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This article speaks to all of the components that we talk about in class: environment, expectations, motivational climate, and maintaining a learning environment. It gives great strategies on how to keep your classroom running smooth.

When you feel like you are loosing them, get them standing and doing a Brain Break. They take only a minute or two, need no real preparation or fancy supplies and they can contribute huge dividends to your classroom management by allowing students to re-engage after a mental shift. They can be done with students of any age, usually make you laugh and challenge your brain often by crossing your mid-line thus engaging both hemispheres. They have even been suggested for use during exams and standardized tests. They are backed up by some action research I found on http://abllab.com/ which even shows some cool brain scans illustrating the difference in mental activity when someone was active right before or not! Definite food for thought to do more than your DPA to keep them engage, learning and not creating mischief!

For those considering moving up to high school at some point in time, here are six basic classroom management strategies that are still appropriate with older children. 1) Over plan each day 2) Start on time 3) Start the year or semester off strict 4) Let them know what to expect each day 5) Mix it up a little 6) Move to the noise Each of these is elaborated on by the author who says of himself, "I am by nature not a strong disciplinarian and like to be relaxed and fun with my class....I have however, over the years been able to find ways to combine my somewhat easygoing personality with some constant classroom rules and ideas to maintain a good learning atmosphere." Isn't that the balance so many of us need?

I wanted to find an article that gave a list of "best" strategies to use in managing students in the classroom. I came across this particular article by Kellie Hayden, a veteran teacher with 17 years of experience. She has taught subjects from mechanics to Shakespeare, middle to highschool, and students with ADHD to students with their own parole officers. Although this article represented one teachers view, she seems to have a great outlook and great classroom management. Here are her top 5: 5-keep the lesson moving 4-don't lecture for the whole period 3-talk to your students 2-stand near distruptive students 1-talk to extremely distruptive students in the hall (last resort is the office)

This video is the other part of the story (part two of the video posted under engaging students of today) on using technology to engage our students when we teach. As teachers we need to be life long learners and implementing technology is part of that. Using technology in the classroom will engage our students and hopefully result in fewer classroom disruptions that require management strategies!