Classroom Hacks Archives

Posted on June 7, 2019 by Edsys

Classroom is the place where students spend at least half of their day and that is why keeping it clean is really important.

Whether it is classroom or your home, maintaining cleanliness cannot be done single-handed but a joint effort can make the difference.

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So instead of just leaving the job to the cleaning staff alone, it is always a good option to involve students also in the plan to keep the classroom tidy.

Instead of just sharing the role among kids alone, it is recommended for teachers to set an example by leading from the front.

When it comes to classroom cleanliness, it is not always about cleaning the mess but it is also about keeping the class clean in the first place itself.

Here we are sharing a few among the best classroom cleaning hacks that are expected to really work in the run.

1. Manage Traces of Permanent Markers

It is always good to use dry erase markers to lift away the traces of permanent markers. It is simple as you just need to use the dry erase marker to trace the area and let it sit for a few minutes. Later you can simply wipe it away to get the clean board back.

Similarly, use a paper towel with rubbing alcohol to remove old dry-erase marker traces.

2. Manage Stinky Trash Cans

It is important to keep trash cans in every corner of a classroom Or else students will start littering the waste all over the classroom.

Teachers should also insist on them to put the waste on these trash cans only.

School authorities need to make sure that it is replaced with a new one or thoroughly cleaned at the end of the day.

However, it will be stinky from at least midday and so keeping cotton with a few drops of lemon essential oil at the bottom can help.

3. Manage Math Manipulatives

At the time of cleaning, it is not a surprise to miss out items like math manipulatives.

As every student in the class touches these objects, it is easy to spread germs.

However, cleaning all these small items one by one through normal cleaning can be a challenge.

One of the best available options is to toss them in mesh laundry bags and run through the dishwasher.

4. Use Hand Sanitizers

Keeping the tiny hands of students clean is really important to avoid spreading of germs.

Washing hands before and after lunch and after using toilets should be always advised. Still keeping hand sanitizers in the classroom will always be handy.

Encourage them to use it throughout the day to keep themselves healthy.

It is easy that germs in hands spread through the passing of books or stationeries, and so keeping it clean can do the trick to a great extent.

5. Replace Soft Comforts with Beanbag Chairs

It is common to use carpets and couches in the classroom. However, these soft comforts can be a large room for germs. So it is always recommended to use options that are easier to clean often.

That is why experts recommend replacing soft comforts with options like bean bag chairs.

6. Eliminate tap residue

Whether it is inspirational posters or anchor charts, it is quite common to see many such items in classroom walls.

However, the tap residues are a big concern at times of class cleaning. However, using a hair dryer can be a tricky solution to solve this problem to a great extent.

7. Importance of Cleaning Shared Objects

There are many objects that are used in common in the classroom. When it comes to cleaning, ensure that all these objects are properly cleaned to avoid spreading of germs.

This mainly includes writing utensils, keyboards and chairs. It is good to use sticky notes to clean between keyboards and toothbrushes to clean common earplugs used in the classroom.

8. Take Care of Glitter Spills

It is not a surprise to see glitter spills in the classroom that come as part of gifts, presentation charts or celebrations.

But cleaning it back is a tricky job.

Heavy duty masking tape or lint rollers can be used to handle the glitter spills to an extent.

Or try using a damp paper towel to sweep it off clean. It is always good to invest in some glitter glue pens in whichever cases possible.

9. Keep a Cleaning Cabinet in Classroom

Just like a cabinet to keep books, it is good to keep a cabinet in the classroom to store the cleaning supplies.

This will help students and teachers to keep the class clean as resources are handy.

Stock up with necessary cleaning agents and organize it properly so that cleaning is not interrupted.

9. Assign Classroom Jobs

We have seen classroom charts that assess the student marks, attendance, code of conduct, etc. Similarly, assign some classroom jobs also to them which counts in their overall classroom grade.

This can include changing the calendar, updating the time table, and daily date, writing a daily message on board and finally cleaning the class.

Give a plus mark if his place is clean and a minus mark if his place is dirty. It is good to rotate jobs among students every week or so when it comes to cleaning common areas.

11. Maintain Daily Clean Up

Teachers and students should make sure that they spent at least some 10 to 15 minutes at the end of the day to do a daily clean up.

Make sure that all trash and debris are picked up, and see that all classroom materials are tidy and kept at places where they belong.

The chairs have to be stacked properly and student desktops can be wiped with disinfectant wipes. Similarly black and whiteboards need to be wiped out along with ledges.

12. Educate Kids to avoid Littering Classrooms

It is important to talk with the students on tips to avoid littering classrooms.

Advise them not to throw away any waste papers, toffee covers or pencil sharpens in the classroom.

Ask them to use towels and proper spoons while eating food so that they don’t drop it in class.

Similarly, the students should see that their water bottles are not leaking. Also if they see any such dirt in the classroom, it is advised to report to cleaning staff so that they can clean it up instantly.

13. Assign Cleanup Monitors

Of course, it is a group effort to do classroom cleaning easily. But assigning clean up monitors to guide these tasks can improve the overall productivity.

And give them the responsibility to make sure that everyone is doing their part well and no item in the cleaning checklist is missed.

It is also good to rotate the roles among students so that everyone feels the responsibility.

14. Discuss Healthy behavior

Have timely discussions with students regarding maintaining healthy behavior.

This includes keeping the immune system strong, staying hydrated and getting enough sleep every day.

Encourage parents to keep sick children at home to help them recover fast and avoid spreading of diseases.

In the same case, teachers have to ensure that they are updated with the missed lessons so that they don’t fall behind the curriculum.

15. De-clutter and Organize Every Week

Removing the clutter and organizing the classroom every week can make the job easy.

Of course, a daily clean up is required but a weekly clean up can include areas that are not always included in a daily clean up.

This can include taking away any broken items like a clock, unwanted or outdated paper documents or assignments, and even small items like broken crayons or pencils from desks.

16. Keep a Classroom Cleaning Checklist

Having a check on this list can help teachers to ensure that the classroom is clean on all standards.

This can mainly include emptying trash holders regularly, dusting cabinets and bookshelves, disinfecting desks and shared surfaces, vacuuming carpeted floors, wiping down common touch points like doorknobs and drying sinks and so on.

17. In-Depth Cleaning during the End & Beginning of School Year

There are many areas that are not included in the daily and weekly cleanups that need some serious efforts.

School authorities have to make sure that they arrange an in-depth cleaning during the end and beginning of the school year.

This includes doing a good surface clean, organizing supplies and making the class presentable.These are just a few among the many tips and tricks you can try in your classroom to keep it clean and tidy.

However, teachers and school authorities have to look deep into the exact reasons why your class is not clean and work towards those particular areas too.

Most of the times, it is the careless student or teacher behavior or the unstructured cleaning resources of the school authorities that lead to classroom mess.

So a joint effort from all these people to work as a team is recommended to make a difference in the classroom cleanliness.

Know More: Top 13 Strategies to improve student attendance

Also, as we know cleanliness should start at home. So parents should take a vital role in bringing up the kids as responsible citizens who would voluntarily give their part in keeping the society clean.

Posted on December 5, 2018 by Edsys SEO

According to expert instructors, learning the name of your students can help to build a better teaching environment. However, the task seems overwhelming if you have a huge class.

Most teachers are advised to learn the names of their students. But they don’t get any real help regarding the methods of learning names.

Though seems impossible for many teachers, it is possible to use unique strategies in your classroom to learn all students’ names.

Students want to feel valued in classrooms. This sense of being valued leads to more interest in the course and allows students to perform better.

So, a small act of learning and using the correct names can take the performance of your students to a whole new level.

Let’s discuss all those strategies:

1. Assign Seats For Initial Weeks

When a new semester begins, you struggle the most to remember names. Moreover, matching names with the faces of every student becomes another task for your mind while teaching.

Your mind creates a map for every name and face with respect to the location in the class you first see a student. You can use this ability of your mind to learn the names of your student.

2. Ask Students to Introduce Themselves Before Speaking

This is another method you can apply while teaching during a new semester.

This is the time when everybody in a classroom is stranger to others. Both students and the instructors want to know each other. This task can help in doing so.

For the first 5 classes, you can request students to introduce themselves with their name before speaking.

This will help you learn names and it will also allow your students to know each other. You can motivate students by introducing yourself every time you begin your class for the first few days.

3. Repeat the Names of your Students

While teaching, instructors are supposed to interact with students consistently. So, whenever you want to ask a question or interact with a particular student, call him or her by the name.

Don’t feel worried about addressing a student with a wrong name. Just apologize and say the right name again. This will actually show that you are interested in knowing your students.

Students like interactive teachers and they definitely love if you open a conversational gate with them.

4. Ask to Submit Assignments with Name and Picture

Assignments are a part of teaching and learning in the classroom. While it helps students practice what they have learned, you can use such assignments to learn the names of your students.

Ask every student to paste a small self-image along with the name on the front of the assignment copy. Do this activity with every assignment and you will start remembering the names of all your students.

5. Conduct a Name Quiz

You can begin your class with a fun quiz regarding the names of everyone in the room.

If your students are young children, they will enjoy such a quiz. You can give about 10 minutes every day figuring out who is who in your class.

On the first day, make a list of all the names after the first interaction with students.

Then, from the next day, you can see the name in your list and guess the face of the student. You will make a few mistakes, but it will be fun for your students.

6. Ask Every Student to Say his/her name along with one Characteristic

You can learn the students’ names faster if you associate them with a unique characteristic. But you shouldn’t characterize students, as it presents the risk of stereotyping.

Also Read: 15 Educational Apps For Students

On the contrary, you can ask students to tell their names and describe themselves with one characteristic.

This activity will associate each name with a character in your mind. So, you can remember the name as well as the face of your students. It might require several recalls of those characteristics in the classroom.

7. Know Students in Pairs

In classes, students tend to sit with their best friends. Most students sit in pairs in the classroom and enjoy sitting in the same order.

This habit can help you remember names in pairs. You can ask students to introduce themselves as well as the partner sitting next to him or her. Then, ask the other student to do the same.

So, for example, a student can say-

“Hi, my name is Stacy and this my friend Crystal.”

Then, Crystal can follow the same process-

“Hi, my name is Crystal and this is my friend Stacy.”

Follow the same process with the whole class.

8. Ask students to describe their best physical feature

When meeting your students for the first time, you can request them to describe their best physical feature.

For instance, a student can say, “My name is Jim, I am the tallest in the class.” Similarly, another student can say, “My name is Jemma and I smile a lot.”

Associating names with a physical feature will help you remind yourself the correct names.

You will have to start calling students with their own physical features. So, “Jim, the tall guy” or “Jemma, the cute smile” will help with learning the names.

However, you have to make sure that students are comfortable with this approach of yours. If you notice any tension, avoid this method.

9. Ask Students to Write their Aspirations in One Sentence

When you know a person better, learning names and remembering faces become easier. This is why you don’t forget the name of celebrities. You can try to know your students better in order to remember their names.

For that, you can interview every student and ask them to write their names on a paper along with their aspiration in one sentence.

So, a student can write-

“I am George and I want to become a pilot.”

After all, students complete this task, ask their aspirations one by one along with their names.

Interact more and know why they have chosen an aspiration. So, you can ask- “Wow George! You want to be a pilot. What do you like the most about being a pilot?”

Such exercises will get you closer to your students. You will understand the personality traits of each student.

10. Assign Group-based Classroom Tasks

When you have a classroom of 250 students, learning names get pretty hectic. You can resolve the stress by dividing your classroom into several working groups. Each group can have 9 to 10 students working on classroom assignments.

This group division will eventually help you work on face visualization and remembering a few names.

11. Include students in your teaching process

Generally, you teach and students learn in your classroom. But why not let students indulge in the teaching process as well?! You can share your teaching responsibilities with a few students.

For example, if you are teaching literature and language, you can say, “George, you will point out how many times I use an incorrect pronunciation of words.”

Similarly, you can choose a responsibility according to your subject and share it with your students. This is an effective way of learning the names of your students.

12. Motivate Students to Know Each other

“What a great point, I totally agree with her.”

“What’s her name?”

With such style of interactions, you can motivate other students to know each other. The same process will allow you to associate students and their personalities with names.

“It was a great point raised by Stella yesterday. Where is she sitting today?”

Such interactive statements will help you remind yourself the name and the face of a student on a daily basis.

Are You Ready?!

Teaching is a critical job, which requires you to help students in the learning process in every possible way.

Learning students’ names might seem a difficult task, but you can bring great benefits to your class with this effort.

Your interaction with students become more comfortable for students.

They feel interested in the class and don’t hesitate to ask questions. Plus, if you take interest in learning their names, students start remembering names of other classmates as well. This creates a sense of unity and allows the whole class to learn as a group.

Hopefully, you feel ready to apply some of the methods offered in this article to learn the names of your students.

Also Read: Why Do Students Fail? – Faculty’s Perspective

Posted on January 22, 2018 by Edsys SEO

Smart schools are trying out different teaching strategies to give a better learning experience for students.

Despite the quality of the teaching you give, keeping them engaged throughout a classroom session is always challenging.

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The attention span of kids is very low than you can expect and so it is important to put in some serious effort to grab their attention.

The classroom sessions can be made interactive and interesting with a mix of learning and some gamification.

Here are a few tips that might help you to keep the students engaged in your classroom that helps you have a quality teaching time:

1. Warm up sessions:

A good start can impact the way students grasp the lessons. It would be good to start it off with a warm up session.

One of the commonly followed activities is writing some points related to what was taught in the previous class on the board. Students can actively find out the mistakes in it in a collaborative way.

2. Light movements

In order to improve their focus and attention, make them involve in light movements either in the beginning or in the middle of the lesson if you find them sleepy.

The activities can be varied according to the class you are handling. It can be hand-clapping, rhythmic finger snapping, cross crawls or light march.

3. Quick writes

When you finish a particular topic, you can ask them to give a quick write of what you taught them.

It can include important points covered in the topic and their judgement or conclusion regarding some tricky areas. This is a good way to keep students engaged with the lessons. This makes them focus more during the next classes.

4. Encourage to and fro questions

Teachers should develop a habit of asking questions in between their lessons. And also give students an open platform to raise some questions or doubts regarding what was taught.

This makes the classroom sessions more interactive. This also helps them to understand the lessons better. By framing questions and receiving answers, students can get a deeper view of the subject.

5. Mix teaching styles

Following the same teaching style in every class creates boredom among students and they slowly start losing the interest. So it is better to mix the teaching styles often and students would have a better learning experience.

Approach different subjects in a different way and consider the interests of the students too.

6. Gamification

This is one of the best ways to teach kids as they would always love to have ‘learn with fun’ experience. Games such as education bingo and bleep can be included to enhance their memory.

Their vocabulary can be improved with vocabulary games such as ‘sentence race’. Teachers can also bring in creativity games, team work activities and competition games to raise their spirit for learning.

7. Group works

Group learning is equally important as self learning as students can be trained to think in groups and improve their group decision making.

Group assignments can be given once in a while when they can share their ideas and work out a project. They can bring out their exclusive ideas while accepting or considering others’ ideas too. This is another way to keep students engaged in the classroom.

8. Video sessions

Video sessions are a good option to grab student’s attention and focus. The visual elements are processed faster by brain and this can make remarkable impact on their understanding of the topic.

Variety can be made in this strategy too by including video presentations with beautiful slides or giving them video tutorials. Considering its importance, smart board options are gaining more importance in today’s classrooms.

9. Connect with real life:

Students would find it interesting if teachers can connect the subject that is being taught to incidents in real life. This also helps them to relate the subject better and gain a better understanding.

10. Activity learning

Making the students to sit stagnantly throughout the classroom sessions can be really boring for them.

Teachers can utilize the classroom space and engage them in some activity learning to regain their interest. Jumping the line, mime or sports gallery can be tried once in a while to make students active and engaging.

This is the best way to make the afternoon learning sessions more productive.

11. Quizzes and polls

Once a topic is covered, quizzes can be conducted by dividing class into groups.

This activity is not only engaging but also one of the spontaneous ways to assess their understanding.

Polls can also be conducted to get their feedback on the lessons, which is another option to pass the dead time.

12. Education apps

Bringing in some technology to the classroom can take away the boredom and make the students engaging.

With the wide use of mobiles, education apps are now becoming an inevitable tool in today’s classroom. With puzzle, you can engage them with video sessions and Motion Math app lets you teach difficult mathematical problems through games.

13 Story telling

An interesting way to introduce a new subject is to start it with a story. Some teachers also bring stories in the middle of lessons helping students to relate some facts in a better way.

Kids would always love to hear stories and they crave for more. This is another way to engage them when handling tough subjects.

14. Autonomy Support

Including students in the learning process is really important to gain their interest for the subject.

Students should be given a platform to express their ideas or opinions during the activity.

They should be given ample time to understand a particular subject and don’t rush to the next lesson.

15. Flipped classroom

This is a credible learning technique which is being adopted in many smart classrooms.

Students are asked to prepare the lessons in advance by referring some video tutorials.

So when teacher discusses the lesson in the class, students would find the subject more engaging and interesting.

16. Teacher-student relations

Maintaining good relation with students is important for a teacher to make the classes more positive.

Students will have that freedom to express themselves whenever needed which gives them a sense of peace and happiness. Keeping up a pleasant classroom environment can impact the way they grasp the lessons.

17. Take small breaks

Instead of having an hour long teaching sessions, take some small breaks in between to refresh the minds of students. You can talk or share something out of the syllabus and have a chit chat time with the students.

18. Response cards

Students can be given response cards with options such as agree and disagree, multiple choices, yes/no or even emoticons.

During the class period, teacher can ask questions and students have to give response with these cards. This activity can make the classes interactive and engaging which kills the boredom of one way lectures.

19. Dictation

For elementary classes, simple activities such as dictation can do the trick to pass the dead time.

Once you cover a class, just give a simple dictation test to stimulate their memory and to make them comfortable with words and spelling.

It can be a mix of listen, repeat, read and write experience for kids.

20. A to Z class summary

You may conclude a learning session with this activity to help them memorize or revise what they have learnt in the class.

Students can write a summary of the class in sentences starting with all alphabets from A to Z. This activity can be done in groups or as singles. Teacher can evaluate to give a feedback and correct them if their understanding went wrong somewhere.

These are some of the commonly used ideas in smart classrooms to have a quality learning session.

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Teachers can wisely apply the teaching tips according to the age or the level of classroom that is being handled. Know their boundaries when deciding on a new teaching strategy.

It is important to maintain eye contact with the students and always give a space for them to come up with suggestions. Similarly praising and rewarding their works can really motivate them.

Using contemporary materials whenever possible and differentiation can actually work wonders in enhancing the student’s liking and interest for learning.