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Whenever I work with other teachers, I pick up tricks that I can use with my own students. I was keen to collect as many of these as I could for myself and others. Some of them are ones I have seen myself, and some I have found online. I have tried to credit sources, of course, it is more than likely the sources didn’t originally create these tricks. All these tricks do not require preparation to use.

Note: once I started making this I was entirely unhappy with how many I could think of. I think these are super useful so I am planning to add more as I find them. Please let me know if you know of any good ones.

1. Make a circle song

Getting students to form a circle can be very difficult but you can help it to happen by singing a little song. It is to the tune of Frère Jacques. I have found students start singing along very quickly whether they know it or not.

2. Copy my actions (getting student attention)

The teacher starts doing some action like putting one hand on their head, then changing hands and so on. Some of the students will start copying. Keep changing it up until everyone is doing it.

3. Shh Shh Shh

I use this one with my class all the time. I say “Shh shh shh” and I get students to copy me. Anything in the class that I want students to copy I point at myself with both hands, then at them. You can indicate to students you want them to copy through gestures and I find this to be an effective means of getting student attention.

4. Sharing circle (dealing with emotional conflicts amongst students)

Get students to sit in a circle (see Tip 1). Go around the circle and have each student give a thumbs up or thumbs down for how they are going. If they give a thumbs up, move on. If they give a thumbs down, they get a chance to share what is happening. It gives students a chance to voice any grievances. Hopefully, this can lead to apologies and forgiveness. This will be up to you to facilitate.

5. Checking if students are listening

You can check if students are listening by getting them to do certain actions. You could have them point in the sky, hands on heads and so on. You are verbally telling them to do this. If they do it, you can have confidence that they are actually listening and ready. I do this before I start walking with a line since students often get distracted and left behind when the rest of the line starts walking. The best way to do it is to engage their minds, so get them to point at something made out of wood for example. This one and the next are from this Youtube video by For Teachers

6. Type on the screen

When you have a laptop on the screen, it is possible to just start typing to communicate with students. This can be really helpful if you are losing your voice or if you need a different way to engage students at short notice.

7. Impromptu timer

You can search up ‘timer’ on Google and it will come straight up. You can use these at any moment. I tend to find that having a timer helps students to stay focused and create a sense of urgency about what they are doing. If you feel like students aren’t getting on with something, starting a timer can help them to get it done.

8. Counting down with actions

This one involves pairing actions with counting. The end goal is for students to be focusing. I haven’t gotten to try it but I think it would work and I like how gentle and non-threatening it feels.

1 finger on your nose

2 fingers on your tummy

3 fingers on your head

4 fingers on your shoulder

5 fingers in your lap

I came across this one on TikTok and I thought it was a cool idea. Rather than just counting down you can do it like this.

Jake Heading

Creator of GoodTeach and Primary School Classroom Teacher.

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