There are a few different ways of getting student’s attention I learned from Kal, my SA today:

• “non-verbal cues”: my SA started some finger pattern movement and built on more as she attracted the whole class to the crowd. (*I was really amazed at how the crowd gathered at the carpet so quickly and how the kids are so intrigued with the finger pattern and hand movement)
• “how many claps (syllables) in your name”: for lining up to wash their hands for recess or lunch, my SA would say if you have “X number of claps” in your name, you may go wash your hand
• if your name starts with “a phonetic sounds of X”, you may go wash you hand

Friendship Lesson

• Tension between 2 girls at the carpet just before I was about to start  my lesson today. I was debating for a slight second on the spot whether to address it or not.  I felt it was relevant to the friendship conflict resolution activity I was about to start. So, I took their situation and asked the class how we can help our friends out! I was amazed at the helpful input from the rest of the class. However, the two girls still couldn’t get along, and I knew I had to keep the lesson flowing so I discretely separated them as I continue to start the first part of my lesson, a story. I understand at times we might want to to do classroom management right away to keep the flow.  I just thought of experimenting and taking an inquiry approach of bringing  a real scenario that was happening to spark student input and share helpful strategies.