signs for basics like "yes", "no", "stop", "wait", and other things like that.

I find that this method suits my current style, as I already use some of these techniques naturally, and I am excited to continue to learn Power Teaching and use it in whatever grade or subject I will be teaching in the future.

Glad it's working well for you! I like the idea of using ASL signs for everyday things like "yes," "no," etc. I've been using one for bathroom inadvertently (I picked it up without thinking about it), and I'm thinking about adding more.

Where did you find your profile picture? I literally laughed at it out loud. Do you have a higher res version you could email me? I'd love to put it up in my classroom.

www.says-it.com/unclesam/

It is a sign generator site -- type in whatever you want the sign to say. I have one that says "CLASS YES"

It prints up to an 8.5 x 11 sheet with no challenge.

Paul

Sweet, thanks! I'm thinking about making a "Teach! OK!" one, since it goes along with him pointing at you.