In teaching, the problem of gaining the students' attention leads to more headaches, tears, cynicism, alcoholism, and changes of profession than any other part of the job. For many, gaining the attention of the class is by far the most difficult part of teaching. The situation is often dire for beginning teachers, who have been ill equipped to deal with the issue.

But there is hope.

There are many tricks of the trade for gaining kids' attention that are simple to learn and easy to implement. That said, because each trick is often best suited to a specific situation or a certain teacher personality, some experimentation with the techniques is advisable to obtain maximum effectiveness.

Below are 10 techniques for gaining kid's attention that I have used to good effect, along with the situations when I have found them most useful.

1) Killing the Competition

Killing the Competition is a technique to use before class starts. The goal is to eliminate anything around the classroom that will compete for the kids' attention. Do your kids like to stare out the windows? Find a creative way to block their view. Does the menagerie of mice and fish and snakes that you keep in the room distract them? Cover up the cages and aquariums during your lesson.

The less competition you have for the kids' attention, the more likely you will be to gain and hold their attention.

2) Avoid Dead Air

Avoid Dead Air is another technique the majority of which takes place before class.

A cardinal rule of teaching is that it is easier to keep a student's attention than it to get it. Therefore, when planning your lesson and preparing your materials, make sure that you are ready to flow smoothly from one part of your lesson to the next. Any pauses that occur are opportunities for something else to gain the kids' attention.

Seldom will anyone, especially kids, be content with sitting and doing nothing. If you don't provide anything to interest them, they will turn to something else. If you are in the middle of class and lose your notes, while you are looking for them, you students are looking for something else to do.

3) Conditioned Response

Conditioned Response takes some preparation, but it is wonderful for quickly getting the kids' attention when all hell has broken loose. The technique is straight from Pavlov.

Simply train the students to respond to a certain signal by giving the signal and telling the students how to respond. Next, practice the

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about Teaching tips: How to gain kids' attention?
We want to hear your view. Write now!