{"id":1886,"date":"2015-04-06T06:40:56","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T13:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.rsed.org\/?p=1886"},"modified":"2017-12-17T04:14:12","modified_gmt":"2017-12-17T04:14:12","slug":"3-new-ways-to-get-your-students-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipschools.org\/en\/latest-news\/blog\/3-new-ways-to-get-your-students-attention\/","title":{"rendered":"3 New Ways to Get Your Students’ Attention"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

For months, getting my students’ attention was the bane of my existence. I pulled out all the stops: \u201c1,2,3\u2026Eyes on Me,\u201d \u201cHands on Top.\u201d I even got creative with some cool clapping call-and-response. Yet I never seemed to get more than 70 percent of my students\u2019 attention. There were always three or four who just kept on working or talking.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Then I participated in an online course on Culturally Responsive Teaching methods, facilitated and based on research by Dr. Sharroky Hollie. We discussed ways in which a teacher can go deeper into their students\u2019 culture than just using look-alike posters, ethnic food days, and studying MLK. Being culturally responsive means getting down to the nitty-gritty, including how you capture your students\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n

Many of my students come from backgrounds and cultures that prize relationships, hard work, and quality work over<\/em> schedules and deadlines. So when I stop them at the end of a writing assignment with no warning, I am not being responsive to their values.<\/p>\n

I remember one student asking me why he had to stop working at the computer center \u201cright away,\u201d when logging off took only \u201ca second\u201d during a minute-long clean-up. I started to see the miss-match in my values and my students\u2019.<\/p>\n

Using Dr. Hollie\u2019s research and my own knowledge and experience with my students, I created a series of attention-getters that used the following principles:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Count-Downs:<\/strong><\/span> When transitioning from tasks, I simply begin counting down, mixing in expectations and positive narration. I wait until I hit 0 to use an attention-getter, giving my students time to finish work, clean, or end their conversations.<\/li>\n
  2. Music:<\/strong><\/span> For other transitions, I simply begin playing music. There is a clear expectation for what the student should be doing when the song ends. This requires pre-teaching, but is much more fun for my students and allows me to multi-task.<\/li>\n
  3. Motion, Voice, and Interaction:<\/strong><\/span> These are my go-to attention-getters. They are usually about 20 seconds long and give students the opportunity to move, speak, and interact with one another before directing their attention to me. I often\u00a0use a call and response that involves the students not only responding verbally, but also doing hand motions and interacting with one another.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Being culturally responsive goes beyond attention-getters, but they can be a great place to start. My students love fun rewards for paying attention, and I love not dishing out so many consequences.<\/p>\n

    This post was originally published on TeacherPop<\/a>. It has been republished here with permission from the author.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n

    Cody Wilson is a 2014 Indianapolis Corps Member and founding kindergarten teacher at KIPP: Indy Unit Elementary. Cody Wilson is originally from the Circle City and graduated with his B.A. from Purdue University-West Lafayette.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    For months, getting my students’ attention was the bane of my existence. I pulled out all the stops: \u201c1,2,3\u2026Eyes on Me,\u201d \u201cHands on Top.\u201d I even got creative with some cool clapping call-and-response. Yet I never seemed to get more than 70 percent of my students\u2019 attention. There were always three or four who just Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[35,21],"tips_for_teachers":[],"class_list":["post-1886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teacher-experience","tag-excellent-teachers","tag-teacher-tips"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n3 New Ways to Get Your Students' Attention<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipschools.org\/en\/latest-news\/blog\/3-new-ways-to-get-your-students-attention\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 New Ways to Get Your Students' Attention\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For months, getting my students’ attention was the bane of my existence. 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