When opening a lesson I find that it is best to start with letting the students know that what they will need on their desk. For Instance, I may say to the students that we are going to be taking notes on the Declaration of Independence and that they are going to need to have one piece of paper and a pencil. I then give some time for them to accomplish this and I move around the room making sure that the students are following directions, for some reason I find that simple instructions like getting out a piece of paper takes longer than I typically expect. I thin usually do the nonverbal cue to the students that is used in the school. For us, this cue is to raise your hand and say hands up which indicates to the students that they need to raise their hand. I wait until the class is quiet and then start the lesson.
When doing during class management I find that I like to use proximity often, I am getting better at moving around the room while I talk and I may walk to a student that is off task and just touch their shoulder or put my finger over my mouth. I like the idea of correcting behavior without causing a great distraction to class, and this is one of the skills I am really trying to work on during my teaching.
After a lesson I find that telling the students that they need to put what we are working on into their section folder, and if its a transition to something else I will let them know what they need for the next lesson. If it is the end of the period or I am assigning them some work to do in class I will re-iterate what that work is and ensure that students know what is expected of them. This way if they are not doing it I can ask them why they are not following directions.
Some transitions that I have observed is that when my mentor teacher has finished a point and is waiting on students to catch up he will say “I know you are done when you put your pencil down and touch your left ear.” Each time it is a different command and sometimes they are silly to keep it fresh. Sometimes an easy transition is simply to ask for students questions. This naturally means there is a closure on a lesson or activity.
I have really been working on proximity and movement in my lessons, my mentor is very good at this and I am trying to emulate that as best I can.