My Favourite Attention Grabbers

Every time I watch this movie I think every teacher in the world must wish they could quiet a room like Dumbledore. 

Yelling isn't really my style. That's why I wanted to share with you some of my favourite and most useful attention grabbers to get students to quiet down and pay attention. 

If you can hear me... 

This ones simple, you say "if you can hear me ___________" and the students who can hear you respond to whatever action you've requested. Simply continue giving the "If you can hear me _________" command until all the students are following your lead. 

Teacher: "If you can hear me clap once" 

Students: *some clap*

Teacher: "If you hear me clap twice" 

Students: *most clapping* 

I think you get it. Another option that I use is touching parts of the body (great for younger grades after they've learned them!) or in a drama class if we're sitting in a circle I'll end with "touch your knees" and then get students to check their knees to make sure we have a perfect circle. 

Andy's Coming! 

If you've ever watched Toy Story you've seen the toys scramble, and usually fall "dead" when Andy's about to enter the room. This one is fun to do when students are out of their desks, and does require a little bit of yelling. Just yell "ANDY'S COMING" and your students should respond by falling to the ground. 

Like this.... 

Marco Polo 

As a kid this game was a swimming pool staple. One person closes their eyes and yells Marco, while everyone else yells Polo. It's as simple as that! The teacher yells "Marco!" and the students respond with a booming "Polo!" 

We Will Rock You 

Remember that Queen classic with the great beat? It's great to listen to at the gym and it's great to use in your classroom. The underlying beat to the song is often accompanied by  a *STOMP, STOMP, CLAP* rhythm. When you first introduce this attention grabber you could even play the song for a little brain break!

Play me a tune 

I find this one works best when I'm using centers or stations and students need to rotate. I love to use my iPhone in the classroom to play music through an app called Songza. They offer premade playlists and they have clean versions of popular songs. Simply explain to the students that when you hear music it's time to move and soon enough it becomes second nature. So plug in your music device of choice and get the students moving! 

Now, keep in mind not everything will work with every students. I recently tried the "If you can hear me clap once" with one of my grade 12 classes and a student quickly told me that they weren't babies and she didn't like it when teachers used that to get her attention. We eventually decided that Marco Polo was an acceptable way to call the grade 12 students to order. This being said, I've used it in other grade 12 classes without any problems. 

So next time you're lost for words and your students won't stop chatting try one of these attention grabbers and let me know how it goes!