There are many ways that a teacher can communicate with a student or with the whole class. To grab the whole classes' attention, because they are talking to one another or being disruptive when the teacher is speaking, Ms. Desiree rings her bell once to quiet them down. When she rings the bell a second time her students automatically but their "catch a bubble" face on because they know when Ms. Desiree rings it twice it is no good. Three rings of the bell indicate all of the students going to their table, to their assigned seat and putting their head down. This is a non-verbal technique used by my cooperating teacher to grab the students' attention. Ms. Desiree uses many non- verbal techniques to communicate with her students. She taught me a few of them too. If one student catches on to what the teacher is doing, then the rest will copycat each other so everyone is on the same page; especially for 3 year olds.
Pre-k 3 students'mind always wonders, they are at the age where they must learn how to start doing everything on their own, practicing their handwriting by writing their first and last name on paper with a pencil, their motor skills should be flourishing and their vocabulary should sky rocket. The students in the classroom I observed were very smart and always listened to Ms. Desiree and me, which surprised me because since I was a new teacher with them I thought they weren't going to listen. This is such a crucial year for learning but they were all very smart and attentive to their work. .
Ms. Desiree who has been working with Pre-k 3 for about five years has come up or found many attention grabbing strategies for her classroom. When the students are talking and not doing what they are supposed to, she says "Attention!" and then the class repeats what she said and they contain themselves. Another one she uses which is my favorite is "Shake my sillies out!" which is a song and a dance to let some of the energy out to refocus themselves and continue the lesson for the day.
