LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

• Back to School: Preparing for Day One

• First Day of Kindergarten: 8 Survival Skills

• Incorporating Social Emotional Learning as a New Teacher

• The Aware vs Unaware Teacher A chapter from The Inspired Teacher, a book in our VRL - “Teachers establish norms, expectations, and procedures that form the classroom culture for their students. What teachers do interactively with students builds the classroom environment whether teachers do so consciously or not.”

• Back to School: 3 Activities that Use Question Activities to Connect Students and to Build Student-to-Student Connections

• Empathy as a Classroom Management Tool

• 8 Proactive Classroom Management Tips for New Teachers Instead of handling disruptions after they’ve happened, it can be more effective to set up conditions in which they are less likely to occur.

• Back to School Stress: Establishing Good Habits With all your attention on teaching, it's important to make sure your personal life is set up to withstand the additional stress. Establishing a few good habits now will help you avoid slipping into a destructive cycle that will leave you burned out by spring

• Tips for Creating a Welcoming Classroom Environment

• Rules and Relationships: Which Comes First?

• Smart, Simple Dos and Don'ts for the First Week of School Otis Kriegel is the author of "Starting School Right: How do I plan for a successful first week in my classroom?" shares his top dos and don’ts for the first weeks of school. **PODCAST**

• Classroom Makeovers to Engage Learners - How can a classroom be set up to maximize learning? Get inspired by this video playlist with tips and ideas for teachers to make over their classrooms ** Video Playlist from Edutopia' s 5-Minute Film Festival **

• Incorporating Social Emotional Learning as a New Teacher

• Let’s Give Our Teaching Language a Makeover This podcast from Cult of Pedagogy with Jennifer Gonzales asserts that well-chosen words can (1) Shape student identity; (2) Boost academic safety (3) Build student agency; and (4) Invite self-discipline & prevent escalation

• Working to Grow Students’ Trust and Respect A five-step framework for cultivating the strong relationships with students that are critical for their learning

• The Role of Emotion Co-Regulation in Discipline School can be an environment where students feel safe and connected even when they make poor choices. Discipline ideally is not something we do to students—it should be a quality educators want to develop within them.

• Take Care of Me List A middle school teacher asks students how she can best support them—and shares how they can best support her and the class.

• Teacher Talk That Improves Student Learning and Behavior Educators share often-overlooked ways teachers impact students’ learning, behaviors and mindset through the words they say and how they say them. **PODCAST**

• Is Self Control the Magic Bullet in Academic Achievement? The podcast host and guest dive into neuroscience to search for better understanding of the adolescent learner. **PODCAST**

Four Strategies to Improve Group Work Many teachers believe that group work is valuable for students but still struggle to implement it. Here’s how to avoid common pitfalls.Group work presents an opportunity for teachers to intentionally support the development of productive and respectful student-student relationships.

• 30 Techniques to Quiet a Noisy Class

• Empathy as a Classroom Management Tool

• 10 Powerful Community-Building Ideas

• Singing as a Tool to Facilitate Transitions Music can be a great way to engage elementary students in routine tasks like moving from one activity to another.

• 35 Questions for Student Reflection - See the section Relationships & Collaboration

• Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students Some challenging student behaviors are unresponsive to standard classroom management strategies. In fact, in many cases, standard practices can aggravate the behaviors. Learn why and how to develop a set of strategies for these special cases. **PODCAST**