How to stay sane in the classroom between Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Keep the behavior expectations high: Don't back down from your usual rules and procedures. Let students have fun, but keep the rules in place. Add in some simple holiday fun: This allows you …

Extrinsic Rewards

Extrinsic rewards can work in the moment to elicit wanted or expected behavior, but do little to build intrinsic motivation.

Why extrinsic rewards don’t work:

Implies that behaving appropriately is contingent upon receiving a prize or reward Can …

Start the school year with a clear signal for attention from your students. It will save you time and save your sanity!

Signals for Attention

Instead of shouting over the students to get their attention, try these signals instead:

Note: It’s always important to …

Take store bought bulletin board displays off your beginning of the year to do list and dare to leave them blank for the first few weeks. 

Sometimes as teachers we feel we need to start the year with everything perfect and already done, which is not the case.

Here …

Time-outs Using a Buddy Teacher

(Summary from Teaching Children to Care)

Sometimes time-outs are best completed out of a student’s home classroom. This requires a buddy teacher. It’s best to establish the buddy teacher system before there’s an immediate need, …

Logical Consequences

“True learning takes place when children have the ability to respond to their experiences with important life skills, such as accountability, learning from mistakes, problem solving and understanding the consequences of their choices—to …

Giving and Receiving Compliments

“Giving compliments and showing appreciation when you receive them helps make the classroom and school a better place for everyone because it makes others feel noticed and appreciated.”

Pamela Seigle, co-author of the Social …

Paying Attention to Body Language

“Body language helps us understand how people are feeling even if they are not telling us with words.”

Lois Lange, co-author of the Social Competency Program

Purpose

To recognize that people show feelings through facial …

Nonverbal Signals

“As you introduce and decide on nonverbal signals to use in the classroom, be sensitive to your students’ responses, which may be influenced by their cultural background.”

Gayle Macklem, co-author of the Social Competency Program

Purpose

To …

Being a Good Listener

“Listening behaviors are influenced by culture, family style, and learning style. The school listening look refers to expectations for listening at school. Every child, every teacher, and every speaker deserves the school listening look.”

Pa…

GUIDED DISCOVERY

“The guided discoveries generate interest and creativity, establish a shared classroom vocabulary, and teach children how to care for materials.”

Paula Denton and Roxann Kriete, authors of The First Six Weeks of School

Guided Discovery is a …

MODELING: A Pro-active Strategy

(Used to introduce very specific, "one-way" behaviors)

"Children are able, even eager, to rise to high standards of behavior,

but they need to know exactly what the standards are."

Chip Wood, author of Rules in Schools

Purpose

Often …

Classroom Rules

“Children are far more invested in following rules that they help to create. It’s that simple.”

Gail Zimmerman, Second Grade Teacher

Purpose

Foster a sense of group ownership of the rules To develop and understand classroom guidelines and …

Hopes and Dreams (Goals)

“Taking the time to help students articulate their goals for school – their Hopes and Dreams – sets a tone of collaboration and mutual respect.”

Chip Wood, author of Rules in Schools

Purpose

To articulate academic or social goals for …

Morning Meeting

“Thousands of K-8 teachers across the nation launch their school days with Morning Meeting, a daily routine that brings students and teachers together in a circle to greet one another, to share and respond to each other’s news, to think together, …

Ready for the schedule for week two? If you missed part one and two of this series, go back and check those out first!

Here is your schedule for the 2nd week of middle school language arts!

Goals for Week 2 and beyond

Continue to use proactive teacher language and …

Today, I'm breaking down your exact schedule for the first week of middle school language arts! This step by step guide will help you get off on the right foot! (Make sure to go back and read part one for all the basics.)

Goals:

Build a sense of belonging and …

Are you getting your middle school classroom ready for back to school? Here are some of my top tips to help you ease into the school year and set up your classroom and students for success.

Classroom Setup:

Arrange desks or table to accommodate groups of 4 …

Why Interactive Read Aloud? (IRA)

Let's chat first about what in interactive read aloud is:

It's an instructional method that provides a model for reading and thinking about texts (structure, story elements, vocabulary, and author’s craft and purpose). IRA …

This week I have a Freebie for you! Check out this vocabulary resource that can be used for all ages! You can download it here! 

This is a great tool that you can download that will walk you through using a read aloud to expand on the vocabulary of your students! …

Posted on October 25, 2022.

Stressed out by the school application process? You’re not alone. For many families, the prospect of researching, visiting, and applying to multiple schools in the hopes of finding the one is simply overwhelming. Perhaps that’s why an …

Posted on October 25, 2022.

Hello, there! And thank you for visiting our new blog!

Here at Lotus Learning Group, we believe in providing our customers with only the best K-12 Literacy services. In order to help even more people, we thought we’d share some of our …