"?" A teacher loves students who are actively engaged and asking questions. It shows that you are provoking thought and challenging your students. But I have seen a disturbing trend this year. In one class, I have a student who asks questions just to hear herself talk. Her questions, at the beginning of the term, were not even questions. She would raise her hand, and when called on, would begin, "You are saying...." or "You mean....." And then she would try to reteach the entire lesson, less effectively, while everyone watched. Students (and teachers) quickly tired of this performance. The students would begin to start talking among themselves as soon as she began. Teachers got impatient. I had a great solution. As soon as she would raise her hand, I would ask her, "What is your question?" She would begin her monologue, and I would interrupt. "If you have a question, please ask it. Start with a question word. Who, what, where, how, why, when. And go from there." She would hem and haw. Ummm and uhhhh. And then, I would leave her and go on. I guess this didn't give her the attention she desired. I heard that she was asking 15-20 questions a class period and other teachers were having trouble teaching or answering other students' "real" questions. So the first day that I saw that behavior, on the third question in 5 minutes (we were heading toward 30 in one period), I told her she could ask 3 questions a class period and she had already asked her third. But I would count only her last one that day. I asked her, "Is this a question you really want to ask? Because afterwards you will have only 1 more." She decided to wait. This worked for a week. She now doesn't ask me tons of questions. And I no longer have to make tally marks for her on the board. She no longer lapses into 5 minute monologues either. But now we have a new, more disturbing trend. The stupid question. Teachers will say, "There is no such thing as a stupid question. Only the question not asked leads to stupidity." I disagree. I am a firm believer in "Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer." (These are words of wisdom from my former math teacher father.) Or "There are no stupid questions, just stupid people." I am not talking about true questions about content, or probing the hows and whys of problem solving. I am talking about the question that EVERYONE in the class already knows the answer to, especially the one asking it. Some winners from "question girl": "Do we have to put our names on our test?" "Why do you have to put the numbers in number order to find the middle one? Can't you just pick any number?" "Why is it called the middle number?" "Do we have to hand in our test?" "Does it go in the 'test' box or the 'class work' box?" "Where did you get the example you wrote on the board?" "How did you multiply 2 and 3 and get 6?" The entire class laughed out loud when she asked her finding the middle number question. I would wonder about her if I didn't know she was so smart. I would answer them all, if I thought it would help her or the class. But she is now failing and she is disrupting class. This new favorite game is going to stop. Tomorrow I will go back to my 3 questions a day tally marks. And I will reserve the right to answer the question after class. One-on-one. No audience. In private. I will ask her to write it down on an index card and any others she has that she didn't get answered. Then we will go over them at lunch. She will meet with me at lunch every day that she has questions on her card. I will bet that there may be one or two for one day. After that... her questions should improve. And so will my blood pressure! | 
