While you may think you are teaching important material to your students, the truth is, when students are bored, their minds begin to wander. And when minds begin to wander, they are not paying attention to what you are talking about. Instead, they begin to put energy into one of several other outputs, those being: daydreaming, sleeping in class, or misbehaving.

A number of effective measures can be taken when boredom sets into your class. However, understanding how it comes about in the first place can be even more helpful. Taking a look at the ideas below can give you a place to begin when you are beginning to consider how to make your classroom less boring.

Get Your Students Moving

Sitting in one place for too long can cause severe cases of boredom in any classroom. In order to be an effective teacher you need to be able to see exactly when it is time to shift the focus of what is going on in the classroom and get your students moving. Even a few minutes can help stamina levels when it comes to independent work time and focusing on your lessons.

Talk Less

The more you talk, the less your students will listen. In order to be the most effective in the classroom, good teachers will learn to be economical with their word choice, keeping it down to a minimum and asking questions of their students in order to engage them more and get them involved in the learning process.

Keep Things Simple

While you may have heard that more rigor is needed in classrooms, this does not necessarily mean that the material needs to become more complex. Doing so will commonly make it harder for students to understand the content, and when they begin to find things too difficult to comprehend, they tend to lose focus and interest, causing their minds to drift.

Instead, effective teachers know how to cut away the excess material and simplify concepts for their students. Doing so makes the material easier for students to understand, which in turn boosts their self confidence and makes them feel excited to learn more.

Keep Things Interesting

It is a teacher's job to make learning fun for students. When students feel like learning is fun they will inherently want to continue, diving deeper into the learning process and soaking up more knowledge in the process. However, in order to get your students excited about the content you are trying to teach them, you need to be excited yourself.

Take Action

Too often, teachers rely on their voices to solve conflict within the classroom. Many teachers continue to hold classroom meetings, revisiting the same topic time and time again, while their students sit there, rolling their eyes at them.

Those manage their classrooms in an effective manner are able to understand that in these instances, they need to take action. When you say something, you need to follow through with that thought, and hold your students accountable.

Make Time to Observe

Teachers who are considered to be boring often times micromanage the entire day for each of their students. They are constantly directing and handholding, which not only is very draining for the teacher but also ineffective, as it can actually lessen a students' enthusiasm for learning.

Instead, it is suggested to engage students with a daily routine that will not only engage them but force them to take responsibility for their learning. Doing so not only keeps your students awake and interested, but at the same time affords you as the teacher extra time to observe your classroom and see which students need help where, and who is excelling.

Keep the Activities Rolling

Good teachers know that when the objective has been met for one activity, it is time to move onto the next. Good teaching involves a balance between timing, movement, and energy. Moving from one activity to the next seamlessly throughout the day will keep your students awake and on their toes, fully engaged in the learning process. In other words, do not give them the time to become bored.

Be Willing to Change Your Schedule

Effective teachers are able to change up their daily routines at a moment's notice. They can look around the classroom and notice when heads are beginning to droop or eyes are starting to wander. When this happens, it is important to adjust, no matter how important the material is that you are trying to get through. While sometimes you will be able to get back to the material at hand after a quick stretch, other times you will see it is better to just change to a new topic all together.

Change How You Talk

This can seem fairly obvious, but teachers who talk in a monotonous voice are also those who tend to be viewed as most boring by their students. However, purposely changing your voice can in fact engage your students more. By you seeming interested in the material you are discussing, your students will also become interested as well. Even if you think you sound ridiculous, you should find your students beginning to pay more attention.

Conclusion

Many teachers who are labeled as boring may be unaware that they are viewed this way. However, it is through honest feedback from students and other teachers, as well as some keen observations from you as the teacher, that should tip you off to how engaging you are. If your students are not involved in classroom discussions, or are misbehaving a lot, it may be time to ask around and find out if you are considered to be boring.

If you are one of the "boring" teachers out there, take heart. There is hope, you can change, and even the most effective teachers that do not think they are boring at all need to switch up their routine once in awhile. You are not alone!