Bodly language

Students read your body language to know what they can get away with in your classroom. With your body language you signal your priorities -- what is important or unimportant, and what you are committed or not committed to doing. By reading your body language, students can read your mind.

THE BODY LANGUAGE POKER GAME

Poker is a simple game. You either bet or fold. In the body language poker game, teachers fold when they turn a way from the situation before the students have folded. The students fold when they abandon pseudo-compliance and actually get back to work. You have to stay in the game until the students fold.
A note to the uninitiated -- you cannot fool a child. Children can smell a bluff a mile away. Nagging rather than moving is a bluff. Bluffing gets no respect in this poker game.

Walk: Take a relaxing breath, omit silly talk, and walk to the edge of the desk of the student most likely to be the instigator (assuming typical kids rather than abused kids whose personal space is large and who become anxious when that personal space is invaded). Pseudo-compliance by the student will look like a partial turn toward his or her work rather than a full turn. You have just been raised.

Visual Prompt: Bend over slightly, put one palm flat on the table, and with the other motion for the student to bring his or her chair all of the way around. If you had a teacher who told you when you were a kid to "bring your chair all of the way around," that teacher knew a thing or two about pseudo-compliance. We start with a visual prompt, however, because it runs a lower risk of generating backtalk than would a verbal prompt. Pseudo-compliance by the student would be another partial turn, perhaps three-quarters of the way around. You have been raised again.

Verbal Prompt: With an accompanying hand gesture, ask the student to bring his or her chair all of the way around. The specificity of your prompt leaves very little room for the student to "play dumb." To stay in the game with one more raise, the student must engage in either blatant noncompliance or backtalk. In either case, poker goes from penny-ante to high stakes. For that reason, most students fold at this juncture.

Monitor with Praise: Stay down and watch the student work until you get a stable pattern of work. If the student looks up briefly, his or her body is saying, "Oh, are you still here?" Take another relaxing breath, and stay down a little longer. After observing the student working, thank them warmly and stay down. When you are confident that the student is truly on task, repeat the routine with the second student before standing slowly.

Follow Through: Observe the students as you take a relaxing breath. If one of them looks up, take a second relaxing breath before slowly moving away. Track the students carefully as you work the crowd.