How do you get your students attention?

Question

Sometimes it seems I have difficulty getting the attention of my students. What do you use in your classroom to solve this problem?

Answer 1

If you can hear me... clap ___ times.   Continue until all children are listening.  I've also seen other teachers who begins to play a soft classical song to get the students attention.

Answer 2

Well, you should know your students characters, most of them. Make friends with them, share a laughter when it's out of class, throw some clever jokes, a joke that's in trend in their world. For 4 years of teachings, it works for me.