Overview

In the business world, attention is currency. Companies invest heavily in strategies like scarcity, novelty, anchoring, and user experience design to capture and hold customer focus. What if educators approached student attention with the same level of intention? This session introduces a new way of thinking about focus as something that can be designed, structured, and sustained. Teachers will explore pedagogical moves and business-inspired strategies that capture attention early, manage cognitive energy throughout a lesson, and maintain engagement from start to finish.

Participants will learn how to treat attention as a resource to be budgeted, rather than something to be hoped for, and will leave with ready-to-use templates and activities that make every minute of instruction more intentional and engaging.

Key Takeaways

• Attention as Currency:  Plan and protect attention across a lesson with the same care used to allocate time or resources.
• Capture Strategies:  Use novelty bursts, anticipation hooks, and cognitive anchors to secure focus from the start.
• Retention Strategies:  Apply chunking, resets, and flow design to keep engagement steady throughout the lesson.
• Business Lens:  Translate attention-economy tactics from marketing and user experience design directly into instructional practice.

Presenter 

Tori Hale is a dedicated educator with a passion for empowering teachers and students. As a Business and Technology Teacher at Casey-Westfield High School and an adjunct instructor at Eastern Illinois University, Tori has spent 13 years shaping the future of education.

Tori manages the popular Instagram account @ToriTeachesBiz, which provides free resources to business educators in over 10 countries.