educationfilter: I am becoming a teacher this upcoming year and I'll like to solicit the Hive mind's advice for the best, most innovative, effective educational bits of wisdom, advice, and methods you've done as a teacher or had a a teacher do with you or your class. Examples of precisely what I mea

I'm a remedial math teacher. I'm going start off with "The Whammy," which is a subtle form of mind control, and awesome for classroom management. Basically, what you do is tell kids that THEY enjoy having a nice, quiet, cooperative class conducive to learning, and that you're really impressed by it. You can get the ball rolling by saying that a few of them have told you that they really enjoy your class because they feel like they can get a lot of work done there, and then double down by saying how impressed you are that the group is so studious. An individual kid won't have enough information to refute this, because he doesn't know for a fact that EVERYONE DIDN'T say that to you. Or you can pose the question, "Who wants a class where they can focus and do their best work?" You'll get a lot of hands up (of course some of them will be BSing you), and then you say, "Wow! I'm really impressed! You look like a really serious group of students." So what you're doing is creating the belief on an individual level that "everybody else" enjoys a professional atmosphere in the classroom, and it winds up becoming true very quickly. I've done this and seen kids who are the most seeking of attention and approval from other kids start shushing others when they're talking and stage whispering, "Shhh! I'm trying to focus!" in the midst of a quiet class if someone does something even remotely distracting. You also have to reflect this back to the kids in the way you conduct yourself while they are working. If someone raises their hand, you walk quietly over to them and address their question quietly to subtly reinforce that you're respecting the quiet that the rest of the class wants. If someone causes a disruption, you let them know that "people are working" as part of your redirection. You also have to point out how well they're working, how mature they are, and/or how much you enjoy working with them regularly while they're behaving, and say it out of nowhere instead of at the beginning or end of class.

Make everything about what's being taught, and never about you. Structure classes so that students achieve success immediately (start out each class by copying notes from the board or doing a worksheet). Make sure you praise all students, even the ones that get on your nerves.

I am a badass classroom manager. The single best thing I do start building relationships with my middle schoolers (and management, at least in my opinion, at least in middle school, is least 80% relationship-building) is stand outside my door during passing period and greet every kid by name with a smile as he/she enters. I start this on the very first day of class, even though I have to ask them their name as they come in. I often add a question (what was the best thing you've done so far today? why did the frog cross the road?) as my or their mood dictates. It is shocking what a difference this small act makes in my day-to-day life with my students.

Test very frequently, every day if you can, with just one to three simple questions about the day's lesson, just enough to show you whether you've been communicating and they've been learning. Testing frequently helps us remember, lets you the teacher know every day whether you're doing the job right, lets students know every day whether they are keeping up, strongly encourages students to attend class and pay attention every day, reduces cramming for infrequent exams, and reduces psychological pressure by making tests a literally everyday thing.

I am a teacher and I was working all day- can't easily check phone/internet/etc often in a school environment! The deal is that it totally depends on what type of school you are placed in. I also have inner-city students and extreme budget cuts (we ran out of paper at one point this year and half of my dept got cut this week)...so really we are just in 'survival mode', sad but true. Our students are troubled and often troubling and basically forming relationships is your best bet- make them enjoy coming to school, or at least make it a positive experience for them by recognizing them and enquiring after their family/pets/sports events. I wish I could say 'buy red folders!, seat people alphabetically!, or some other concrete example of something to do but really it depends on where you work and what the climate of the school is. It's a tough time for teachers. Good luck. (Note: there have been threads on inner city classroom management before and I think creative ideas for english classes).

Oh yeah, and as a parent: truly understand the implications of homework. During this last month of school, there is very little going on at school, which is fine. Kids go on field trips and that sort of thing. The crime, though, is that homework is being assigned during this last month, notably on weekends, which is a real shame. And, when homework is assigned, often it seems obvious that the teacher hasn't thought things through - often there is a requirement to look things up on the internet at home, and print out pictures in colour. There are also instructions to look stuff up on YouTube ( this is Grade 4 we're talking about). There are several leaps of logic being made here: 1) we have a computer 2) we have access to the internet 3) we have a colour printer 4) we have time to spend teaching our son about where to research on the internet 5) we are comfortable with our son looking at YouTube. At the very least, teachers ought to discuss home Internet use with parents.

Classroom management strategies: Always make the focus on the curriculum and measurable results. For example, students know why they are in class - to learn, study and work hard. If they're not doing their work, well, they're not doing their work and it's easy to tell. So instead of saying, "no talking" or "why are you listening to your MP3 player?" you can say, "why aren't you doing your work?" So keep the focus off the students, and there will be less arguing, and less opportunity for a bad dynamic to develop. Keep things simple by adopting a "mastery" approach. You should have 3 classes of assignments during class: easy stuff, like worksheets and copying from the blackboard, more difficult stuff like using the textbook to answer questions, and more interesting and creative stuff like book reports. There are going to be 1/3 of the students in your class who are going to have a hard time. The worksheets are for them. The other 2/3 of students will finish the worksheets easily, so give them the questions to do. 1/3 of the students in the class will finish the questions easily, so give them the "mastery assignment" to do. They can pour a lot of time and effort and creativity into it, while the rest of the class plows through the meat and potatoes, simpler stuff. The mastery approach does a couple of things: 1) it provides the lower learners in the class with an easy activity to do, so there are no excuses for goofing around 2) it provides the more motivated students in the class with some more enriched to spend their time on - they don't have to wait around for the average kids. That's one of the biggest crimes of our Bell Curve-oriented mediocre education system.

I really second the idea of the "Do Now" that Ruthless Bunny suggests - it´s a very effective way of helping the class to start promptly. One of my co-workers would always have her kids do both a "Warm Up" (another name for a Do Now) and a "Cool Down" as an exit card to assess their mastery of the objective. I always have found that routine and established procedures (for going to the bathroom, beginning and ending the class, and so on) have been key to classroom management - something I learned after struggling with that my first year. A great book to read with lots of ideas for setting procedures is "The First Days of School," by Harry K. Wong. Another book that helped me tremendously is "Teach Like a Champion" by Doug Lemov. One very effective way to help students grasp unfamiliar vocabulary is having a Word Wall complete with images or quotes that make the meaning of the new word clear. Obviously you can adapt this to any subject, and even have the kids make the cards. Which leads me to another point - I remember as a first year teacher I felt like I had to do everything myself, but all this did was stress me out even more and prevent the kids from participating as much as they could have. Let them help you - it will increase their comprehension and help them feel ownership of the classroom. Another strategy we would use a lot is music and chants - especially now as I teach English as a Foreign Language. Help the kids to come up with new lyrics to popular songs - for example, my 8th graders wrote a new verse to "Tik-Tok" by Kesha about the 6 Traits of Writing, and we sang it so much I almost forgot the original lyrics. Feel free to me-mail me if you would like!

Be prepared to go off the lesson plan. Teachable moments really do exist. Listen to your students; even their silence tells you something. Move around the classroom- your desk is for when class is out. Get the kids out of their seats at least once a class. They need to move and it will be easier to control them if they are not all jittery. Keep plenty of supplies so there is never an excuse for no pencil or paper. I had kids bring in a pack of pens,pencils and paper for a classroom stash. If you have your own room start a classroom library of books you can pick up at Goodwill or from friend's donations. Review things in a fun way- the next day make notes on strips of paper in a basket and have students pull then out and either read them aloud for a break or write them on the whiteboard during your first few minutes of class when you are doing attendance,etc... As a laid off teacher in a budget constricted state I envy you-Enjoy your teaching experience!!!