If you haven't implemented classroom jobs, think about it. They change the dynamic in the classroom by recruiting students to do the minimum wage tasks which gives the teacher time to think. Jobs let students share some of the load so that you can do what you are best [...]
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. [...]
When a teacher begins to ask students for help with classroom jobs the teacher's mindset and behavior changes. They let go of the myriad minor tasks that are needed in a classroom and get students to pitch in. They recruit their students and the students begin to lighten the [...]
Part of a classroom management system that I implemented to help my student teacher this year was Super Puntos (Super Points). In our classroom Super Puntos are sort of the opposite of a Think Sheet. This idea has become a powerful tool and one that not only encourages positive [...]
"Plans are worthless, but planning is everything." —Dwight David Eisenhower, 1890-1969 (Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe during WWII, 34th president of the USA) We have to make lesson plans. We have to anticipate student reactions. We must think about what we want to accomplish and what we [...]
Not every day in the CI classroom goes precisely according to plan, but in the big picture it can still be working. I asked a student to stay after class the other day to talk with him about his blurting out in class. We hadn't talked long when he [...]