School Classroom

  With students constantly distracted by social media, tablets and phones, the right teaching aids are an essential part of every good teacher’s toolkit. Smart Interactive Whiteboards Today, interactive whiteboards are a world away from where they were even two years ago. You can certainly do all the usual tricks – like write digital notes

  By Amy Fuller-Belding Watching children of all ages engaged in their natural curiosity is exciting. It is as if you can see the wheels of learning turning and developing simultaneously. Engaged learning varies from successful stacking of storage containers to creating an animal made of clay to reaching a target with the fishing pole.

  By Sara McGuire Visual aids for learning can have a huge impact on how students retain information. While words can be abstract and hard to retain, visuals tend to be more concrete and easier to recall. Plus, when information is presented visually, it’s a lot more engaging! Visual aids for learning can also expand

  In addition to adding color to a classroom, defining classroom goals and policies, and showcasing student work, bulletin boards can be interactive teaching tools. Bulletin boards can be “another teacher” in your classroom. Bulletin board displays that change periodically to reflect new lessons help visual learners better understand new material, reinforce new words and

  By Sam Nord Sometimes a change of scenery really does make a positive difference. During the pandemic, many schools moved lunch periods, classes, and meetings outdoors to provide better ventilation and more space for teachers and students to gather. While administrators’ primary intentions in moving events outside may have been to keep people physically

  By Stephanie Standley Traditional classrooms were designed around the lecturer with the chalkboard as the focal point. Rows and rows of neatly aligned desks created a comforting and predictable order. This arrangement cut down on chit chat and established routine. Rules, well, ruled. Classrooms typically had a structured approach that reflected the goals of

  By Gary Goldberg The use of school uniforms has been on the rise. According to the most recent National Center for Education Statistics, between 2000 and 2017, the number of schools requiring uniforms climbed 8%, for a total of 20% of U.S. schools requiring uniforms for the 2017-2018 school year. In strictly business terms,

  By Bari Gersten The pandemic has transformed the way we work and learn. As educators who are committed to preparing students to enter the workforce, it makes sense that the way we teach has also changed since the pandemic. The past 18 months have reinforced the need for every student to have their own

  By Melissa Potter Reminiscing about the first days of kindergarten or elementary brings that familiar song back, the one that includes this line: “…we’re all in our places with bright shining faces.” What a difference a few decades have made. As classroom teachers and instructional leaders have planned for the opening of schools in

  By Dr. Dieter Breithecker Learning, working, and living spaces have a long-term impact on our physical, mental, and social well-being. This underscores the important role spaces and furnishing play in meeting our basic physiological needs. As humans, we come equipped with highly specialized sensory organs (like eyes and ears), and those which are located

  By Eileen Roybal Surviving the “EdVenture” that was 2020 lands stakeholders in a unique situation to take advantage of an opportunity to reimagine learning spaces. Choosing the proper desking and seating is a great place to start. Desks and chairs are often the first things people notice when entering an educational space. And, after

  By Alicia Springer It’s no secret that students in classrooms today learn differently than they did in the past. It has become more apparent the needs of the learner are becoming increasingly diverse, which makes the necessity of creating flexible learning environments even more critical. As an educator yourself, you’ve likely been in an

  By Kalena Baker I really don’t know what I would have done if I had to teach in a time before whiteboards and markers. They were essential to my classroom – so essential that they are one of my 9 Must-Haves for Upper Elementary Teachers. We didn’t just use them on a daily basis

  Schools are a great leveler. Students have the same desk, work together in the same classrooms, and use the same facilities and technologies on campus. On the other hand, students without access to ideal or sufficient set-ups at home can often find digital learning less productive and more troublesome than going to school in

  By Eileen Roybal Maintaining a safe and clean learning environment is more important now than ever before. For so long, the trend in education was collaborative, hands-on learning. Now, to keep students and staff safe, learning spaces will simply have to look differently. Hopefully, for the sake of encouraging biophilia – the idea that

  By John Stein In the COVID-19 world, the necessity for educational facilities to prioritize student wellness is more relevant than ever, as good design has become a literal health issue—where strategic square footage, hygienic surfaces and materials, and proper social distancing solutions are fundamentally important to ensure learners (and their educators) remain in good

  By Jane Shepherd It’s no surprise that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about enormous changes to the everyday lives of people across the globe. When it comes to the education system, classrooms, hallways, extracurriculars and even buses will be modified with social distancing and cleanliness regulations in place to ensure that people stay as

  By Denise Rice It is no secret that the key to student success is like a puzzle. Many pieces must fit together for optimal success. Students must have a desire and drive to succeed. It’s helpful when parents walk alongside both the school and the student providing help and support as needed. And the

  By Joe Oswald Without a strong vocabulary, a person’s educational and employment opportunities are limited, especially in today’s fast-paced, competitive, and global society. With study after study showing the correlation between an extensive vocabulary and higher socio-economic status, the need for a strong vocabulary has never been more important. A March 11, 2010, article

  By Trenton Goble Changing our perspective on assessments can take them from a time-consuming necessity to a useful resource to provide pathways to a better future in academia. Scary evaluations are a thing of the past. In a school atmosphere where evaluations are seen as roadmaps for successful learning, teachers and students both win.

  As the nature of 21st century continues to evolve and change, schools have begun to move away from the traditional classroom and are embracing more modern spaces that support new and innovative ways of learning. Because the physical classroom environment has become an extension of the teacher, choosing classroom furniture is a critical component

  By Steven Weber Every school needs a coherent curriculum. It’s the role of an instructional leader to develop that curriculum. Teachers and administrators can begin to lose sight of that when they focus on local and statewide initiatives, which can easily consume every minute of the day. Beane wrote, “coherent curriculum is one that

  Choosing the best writing surface for your school or classroom can feel overwhelming. It’s a decision that requires both significant investment and consideration, because the surface used can either enhance or detract from the education experience for teachers and students alike. That’s why it’s important to understand the benefits and drawbacks of each surface

As the workforce demands more agile, innovative employees, the skills required from future job seekers are not the same as they once were. Passive learning and industrial education systems are outmoded – they simply won’t facilitate the same level of thinking required for students to succeed in the future. Instead, students today are encouraged to

As a school administrator, you already know that many schools, both private and public, have adopted uniform programs. If your school is not among them, there are plenty of solid reasons why you should consider mandating a uniform for your school. While the idea may not sound exciting at first, many parents and even students

By Wiley Blevins Active. Engaging. Thought-Provoking. What do these words describe? The type of phonics instruction that maximizes the instructional impact of our teaching and increases student learning. Phonics involves learning the relationship between sounds and letters. Approximately 84, of the words in English, can be sounded out using the basic phonics skills commonly taught

Trying to figure out which digital content providers are right for your school is difficult. Though the digital content market is still in its nascent stages, it is already diverse and complex enough to overwhelm many teachers or school leaders who are trying to decide which products to choose. Faced with the prospect of selecting

Is your whiteboard obsolete? The whiteboard has been a staple of the academic environment for decades. Its precursor, the venerable chalkboard, has been a fixture in everywhere from K-12 classrooms to university lecture halls for at least two centuries. Just as the whiteboard’s advantages – ease of manufacture, dust-free use, and lower long-term costs –

Student outcomes are the most relevant factor when it comes to measuring the success of a learning environment. Though classroom design has an important influence on learning achievement, the majority of time is spent on traditional methods of enhancing the learning progress, such as executing standardized tests, professional growth for educators, and advancement or mediation

In the last few years, standing desks have gone from being a novelty to a ubiquitous presence in offices worldwide. For adults, standing desks are the fastest-growing wellness benefit offered by employers. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, 44% of US employers now provide standing desks as a way to improve workers health

By Julie Wenckowski Deliberation about incorporating tablets into the classroom is prevalent. The drive for this change is much closer than we think. As a parent, teacher or administrator, the benefits are clear. Reasons Why We Need Tablets in the Classroom Schools spend $7 billion on textbooks around the country, and most of the books

By Kim Rice Private schools continue to maintain their preference for uniforms over individual dress. This may be due to evidence that school uniforms lead to a happier, healthier school environment where learning is students’ main priority. Improved Academic Performance Even the most casual school uniforms tend to look more modest and professional than the

A recent article outlined the importance of making sure that classroom technology continues to get used rather than sit in the corner. Unused education technology, the author stresses, can be chalked up to poor implementation. There is no question that a poorly executed implementation of a new product can lead to technology going unused. But

By Angela Di Michele Lalor As part of The Unique Animal Kingdom, students explore the question, are all animals the same? During the unit, students develop the understanding that while all animals share common characteristics, each has unique features that set them apart from other animals. Each student chooses an animal that can be found

By Andrew Glasmacher The quest for clear intelligibility in public speaking environments has been around for thousands of years. Modern technology has allowed us to create public-address systems that can cover thousands of arenas, stadiums, even Times Square. Audio engineers spend years learning to tune their systems to provide the best possible intelligibility with a

By Jason Meyer A classroom’s presentation display is often the centerpiece of the room and of instruction. So when it comes to choosing the best display technology, schools should think carefully about what they want to accomplish with the technology, and then choose the best product to fit their needs and their budgets. For example,

How can an educator make an interactive whiteboard even more effective? By pairing it with other classroom technologies and tools! Interactive whiteboards offer a great deal of flexibility with the types of technologies and web-based tools you can pair them with, heightening learning and collaboration. Many educators incorporate iPads and tablets into their lessons, and

Comfort is important for students of all ages, as deep learning requires concentration and attention. When students are distracted by their pain, they’re far more likely to get frustrated with the task at hand and give up. This could potentially cause disruptions that further distract other students in the classroom. That makes ergonomics in the

By Cindy Eggebrecht The way the furniture in a classroom is designed and configured can have a significant effect on how students learn, research suggests—and if you want students to engage in more active learning by working together to solve problems collaboratively, you can actually encourage those behaviors with how you arrange the desks and

When you think about the ingredients for academic success, some of the obvious ones likely spring to mind, like curriculum, teaching style, and individual discipline. While these all play a role, the physical setup of the classroom can be just as important. According to a report from Partnership for the 21 Century Learning (P21), the

By Nickey Pietila From custom-designed solutions to common devices, technology empowers students in special education to reach new heights. Some of the most impactful applications of technology in special education are tailored to specific needs, but ordinary, everyday tech tools also hold great potential. Let’s see how technology, both custom built and commonplace, can be