Classroom management might be one of the most difficult challenges for many beginning teachers. When students are engaged in a loud activity or just not meeting standards, raising your voice may feel like the only option if you don’t have a toolbox of tactics to grab their attention. New instructors, or those facing new conditions in this less-than-ideal school year, can use these attention-getters to avoid developing a bad classroom atmosphere that impedes learning.
It’s crucial to explicitly teach children what your expectations are for how they should respond to each of the attention-getters listed below. It will probably just take a few minutes for you to demonstrate the attention-getter and convey your expectations with older students’ voices are off, eyes are on the board, etc.
| The purpose of attention getters in the classroom is to get pupils to stop doing something they don’t want to do and start doing something they do want to do. Use an attention-getter for youngsters, for example, if they are overly talkative during instruction and are not finishing their allotted job. |
What are those 7 Attention-getters?
Do you know about the attention-getters that can be used in place of raising your voice? Of course, you can come to know about them here:
1. Clap-In (or Snap-In):
The clap-in is a tried-and-true attention-getter. When the classroom becomes too loud, many teachers raise their voices, yet clapping is an equally visible but far more constructive technique to grab students’ attention. To use a clap-in, choose a clapping pattern and have students repeat it back to you. As other kids join in, the clap spreads throughout the room until all students are clapping and their talks have come to a halt.
There are a few things you can do to make this more engaging for pupils. Starting with a clap and progressing to snaps is one method. This necessitates students being considerably quieter to hear and imitate the pattern you snap. To increase investment in the attention-getter, you can choose a student to lead the clap-in or snap-in. Finally, rather than drawing up your pattern, you might collaborate with your students to create a class-specific clap-in or snap-in pattern.
2. Offer Me Five:
This is a fantastic choice for bringing students’ attention back to you while also allowing them to collaborate to get everyone back on track. Raise your hand high so that pupils can see you for this attention-getting exercise. Each pupil will raise their hand as soon as they see the signal. This will continue until all kids are silently raising their hands and looking to you for guidance. To add to the excitement, I timed my students to see how long it takes them to raise their hands and then challenged them to beat their time. This has been an effective method of gaining the attention of all students without having to use my voice.
3. Class-Wide Countdown:
Similar to Give Me Five, this method has a cascading effect throughout the classroom as students join in to return their attention to the teacher. To use this approach, the instructor starts a countdown, usually starting at ten, but teachers can change as needed for their specific groups; as students hear the countdown, they join in until all students are involved. When the class hits zero, everyone falls silent and turns their focus back to the teacher.
4. Call-and-Response:
Using a call-and-response is another simple technique to attract kids’ attention, as they will be required to not only listen to participate but also to halt any side conversations to offer the correct response. This attention-getter allows for a lot of creativity, which teachers and students can use to create the greatest calls and responses for them. Similar to the Clap/Snap-In, it’s beneficial to involve students in the process of making these calls and responses and then rehearse how they sound and what students should do when they hear them.
5. Timer/Song:
This method relies on a specific timed task and uses other sounds rather than the teacher’s voice to draw attention. If you’ve assigned the kids a group or pair task to complete in a certain period, employ this method. When they begin, start the timer or play a song (instrumental works best! ), and students are expected to stop talking and return their attention to me by the time the timer or song goes off. The timer is ideal for possibly noisy group activities, whereas the song is ideal for a slightly calmer pair activity.
For more Education related articles, you may also like; Key to Effective Classroom ManagementLong term Influence of Effective Teachers on Students (Understanding Effective Teachers’ Impact on Learning)
6. Turn on the Lights:
This method is only utilized when I need to get the students’ focus back up front on me right away. A short flash of the lights, similar to the theater signal clap in a play about to begin can warn pupils that something is about to happen. You can tell them that a fast flash of the lights signifies they need to silence their voices and keep an eye on me.
7. Sounds Effects:
It is a more entertaining technique to capture kids’ attention, but it must be expressly taught so that students can be mature and meet expectations when it is employed.
Conclusion
In this article, you come to know how not to raise your voice, rather you can use the attention-getters that are being explained in this article. Various attention-getters are stated so that you could not waste your energy on raising your voice instead utilize the attention-getters.
I started writing on this Blog to share with you guys the tips, Facts and Research which I did in Education Field.
& Unlike Some Students, I loved Learning Since a very young age and the best part which excites me are the new Findings in this Field and Increasing more Knowledge.
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