Students respond immediately to teacher eye contact
Keeps students on their toes
Encourages students to be more attentive and focused
Provides off task, disruptive, inattentive, and other students with a non-verbal cue to stop what they are doing and get back on task
Is a subtle way to address behaviors and students without drawing a lot of attention
Saves time
Easy and quick to do
When should I do it:
When a student is misbehaving, off task, inattentive, talking out of turn, disrupting, not following classroom procedure, etc
When a student seems sleepy or tired
When a student seems to be plotting to do something behind your back
When students have a history of clowning around
How do I do it:
Many times, students naturally read teacher eye contact as a non-verbal cue to stop doing what they are doing and do what they should be
There are many ways to do this and it will be a matter of trial and error
You may look at a student without changing expressions until they look at you
You may look at a student until they look at you, then change your expression, such as raising your eyebrows, tilting your head, shaking your head “no” or “yes”, motioning with your eyes, etc
Try to make the action smooth, not stopping your instruction or task at hand to give the cue
If a student does not react right away, you may need to stop instruction and give the student a “look” again to make it more pronounced
You may consider speaking with a student in private, setting up a plan where when you give them a certain “look” or just look at them, they will do something or refocus, etc
