Why I Refuse to Use Bell Ringers

Bell ringers!

I have seen post after post about ‘bell ringers’ which teachers post as students walk into the room. They are fun questions like Does a straw have one or two holes? or Is cereal a soup? I agree that these type of fun questions are great for students to discuss in order to mingle with other classmates or as icebreakers, but using them as students walk in to get ready for class is (to me) a waste of valuable time.

My classes have a strict routine while coming into my room.

1. Find your clothespin to take attendance

2. Grab notebook

3. Check the warm-up slide and get out supplies needed for the day

4. Answer the warm-up on the warm-up paper before the time is up

I have a warm-up slide that has music on it with a timer. As I play this timer, the students are allowed to get ready for class and start the warm-up. IF I had a bell ringer for this question, they would be discussing something off topic once we start class and I would need to spend more time re-directing them to the warm-up. I know this would only be a 5 minute difference, but with short classes and middle school attention spans, 5 minutes is huge.

What do I do instead? I have an intentional warm-up that connects to the lesson. This could be a question that we will answer in class today, but worded as a ’how’ or ‘why’ question. It could also be the conclusion from the day before, but also worded as a ’how‘ or ‘why’ question.

We do a bunch of labs and I love having the students debate things from activities and find answers before we go over it. How can this be a better system than bell ringers? That comes down to teaching style and it might not be for you! I have built my classroom style around my personality and bell ringers would lead to me giving my opinion and discussing it with the class, which would only spend more time NOT talking about the topic.

For me, I like to use that time asking each group to give me their best answer. We go around and I don’t comment on anything until they all answer. I also take the most bizarre answer (that is usually laughed at by other groups) and twist it to be a great answer when I can. This builds the class culture to really share even if it seems out there. As the year moves on, these discussions get more detailed and lead us into some great class lessons that are mostly discussion style.

Warm-ups are taken seriously because they are not graded, and groups can get special privileges (first choice in lab stations, first choice in marker selection, writing on the board for me, etc.) by giving me great answers.

What I actually use ‘bell ringers’ for?

I use them for the extra class time at the END of class! Many times I have one or two classes that finish early because they either work faster, don’t get distracted, or in general need less instruction to get there. For these classes, I love giving them a fun question that we discuss until the end of class. Not only does this help me get to know the students, but I also get to see their interactions with peers. Even the quietest kid can speak up when it is something they really care about, which (funny enough) for middle school is sometimes a silly question like “Is a hotdog a sandwich?”