"Battle of the Brains" Jennifer Warren, 7th/8th Spanish Teacher

"I have a chart on my bulletin board that tracks the average of each class (I have three 7th grade classes and three 8th grade classes). Each Friday I print a report with the averages and post each class's average in either 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. The kids LOVE running in to see where their class placed. They work together to raise the class average, so individuals aren't targeted to compete. At the end of the quarter, I list the top class and they earn a prize."

"Finger Communication" Jim Jones, Teacher

"Rather than having students raise their hands and wait for me to call upon them to see what they want, I use a different approach. If a student raises one finger, we both know he/she wants to sharpen a pencil. Two fingers means he/she wants to turn in a paper. A teacher can come up with his/her own ideas for more signals."

"Bathroom Signal" D. Lafrance, Teacher

"First of all each student is allowed 2 emergency bathroom passes each week - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I have a sign up sheet on the blackboard. If they need to use the washroom while I am teaching, they raise one finger, I can just look over and nod to give them permission. They must quietly go to the board and sign their name on the sheet in either the morning or afternoon spot. I glance over at the sign up sheet before I nod; to make sure they have not used up both passes. This cuts down on trips to the bathroom, but also allows me to keep teaching without being interupted if someone has to use the washroom. If they have already used their morning pass and want to use their afternoon pass (when it is still morning) they can - but then have no more emergency bathroom time for the rest of the week."

"Keeping Up With Paperwork" Karen Pollard, 5th Grade Teacher

"When you are trying to collect papers, permission slips, registration etc. from all your students, have them place the number that's beside their name in your gradebook in the upper right hand corner. You can quickly put papers in numerical order and know immediately if all are turned in when a number is missing."

"Bathroom Privileges With A Sense of Humor" J. Martinez, Middle School Teacher

"In order to cut down on the number of times that a student goes to the bathroom on a daily basis, some teachers have prepared a toilet seat as a bathroom pass. Yes, it was new! It's painted and decorated very craftily. For some unknown reason, students just don't want to be seen walking down the hall with a toilet seat! Unneeded visits to the bathroom have dropped substantially!"