Classroom Management

It has been oft times said that I need to work on my classroom management skills... both by observers and by myself.  It is for this reason that I will hereby list the methods I have seen, tried, etc. and comment on them.

• HOT (Hands On Top) - While I have found that getting students to put their hands on their heads can be very effective, I just can't bring myself to shout out HOT! haha!
• Hand Clap - mighty effective for getting students' attention, so long as they're not being louder than your clap... otherwise you're doomed
• The Countdown - This one's good, especially when there is some kind of reward/consequence whenever peace is restored (or not) in the 5 (or whatever the number might be) seconds
• The Stare - I've found this one to be least effective, mainly because people tend to not be paying attention to you in the first place, so a silent and subtle hint tends to often not have any effect, but with the right individuals paying attention, this can prove quite successful and is also a very pacific way of calming a class

While I've found that no one works 100%, I've found that they can all be enhanced with a little patience and with some individual rebuking (as in naming the students that are still not paying attention by name)