Category Archives: crowd control

This is related to discipline and handling students in large groups.

School Visit Tips for 2011: Part 3

This is our third group of tips for school visits to get you off to a good start this season.

Google - Snowflaes & Tree

When choosing dates for a visit that will occur during snow season, I always ask the school to choose two dates: our preferred date and a snow date. This way, I’m sure to have at least one “convenient” day (for them and me) reserved on my calendar in case we need to postpone the visit.  — Janet Wong

 I used to actually turn down school talks because I couldn’t handle the crowd control aspect.  I was a teacher early on in my career, but motivating students had been my strong suit, not discipline.  Then I realized that it wasn’t my job to control 200 students [as guest author], and I made that clear. I explained that I’d try the clapping routine (clap, clap–clap, clap, clap), but if that didn’t work, I was going to turn around and wait for the adults in the room to restore order.  It worked like a charm.  As soon as it was quiet again, I’d turn back to the students.  Sometimes, I’d spend that time straightening my props.  The students gave me very little trouble after the first time I turned away, and I could relax and have fun motivating the students, which was what I was best at.   — Betsy Franco 

A number of times I’d run into schools who felt it was too “commercial” to offer my books to the kids. However, teachers often bought them from the stack I had stashed away in my second roll-around case.  — Mary D. Wade

Would you ever go to someone’s house as a guest and not bring a hostess gift? No. You wouldn’t. So I ALWAYS bring hostess gifts – a signed book, or a piece of art. Organizing these things are HARD.   — Katie Davis

Whenever I’m fortunate enough to speak at a conference or event that goes well, I ask the organizer if I may suggest author friends for the next one.  — Marc Tyler Nobleman

Ask to stay at a hotel (so you can rest) instead of someone’s home, because you’ll always be ON STAGE in someone’s home.  — Wendie Old

After all these years I still stay in people’s homes. In fact, I have met some great dogs this way.  — Deborah Hopkinson

Google - Hound Dogs

If you have school visit tip, be sure to add it in our comment section!

School Visit Tips for 2011: Part 2

Here are a few more helpful school visit tips for you from expert presenters. After this, watch for one more post on this topic! 

Google - Actor on StageGet there early to give yourself time to relax.  Because you are ON STAGE, performing, the minute you get out of your car.  Giving yourself 15 to 20 minutes to simply sit there in your car “Vegging out” helps you to relax, refresh, and recover from the drive.  I sometimes even close my eyes and doze for a few minutes.  If you are afraid you’ll sleep the morning away in your car, set the alarm on your iPhone (or equivalent), or take along a kitchen timer. — Wendie Old 

I always say [to the audience] that I’ll bet they don’t believe that I used to be very shy, afraid to speak up, and never in front of a crowd.  That you can always learn to be less shy, and everyone has felt shy about expressing themselves at some point.  This establishes a really nice rapport, I’ve found, and is really an important gift you are giving to a lot of them.  — Joanne Rocklin

Create coloring pages, activity sheets, and other “hands on” projects that can bProject - ZEBRA - Caroline Arnold09-sme downloaded from your website and used in the classroom to build up knowledge and interest in your books before or after your visit. Include this information in a packet sent to the librarian before your visit. I love going to schools and see walls of cut paper zebras created from the template on the web page for my book A Zebra’s World.  No two zebra’s are ever alike!  — Caroline Arnold

 Find out ahead of time if there are any parking issues at the school, and also find out which door visitors are to enter by.  If you are leaving the house extremely early, make sure you have an emergency phone number for your contact – i.e. home phone number or personal cell number.  – Marsha Skrypuch

Flexibility is key. Although your program is the central event in your mind, many other situations are happening all day long in the school which you are visiting.  I have had a fire drill in the middle of my presentations, an electrical failure throughout the school, a principal in a gorilla suit climbing a 3 story ladder fulfilling his promise to stay on the roof for the day if the students had read 5000 books, a child throwing up all over the front row of children, and once, just as the children streamed through the door, the lamp on my power point projector blew.  I learned early on to laugh, take what happens and make it work. And who knows… there might be a book in it someday.  — Kay Winters

If you have school visit tip, be sure to add it in our comment section!

School Visit Tips for 2011: Part 1

Here are some helpful tips for you from expert presenters as we swing into High Author Visit Season.  Because there are so many great bits of advice, I’ve broken them up into three posts, so watch for them.

Google - Child & Cell Phone

To break the ice with a roomful of kindergartners, ask them to reach into their pockets… and please turn off their cellphones.  Their reaction — after a second or two — is priceless. — Chris Barton
 

Check, check and double check with the event coordinator regarding equipment needs, schedule, length of program, etc.  It’s amazing how many times I’ve shown up at a school and found a “surprise” after we had already discussed details.  I always send a “Just want to confirm . . .” email a few days before the visit.  — Barbara O’Connor

I make a point of introducing myself to all the adults in the room, both teachers and parents, and shaking their hands with a smile. Often teachers feel too shy to introduce themselves, but I find that if I do so, we create a bond or link that makes them more interested in the presentation. Taking the initiative also helps me feel friendlier and more empathetic towards the teachers and parents — you tend not to resent people whose hands you’ve shaken and with whom you’ve exchanged a friendly smile and word. It’s easy and it’s effective.   — Rachna Gilmore

Regarding Skype visits: 1) To keep the transmission from skipping, freezing or disconnecting, make sure your computer is plugged into your router, rather than going completely wireless.  (And make sure the school at the other end does the same!)  2. TURN OFF YOUR PHONE!  3. TURN OFF YOUR CAT OR DOG! (Or lock them out of your office during your presentation.)  — Lee Wardlaw

For about the first year or more of school visiting, I always brought stamped, self-addressed envelopes with me and gave them, along with a short questionnaire, to every adult in each assembly I did.  Yes, every adult: teacher, principal, school librarian, secretary and parents.  I asked for suggestions on how to make my presentations more relevant.  I asked them to tell me how to improve my physical appearance for presenting or the choreography of my presentation. (One teacher told me to cut my bangs, as they couldn’t quite see my eyes–how would I have known this?)  I learned to keep the questions to one short page…and not overwhelm them with too many questions or they wouldn’t return them…they have too much on their desks!  After 400+ school visits (throughout the USA and in international schools and military base schools in Europe) later, these evaluations helped shape my presentations to this day. — April Halprin Wayland

I come with an extension cord, duct tape to keep the cords down, my own tea bags, water, almonds and extra granola bars in case there is no lunch.  When driving, I bring a back-up projector.  — Deborah Hopkinson

Try to leave [the audience] with something tangible to actually take back to the classroom or home. It would be a work of art we each do, or the start of a new story.  Anything that they can show off to others.  — Mike Rex

If you have school visit tip, be sure to add it in our comment section!