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This small collection of short videos gives examples of simple, yet effective classroom management techniques. Although they are shown in mostly younger grades, I think most of them can be used in the upper grades or modified to be suitable. I really like the sign language one!

This is an article that I think we all can relate to. I think we've probably all been on this 'boat' at some point since September. Although all of the theories, ideas, and strategies are useful, we have to remember that teaching starts with basic human relationships - this article made me remember this in a humorous way.

This web page describes a classroom technique that utilizes a silent way for students to get their teacher's attention; signaling that they need help while still being able to work until the teacher can assist them. I think that "FlagBee" would work well at the elementary level, but seems a little "silly" for high school maybe. A variation of this would just be to write their name on the board when a student needs assistance.

This is a link to a collection of informative, motivational, and humourous quotes. Take some time to scroll through them! Although they may not overtly relate to classroom management, they do make you think about the importance of teaching, and can help to develop one's teaching philosophy. Here is one that made me think: "In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less." Lee Iacocca

We have been discussing cyberbullying in a few of our classes and what to do when an incident occurs, but what about prevention? This website offers great ideas, complete lesson plans, and activity sheets categorized by grade. Each lesson/idea is developmentally appropriate and provides great ideas to get students thinking about proper use of the internet. The world is becomming increasingly technological and I think it's up to parents and teachers to take the time to teach children how to use the internet responsibly and safely.

As new teachers we spend lots of time worrying about practicing good classroom management strategies but if we focus more energy on teaching using what is important to students in this digital age we might not have as many classroom issues to deal with. This short video reminds us to be aware of how we are teaching our students not just what we are teaching them. If our first thought is always, "is this genuinely engaging for my students,or could I make it more relevant to them" I think we will all become better teachers.

When you think you need to do more to try and manage the class, slow down, read this article, and do less. Its all laid out for you. Relax.

This article, found on the OCT site, is about the importance of nonverbal communication in classroom management. I think it is something that is often overlooked, but the article provides strategies on how to match your verbal and nonverbal communication. The article mentions NCI, or Nonverbal Communication Intelligence, which "includes the systematic use of gesture, voice, breathing and other non-verbal signals to enhance communication."

This short videa gives us as new teachers tips and reminders of what we need to think about when organizing our first classroom routines. It is a basic video but things as new teachers we may forget!

This short article lists things to consider when setting up your classroom and briefly describes some basic classroom layouts. Read this before using the classroom architect tool bookmarked below. Both of these tools are useful for our classroom management assignment and for our future classrooms!

This site has a section (General) aimed at the student teacher (including a quiz on classroom management styles) as well as full timers. There are numerous sections detailing help for teachers in the social studies which include, besides the obvious sections on history and geographry, sections on critical thinking, student questioning, games et cetera. The subsections are quite good (under History for example there is an article: "A Relevant Approach to History (At Risk Leaners)" that outlines a lesson on time for students having a hard time grasping that concept. All of the lesson plan ideas and articles as downloadable as MS Word docs for easy retrieval off of the site.

Sir Ken Robinson asks the good questions that aren't be asked in education. Our education model has become so systematic with little good reasoning behind it. We've created a box for thinking, can we get out of it? Even if you don't watch the whole 11:40 minutes, you'll still get something out of this clip. The good news is: some of these changes that are needed can be done in the classroom. It can start with us.

A lot of my looking around has resulted in seeing the book, "Reluctant Disciplinarian: Advice on Classroom Management from a Softy Who Became (Eventually) A Successful Teacher" by Gary Rubinstein. I have not had a chance to read the book, but this is a good review that highlights some key points. There don't seem to be any grounbreaking information, but I feel like it is nice to get classroom management advice from people that are currently teaching and going through what we will soon be. I really like the part on developing a teacher persona, as I think you need to have an identity that students understand and can know to expect.