Blurt Cards

Blurt Cards are a physical tool you can give to your students, the entire class or just a select few students, who need help with waiting their turn to talk and have trouble with raising their hand in order to speak. This tool is helpful because not only is it a physical item, but if used correctly students can receive rewards for not blurting as well as can be held accountable if they continue to speak out of turn.

Morning Movement

After morning procedures, the teacher will conduct a daily “Morning Movement”, where students will follow along with a youtube dance video such as the Just Dance video game. This allows for students to have an opportunity to be active in the morning, helping them get ready for the day.

Daily Zones Check-in

Every morning, when students first sit down, they will fill out the “Zones Check-in” Slip. The teacher will collect these slips and will be able to quickly sort through them, in order to gauge exactly how all of their students are feeling, with no interruption or distraction. This will also give the students an opportunity to alert to the teacher that they might not be doing so great and need to talk with the teacher.

Building a Classroom Discussion Community

With this tool it’s something that you would be using at the start of the year. Taking time through out the first week to get to know your students and getting your students to get used to talking and sharing their ideas with each other. Getting them used to how it is you are hoping to be running a discussion based classroom. This will be helpful on trying to get the students to be used to sharing their ideas and listening to those ideas from all of their classmates.

Music for Volume

Music for volume is helpful for classes of all ages and I think can help productivity. When using this tool it is best to use instrumental music at a quieter volume but audible to the class. When the class gets too loud, you can refer to the music and if they can’t hear it that means it’s too loud in the classroom.