Teachers, Start Your Engines: Management Tips from the Pit Crew

Who said classroom management has to be boring? The editors at Education World offer 20 successful classroom management strategies to get your year off to a great start and keep your classroom running smoothly throughout the entire year. Included: 20 tips for taking attendance, motivating students, rewarding good behavior, and more!


Every teacher knows that the right strategies can make the difference between a calm classroom and a classroom in constant chaos. Teachers in well-organized classrooms in which students know and follow clearly defined rules and routines spend less time disciplining and more time teaching. To help keep your classroom running like a well-oiled machine in the coming year, we've collected some successful -- and often fun -- classroom management techniques from teachers across the country and around the world.

START THE DAY THE RIGHT WAY

Words of welcome. Many teachers have found that the best way to start each day is by greeting students at the door. A warm personal welcome sets the tone for the day and gives the teacher a chance to assess each student's mood and head off problems before they start. One teacher reports that she offers her younger students a choice of three greetings -- a handshake, a high five, or a hug. Their responses, she says, tell her a lot about how each student is feeling that day. A sea of calm. Kids who arrive at school wound up or upset often calm down, experienced teachers say, if classical music is playing as they enter the classroom. Some teachers also turn the lights down low and project the morning's brainteaser or bell ringer activity onto the chalkboard with an overhead projector. That spotlight in the dimly lit room helps focus students' attention on the day ahead.

TIME'S A WASTIN'!

For most teachers, there are never enough hours in a day. Saving even a few minutes of your time can make a big difference in what you accomplish this year. On the move. Increase flexibility in seat assignments -- and make life easier for substitutes -- by creating a visual seating chart. Take a digital photograph of each child in the class. Print the photos and write the student's name at the bottom. Attach a Velcro dot to the back of each photo and to a seating chart created on laminated poster board. The Velcro allows seats to be changed as necessary, and substitutes love being able to easily identify each student.
Make it up. When distributing work sheets, place copies in folders for absent students. At the end of the day, simply label each folder with the absent students' names, and missed work is ready for the students' return.
Would you sign in, please? Avoid time-consuming attendance routines by following the technique used by a Washington teacher. Write each child's name on a strip of tag board, laminate it, and glue a magnet to the back. Each day, post a question and possible answers on a whiteboard. Students can "sign in" by placing their magnets in the appropriate answer column. Questions might be personal, such as "Do you own a pet?"; trivial, such as "What was the name of the Richie's mother on Happy Days?"; or curriculum related.
Make attendance count. If you prefer to take attendance individually, make it meaningful. Instead of calling out students' names and waiting for them to say "Here," ask each student a quick question related to the previous day's work.

WHERE'S MY PENCIL?

The average teacher spends $400 a year of his or her own money on classroom supplies. At that price, holding on to the supplies you have can be a priority. But who has time to search every child's backpack for borrowed pencils? These teacher-tested techniques can save your money and your sanity. Forget-me-nots. A South Dakota teacher uses floral tape to attach large silk flowers to the tops of the pens and pencils she keeps for student use -- turning the writing tools into hard-to-forget flowers. The "flowers," kept in a vase on the teacher's desk, also serve to brighten up the room.
Do you have a shoe to spare? If you find the flower pens cumbersome, try the technique used by an Iowa teacher. She allows students who forget their pens or pencils to borrow one -- if they give her one of their shoes. Students only get the shoe back when they return the pencil. No half-shod student ever forgets to return that borrowed pencil!
Neither a borrower nor a lender be. This tip comes from one of Education World's regular contributors. It developed, says Brenda Dyck, because she grew tired of dealing with students who came to class without pencils, texts, or homework. In Dyck's classroom, each student starts the term with 100 points toward a "Preparedness Grade." If they come to class with a pen or pencil, textbook, and completed homework, they get to keep the 100 points. Every time they show up without any one of those things, however, one point is subtracted from their grade. The students' report cards include a category called "preparedness," which counts toward their final grade. "For some reason, keeping their 100 points is quite motivational for my middle school students," Dyck says. "Unprepared students have become almost nonexistent in my classes. I've been amazed!"

MOTIVATION

Discipline problems, experienced teachers say, can be greatly reduced if students are properly motivated -- to come to school, to arrive on time, and to work diligently while they're there. Some simple techniques can make doing the right thing even more fun than misbehaving. Round 'em up. First you have to get them there. Discourage absenteeism by randomly choosing one student's desk or chair each day and placing a sticker beneath it. The student who arrives to find the sticker under his or her seat gets to choose a small prize. If the student is absent, of course, the prize is forfeited. (And the other students are always happy to pass along that news!)
Don't be late. A teacher in California discourages tardiness by inviting students who are not in their seats when the bell rings to go to the front of the room and sing a song. "Sometimes we have a duet, a trio, and even a choir," she says. "It puts a smile on everyone's face and starts the class in an upbeat way. And no one has been more than 30 seconds late since I started using this technique!"
Can you spell homework? A simple group motivation technique can be helpful in encouraging students to complete their homework. Every day all students in the class complete their homework assignments, write one letter of the word homework on the chalkboard. When the word is completed, treat the entire class to a special reward.
Not a minute to waste. Do you find yourself losing precious minutes as you attempt to change activities, line up for specials, or return from recess? Tell students that they are going to be rewarded for the time they don't waste during the day. Explain that you will give them 3 minutes a day of wasted time. They can use up that time each day or save it up and use it for something special. Agree on something students could do with the "wasted" time and decide how much time they will need to save for that special event. Tell students that as soon as they've saved the required amount of time, they will be able to hold their special event. Each day, give students three minutes. When they waste time during the day, start a stopwatch, time the amount of time wasted, and subtract it from the three minutes. You'll be surprised at how quickly your students learn the value of a minute!
The door swings out. Sometimes it seems as though you have a swinging classroom door -- leading straight to the restroom. How do you determine if those restroom requests are legitimate or just an excuse to leave the room? Stop guessing! You can discourage middle and high school students from asking to leave the room unnecessarily by providing an unwieldy or embarrassing hall pass. Some suggestions: an old wooden toilet seat or a huge stuffed animal.

Classroom Management:
Ten Teacher-Tested Tips

 

Hallway conferences. Pasta discipline. Buddy rooms. Bell work. Those and six other ideas for taming temper tantrums -- and other classroom disruptions -- are the focus of this Education World story! Included: An opportunity for all teachers to share the classroom management techniques that work for them!

Sally McCombs has been teaching for more than 18 years. These days, she seldom has a discipline problem that she can't handle. That wasn't always the case, however.
McCombs recently recalled for Education World an experience from her early teaching days. "There was a student who was driving me crazy," she said. "He was arrogant and disruptive, but my good friend -- who also taught him -- had no trouble with him. So I asked her what her secret was, and she simply said 'You have to like him.'
"Notice," McCombs emphasized, the teacher said, "You don't have to love him, just like him -- but it has to be real. I've tried to keep that in mind since then," added McCombs, a teacher at LEAP Academy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "I deal with kids differently when I really like them, even if I don't like their behavior. There is generally something to appreciate in every kid.
"I've had to realize that letting kids get away with things they know are wrong is not kind," McCombs explained. "Students need structure. They need to trust us, and that means we have to keep our promises, even if the promise is that you will call home or assign punishments."
McCombs has found a classroom management approach that works for her -- and she was willing to share her experiences for the benefit of others. So were other educators who have found classroom peace. Today, Education World shares ten teacher-tested tips for managing a classroom. One of them might be perfect for you to try this fall in your classroom!
COUNTDOWN TO BEHAVIOR
Nancy Landis, a fourth-grade teacher at Oskaloosa (Kansas) Elementary School, has found a technique for quieting rambunctious kids that works well for her. As many other teachers do, she uses a simple counting technique. "I wear a stopwatch around my neck, and when the noise gets to an unacceptable level, I hold up the stopwatch and begin timing," said Landis.
"There is always a student who is aware of what I have done, and the word spreads quickly," explained Landis. "I never need to say a word; they regulate themselves. They know the time that has accumulated on the watch is the time they 'owe' before they can have recess." If the students respond quickly, Landis doesn't count the time on the watch against them.
Many other teachers employ variations of this technique. Some count aloud. One teacher we know counts aloud in Japanese -- and the counting doesn't stop until all the students join in. She changes the language each month, so children learn to count in a new language while they manage their own behavior!
Another "countdown" teacher sets a goal for the counting time that a given class can accumulate. During the first week of school, that goal might be 200 seconds; the goal might decrease by 25 seconds each week, until it is down to 100 seconds a day at the end of the first month. If the students don't accumulate that many seconds of owed-time, he shares a "joke of the day." He says the kids hate to miss out on the joke -- even if it is a groaner! Unlike the more-concrete awards some teachers provide, this award cost him only the price of a good joke book!
Most teachers agree that the key to making the countdown technique work is to set a goal and stick to it. The first time the kids lose out might be hard on the teacher who realizes that just one or two students have spoiled things for the others. Peer pressure works amazingly well, however -- on the following day, the students are bound to do better!
HALLWAY CONFERENCE
Charles Kruger teaches at Bethune Middle School in Los Angeles. When a student is being difficult, he employs a technique called a "hallway conference." It's a technique Kruger learned in a seminar offered by Lee Canter Associates.
"I go to the doorway -- slowly because I want the class to watch -- and call the student to the hallway," Kruger explained. "The other students are quiet -- they want to see what is going to happen."
When Kruger and the student get together in the hallway, the conversation goes something like this:
Kruger: I care very much about your success in my class, (student's name), and I'm concerned that you seem to be headed into trouble today. You have (here Kruger lists the offense or offenses), and I know you know that is against the rules. Is something going on today that is giving you a special problem? Can I help?
Student: (At this point, the student is usually disarmed and often responds "no." At other times, the student might present a problem. In either case, Kruger will usually continue ...)
Kruger: I'm glad there isn't a problem. (Alternative response: I'm sorry to hear that. Perhaps we can deal with that later.) Right now, this is what you have to do: Go back to your seat and (whatever the assigned task is), and don't give me any more problems today. Can you do that?... Are you sure?... Good. I'm glad we're going to be able to keep you out of trouble."
Kruger and the student return to the classroom as Kruger gives the student a big smile and says enthusiastically and clearly so the rest of the class can hear.
Kruger: Thank you, (student's name).
"At first I was concerned that some students anxious for extra attention would provoke hallway conferences, and that does happen," Kruger noted. "But the other students seem to understand, and the student who needs extra attention gets it. If a student is persistent, I try to find other ways of giving him or her extra attention. Even a little attention, such as making a point of greeting the student by name or asking for help with a chore, can significantly reduce some problem behaviors."

Goal Setting 101: Understanding the Process

Often it's the non-academic curriculum that's most helpful in preparing students for life. Reading and math are important, but organizational skills, social skills, and a knack for finding information on the Internet can lead to big payoffs as well. One area we often overlook, however, is teaching our students how to set goals and create action plans for themselves. Many of us never were taught how to set goals for ourselves, and we only discovered the power of goal-setting later in life. But with a little creativity, we can adapt the strategies used by successful adults and share them with our students.

THE POWER OF BELIEF

Teaching students to set personal goals begins with teaching them to believe in themselves. Many students arrive in our classrooms with a limited view of their own abilities. Before we can teach them to set high goals for themselves, we have to remove those limitations from their thinking. We have to teach them to believe in themselves, because without that belief, they arent likely to achieve their goals. In order to achieve, you must first believe.
So, how can we encourage our students to embrace a future full of unlimited possibilities? Start by showing them how others have overcome obstacles and achieved their goals. Seek out inspirational stories of people who are important to your students, and share those stories with them. Biographies often detail the amazing accomplishments of great people, but a biography of Thomas Edison might not be the best way to inspire today's generation. You'll find newspapers and magazines to be equally rich sources of inspirational stories.
The Olympics provided the perfect opportunity to highlight stories of athletes who have come from humble backgrounds and risen to greatness. How about success stories of singers or movie stars? Seventeen magazine recently featured an inspirational interview with pop singer Taylor Swift, in which she described how she wrote out a very specific set of personal goals long before she became a star. Those stories are everywhere when you start looking for them. Books like Chicken Soup for the Childrens Soul (or Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul) are filled with short inspirational stories that demonstrate the power of belief in oneself and one's abilities. Challenge your students to seek out and share such stories with the class.

INTRODUCTION TO GOAL SETTING

When you feel your students are ready to start setting goals for themselves, introduce them to the goal-setting process. First, make sure they know what a goal is by asking students to volunteer goals they or their friends have set for themselves in the past. List their ideas on the board, and discuss the difference between long-term and short-term goals. Short-term goals might include reading a difficult book, earning a perfect score on a spelling test, or arriving at school on time each day for a month. Long-term goals could include goals for the school year, earning a scholarship to college, or dreams about future careers.
Then tell your students that many successful athletes, singers, writers, and business people have discovered a method for achieving their goals, and it's so easy that your students can learn those goal-setting secrets themselves. Display a poster or chart of the Secrets of Goal Setting while you review the steps with your students.
Secrets of Goal Setting

1. Write clear and measurable goals.
2. Create a specific action plan for each goal.
3. Read your goals daily and visualize yourself accomplishing them.
4. Reflect on your progress to see if you are on target.
5. Revise your action plans if needed.
6. Celebrate your accomplishments.

In-School Suspension: A Learning Tool

While educators agree that keeping suspended students in school is better than having them home unsupervised, schools need more than a room and a teacher for in-school suspension to change behavior. Structured programs that address multiple issues can help students get back to class faster and stay there. Included: Tips for creating successful in-school suspension programs.
As schools strive to keep more students in school, even disruptive ones, in-school suspension programs are seeing more students. But there is a big difference between having an in-school suspension program and having an effective one, educators and researchers said.
"The big plus of an in-school suspension program is that students are still in school, with all the potential for engaging them," said Anne Wheelock, a research associate with the Progress Through the Education Pipeline Project at Boston College's Lynch School of Education. "Suspending students out of school means schools pass up the 'teachable moment' when they can connect with students, build relationships, and communicate that they belong in school.

"Having said that, in-school suspension programs can be little more than window-dressing designed to pull down out-of-school suspension numbers," Wheelock continued. "Poorly conceived and inadequately staffed programs, even though they are better than out-of-school suspensions, may be little more than holding tanks -- just a pro-forma stop on the route to out-of-school suspension or exclusion."

DISCIPLINE, NOT PUNISHMENT

The unappealing idea of students serving out-of-school suspensions roaming their communities during the day, possibly getting into more trouble, prompted some schools to create or expand their in-school suspension programs. In Louisiana, state officials became so concerned about suspended students missing instructional time that the legislature began funding in-school suspension programs.
The Kentucky Department of Education encourages school districts to develop policies that include well-rounded academic offerings for those students who stay in school during suspension.
The most effective in-school suspension programs have components to address students' academic and social needs, educators said, since frequently, suspended students have both academic and behavioral problems.
At the same time, in-school suspension often remains the final step before out of school suspension.
To be an effective learning tool, in-school suspension programs "should be one part of a school-wide strategy for creating and sustaining a positive, nurturing school climate, based on respectful relationships between teachers and students, teachers and teachers, students and students," Wheelock said. "Such a strategy would acknowledge that conflicts of all kinds occur in schools and should be based on a thoughtful set of approaches to resolving conflict and solving problems."
According to Wheelock, characteristics of good ISS programs include:

• Ways to ensure in-school suspension is appropriate; in-school suspension is unlikely to resolve a truancy or homework completion problem that should be resolved through other means.
• A term limit; students should not be suspended indefinitely.
• Problem-solving and/or mediation (including peer mediation) sessions among teachers and students or students and students, which result in written contracts that spell out future expectations.
• Ensuring students come to the program with academic assignments to complete.
• Professionals to staff the program, such as a teacher who can assess students for unidentified learning difficulties, assist in assignment completion, and by a counselor who can explore root causes of problems, refer students to community services, and engage with parents.

Goal Setting 101: The Process in Action

The best way to help students see the goal-setting process in action is to set a class goal and work together to achieve it.

As any effective teacher knows, telling isnt teaching. Simply telling your students about the goal-setting process is not going to help them learn to set goals for themselves. The best way to help students see the process in action is to set a class goal and work together to achieve it.
Have your class brainstorm a variety of class goals they might want to achieve over a period of several days or weeks. Appropriate goals might be to have everyone in the class learn their times tables, read a certain number of books, or raise money for an important cause. After your class has decided on a goal, help them word their goal in clear and measurable terms. For example, Our class will read 100 books before October 1st."
Then create an action plan with several specific steps. Remind your class that an action plan involves, you guessed it -- action! You have to take action to reach your goals, and each step in the plan must be something that you do. For the above goal, an action plan might include asking each student to read one book per week for five weeks, and having students record their reading in home reading logs; spending 30 minutes per day of class time reading; and making a chart to track class progress.
The third step of the goal-setting process is to have students read the goal daily and visualize themselves reaching that goal. Display the class goal and action plan in a prominent area. Each morning review the goal and discuss any actions to be taken during the day. A class progress chart can help with that step. For example, students might color one square on a Hundred Board chart for each book they read, visualizing how the board will look when its completely colored.
As you track your progress, you and your class might notice that your original action plan isnt working quite the way you planned. If that is the case, take time to revise your action plan and brainstorm new strategies. Dont be afraid to eliminate any parts of the plan that just arent producing results.
When you reach your class goal, be sure to celebrate in some way. A celebration isnt always a party, and it doesnt have to cost money. Celebrating can be taking a few minutes to bask in your success. Ask your principal to recognize your class on the intercom or publish a short write-up in the school newspaper. Do a special class activity or present your class with an award at the next Open House. The more students celebrate their successes and focus on their accomplishments, the more likely they are to achieve their future goals.

Teaching Students to Set High Goals

Do your students know how to set goals and create action plans to maximize their chances of success? If not, you might be interested to know that one of the strongest indicators of one's future success is the ability to set goals and take steps to achieve them. Yet we seldom teach our students these skills.

Whether it's due to lack of time or lack of awareness, goal-setting has not been a part of our traditional education system.
Fortunately, teaching students how to set goals is easy. To get started, read Goal Setting 101, a 3-part article that describes the process. Then download and print the Goal Tracker booklet, a student journal for recording goals and focusing on action steps.
Students begin by recording four goals for the grading period on the front inside cover of the booklet. Then each week they reflect on what steps they have taken toward their goals and what steps they plan to take in the coming week. At the end of the grading period, they share their successes with their classmates.
Using the Goal Tracker booklet makes the goal-setting process easier than ever, and the benefits will last a lifetime. It's time to get started now!

Tools for Teaching Supplies Specifics for PBIS and RtI

The difference between knowing what should be done and being able to do it represents the quantum leap in learning.
~ Madeline Hunter
In the 1990s, the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Dept. of Education, founded the National Center for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to help schools develop effective school wide disciplinary practices. That program was a response to the disproportionately large number of suspensions, particularly out-of-school suspensions, given to minority students.
More recently, the same Office of Special Education Programs initiated Response to Intervention (RtI) to help schools develop effective instructional practices. The problem being addressed was an unacceptably high rate of academic failure, especially among minority students. As you might imagine, one of the underlying goals of those twin initiatives was to reduce the overburdening of special education resources as more and more students required IEPs.

FOCUS ON PREVENTION

The focus of both PBIS and RtI is prevention. PBIS focuses on the prevention of discipline problems, and RtI focuses on the prevention of learning problems. As in most models of prevention, overriding importance is given to primary prevention as the only viable means of cost containment. To illustrate, both programs use the following pyramid:

Naturally, that emphasis on primary prevention brings classroom management front and center. What skills and procedures define the green zone? What, exactly, do we want teachers to do?

A SHORTAGE OF SPECIFICS

Unfortunately, when it comes to supplying specifics, both PBIS and RtI hit the wall. That shortcoming, rather than reflecting a problem with the Office of Special Education Programs, reflects the fact that academic education has ignored classroom management for the past 50 years.
Accordingly, PBIS seeks to serve as a catalyst for the team building and consensus building required to produce a system of discipline management at the district and school site levels. So much for specifics. Similarly, RtI stresses the importance of using research based instructional practices, which they refer to collectively as quality instruction.
But what is quality instruction? A detailed description of high-quality instruction can be found in chapter eight of Positive Behavioral Supports for the Classroom, by Scheurermann and Hall (Pearson Education, Inc., 2008). The authors discuss large group instruction, small group instruction, one-to-one instruction, direct teaching (coaching-modeling-behavioral rehearsal), peer tutoring, and so on. They talk about the importance of clarity, opportunity to respond, the importance of explicit instructions and frequent monitoring, and so on.
In other words, they describe the common knowledge of general education. If that could produce primary prevention, it would have done so by now.
Furthermore, those two programs do not integrate discipline and instruction in classroom management -- something thats essential for success with either. Rather, PBIS and RtI are separate institutions housed at separate universities run by separate groups of academicians. Integration is left to practitioners.

TOOLS FOR TEACHING TO THE RESCUE

The objective of Tools for Teaching for the past 40 years has been to develop specific classroom management procedures that prevent both discipline and instruction problems. Moreover, in contrast to current initiatives, Tools for Teaching integrates the management of instruction and discipline within the classroom in the form of down-to-earth procedures.
Some of the topics in Tools for Teaching that define the integration of discipline and instruction are:

• Working the Crowd
• Praise, Prompt, and Leave
• Visual Instructional Plans
• Say, See, Do Teaching
• Continuous Assessment
• Incentives for Diligence and Excellence
• Meaning Business
• Responsibility Training

Best Idea Ever: Magic Moments Shirts

This is an idea that I pass along to all the teachers who attend my workshops:

Use your computer (large fonts, color, and graphics) to create a visual representation of an idea or concept you want your students to remember. Print the image, in reverse, on iron-on transfer paper, and then iron the transfer onto a white t-shirt. Wear the shirt on the day you introduce the concept represented. Students will be looking at your shirt all day long -- which will dramatically increase their ability to remember the concept. These shirts are colorful and fun, and get the message across many more times than I could possibly say it aloud.

I have a complete closet full of these idea and concept shirts. I teach 4th through 8th grade, so I have everything on shirts from parts of speech, to reducing fractions, to the writing process, to our classroom behavior rules.

My students love to predict when I will be wearing a new "Magic Moment" shirt. At the end of the year I have a drawing of shirts that need to be retired, and the students love to take them home. I have even seen them being worn by former students!

Best Idea Ever: H.O.T. Drawing Jar

When I was teaching, I called this idea the H.O.T. -- Homework On Time -- drawing. Students who turned in their homework on time put their names in a jar and were eligible for a drawing. Now that I'm retired and subbing, I use the jar idea throughout the day for whatever need arises. In the morning, I explain to students that I'll be drawing names throughout the day and awarding small prizes -- edible treat or little trinkets, pencils, erasers -- to those whose names I select. I point out that the more times a name is in the jar, the better chance it has of being drawn. So, if students need speeding up, I might say "put your name in the jar when you finish." If the classroom is messy, I might have students whose areas are clean put their names in the jar. In fact, the possibilities are endless!

Best Idea Ever: Healthy Pencils

I work with new teachers in elementary schools, many of whom get sick the first year or two of teaching until they build up immunity. One of the tips I pass along to them is to never pick up a student's pencil. As teachers, we see children struggling with an assignment and we pick up their pencils to show them how to do a problem, spell a word, correct an answer, and so on. Instead of using the child's pencil (which is covered with germs!), I tuck a pencil behind my ear and only use that pencil. My students often ask why I always have a pencil behind my ear! I tell them it's so I don't lose it.

Best Idea Ever: Grammar Letters

I have a small bulletin board that I have titled "You've Got Mail." Next to the board is a cup with every students name on a piece of paper. When a student has free time, he or she may draw a name out of the cup and write a letter to the person whose name is drawn.

The catch? The letter must include five writing errors-- spelling, grammar, capitalization, and so on. When the letter is completed, signed, and addressed, its posted on the bulletin board to be collected by the addressee, read... and CORRECTED! This is a great way for students to practice writing and editing skills while "legally" passing notes in class. The kids love it.

Best Idea Ever: Notebook Communications

Last year, I started using a spiral notebook for each child as a parent notebook. At the beginning of the year, the notebook goes home with a letter about how it will be used. Each week, progress reports are stapled into the notebook to inform parents about academics, effort, behavior, preparedness, and attendance. Parents are encouraged to look at the notebook each night to see if I have sent home any communication. I take care not to make it a "behavior" notebook, but to include great things that have happened or even notices when their child felt ill, and so on. I also attach notes about upcoming tests and projects and test scores. Parents can use the notebook to write to me about anything. I ask them to write notes about absence and lateness in the notebook as well.

The notebook is a huge timesaver for me because I can refer to it all year long. Rather than having to pull out a folder stuffed with random notes on different pieces of paper, I have all the documentation in one place. Students with organizational issues have everything in one place as well, and are much less likely to lose what is sent from school to home and back.

Next year, I plan to have my third graders write in their notebooks at the end of each day to tell about their day at school. That way, the notebook will become even more interactive with parents.

Since I started using the notebooks, communication with parents has increased tremendously. When I sent out a survey at the end of last school year to get parent feedback about the notebooks, the positive response was unanimous.

Best Idea Ever: The Job of Learning

I spend a lot of time connecting what we do in the classroom with the world of work. For example, I talk to students about how school is their "job" and the effort and hard work they put into that job reflects the success they will have when they enter the working world. I point out that establishing good habits now will bring them rewards in the future.

Students' classroom supplies are the "tools" for their current job. If they are unprepared, I remind them that, in the working world, they would not be able to do heir jobs if they forgot their tools. "Pay day" is when I hand out progress reports or report cards. Their effort is directly reflected in the grades they earned. We also discuss how far they might go in the world of work with the pay they've earned.

Discussions of the workplace are supported by a yearlong effort to teach students strategies for success -- test taking, note taking, listening skills, personal goal setting -- in all their classes. By the end of the year, most students are taking responsibility for their performance, which reflects growth and maturity. In junior high, taking responsibility is sometimes a monumental achievement!

Best Idea Ever: Owning Knowledge

My best idea ever has been allowing my students to conduct research on questions we cannot answer in class. I teach at the Baltimore Talent Development High School in Baltimore Maryland. For the past three years, I have allowed my 10th graders to vote for a student researcher every Monday. They love it and so do I!

Every Monday, a new student is voted as the class researcher. They can earn one service-learning hour per day for their services to our class. Talk about owning your knowledge! They report out the next day or by the end of the week. Sometimes I use the information as bonus questions on a test or quiz.

This instructional strategy has been instrumental in getting my students involved in community events, planning fundraisers, and other service-learning projects. I also have found it to be helpful with students who otherwise would be disinterested in the class. They seem to love the fact they can be a leader in the classroom. My high school assessments scores have increase dramatically as well. Students seem so eager to learn American Government and World History in my class now!

I would encourage all teachers to use something like this in their classrooms.