Character traits are a great way to combine both literature skills and real life social skills into one fun real world lesson. Using fictional events, you can have students being more mindful of the choices they are making in every day life too. As I was teaching a lesson, Kevin jumped up and blurted out […]
Cup Management
Hi all! Today, I have a quick video that shows you an idea that I adapted from one I saw being used during cafeteria duty. Just change it up a bit, and use the same idea in your classroom when having small group work time! Save your voice and allow the students to have a […]
Classroom Management: Why & How
My ongoing nightmare beginning nightly the week leading up to the start of school: I walk in the classroom door ready to start out a successful year with a gorgeous learning environment and I see students who are throwing papers, hitting each other with backpacks, and using permanent marker to draw a mural on my […]
Spin a Surprise {Classroom Management}
Learning about classroom management techniques in teacher education classes sound easy enough: make sure you have established rules, you are making eye contact with your students, and calling home if the student continues to act out beyond what is expected. But sometimes you just need a little extra in the way of strategies. I don’t […]
Cooperative Learning Group Work Roles Made Easier
Hey teaching friends! I don’t know about you, but when I first started to learn about cooperative learning and group projects, I was pumped at the possibilities and learning that could happen! So I went to school the next day so excited, put my class of third graders in groups, and gave them a project. […]
Brag Bands: Building Character Edition
Building character is one of those activities that sometimes gets overlooked in the classroom because there is just so much more to cover. Not to mention these behaviors aren’t necessarily going to be tested on the standardized assessments (to which the teacher is publicly held accountable for). Good character traits aren’t always modeled at home […]
Classroom Management Teacher Cheat Sheet
Classroom management is a pretty wide topic. And the funny part? They don’t teach you much of it in the teacher prep programs. Why? I am pretty sure because of the fact that every child and every mixture of children in the classroom are all different. I do remember having to create a philosophy […]
Does Screaming At Your Class Work? {Classroom Management Tips}
I know most teachers with good classroom management strategies would say the answer to the title question is “usually not.” If you are normally a more reserved teacher, then yelling could certainly take them by surprise. lol. But, at least it has been my own personal experience, that many students get yelled at at home […]
Classroom Management: Peer Pressure
Hey everyone! I hope you are having an awesome week so far, and today I thought it would be fun to talk about classroom management. We talk about classroom management a lot, right? You know those years when you just have crazy kids in your classroom? They’re awesome. All kids are awesome – we know […]
Teaching Tip: Keeping Students Engaged
Hey everyone and I hope you are awesome today and having a fantastic week. I want to share a great tip with you, I actually received a question from Carly. She wants to know: “How do you keep students engaged during reading and math lessons?” I have an old school way of doing this, which […]
Simple Classroom Store System
Hey teaching friends! WHEW! I am hearing so many are already back in school, many with students already! If that is you then welcome back! I was chatting with my good friend Tami the other day and we were talking about classroom token economy systems and I was explaining to her how I used to […]
Are You in Kahoot(s) Yet?
Hey teaching friends! Apparently I have been out of the loop, but this is the first time I have heard about this really cool assessment website from some other teacher friends and I thought maybe there was also at least one other person out there who might be in the same boat or stuck under […]
Banner Behavior
Hey teaching friends! Just a quickie blog post today – an idea for positive behavior reinforcement! First, start with these supplies – all found in my local craft store: the pennant paper was found in the scrapbook section (though if you have more time and choose, you could certainly make your own with paper you […]
Positively Push for Good Behavior
The end of the year is quickly approaching! I am super excited, aren’t you? Well, so are the students, and their behavior is showing their excitement. The children are full of energy and struggling to sit still. Some teachers are pulling their hair out trying to keep structure in their classrooms. Anyone else noticing this? […]
Puzzling Partner Groups
I have a great group of students again this year, great in so many ways. But, they are not so great at picking partner groups! I have a number of students who always want to work with the same people, some people that are actually fought over, and some people who are never chosen. I […]
