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We share evidence-based K-12 learning strategies that empower you to improve education.

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Social and Emotional Techniques That Help Students Focus on Academic Progress at Mount Desert Elementary

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How to Thank a Teacher

Blogs on Classroom Management

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Five-Minute Film Festival: Back-to-School Survival Guide

Amy Erin Borovoy (aka VideoAmy)September 7, 2012

Tags Classroom Management, All Grades

These first few weeks of school are exhilarating and exhausting for teachers. Establishing a community, building relationships with students, setting up class guidelines, making a good space for learning, getting organized with all those tech tools -- these are the items at the top of the to-do list for most teachers I know. But how do you settle down all those kids who have been running free-range all summer, and make both yourself and your students ready to dig in again to the work of teaching and learning? How do you focus on your classroom's culture while juggling the piles of paperwork and the housekeeping tasks that inevitably accompany those first few critical weeks?

From Management to Engagement

Andrew MillerSeptember 6, 2012

Tags Classroom Management, Leadership, Professional Development, Student Engagement, Teacher Development

As educators, we are always looking for management strategies to try in the classroom. Note I said "strategies" -- not "solutions."

Many Edutopia bloggers have written about strategies and ideas for classroom management. I've also written a blog on PBL management strategies, but many of those same strategies can be used in non-PBL contexts.

Helping New Teachers Beat the Back-to-School Jitters with Twitter

Lisa Michelle DabbsSeptember 4, 2012

Tags Classroom Management, New Teachers, Professional Learning Network (PLN), , Teacher Development

Every Wednesday at 5 p.m. PT, 8 p.m. ET, I host New Teacher Chat (#ntchat) on Twitter. It's a time for new and pre-service teachers, as well as supportive administrators and experienced teachers, to gather online and have discussions about topics that are practitioner focused and supportive for the soon-to-be teacher.

Cheat Sheet for the First Days of School

José VilsonAugust 27, 2012

Tags Classroom Management, New Teachers, Teacher Development

For those of us in the field of educating young minds, we often find that summer does two things rather well. First, it helps us remember a time when our first names weren't Mister or Miss for the majority of the day and when we didn't have to break out into a vibrant soliloquy whenever the tenor of a room didn't feel right. Secondly, it abruptly breaks us out of our own routines for how we go about our days. We don't follow the bells or the crowds swooshing past the hallways to their next stations.

Experienced Teachers Reflect on Their First Year

Judy Willis MDAugust 23, 2012

Tags Classroom Management, New Teachers, Teacher Development

This year I had the opportunity to work with many educators in national and global workshops. On two of these occasions, I asked the teachers to share their wisdom by answering the question, "What I know now that I wish I had known as a first year teacher is . . . "

Dogs as Role Models: A Lesson in Classroom Management

Dr. Richard CurwinAugust 17, 2012

Tags Classroom Management, Discipline, Leadership,

One of the questions I am most frequently asked is, "What do I do when several students act out at the same time?" Without resorting to S.W.A.T. gear, there are at least two methods that work almost all of the time. I learned them in a very unusual way.

Discipline and School Spirit

Maurice EliasJuly 26, 2012

Tags Classroom Management, Discipline, , Teacher Development, All Grades

Summer is a good time for reflection, and I have been reflecting on why, after so much education research, and so many years of educational practice, we still seem to be struggling to find "what works." So my next two blogs will look back at the words of folks who have thought about social-emotional aspects of education, written about them, and created successful and effective efforts to promote them.

Closing the Achievement Gap One Student at a Time

Betsy WeigleJuly 18, 2012

Tags Achievement Gap, Classroom Management, Diversity, Primary (K-2), Teacher Development, Upper Elementary (3-5)

Poverty is a huge factor affecting the performance of our elementary students. Schools, districts and states with a high percentage of low-income families can reasonably cite poverty as one explanation for lower test scores or poor performance in other measures of student achievement.

My concern, however, is always for the individual children in my classroom. At that level, should poverty be any excuse for poor student performance?

How to Develop a Welcoming Culture

Dr. Richard CurwinJuly 1, 2012

Tags Classroom Management, Education Reform, Mentoring, Primary (K-2), , Upper Elementary (3-5), Middle (6-8), High (9-12)

Have you ever noticed that the worst behaving children are never absent? I was tempted many times, when teaching seventh grade, to breath on certain students when I was sick. I wondered if the reason that these students never missed school was because their parents didn't want them at home. Of course, it was never that simple. Some parents worked and had no one to watch their children. Other students lived in dangerous home environments, and school was safer than staying home. Regardless of the reason, I wonder how many children feel unwanted wherever they are; home, school, the corner store, with their peers or on the streets.

Student Voice and the Teaching of Democracy

Mark PhillipsJune 8, 2012

Tags Classroom Management, Integrated Studies, Leadership, , Student Engagement, Middle (6-8), High (9-12), History

School's out. Politics is in. Five months of presidential political combat lie ahead. So I'm psyched to revisit the challenge of effectively educating kids to be active participants in our democratic processes. I plan to post a number of columns over the next months that focus on student voice, the teaching of democracy, civic engagement and political literacy. I'm hoping some of you will join the discussion and toss in your two cents.