30 Ways to Bring Calm to a Noisy High School Classroom

How do you swiftly get the attention of off-task, noisy teenagers—without resorting to routines that make them feel like they’re back in elementary school?

Tactics that quiet a classroom of younger students—clapping, ringing bells, singing—often fall flat with high school students, who crave the autonomy and respect of young adulthood. 

What works with teens, teachers told us when we asked about their go-to strategies, is having a flexible tool kit of tried-and-true, low-lift practices to draw from at any moment, depending on the situation and the vibe in the classroom. In fact, sometimes the simpler the better, says high school teacher Texi via Instagram: “I usually use one of three strategies, depending on the level of chaos in the room.” 

For maximum impact, introduce your routines in the first weeks of school and then review as needed throughout the year. “The first thing I teach my students is how to go back to silence,” says Laure Olivieri, a high school English teacher in France. “I raise my hand and ask them to all do the same and stop talking at the same time. Then we rehearse a few times.”

Regardless of the approach, teachers agree that go-to tactics don’t need to be fancy, but they do need to be clear and consistent. “It’s just about simple language and a consistent routine,” says high school teacher Kathrine Kyriacou. “Put the creative interpretive dances away!”

We collected high school teachers’ favorite attention-getters and combed through our archives to curate this mix of simple yet thoughtful strategies for silencing a noisy room.

QUICK AND EASY RESETS

Sometimes the best quiet-down strategies are also the most straightforward.

Silence is golden: “I often get totally silent and just stand there,” says high school teacher Vanita Harris Vance; others add a serious “teacher look” or fall silent mid-sentence. “I will abruptly stop speaking and just look at a talker,” Glenn S. writes. “The kids immediately get quiet because that’s unusual.”

Find the lull: “Observe the noise pattern” as classroom noise ebbs and flows, says Marianne Kearney-Brown. “At the next lull, speak in a quiet voice and say, ‘I need your attention’ or ‘Group work time is over.’ It worked amazingly well.”

Countdown with a twist: Do a countdown, but “add something weird in the middle. Example: ‘5… 4… 3… octopus… 1,’” high school English teacher Marcus Luther advises. Math teacher Joaquin Colon uses a similar approach with his 10th and 11th graders in the Bronx: “OK, let’s bring it back in 5... 4... 731.8…” The response is immediate quiet and a “Wait, what?” from students.

Make it a game: “When you throw back to their childhood, they love it,” says Lindsay, a high school English ELA teacher in Canada, whose preferred quiet-down game is “If you can hear me, touch your nose.” In another riff, Veronica Foster silently puts a finger on her nose, and “everyone who noticed would follow my lead,” she says. “The last kid to put their finger on their nose owed me a classroom chore.”

Cold call: One educator uses an unexpected call to action to get her students’ attention. “Just look at them and say, ‘OK, who’s presenting first?’” Erin Nickel notes.

Signposting: Teens appreciate the respect of a heads-up about expectations—and a sense of how long they’ll need to stay quiet. High school teacher Anna Parker Clinkman usually says something like “This mini-lesson is going to take around 10 minutes, and I need silence while I speak so everyone can hear. It will take longer if you interrupt me.”

Positive reinforcement: Try verbally acknowledging students who are quiet. “For a particularly rowdy group of grade nines, I pulled out my preschool teacher method of ‘John is ready. Joanne is ready,’” Denise Yellen Ganot notes. “They scrambled to hear me say their names. Can’t believe this worked on them.”

Deep breathing: “If you can hear my voice, take a deep breath! And another deep breath!” That’s how one high school ELA teacher says she gets kids back on track while sneaking calming breaths into her classroom management. It takes a minute or two, but the bonus, says Leila L,  is that the breathing exercises “calm me down too.”

Class rewards: Taking a page from the early grades, some teachers incentivize attention-getting to make it “fun and silly instead of punitive,” says Elle Be Cee Zee, who playfully challenges students to keep the volume “at a whisper” during work time. Renee Broussard adds marbles to a jar to reward on-task behavior and removes them when noise levels rise. When a class fills the jar, they earn a week with no homework.

Polite respect: When in doubt, says John A, lean into respect with high school students, reinforcing the trusting relationships you need for good classroom management. “I mostly use a polite ‘Excuse me,’” he writes. “[It] never fails because high schoolers (like everyone else) just want to be respected.”

CATCH THEIR EYE 

Visual cues remind students of classroom expectations without direct confrontation. 

Raise your hand: A raised hand, many teachers told us, is the signal for quiet. “I teach them on the first day of school that this is my signal for everyone to quiet down and focus on me,” says Angela Cecchini Larkin. Others raise their hand and add a brief “Raise a hand if you see a hand” or “Raise your hand if you can hear me.” 

Use the whiteboard: As class begins, Marlena P writes out a simple incentive on her board: “The first group that’s silent gets dismissed first.” Patricia R makes her board message into a game. “I start writing an incomplete idea on the board,” she says. When the class is quiet, she reveals the missing portion as a reward. 

Start typing: When students aren’t listening, Jeremy Stefan Brooks uses silent typing to deliver a warning. “I say nothing, open a Google Doc (displayed on the TV), and begin typing” the description of an essay that will be assigned if the room doesn’t quiet down. “Once I type the due date, it’s set in stone,” he adds. “It works every time. I’ve never had to assign the work.”

Center stage: Some teachers have a spot where they stand when they’re ready to start instruction. “The first lesson we learn is that anyone standing in the center spot gets everyone’s attention immediately,” says theater teacher Colleen Mahoney. “I amaze new admins by inviting them into a crazy noisy room and telling them to go stand on center spot. Instant silence—wows them every time.”

Turn on the overheads: While teachers caution against flicking lights on and off, which can upset students with sensory issues, sudden light changes can quickly get kids’ attention. When Holly Joy, who relies on area lights in her classroom, needs her students refocused, she flips on the bright overhead lights. Her students “look like moles… blinded by the sun,” she says, but calm is quickly restored.

Stop… and smell the roses: When her classroom becomes rowdy, Sally B reaches for her humorous stop signs—one says: “WHOA” and the other says “STOP and smell the roses!” Her students quiet down quickly, but seem “in a better, more positive mood than if they were shouted at or shocked in some way.”

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

Sound can be a quick and effective way to help students refocus—while having a little fun.  

Sound cues: High school teachers, we discovered, use a wide array of sounds as attention-getters. “I had a tambourine I would use to get their attention,” one teacher posted on Reddit. “It was playful and fun without being juvenile.” Sharriah Buche Armstrong prefers YouTube sound effects, while other teachers swear by class doorbells. Julia Calderon has different rings for different occasions, like “instant quiet,” clean up, and pack up. 

Dramatic whisper: Sometimes, a dramatic whisper gets the job done, says Samia Aibef. Other times, whispered gossip is golden. “All you gotta do is whisper, ‘Did you hear about what happened this morning?’ And they will all get very quiet,” Cody James says.

Get poetic: Educator Christina M. Bentley notes that reciting a well-chosen bit of poetry works in her classroom. “This is something my high school students really love, so they will get quiet just to listen.”

Bird calls: Lean into your special interests, suggests former high school English teacher Tyler Rablin. As a self-described “bird nerd,” he asked his class to pick a new bird call to learn each week, and then he’d use it as an attention-getter all week. “The goofiness and the student choice element helped increase buy-in,” he notes.

THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE

Sometimes, leaning into silliness, spectacle, and surprise restores calm to a noisy room.

Join the conversation: When a small group of students continuously distracts the class with their chatter, Dani Vp-k pulls up a chair and asks enthusiastically, “What are we all talking about?” As the room quiets down to hear the answer, the gabby group realizes that all eyes are on them, and suddenly “the whole room is quiet.”

Lost phone: For phone-obsessed high school students, “I will hold my phone in the air and say, ‘Whose phone is this?’” Suz Marie notes. “They all quiet down very quickly and look up every time.”

Embrace spectacle: Jess Herr uses a magic wand to settle her class. First she says, “When I wave my magic wand, you will be quiet.” If talking persists, she waves the wand “aggressively” at the talkers—gaining their attention and a few smiles at the goofiness. 

Get (a little) silly: Cal C always has a “dad joke” queued up on a Google Slide so he can get “students’ attention as they wait for the punchline to be delivered,” he notes. 

Other teachers rely on an unusual tactic involving a TV remote—real or imaginary. “Point it at the class and say, ‘Mute.’ I swear this works,” says Sharon Herbert Serano of the tactic, which high school teacher Melinda Eisenmann says her students find “hilarious,” happily remaining silent until she “unmutes” them.

Last one talking: When Natalia E calls out “last one talking,” the last student talking gets asked a question—often based on material from prior instruction. She says it’s a fast way to “refocus students and ease them into the lesson.”

Get moving: If your class is extra-spirited, a quick movement break can help. “I’ll say something like, ‘Put your left hand up. Put it down,’” says Elizabeth K Morton. “‘Now stand up; now sit down. Look at a friend; look at me and listen.’” She says her 10th graders perk up and follow along.

Elevate yourself: Occasionally, extra height helps. “The second I stand on a desk… silence,” says Cheyenne Graden. Celeste Emelia regularly stands on chairs and desks in her class and says it never fails to get teens’ attention quickly.

Calm bubbles: With one especially challenging class, Samia Aibef brought a bubble wand to class and started blowing bubbles, she writes on Facebook. The effect was immediate silence and confused stares. “Sometimes, the weirdest tools are the most effective,” she concludes.

Quiet trophy: When Colin Terry spotted an old trophy collecting dust in his garage, he got the idea to remake it into a “quiet trophy.” Now he simply asks his class, “Who’s the best listener?” Then the trophy goes to the first student who quiets down. 

Choose your own: Several teachers let students choose the settle-down tactics. For instance, when one high school teacher had a “super chatty class,” they asked students what they needed to quiet down. The class "looked at each other and said, ‘Waterfall.’” The popular call-and-response from elementary school “worked every time.”