Magic Words

By. Teresa Marchant

I remember during my student teaching experience, my cooperating teacher suggested that I should find a word that I could use to get students’ attention. Her “magic word” was cookies. I never knew the reason behind her chosen word, I just knew that it worked.  Maybe they thought they would be getting “cookies” so they paid attention?  I wanted to find a magical word, but I wanted it to be meaningful.

Years later, I finally discovered the word that fit me. I was reading the story Chatterbox in the book called Math Rashes and Other Classroom Tales by Douglas Evans.  In this story, a student (Morgan) is taught the importance of listening. For three days, she finds a device (calculator, watch, game player) that counts her words. She is only allowed to say 100 words or less to win a prize. On her last attempt she wins! However, she doesn’t win a prize- she gets something even better; friends!

After I read this story to my class, we played a mini version of this game. During the game I say the word “chatterbox” to pause the game. From then on, when I say “chatterbox” it means stop-look-listen!  I specifically review these expectations by saying you need to STOP what you’re doing, LOOK at me, so you are ready to LISTEN. It works like a charm!

After introducing my word this school year, I had a student ask me what we do in case of an emergency. (They must have gone over those things in their home room.) I responded by reminding them of what to do when I say “chatterbox”.  Once I have their attention I will give directions for any emergency.  So the most important thing to remember is to stop, look, listen! I did however use this as a teachable moment and clarified what we would do in various emergencies. Magical words do work- just like my veteran teacher taught me years ago during student teaching. I love that my magical word is meaningful and my students know why I say it.  They also know my expectations are perfectly clear when I say this word. I now encourage YOU to find a word that works like magic and is meaningful to you and your students.