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1. You don’t need to be perfect—you just need to care. Teaching is human work. Let students see your effort and your empathy, not just your content knowledge.

3. Routines are a game-changer. Establish procedures for everything: entering the room, asking questions, packing up. Practice routines daily until they’re second nature.

9. Keep instructions short and sharp. Aim for fewer than 10 words when giving instructions. Say them once, write them down, and check for understanding.

14. Don’t mark everything. Be strategic. Use formative assessments, peer review, and quick check-ins instead of marking every book every week.

18. Celebrate the small wins. A quiet student contributing. A whole class transition without a reminder. These matter. Recognize them.

19. Get students moving. Use brain breaks, active learning, and outdoor activities. Movement boosts focus and well-being.

20. Reflect (even briefly). Try a two-minute journal at the end of the day. What went well? What will I try differently?

21. One tough lesson doesn’t define you. We all have lessons that fall flat. Students forget them; you should too.

24. Well-being is not a luxury—it’s essential. Get sleep. Move your body. Eat lunch. Your energy is your greatest resource in the classroom.

28. You don’t have to do it all. Choose one area to improve each term. Let yourself grow gradually.

Adapted from Edutopia
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Find the lull: “Observe the noise pattern” as classroom noise ebbs and flows, says Marianne Kearney-Brown. “At the next lull, speak in a quiet voice and say, ‘I need your attention’ or ‘Group work time is over.’ It worked amazingly well.”

Countdown with a twist: Do a countdown, but “add something weird in the middle. Example: ‘5… 4… 3… octopus… 1,’” high school English teacher Marcus Luther advises. Math teacher Joaquin Colon uses a similar approach with his 10th and 11th graders in the Bronx: “OK, let’s bring it back in 5... 4... 731.8…” The response is immediate quiet and a “Wait, what?” from students.

Positive reinforcement: Try verbally acknowledging students who are quiet. “For a particularly rowdy group of grade nines, I pulled out my preschool teacher method of ‘John is ready. Joanne is ready,’” Denise Yellen Ganot notes. “They scrambled to hear me say their names. Can’t believe this worked on them.”

Deep breathing: “If you can hear my voice, take a deep breath! And another deep breath!” That’s how one high school ELA teacher says she gets kids back on track while sneaking calming breaths into her classroom management. It takes a minute or two, but the bonus, says Leila L,  is that the breathing exercises “calm me down too.”

Sound cues: High school teachers, we discovered, use a wide array of sounds as attention-getters. “I had a tambourine I would use to get their attention,” one teacher posted on Reddit. “It was playful and fun without being juvenile.” Sharriah Buche Armstrong prefers YouTube sound effects, while other teachers swear by class doorbells. Julia Calderon has different rings for different occasions, like “instant quiet,” clean up, and pack up.

Choose your own: Several teachers let students choose the settle-down tactics. For instance, when one high school teacher had a “super chatty class,” they asked students what they needed to quiet down. The class "looked at each other and said, ‘Waterfall.’” The popular call-and-response from elementary school “worked every time.”

 

Adapted from Edutopia
Full List Here