Last year when I inherited my new classroom, I also inherited a mess. It took me nearly two weeks to clean the classroom up, organize resources, throw out garbage, and clean off the chalkboard. I really wasn’t expecting to walk into a disaster zone, and, I tell you, I didn’t appreciate it at all. I…

I am very honoured to be the guest columnist for Teaching Tip Tuesday! I hope I can live up to WitGirl’s fabulous column from last week. I suppose I should start off by introducing myself. My name is Elle, and I’ve known Chase for years: He and I went to teacher’s college together. I, with…

Hello again, it’s Witgirl! I’m here to help out Chase who is busily preparing report cards this week. He feels he absolutely cannot go a Tuesday without posting a Teaching Tip, this is where I come in. I’m not exactly sure if I’m offering a tip, maybe more of a suggestion. As I am a…

Teachers need to have procedures in place for every single routine in the classroom. These procedures need to be communicated to the students. But they do not need to be written down anywhere. A procedure, quite simply, is a series of steps that should be followed in order to do something effectively, efficiently, and safely…

Children do not learn important social skills, morals, or values unless they are taught them. These basic life skills and attitudes need to be transmitted to children in some way. When I first became a teacher, I didn’t think that it was part of my job to teach these things. However, I quickly realized that…

In order to manage behaviour effectively in the classroom, I believe that it is important to instill a sense of ownership on the students. The classroom needs to be a place where students will feel safe and comfortable. In my classroom I have exactly 4 rules to help achieve this. These rules cover pretty much…

The best board game ever invented, in my humble opinion, is Scrabble. One of the reasons I like Scrabble is that it challenges the mind and is not merely just a game of chance. I think I also have an affinity for the game since it has always been a big deal in my family.…

Teachers need to be prepared. I can’t emphasize this enough. I make sure that I draw up very detailed year plans and day plans.  I am very well organized in my classroom. Unfortunately all the planning and organizing can sometimes not be enough. Teachers need to be flexible. There will always be things that interfere with our…

Here is one of the best teaching tips I can share with you – Use what you have! I know that through my teaching career there have been many times when I have needed some items for a lesson that I didn’t have readily available. Sometimes these things were simple items for a science experiment…

I want to keep this edition of Teaching Tip Tuesday fairly short. I think teachers should be helping each other by sharing what works with them and their classrooms. I hope you have found my past columns here helpful. Please email me or leave a comment if you have any questions or thoughts, or if…