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| Next Steps Discipline A veteran high school teacher narrows down her classroom rules to just three. She developed the rules through class discussion, complete with Next Steps to support them. |
| Modeling Independent Note Taking I model note taking by showing students how to focus on main ideas when writing down their notes. I allow them to use their MacBooks or notebooks, whichever works for them. We have notes... |
| Numerous Numbers Introductions Have the students write a mathematical autobiography where they are to include as many numbers as possible... |
| NIE Mock Vote I recently attended a Newspapers in Education workshop and plan to educate my first grade students in the 2008 presidential campaign and the voting process through newspapers. |
| No More Chalk Dust "An experienced teacher gave me this tip ages ago. For a terrific chalk board cleaner, dab a terry cloth rag with Old English Furniture Polish. |
| No Need to Panic: Make Lists "Making lists helps me to eat the elephant -- one bite at a time. Make two lists covering what you bring to the teaching table: one listing your strong points and another listing your weaknesses. |
| Name Anagrams At the beginning of the year I have my eighth grade science students write an anagram of their name. This helps me get to know them and they seem to enjoy working on this idea of who they are. |
| Name Badges Make Good Hall Passes As an Association leader, I attend a number of state meetings. I have found a use for all the name badges I have received. I re-use them in my classroom as hall passes! On the back of each pass I writ... |
| Name Buttons To learn students' names quickly (and keep them busy while I attend to first day housekeeping chores), I use our school buttonmaker. The children all receive precut circles and design name buttons, ma... |
| Name Labels After I receive my class list, I put each child's name on a label. I print about ten pages of the labels. I use them to put on the front of workbooks, in class books, on folders, and on anything that ... |
| Naming Canes In this holiday writing activity, Ms. Carswell has her students taste-test a variety of gourmet candy canes, write descriptive paragraphs about them, and then rename the candy canes with holiday spirit. |
| National Association of School Psychologists In light of the tragedy in Littleton, Colorado, educators may find valuable information on the National Association of School Psychologists web site, http://www.naspweb.org. If you click on 'What's Ne... |
| Naturally Descriptive This is an excellent way to develop skills in writing descriptive paragraphs. It also addresses the issue of using power words to start sentences. We proudly display the published work in the hall wit... |
| Nature Bracelets In autumn, my students make nature bracelets. Take masking tape and turn it so the sticky side is out and then stick leaves, grass, and flowers to the tape I have done this activity two ways, going ou... |
| Neat Treat Every afternoon at dismissal, I choose a name from a box and then check that student's desk to see if it's neat and clean. If it is, that student receives a 'Neat Treat' to take home. I put that name ... |
| Need a Secretary? I'm a 2nd year teacher and found out the hard way that each teacher really does need their own secretary! I was fortunate enough my first year to have a fabulous Para who helped me keep things straigh... |
| Needs Improvement If tenured teachers in our district receive a 'Needs Improvement' on their yearly evaluation, the administrator must write specific information on what needs to be rectified. For instance, did the tea... |
| New Beginnings An annual poem I have my third graders memorize is a wonderful reminder for the whole year. |
| New Student Reception Every year in September, we have a New Student Reception at our high school. We have a 45-minute tutorial session once a week so we have it during that time. We give the new students a goody bag of li... |
| New Teacher Survival Bag I pack a survival bag for new teachers. I paste sunflowers on a white bag and stuff it with joke items they might need to survive the first week of school. I put in a nail file for the broken nails th... |
| New Teachers Luncheon A colleague and I host a luncheon for new teachers on our first report-to-school day. Our teachers' association supports this by reimbursing the cost. We invite veteran teachers and second year teache... |
| New Year Resolutions I teach 7/8th grade in an K-8 elem. school in Alhambra, California. At the beginning of each new year, I discuss 'resolutions' with my language arts classes. We talk about the benefits of making long-... |
| Newspaper Hunts I do newspaper hunts with the students on Fridays. I get an earlier edition of the paper and compose 10 - 12 questions for the students to answer. It's very easy to level the questions based on the sk... |
| Newspaper Noun Activity My students enjoy newspaper activity days. When I teach nouns, they work in groups to find the different types of nouns (common, proper, collective, compound) in the newspaper, cut them out and tape t... |
| Newspaper Skills After working for 10 years with a sponsor in the Newspapers in Education program, Ms. Arnold has learned a thing or two about using the daily paper supplement her reading, math, science and geography lessons. |
| Newspaper Test Several times a year I buy enough newspapers for my entire class. I draft a test that requires them to use the table of contents on the front of the paper to find the answers quickly. I include questi... |
| No Blue Fingers If you must use transparency markers, wipe them off with a diaper wipe. Get the cheapest ones and not the ones with aloe. I put on rubber gloves and clean away. No blue fingers. No students spraying e... |
| No More Missing Scissors To end the problem of having my supply of student scissors dwindle each year, I devised a permanent method of marking them. I purchased nylon zip-ties (sometimes called cable ties) inexpensively from ... |
| No Names A few years ago I got thoroughly fed up with trying to track down the owners of no-name papers. Now I put a folder on the wall labeled 'NO NAMES'. When grade sheets are passed around (printed by confi... |
| No Whining! To cure students in my classroom who are chronic whiners, I have made a Whine Cup. This is NOT an award they want sitting on their desk. It consists of a plastic trophy cup to which I have added sever... |
| Noise Level Music Mr. Pilkenton has a simple harmonious solution to quiet his students and get their attention. One swoop on his harmonica and his students stop what they are doing. |
| Noise Thermometer Ms. Reich monitors the Noise Temperature in her classroom with a giant thermometer and a bit of red Velcro mercury. With this device on display for the whole class, students monitor their own behavior and work cooperatively to keep noise levels down. |
| Noisy Writing I came up with an easy way to help young writers remember to start each sentence with a capital letter and to use punctuation at the end. During their writing time they can make noise! They may beep w... |
| Non-Embarrassing Discipline I have discovered ways of enforcing discipline without disrupting the class or embarrassing the student. First I give a look, move towards, or deliver a note the student. If that does not work, I fill... |
| Non-English Speaking Parents To communicate with parents who don't speak English and are not literate in their language, I ask our school's ESOL Facilitator for that particular language to record my message on a cassette to send ... |
| Not Acceptable Here's my rule for make up: I don't accept it. Make up work actually punishes the teacher by having to grade and manage papers out of sequence. It also sends a message to the students who do their wor... |
| Note Exchange I offer a 'note exchange' because many students have difficulties with fine motor skills and auditory processing. Students need to practice note taking skills in preparation for high school, but they ... |
| Notes of Thanks It's sometimes difficult for high school students to express love and appreciation to the adults in their lives so I developed an assignment to help. Just before Thanksgiving, I instruct my students t... |
| Nouns and Verbs These songs were created to teach a fourth grade collaborative language arts class. We enhance our appearance with anything we can find in the music teacher's storage closet. The top hats and sequin b... |
| Novel Bookmarks My students have difficulty with comprehension and sequential events when reading novels. They use an index card marked with the chapter they're reading as their bookmark. On the card, they jot down o... |
| Numbered Non-Consumables Everything in my room that is non-consumable and used by the children has a number on it. All the students are assigned a number at the beginning of the year and they use the same numbered non-consuma... |
| Numbers Bee I play a game with my students that I call Numbers Bee. Like a Spelling Bee, the students line up and take turns answering, but instead of hearing a word and spelling it, I write a number on the board... |
| Numerical Order In my grading program, all my students are listed alphabetically. It was time-consuming to either a) enter in grades as they lay in the stack, moving up and down my computer screen searching for the c... |
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