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This gives you some pointer on how to develop a positive and productive learn environment. The website author also says: The best time to start developing a positive learning environment in your classroom is during the first days, weeks, and months of the school year–but it's never too late to get started. So even if the first day or first month is rocky its never to late to make your class room a positive and productive one.

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Strategies for Building a Productive and Positive Learning Environment

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Explore proven tips and strategies for building a productive and positive learning environment that foster academic success and emotional and social development.

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Gives you some strategies for building a positive learning environment. This website also has a power point with all 32 strategies.

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32 Strategies for Building a Positive Learning Environment

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32 Strategies for Building a Positive Learning Environment

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I got this idea from a teacher on twitter who made a board to get to better know her student. I think this would help foster a relationship with your students. It also lets them have a voice anonymously.

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This website gives some ways to create an inclusive learning environment

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Education Training and Effective Results

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Classroom Management Strategies To Take Control Of Noisy Students

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Student Engagement & Motivation Strategies & Tips

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Engaging Students | How to Keep Students Engaged!

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For Education Training and Effective Results for Today's Youth Visit our website: http://Fighting4Youth.com Keep Students Engaged You might be wondering how to keep students engaged and focused, especially towards the end of the school year. In this video, you not only learn about how to keep them engaged and focused, but also how to get them to want to come to class.

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This can help shy students participate in class activity.

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Join a game of kahoot here. Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn – any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

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This gives you an idea of what a highly effective learning environment.

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by Terry Heick
For in-person professional development from TeachThought on how to create an effective learning environment in your classroom or school, contact us today.
Wherever we are, we'd all like to think our classrooms are "intellectually active" places. Progressive learning(like our 21st Century Model, for example) environments. Highly effective and conducive to student-centered learning. But what does that mean?

The reality is, there is no single answer because teaching and learning are awkward to consider as single events or individual "things." This is all a bunch of rhetoric until we put on our white coats and study it under a microscope, at which point abstractions like curiosity, authenticity, self-knowledge, and affection will be hard to pin down.

So we put together one take on the characteristics of a highly effective classroom. They can act as a kind of criteria to measure your own against-see if you notice a pattern.
10 Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment 1. The students ask the questions-good questions This is not a feel-good implication, but really crucial for the whole learning process to work.
The role of curiosity has been studied (and perhaps under-studied and under-appreciated), but suffice to say that if a learner enters any learning activity with little to no natural curiosity, prospects for meaningful interaction with texts, media, and specific tasks are bleak. (Interested in how to kill learner curiosity in 12 easy steps?)
2. Questions are valued over answers 3. Ideas come from a divergent sources
Many teachers force students (proverbial gun to head) to ask questions at the outset of units or lessons, often to no avail. Cliché questions that reflect little understanding of the content can discourage teachers from "allowing" them. But the fact remains-if students can't ask great questions-even as young as elementary school-something, somewhere is unplugged.
4. A variety of learning models are used 5. Classroom learning "empties" into a connected community
Questions are more important than answers. So it makes sense that if good questions should lead the learning, there would be value placed on these questions. And that means adding currency whenever possible-grades (questions as assessment!), credit (give them points-they love points), creative curation (writing as a kind of graffiti on large post-it pages on the classroom walls), or simply praise and honest respect. See if you don't notice a change.

Ideas for lessons, reading, tests, and projects-the fiber of formal learning-should come from a variety of sources. If they all come from narrow slivers of resources, you're at risk of being pulled way off in one direction (that may or may not be good). An alternative? Consider sources like professional and cultural mentors, the community, content experts outside of education, and even the students themselves. Huge shift in credibility.
6. Learning is personalized by a variety of criteria
And when these sources disagree with one another, use that as an endlessly "teachable moment," because that's what the real world is like.
7. Assessment is persistent, authentic, transparent, and never punitive
Inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, direct instruction, peer-to-peer learning, school-to-school, eLearning, Mobile learning, the flipped classroom, and on and on-the possibilities are endless. Chances are, none are incredible enough to suit every bit of content, curriculum, and learner diversity in your classroom. A characteristic of a highly-effective classroom, then, is diversity here, which also has the side-effect of improving your long-term capacity as an educator.
8. Criteria for success is balanced and transparent. 9. Learning habits are constantly modeled
In a highly-effective learning environment, learning doesn't need to be radically repackaged to make sense in the "real world," but starts and ends there.
10. There are constant opportunities for practice
As great as it sounds for learners to reflect on Shakespeare to better understand their Uncle Eddie-and they might-depending on that kind of radical transfer to happen entirely in the minds of the learners by design may not be the best idea. Plan on this kind of transfer from the beginning.
Image attribution flicker user flickeringbrad and josekevo; 10 Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment 10 Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment For in-person professional development from TeachThought on how to create an effective learning environment in your classroom or school, contact us today.
It has to leave the classroom because they do.

Personalized learning is likely the future, but for now the onus for routing students is almost entirely on the shoulders of the classroom teacher. This makes personalization-and even consistent differentiation-a challenge. One response is to personalize learning-to whatever extent you plan for-by a variety of criteria-not just assessment results or reading level, but interest, readiness-for-content, and others as well.

Then, as you adjust pace, entry points, and rigor accordingly, you'll have a better chance of having uncovered what the learners truly "need".
10 Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment 1. The students ask the questions-good questions This is not a feel-good implication, but really crucial for the whole learning process to work.
Assessment is just an (often ham-fisted) attempt to get at what a learner understands. The more infrequent, clinical, murky, or threatening it is, the more you're going to separate the "good students" from the "good thinkers." And the "clinical" idea has less to do with the format of the test, and more to do with the tone and emotion of the classroom in general. Why are students being tested? What's in it for them, and their future opportunities to improve?
2. Questions are valued over answers 3. Ideas come from a divergent sources
And feedback is quick even when the "grading" may not be.
4. A variety of learning models are used 5. Classroom learning "empties" into a connected community
Students should not have to guess what "success" in a highly-effective classroom looks like. It should also not be entirely weighted on "participation," assessment results, attitude, or other individual factors, but rather meaningfully melted into a cohesive framework that makes sense-not to you, your colleagues, or the expert book on your shelf, but the students themselves.

Cognitive, meta-cognitive, and behavioral "good stuff" is constantly modeled. Curiosity, persistence, flexibility, priority, creativity, collaboration, revision, and even the classic Habits of Mind are all great places to start. So often what students learn from those around them is less directly didactic, and more indirect and observational.
6. Learning is personalized by a variety of criteria
Monkey see, monkey do.
7. Assessment is persistent, authentic, transparent, and never punitive
Old thinking is revisited. Old errors are reflected on. Complex ideas are re-approached from new angles. Divergent concepts are contrasted. Bloom's taxonomy is constantly traveled up and down, from the simple to the complex in an effort to maximize a student's opportunities to learn-and demonstrate understanding-of content.
8. Criteria for success is balanced and transparent. 9. Learning habits are constantly modeled
For professional development around this idea or others you read about on TeachThought, contact us.
10. There are constant opportunities for practice
by Terry Heick
Image attribution flicker user flickeringbrad and josekevo; 10 Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment
Wherever we are, we'd all like to think our classrooms are "intellectually active" places. Progressive learning(like our 21st Century Model, for example) environments. Highly effective and conducive to student-centered learning. But what does that mean?

The reality is, there is no single answer because teaching and learning are awkward to consider as single events or individual "things." This is all a bunch of rhetoric until we put on our white coats and study it under a microscope, at which point abstractions like curiosity, authenticity, self-knowledge, and affection will be hard to pin down.

So we put together one take on the characteristics of a highly effective classroom. They can act as a kind of criteria to measure your own against-see if you notice a pattern.

The role of curiosity has been studied (and perhaps under-studied and under-appreciated), but suffice to say that if a learner enters any learning activity with little to no natural curiosity, prospects for meaningful interaction with texts, media, and specific tasks are bleak. (Interested in how to kill learner curiosity in 12 easy steps?)

Many teachers force students (proverbial gun to head) to ask questions at the outset of units or lessons, often to no avail. Cliché questions that reflect little understanding of the content can discourage teachers from "allowing" them. But the fact remains-if students can't ask great questions-even as young as elementary school-something, somewhere is unplugged.

Questions are more important than answers. So it makes sense that if good questions should lead the learning, there would be value placed on these questions. And that means adding currency whenever possible-grades (questions as assessment!), credit (give them points-they love points), creative curation (writing as a kind of graffiti on large post-it pages on the classroom walls), or simply praise and honest respect. See if you don't notice a change.

Ideas for lessons, reading, tests, and projects-the fiber of formal learning-should come from a variety of sources. If they all come from narrow slivers of resources, you're at risk of being pulled way off in one direction (that may or may not be good). An alternative? Consider sources like professional and cultural mentors, the community, content experts outside of education, and even the students themselves. Huge shift in credibility.

And when these sources disagree with one another, use that as an endlessly "teachable moment," because that's what the real world is like.

Inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, direct instruction, peer-to-peer learning, school-to-school, eLearning, Mobile learning, the flipped classroom, and on and on-the possibilities are endless. Chances are, none are incredible enough to suit every bit of content, curriculum, and learner diversity in your classroom. A characteristic of a highly-effective classroom, then, is diversity here, which also has the side-effect of improving your long-term capacity as an educator.

In a highly-effective learning environment, learning doesn't need to be radically repackaged to make sense in the "real world," but starts and ends there.

As great as it sounds for learners to reflect on Shakespeare to better understand their Uncle Eddie-and they might-depending on that kind of radical transfer to happen entirely in the minds of the learners by design may not be the best idea. Plan on this kind of transfer from the beginning.

It has to leave the classroom because they do.

Personalized learning is likely the future, but for now the onus for routing students is almost entirely on the shoulders of the classroom teacher. This makes personalization-and even consistent differentiation-a challenge. One response is to personalize learning-to whatever extent you plan for-by a variety of criteria-not just assessment results or reading level, but interest, readiness-for-content, and others as well.

Then, as you adjust pace, entry points, and rigor accordingly, you'll have a better chance of having uncovered what the learners truly "need".

Assessment is just an (often ham-fisted) attempt to get at what a learner understands. The more infrequent, clinical, murky, or threatening it is, the more you're going to separate the "good students" from the "good thinkers." And the "clinical" idea has less to do with the format of the test, and more to do with the tone and emotion of the classroom in general. Why are students being tested? What's in it for them, and their future opportunities to improve?

And feedback is quick even when the "grading" may not be.

Students should not have to guess what "success" in a highly-effective classroom looks like. It should also not be entirely weighted on "participation," assessment results, attitude, or other individual factors, but rather meaningfully melted into a cohesive framework that makes sense-not to you, your colleagues, or the expert book on your shelf, but the students themselves.

Cognitive, meta-cognitive, and behavioral "good stuff" is constantly modeled. Curiosity, persistence, flexibility, priority, creativity, collaboration, revision, and even the classic Habits of Mind are all great places to start. So often what students learn from those around them is less directly didactic, and more indirect and observational.

Monkey see, monkey do.

Old thinking is revisited. Old errors are reflected on. Complex ideas are re-approached from new angles. Divergent concepts are contrasted. Bloom's taxonomy is constantly traveled up and down, from the simple to the complex in an effort to maximize a student's opportunities to learn-and demonstrate understanding-of content.

For professional development around this idea or others you read about on TeachThought, contact us.

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10 Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment

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by Terry Heick For in-person professional development from TeachThought on how to create an effective learning environment in your classroom or school, contact us today. Wherever we are, we'd all like to think our classrooms are "intellectually active" places. Progressive learning(like our 21st Century Model , for example) environments.

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This website gives you some activates to help to increase student engagement

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Research shows that students whose teachers spend too much time talking are less likely to be engaged during classroom instruction. Luckily, reading instruction can be so much more than lecture, reading practice, memorization, or decoding drills. We, as teachers, can do more to get our students engaged in learning to read.

List of Reading Activities

Here is a list of fourteen student engagement strategies from Reading Horizons Reading Specialist, Stacy Hurst, that you can use to increase student engagement during reading instruction or reading intervention:

1. Partner Pretest

Before teaching a new decoding skill or grammar rule, preface the lesson with a pretest. Let your students know that the test will not be scored, lowering anxiety and increasing student performance. Pair students up for the pretest and have them use the same set of materials for that pretest. If the pretest is on a computer or iPad, have students share the device between the two of them. During the pretest walk around the room so you can gauge student needs and adjust the lesson accordingly. When lesson material matches student ability and understanding, engagement is higher. Make sure that the pretest is similar to the posttest so you can see how much was actually retained during your lesson.

2. Stand Up/Sit Down

Teachers can use this activity to help students learn to differentiate between similar but different reading concepts. For instance, when a teacher is trying to help her students learn the difference between common nouns and proper nouns, she can give examples of each and have students stand up if it is a common noun or sit down if it is a proper noun. This is a great way to see how much of your class is actually grasping the material while getting your students' blood flowing-helping them stay alert.

3. Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down

This activity provides a quick way to gauge if your students are comprehending a story or to test them on different reading skills. Instruct students to put their thumbs up if they agree with a statement or to put their thumbs down if they disagree. When students have a low energy level (i.e. right after lunch) Stand Up/Sit Down may be a better alternative. However, if you need to maintain your students' current energy level Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down is ideal.

4. Secret Answer

This activity is great for students that might not be confident in their answers-students that look around the class when doing Stand Up/Sit Down or Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down to see how the other students' answer before they answer themselves. To give students a secret way to answer, assign different responses a number and have students hold up the number of fingers that correspond to the answer they think is correct. To do this exercise properly, have your students place their hand near their heart (physically) with the appropriate number of fingers raised to indicate their answer. This way, especially if all the students are facing the teacher, it is difficult for students to copy their neighbor's answer.

5. Response Cards

This is a great way to mix things up a bit. Have students create a stack of common responses, including: agree/disagree, true/false, yes/no, greater than/less than, multiple choice options, and common emotions. After students have created their response cards, you can have them use them to respond in a variety of different settings. For example, while reading a book together as a class the teacher may pause and ask her students what they think the character is feeling right now. The students then select one of the common emotion cards from their personal stack of cards and lift it up to answer the question.

6. Think-Pair-Share

This activity allows students to pause and process what they have just learned. After reading a passage in a book, ask your class a question that they must first consider by themselves. After giving them time to think have them discuss the question with their neighbor. Once they've discussed the question, invite students to share their answers with the class. By giving them this time to process, you are enabling them to be more engaged in their learning.

7. Quick Writes

Studies show that the proper ratio of direct instruction to reflection time for students is ten to two. That means that for every ten minutes of instruction teachers need to provide students with two minutes for reflection. This activity is a great way to provide students with that much-needed reflection time! In this activity, ask a question about a reading passage, have students write a response to share with a neighbor or the entire class.

8. One Word Splash

After reading a passage or learning new vocabulary terms, ask your students to write down one word that they feel sums up that material. This might seem overly simplistic but it actually requires higher processing skills that help your students digest what they are reading. This can be done either with a pencil and paper or a dry erase marker and personal whiteboard for each student.

9. Quick Draw

This activity is perfect for visual learners or students that aren't quite writing yet. After reading a part of a story or learning a new concept or topic, have your students draw a picture about what they've just read or learned. For example, after reading part of the story, Jack and the Beanstalk, have your students draw what has happened in the story up to that point. A student may draw a picture of a boy planting seeds with a beanstalk growing in the background.

10. Gallery Walk

To help students get some of their energy out, have students do a Gallery Walk to see their peers' work. This activity is a great add on to Quick Writes and Quick Draw. Because students seek approval from their peers they will put more effort into their work when they know it will be viewed by the class.

11. A-Z Topic Summary

Help students connect the dots after finishing a book, a learning module, or a lesson. Have your students complete an A-Z Topic Summary either as individuals or in pairs. If it is an individual activity, have students write either a word or a sentence that connects to the book, module, or lesson for each letter of the alphabet. For example, if you learned about baking they might write a sentence for A such as: "Always preheat the oven before baking." To speed up the activity, you can assign students to work in pairs or assign a letter to each student or pair and have them write a sentence for that letter rather than the whole alphabet.

12. 3-2-1

This quick way to help students process reading or lesson material when you're pressed for time. First, have your students write three facts they learned from something they read or learned in class that day. Next, have students write two questions they still have about the book or topic that wasn't covered or discussed in class. Finally, have your students write one opinion they have about the reading material or lesson. This activity can also help you with your lesson planning for the next lesson on the topic or book.

13. Find Your Match

This is another activity that gets your students up and moving. Create card matches that correlate to a storyline in a book, vocabulary terms, figures of speech, grammar rules, etc. For example, your card matches might include the following concepts (depending on grade level): rhyming words, uppercase/lowercase, antonyms/synonyms, words/definitions, problem/solution, and words/pictures. Hand out one card to each student in the class and then have them get up and find the other student with the matching card.

14. Dictation

One of my very favorite teaching activities is Dictation! It is highly effective in engaging students because it is multisensory explicit phonics instruction -involving: auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile senses. Having a multisensory approach increases working memory and integrates all language skills/modalities. To do Dictation have students listen to a word, repeat the word out loud, write it out on paper, and then have them read the word out loud again.

If you found this helpful, learn more strategies on our list of reading strategies ›

Early Literacy Resources
Early Literacy Lexile Levels Early Reading Comprehension Third Grade Reading structured literacy
Authors: No content items.

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14 Activities That Increase Student Engagement During Reading Instruction

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Research shows that students whose teachers spend too much time talking are less likely to be engaged during classroom instruction. The good news is that there are many activities that will enable you to spend less time talking and more time getting your students engaged during reading instruction.

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this website show us the importance of keep our students engaged in learn and so they do not be come board or disruptive.

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It is important for educators to develop teaching strategies that keep students engaged. When students are not actively engaged in classroom activities, they become bored. This can lead to disruptive behavior and lackluster grades. Students perform best when their learning atmosphere is exciting. To engage students in the classroom, you must prepare lessons that keep students active during the learning process.

Use peer teaching. Students enjoy working with and learning from each other. Create peer groups of three to five students and give each group a task. Have student groups present their task and solution to the class. Allow time for questions and answers after each presentation.

Incorporate technology into your lessons. Using technology increases students' interest and keeps them engaged. Instead of lecturing, present new information using PowerPoint presentations. Use interactive computer lessons instead of reading from textbooks. Allow your students to conduct research using the Internet and let them create charts and graphs using Excel.

Incorporate games into your lessons. Playing games keeps students attentive and engaged. Find fun, educational games to accompany your lesson plans. Choose games that test students' knowledge while allowing them to be competitive.

Source: http://www.ehow.com/

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How to Ensure Students Are Engaged in the Classroom

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It is important for educators to develop teaching strategies that keep students engaged. When students are not actively engaged in classroom activities, they become bored. This can lead to disruptive behavior and lackluster grades. Students perform best when their learning atmosphere is exciting.

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Resources >> Browse Articles >> Class Management

Elissa Miller

Hustle & Flow: Classroom Style

The words hustle and flow describe one basic word to me: activity.

I want my classroom to be full of activity. Productive activity. You may not agree with some of the things I'm writing, but remember, I'm suggesting these for the long-term effect they will have on the student culture and classroom atmosphere.

The following are some ways to keep the hustle and flow going in your classroom and to help create a positive learning environment.

1. Address students by name. Our names are our identity and we should use them as much as possible. Learn your students names, and the correct pronunciation immediately!

2. Use "please" and "thank you". We take these words for granted but we need to keep in mind how important giving respect is in order to earn respect. Put these words to daily use on tests, homework, worksheets, presentations, etc. Saying "thank you" for an answer shows you hear them and appreciate them, even if the answer is wrong.

3. Listen. Students crave our attention and focus. We should be extremely careful that in listening we are NOT physically turning away, sighing, frowning, rolling our eyes, talking to someone else, or looking away. We show people they matter by our body language, whether we mean it or not. Body language can create a division in the classroom.

4. Don't allow bullying/teasing/put downs. Students need to know that they are entering a safe environment. They need to be comfortable and know they fit in before they can learn and take risks in their learning. This needs to be implemented from the very beginning. No bullying from students or from teachers! We are responsible for what we allow in the classroom. For every put down, require two put ups (that person now has to say two nice things.) The put ups don't mean anything; what matters is your consistency in protecting life and creating a level playing field for everyone.

5. Make Eye Contact. Making quick eye contact is important in creating a culture of trust. Students matter. They aren't lifeless objects just sitting in our room (although they may look like it) and we should we treat them as the valuable people they are. Recognize them.

Continue reading tips 6-10 on the next page.

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10 ways create positive learning experiences class management benefits articles

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10 Ways to Create Positive Learning Experiences

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Hustle & Flow: Classroom Style The words hustle and flow describe one basic word to me: activity. I want my classroom to be full of activity. Productive activity. You may not agree with some of the things I'm writing, but remember, I'm suggesting these for the long-term effect they will have on the student culture and classroom atmosphere.