classroom management: what gets their attention?

there's going to come a time (probably many) in your teaching career where you're faced with a room full of kids who are talking among themselves and have absolutely no desire to pay any attention to you. what do you do?
you need a signal which the kids understand as "you're too noisy and it's time to pay attention to the teacher.". when first trying out a new signal, it's important to have the cooperation of your assistant or other adults in the room, so that the children will begin to learn what the appropriate response to your action is.
however, i've found that it only takes a couple of times for children to learn that <whatever your action is> means quiet time.
here are a few ideas that i've either used or read about:
*sing a part of a song that the kids know which involves being quiet. we used to use a song that had the lyrics "hands in the air. rock-a-bye your bear. bear's now asleep. shh shh shh. bear's now asleep. shh shh shh." (and we'd keep repeating the "bear's now asleep. shh shh shh." getting quieter and quieter until the kids were quiet.
*flip the lights on and off
*count down 5-4-3-2-1 shhhhh.
*do something that involves a call and response. this is my current favorite. i put my hands on my head and say "OH-AY-OH" in a sing-songy voice. kids know that they must copy me. then next time i might say "OO-AY-OO". and repeat as necessary until they become quiet. as they've pretty much gotten quiet, i then try to say something silly that they have to repeat.
Tags: esl preschool, classroom management

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