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This is an interactive attention grabber/game for students. When students are off-task, the teacher quietly and calmly says the following items. If the students are listening, they should respond appropriately. Once all students are back on task, the teacher continues with the lesson.

Popcorn- Look at teacher
Pizza- Look up at the ceiling
Hot Dog- Look down at the floor
Jelly Bean- Look left
Bean Jelly- Look right

See Jeremie McNease for more info!

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Building in specific times for students to be able to talk and discuss with each other. This minimizes off-task talking, maximizes instructional time, and helps develop student rapport.

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Have an energetic, engaging, and specialized greeting for each class as they enter the classroom.

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Using small behavior checks for students to take home such as:

- small messages home (i.e., You did great today in music!)
- Hall of Fame bulletin board (i.e., students get to sign the HoF when they have exhibited exceptional behaviors)4

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Step 1: Observe + Reflect
Step 2: Identify the Emotion
Step 3: Connect to the Source
Step 4: Plan of Action

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- Speak slowly
- Speak at the "just right" volume
- Speak in a controlled voice.
- Use humor sparingly.
- Always be respectful to the student.

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Challenging Posture vs. Non-Challenging Posture
- Challenging postures tend to threaten another person and escalate any situation (face to face, nose to nose, leaning forward, finger pointing, arms crossed)
- Non-Challenging Posture not perceived as threatening (on the same level, arms relaxed at sides, side to side with student, appropriate facial expressions)

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Be constantly aware of how your body language can be understood when observed by a student. This can make or break it when deterring negative behaviors.

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I have wind chimes around my room that I ring when I need to get students’ attention.

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When you hear an instrument, raise your hand. I give students opportunities to talk, then when it’s time to get quiet I play an instrument. When they head it, they are supposed to raise their hand. I continue when all are quiet

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Use an electronic doorbell (you can get one on Amazon for about $15) that you can "ring" whenever students need to re-focus. The doorbell goes in an outlet and the receiver can go with you in your pocket :)

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This translates from my classroom greeting song and attendance. When I sing attendance to my students I sing a "So So Mi" pattern ( i.e. "Chris-to-pher") and Christopher would respond "Here I am!" in the same so-so-mi pitches.
When I need to get a whole class's attention, I sing the similar pattern, "Mrs. (Teacher's) Class!" and they are predisposed to respond "Here we are!" in the same way they sing their attendance.

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I use Class Dojo every day. The students earn points for academics as well as behavior. Then, every once in a while, they get to spend their points to go to the school's PBIS store, or they can spend their points for things I have available in class (like spend all your Class Dojo points to go to the library and read music books).

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With bigger groups I will sometimes talk about the lightswitch.  When we get started I will say, “lightswitch” and the students will say, “on!”  That helps to prepare the group for engaging their brains and staying focused on the group activity.

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Follow Me

During transitions or while teaching follow teacher through nonverbal cues. This could be tapping a beat on your shoulders, then moving it to your elbows, etc. kids will start noticing this and join in with you until everyone is following the teacher.

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Call and response: teacher-“Yakety Yak”
Students-“Don’t talk back”

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During the course of the first weeks, allow students to add 1-2 elements to a handshake to make it their own. Week 1: Handshake plus 1 motion, Week 2: Complete Handshake plus 2 motions, Weeks 3&4:  Continue to practice handshakes until memorization. Once handshakes are memorized, take opportunities to greet students out of context (during your lunch/planning period) with their handshakes in other areas of the school, potentially in front of other students and faculty.

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Silently put hands on body parts until all students follow along.

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If/when the little ones get off task, I'll quietly say copy me and then will start doing random things like make hands on my head and I'll wait for at least one student to copy, then I'll move on to something different like hands on hips and then they copy. I continue until everyone is copying me. Then, we can resume whatever we were doing when students got off task.

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Pull student aside, or have them write, and ask them:
3 things they’re proud of today
2 goals they want to set for themselves for the rest of the day
1 what is the behavior that led to this conversation?

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Watching a short video of a musical performance

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Stamps- students in all grades get a stamp on their hand if they meet expectations

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Calling the students by name as often as possible during class- for anything positive.

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Short direction between each activities (during transition).
i.e. “when I say go, take 10 seconds to walk, grab two rhythm sticks, walk back to your chair, and put the sticks in the floor”.

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Sing a pattern or clap a pattern, students echo back

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Instead of the traditional teacher clap (ta ta ti-ti ta)'shh; do the same thing on a verbal "shh"

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When a student is particularly upset, I try to remember that all of us are just trying to do the best we can.  A "difficult" student may have a lot of difficulty managing his emotions, and I try to empathize with that difficulty to de-escalate.  I might put on a song for everyone to sing, and while they are singing, I sit next to him and ask if everything is ok, or if there is anything I can do to help him feel better.  Sometimes I ask if he would like a break from the class and go to a favorite teacher's room for a little while - if so, I write a note to that teacher and send it with a different student, and wait for the reply before sending the difficult student.
If a student is being bothered a lot from another classmate, I will often call one of them into the hallway so I can talk to them calmly while the rest of the class is singing a song without me - while I keep an eye on the class.  I try to keep a "How can I help?" attitude.

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Give students dedicated time where they know they are going to be allowed to talk each class. Start and end class with a "turn-talk" and let kids talk to their neighbor or group about your daily topic/EQ/etc.

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I love participating in activities with students, as it gives you a chance to get to know them.

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on 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. This countdown tactic always works to gain students attention/engagement with the added bonus of kids practicing singing and matching pitch as they quickly learn to sing the pattern, too . =)

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collect rewards dollars (Scholar dollars?) for positive behavior. Exchange dollars for school-wide event participation/
rewards

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Walk students to a "rest area" were they can sit and either have a discussion with you or utilize small tactile objects to "take a rest". I use a sand timer (I have a 1 minute and a 3 minute) that kids can watch while they calm down and then return themselves to the group.

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This works before a crisis occurs. If I see students being triggered, I’ll just say “I think you can use a little rest. Please come and join us when you’re ready!” and direct them to a chill out corner with squish balls.

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Teacher: Coca-Kids: Cola, then open up can and spsshshs

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Teacher: Coca-Kids: Cola, then open up can and spsshshs

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Keep students engaged.

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Music money
Create paper dollars that students earn for positive behavior and/or participation. Once students have earned so much money they receive some kind of reward.

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Send students to another classroom (pre arranged)

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I wait at the door for each class.  Just to be different, I will do “hi elbow” instead of “hi five”.  I put up an elbow and they will touch it with their elbow.  Some of them make it a habit to do wherever they see me.

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Stress Balls

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Attend a variety of both school and non-school events. create positive interactions with students outside of the music room

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Have a hula hoop hanging on the wall, establish with students what sort of things they can do within their hula hoop. Empower students to take care of themselves in the hula hoop instead of worrying about outside changes.

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Talking to the child and have them help come up with a solution if there is a consistent problem

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I award Rock N Roll awards to students displaying exceptional behavior in class. Then those individuals add a star to their classes chart and the whole class works together over the weeks to be the class in their grade level with the most stars to earn a special day in music.

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Encouraging Dojo message home

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Very often, I'll call students by a name depending on what they were wearing when I first met them. For instance, the student who was wearing the Batman t-shirt is Batman. My students have always loved this. The key is to make sure that the nickname isn't insulting!

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Sharing personal info while students share theirs. Usually during question&answer activities.

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Have the class match a pitch on "ooo" - awesome tool I learned from Caroline Goldstein (WBMS)

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Have the class match a pitch on "ooo" - awesome tool I learned from Caroline Goldstein (WBMS)

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Choose a student demonstrating amazing behavior in the hall BEFORE music to be the "music master" coming into the room. This student can choose from a variety of pre-set activities to lead the class for a little warm up and you as the teacher can stand back and participate while they do the leading. Some of the things we do are dance leader (to the song of the day), poison rhythm, string singing (vocalizing), etc.

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Assign special jobs in the room: organize, line leader etc.

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Have a “take a rest” area in your classroom that students can go to in order to calm down.

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At the beginning of the year, have students submit their favorite (school appropriate) song. I send this home as a "homework" assignment to K/1 so parents can get involved and have 2-5 write it down on the first day. I display each classes playlist in the hallway (without individual student names) so they can all see each other's songs, then every week I play a different student's song as they enter the music room. Great for a quick steady beat assessment too.

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Check in on students when they are eating lunch, breakfast, be visible and interested in what they do outside your classroom.

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This is a whole class positive reward. Once the class gets a certain number of stickers they get a class reward. This year I have themed it with the school’s theme.

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We have gold slips at our school for positive behavior.

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Learn some simple magic tricks (like taking your finger off), and do a trick when the class is not paying attention. Then the ones that are paying attention go, "Whoa!!!!" and everyone else looks up at me and says, "what?" Sometimes I repeat the trick for them, now that they're paying attention, and sometimes I tell them I'll do the trick again later, so they better pay attention and watch out for it.

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Teach me!
The last five minutes of class, I will call out students who had a great day in class and they would teach me a dance. Last year was fort nite dances. They love it and they like to see that I am learning something from them.

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Tell some simple jokes.

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Two fingers up in the air (peace sign) and one finger of your other hand on your lips (quiet) - peace and quiet.
If the class is getting noisy, the kids are supposed to do the quiet sign instead of yelling at the class to be quiet. Then, I give out extra points for the first few quiet signs I see. Sometimes I call their names out, and sometimes I leave it anonymous as I'm adding points to their Class Dojo.

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Tell a story about yourself when you were in a similar situation. I have told a story how I was in 5 grade twice. A story about how another teacher was being mean to me (as a teacher) and what I did about it, and things like that.

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I tell the kids to be nice to the mean people, because it will confuse them or distract them from trying to make you mad. Also, those are the people that need niceness the most. A kid says, "You have ugly shoes!" and you can confuse them by agreeing with him, "Yeah, I know. We don't have a lot of money for new shoes right now because my dad just quit his job." Or maybe say, "I know a lot of kids don't like this style, but it is my favorite color and these shoes make me so happy!" Or you can distract him, like "I know mine are, but your shoes are awesome! Where did you get them? I'll have to start shopping there!"

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"My computer goes slower when there's too much talking."

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"My computer goes slower when there's too much talking."

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That's great to say when your computer is giving you problems and the class starts getting restless. By the time the class gets quiet, the page finishes loading or whatever, so it's quite magical.

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If someone is turned around talking, sneak up on them, very very quietly, and put your face very close to the back of their head. Everyone will start to giggle. When the kid turns around to see what everyone is giggling about, they get a big surprise that you are right in front of his face! Then everyone laughs. Then say (with a smile), "You can't take your eyes off me, you never know when I might sneak up on you!"