Even experienced teachers can sometimes find it difficult to quiet a noisy classroom. But having a few tricks at the ready can help you take back control and achieve a silent classroom. 1) Stand near the noisy students This one’s a classic that most teachers learn early in their career. If the class is being too rowdy, standing near the loudest students can get them to settle down, especially if you stay silent while doing it. Keep in mind that how a tea

A room full of quiet students … now that’s the perfect classroom. While that might seem like more dream than reality, thankfully lots of classroom noise monitor apps are out there to help you manage. We’ve chosen three classroom noise monitor tools that teachers can use for free. Bouncy Balls How it works: The free browser app Bouncy Balls is a fun tool where students are challenged to balance a bun

Teacher and Classcraft Ambassador Cara Rowe shares her ideas for homemade classroom games, plus three steps for improving your class exam reviews and seeing better student engagement and academic performance as a result. Review games help students of all levels do better on tests, and there are many well-known games and several sites available to help you throw together a quick and fun review. The only problem with these traditional games and websites, especially in upper grades (w

Article republished with permission from Brave in the Attempt. This post is based on the keynote presented by Constance Steinkuehler, a professor at the University of California at Irvine, at the Games f

This school year, teachers and students will embark on a different kind of adventure in the classroom: Quests, a new tool for personalized learning that gamifies existing lesson plans. Every learner has their own unique style of learning, but as a teacher, you only have so much time to spend on a lesson. This can make it difficult to meet the needs of every student in your classroom. That’s why we ma

PBIS can massively improve student behavior in a school, and using games for PBIS is a natural fit. Any new implementation takes effort, and by leveraging the social power of games, teachers and administrators can make that process easier. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) teaches students behavioral expectations by acknowledging and promoting prosocial behavior in order to prevent negative behavior from developing. Naturally, we’re

SEL and PBIS both foster prosocial behaviors, develop important 21st-century skills, and contribute to a positive school culture. But what’s the difference between SEL and PBIS, and how can you make sure you’re taking steps to integrate both into your classroom and school? Aligning SEL and PBIS together will help you create positive, long-term change in students’ attitudes, behaviors, and academic performance. Below are easy ways to help you remember the difference between SEL and PBIS,

PBIS can be a game-changer for the classroom, and teachers and administrators can even prevent bullying with PBIS to improve culture at the school level, too. Using PBIS helps you to promote prosocial behaviors and create an environment where it’s harder for bullying to thrive. Below are useful steps that you can follow to determine the severity of bullying among your students, implement PBIS strategies for assessment and impleme

At Games for Change 2017 in New York, we asked five educators to pick out their favorites from the Marketplace, a show floor that features some of the best game-based learning tools of 2017. Featured in the video are teachers Roy R. Rodriguez, Christian Patenaude, Louis Neglia, Steve Isaacs, and Matthew Farber, along with two students, Leila and Grace Cheo-Isaacs.