Have we gone mainstream or what? Here's an article I ran across from an educator using poker analogies to train teachers...who da thunk

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.

HIGH STAKES POKER

In our analysis of the body language of meaning business, we have assumed typical kids who are "talking to neighbors." Although most such disruptions are prevented by "working the crowd" (See the first seven columns in this series for more about "working the crowd."), the few disruptions that require direct teacher intervention usually will be terminated at the level of penny-ante gambling.

In the next segment, however, we will take a look at high stakes poker. The topic will be backtalk. Most office referrals have backtalk as a primary reason for the student being sent out of the room. Backtalk is serious business -- a provocation that quickly can spin out of control. If you know how to deal with it, however, you can save yourself a lot of grief.

This article is condensed from Dr. Jones' award winning book Tools for Teaching. Illustrations by Brian Jones for Tools for Teaching.

That was great. Maybe he is a kitchen table player. Poker analogies and poker in televison series and advertisments are everywhere.

In my last years of University lecturing, I used poker as a reference point or analogy. My first article Emotions In Poker available at pokerpages.com was taken from a lecture on body language. It is a fun part of poker that is transferable to ordinary life situations as the article said. Johnny Hughes