Classroom Community

Make Your Mark on International Dot Day!

Have you heard about International Dot Day? It’s celebrated on September 15th, and it’s all about encouraging kids to discover how they

How to Teach Social Skills, Step by Step

Seating students together is not enough to ensure teamwork. Many kids have very little idea how to interact appropriately with their classmates.

Teach Kindness on Pay It Forward Day

Have you ever heard of Pay It Forward Day? Each year, on April 28^th, we’re encouraged to perform random acts of kindness

Episode 4: I Wish My Teacher Knew

Episode 4 Summary

“I Wish My Teacher Knew” is a simple activity developed by 3rd grade

Fostering a Growth Mindset with Brain Bucks

Teaching kids what it means to have a growth mindset is often easier than helping them replace their fixed mindset thoughts and

Promoting Kindness in the Classroom through Teambuilding

I’ve been a fan of cooperative learning since I first stepped into a classroom, and I’m convinced that teaching kids how to

Team Table Management

If your students are seated in cooperative learning groups for most of the day, it’s helpful to implement team table management strategies. For the purposes of this post, I’ll refer to each physical group of students as a “team table.” Some of your

How to Form Cooperative Learning Teams

Forming effective teams is a important when implementing cooperative learning strategies, but it’s not always easy to figure out the best way to form teams of students who will work

What are Cooperative Learning Structures?

Structures are very specific strategies that can be used to organize interactions between students who are working in cooperative learning teams.

Most structures can be used with almost any academic content, but

You Can Put a STOP to Classroom Disruption!

Active engagement activities are an important part of classroom instruction, but if getting kids up and moving causes disruption, these activities become ineffective and chaotic.

The Erase-a-Letter Strategy is an easy way to keep students on task during cooperative learning lessons.

Quiet Signals and Timers

One of the keys to good cooperative learning is good classroom management. If you feel this is a weak area for you, don’t worry. As a part of your cooperative learning explorations, you can learn

Interactive Teaching Made Easy

Teaching interactively is at the heart of effective instruction, but sometimes interactive teaching methods can seem like a lot of work to plan and implement. I’m conducting a