Grabbing students attention is one of those classroom management skills teachers need to adopt early. With that said, it is never too late to refocus the class with a new classroom expectation. Oftentimes, out of desperation for time, a teacher will yell the information to the class over some of the students talking. This is the number one mistake teachers can make. Students can feed off of getting a rise out of teachers. If you yell over them you are giving them the message that you don’t expect respect from them. As the person in charge, you need to have a plan and relay that plan to the students. The plan is to come up with some way to grab the students attention that doesn’t involve raising your voice.
Many teachers have heard the cute attention grabbing call and response chants that elementary teachers use with students. In a secondary setting, especially 7th-12th grade, if you tried to use “1 2 3 eyes on me”...”1 2 eyes on you,” you would lose respect from your students. The problem is most resources you come across are all geared towards the elementary classroom, which makes new secondary teachers think that attention grabbers are not needed. This is definitely not the case, as secondary students are still kids.
Here is a list of some ways you can grab your middle or high school students attention, that will not cause embarrassment, both for you and the students. Choose something that works with your personality. Keep in mind, while #8 might seem young, it is a good way to reinforce those hard to remember concepts.
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