Dr. Marshall encourages teachers at any level, to establish classroom procedures as the first step in using the Discipline without Stress Teaching Model
Regardless of the age of the students, an important procedure to teach on the first day of school, or a term, is one that allows the teacher to quiet the students and gain their attention in an effective manner.
Below is an eye-opening set of calculations found on the Internet that point to the importance of establishing and teaching an attention management signal in the beginning of each new school year or semester.
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A quiet signal is critical to keep from wasting time and to keep the momentum going during cooperative activities. Suppose that you need to give a quiet signal 5 times each hour and it takes 1 minute to get your class quiet each time. That’s 5 minutes of wasted time each hour, or 30 minutes of wasted time each day. If you multiply that by 180 school days, you end up wasting 90 hours of time (or 15 whole days!), just with waiting for the class to get quiet!
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