If flight attendants purposefully greet their passengers at the door in order to pick up valuable information about them, wouldn’t it help teachers to adopt a similar practice? Starting a classroom password greeting ritual not only provides social and linguistic benefits, there are substantial classroom management advantages as well.

The following article explains that when flight attendants take the time to look boarding passengers in the eye they can tell at a glance how much and what kind of energy a passenger has. They can see potential problems with items passengers are trying to carry into the plane, who is needy, who is pushing the rules, who is likely to be obstinate, who needs help and who might be counted on to give help. This is standard practice with airlines because it heads off trouble. The greeting at the door of the aircraft is a crucial first step in passenger management.

Teachers will certainly see a connection here. We can accomplish similar goals by greeting students at the door daily with a password.

You can get my new book on classroom passwords on Teacher’s Discovery in a couple of weeks.

This Is What a Flight Attendant First Notices About You