anticipatory sets & classroom management

I find myself challenged to think of anticipatory sets that are actually relevant to students for some topics. There have been some days that I just haven’t had one, and I can see the difference on days that I have one and days that I don’t. The key seems to be thinking about student interests and going from there to think about how those things could relate to the material.

I’m finding that if I’m very clear with students about what I don’t like about how they are behaving during class, there seems to be a better feeling in the class about how things are going. Recently there seems to have been confusion about what I’m ok with and what I’m not, and I was finding it difficult to know what to enforce in regards to when students are allowed to talk and when they are not. Part of the challenge has been figuring out exactly what I do want to expect, what bothers me and what doesn’t, and what is interfering with learning and what is actually helping the students to have fun while they are learning.