As a regular classroom teacher, substitute teacher, student teacher, or even parent volunteer, one of the biggest challenges of being in front of a group of students is gaining their initial attention. Getting a group of students to get quiet and ready to listen can be extremely challenging. Try these five tried and true, fun approaches for calming a class down and gaining their attention.
1.Count to Three, Eyes on Me. For this technique, simply tell the students that you are going to close your eyes and count to three. When you open your eyes you want to see every student sitting quietly, every eye on the teacher, and every mouth closed. Close your eyes and start counting out loud. You will be amazed how quickly the students calm down and give their attention. This works best for lower elementary grades.
2.Countdown. A variation of the above technique that works better with older elementary students is to provide a countdown to readiness. Start at 10 and countdown slowly. Allow the students to talk, get out of their seats, etc during the countdown but when the countdown strikes 1, everyone must be ready. If any student is not calm and providing attention at the end of the countdown, that student faces a consequence.
3. Match the clap. To gain students’ attention with this technique, clap your hands in a simple rhythm. When the students hear the rhythm they are to clap the same rhythm back and get quiet. Clap two to three different rhythms in a row to really get your point across and gain the attention of all students. This works well with all elementary grade levels.
4.Whisper Quiet. This technique for calming a class and gaining student attention begins with a whisper. Talking in a low voice, repeat the phrase “if you can hear me, raise your left hand.” Repeat the phrase over and over, never raising your voice. Eventually each student in the class will catch on. This is a fun technique to vary with different phrases such as “if you can hear me, put both hands in the air,” “if you can hear me, stand up,” etc. This attention getter works well with all elementary grades.
5.Chant. Students respond especially well to this attention getter when they enjoy the chant they have learned. Establish a special military-style chant that is used to gain student attention. Perhaps you as the teacher will say “I need ears, all ears and eyes” in a military style voice. Students will respond with “ears and eyes are all yours, sir!” Be creative and come up with a fun chant for your kids to learn. You might even come up with 4 or 5 different chants that the students all learn and know and respond do. This works best with upper elementary students and classes love showing this technique off to other classes and teachers in the school.
Calming a class down and establishing the attention of students is a challenge for any sort of educator or special speaker. Try these five teacher-tested ideas for getting the attention of your class and moving a class from chaos to calm in a matter of moments.