20 Ways to Keep Your Students’ Attention | Minds in Bloom

20 Ways to Keep Your Students’ Attention | Minds in Bloom:

Rachel Lynette has an interesting post:

There are plenty of things you can do within a lesson to keep kids from day dreaming…or worse yet, nodding off. Here are just a few of her great ideas:

Desk Switch: Students have ten seconds (count down from ten) to find another desk to sit in that is in a different part of the room than his or her normal desk.
Position Switch: Have students turn their chairs around and sit straddling the chair with their hands resting on the back (girls in dresses can sit side-saddle).
Wander as you teach. If you don’t need to be glued to the board, then wander throughout the classroom.
Give each child a small ball of play dough to fidget with if you are doing a lecture-type lesson.
Throw students a foam ball when calling on them to answer a question.
Choose a fun word, such as “Shazam!” or “Bazinga!” Every time you say the word, students must use both hands to hit the tops of their desks two times and then clap two times. Say the word several times throughout the lesson. It will wake everyone up!
Have a little fun, teach a small portion of the lesson with an accent or imitating someone famous.
With younger students, teach with a puppet or give a voice to a stuffed animal.

For more ideas, read the rest of this post on Minds in Bloom.

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Cherie Herring

Music/Technology Integration at Hammond School

I teach elementary music, am passionate about integrating technology into my teaching, am obsessed with my SMARTBoard and iPad, and enjoy creating lessons and sharing ideas. I love technology almost as much as I love cheesecake, and with more energy and ideas than I know what to do with, I can't wait for the sun to come up each morning! I'm wife to Prince Charming and mom to three incredible girls who keep me balanced. . . sort of!