Focuser: Hands and Eyes

Jeff Battle, Director, North Carolina Power Teachers

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Whenever you want your students to pay close attention to an important point, say, "Hands and eyes!"  Your students respond, "hands and eyes!," fold their hands and stare at you intensely.  We have found that this command is also very effective if you have said, "Class!" and your kids are not entirely focused on you when they respond, "Yes!"  Follow up with "hands and eyes!" and you'll be delighted at the quality of attention you receive.  

Amazingly enough, Hands and Eyes works as well with high school students as with kindergartners.  In actual practice, you will use Class-Yes anywhere from 20 to 30 times an hour, especially when you are involved in direct teaching and Hands and Eyes about 5 to 10 times. 

"Mirror my gestures," is also a very useful command.  As you teach with gestures, you will know who is engaged in the lesson simply by seeing who is copying your hand motions.  A more advanced version is to say, "Mirror!" and your students respond "mirror!" and snap their hands into the air, ready to mimic your gestures.  In the critical thinking Power Teacher video (click on Power Teacher videos), Jay Vanderfin's class does an excellent job of demonstrating this technique.