Mary Dwyer, a 5th Grade English Language Arts teacher at Nicholas Oreko School in New Jersey, explains how to add excitement to the class during a not-so-exciting lesson. She explains that ŇhooksÓ and short breaks provide students with a physical release that then helps them get back to the mental focus needed.Some of Ms. Dwyers tips and tricks include simply standing up and taking deep breaths and having students give a drum roll on their desks.

Lila Gray instills her own love of poetry in her students by encouraging them to write original works and finding poems that express who they are. Her weekly open mic sessions create a perfect venue for building confidence and helping students find their voice while still hitting core standards and learning lifelong skills.

Percussionist Steven Angel has developed an innovative program that uses rhythm to help struggling students improve their reading fluency and comprehension. Deceptively simple -- a facilitator taps out a basic rhythm while students read aloud -- the method relaxes students, helps them focus, and is effective in after-school intervention programs as well as traditional classrooms.

Using continual feedback and a problem solving process, high school computer programming students design educational video games for a class of fifth grade students. Their programming teacher, Ben Chun, leads students through a process that begins with interviewing the students and involves constant feedback and revision to ultimately create a video game that is both fun and educational. Striving to model a real world situation as closely as possible, Mr. Chun requires students to interview both students and the teacher regarding learning objectives and standards, interests and video games they are already playing to create a design that is personalized and appropriate for students. As they go through the week long process, students work in teams of three to brainstorm ideas and assign roles involving programming, art and project management. All students are involved in the actual design process and end up producing games that are both responsive to students needs and engaging. At one point during the design process, the fifth grade class visited the school to provide feedback for prototypes so that final refinement and improvements could be made.

Through Jim Sill's three TV and video classes, high school students learn a variety of video production skills. In the Introduction to Video Production class, students work on cross-curricular projects. They learn how to use equipment, write and edit scripts, and collaborate to produce videos. In the TV broadcasting class, students produce a news show that is watched across the school. In the Advanced Video Production class, students work with companies and non-profits in the community to produce videos. Through all of Jim's classes, students learn real-world skills as they collaborate to create innovative videos.

Fifth graders in Donna Migdol's class work collaboratively to create a roller coaster with the longest ride so that a marble can get to end of the roller coaster without falling off. The class begins by "chiming," talking about their design ideas and building off of each other's thoughts. After discussing their plans, students construct individual sketches of their roller coasters. The groups then come together to discuss their ideas, construct group sketches, and make computer simulations of their roller coasters. After coming up with solid plans for their roller coasters, the groups construct their roller coasters using a variety of materials, testing and redesigning as necessary.

Debbie Clark's 8th grade science students take several days to complete their Rube Goldberg contraptions. Bringing things from home, they experiment with the parts, design their contraption, and make a blueprint for it before beginning to build. This is a lesson that emphasizes cooperation, teamwork, creativity and design.

This 1-minute video demonstrates a method of energizing students between long periods of focused work time. It uses a little goofiness with the goal of establishing focus in the classroom.

Instructional expert Jim Knight observes Wendy HopfŐs Language Arts classroom to offer feedback on her management of transitions between tasks as well as time management. Ms. Hopf involves studentsŐ in thinking about how long an activity or task should take and how long it actually takes. This reflection helps the students be more self-aware of what they are or are not accomplishing.Ms. Hopf also implements hand signals to provide a method of communication between her and the students without interrupting the lesson. The class uses simple hand signal of 1, 2, or 3 fingers to indicate to Ms. Hopf if they need to sharpen their pencil or go to the rest room. Ms. Hopf can then continue with the lesson and easily decide if now is the appropriate time for the student to address his or her need or if the student should wait.

In this teaching instruction video students engage in discussion with this strategy for interaction.

Instructional expert Jim Knight visits Michael Covarrubias to observe a lesson on context clues, discuss the classroom management techniques he is using already, and share some ideas to increase student engagement. Michael and Jim discuss emphasizing effort, getting students attention before asking questions, using response cards, and planning back-up activities.

A team of educators from Urban Academy Laboratory High School in New York City share their perspective about the teacher's role in an inquiry based classroom. Central to this process is the idea that a teacher is a facilitator and supports student development of ideas using evidence. Student voice is valued and used to encourage students' critical thinking. Throughout this development of ideas, teachers also play a critical role in building a culture of respect through honoring student ideas and using them to develop and inform other perspectives.

Requiring students to preview a topic prior to discussing a difficult text or challenging topic aids student comprehension and allows for deeper discussion. In this activity, 8th grade students respond in writing to quotes from a book independently and then rotate from one quote to another responding to additional quotes or student responses.Students share their thoughts and predictions during a whole class discussion using quotes to support their thinking. Individual reflection closes the lesson and prepares students for the next days reading by asking students to predict the theme or storyline based on the quotes and class discussion.

Kindergarten students at Apsire Berkley Maynard Academy learn to manage their needs and respect instructional time using visual cues and a list of criteria for making decisions about whether or not to interrupt the teacher.Mary Wajid wears a flower necklace to signal students that important instructional time is occurring. She then describes the 3 Bs: barfing, burning and bleeding and how she uses them to help manage interruptions and protect this instructional time. The 3 Bs give students a tool for assessing their needs and only interrupting learning when an emergency is occurring.

In this 2-minute video a fifth grade teacher discusses the use of hand signals to encourage active listening and to help facilitate conversations. She has her students use two distinct signals to signify if they have something to add to what has already been said or if they have something new to say.

Ms. Shawn is a new teacher, but lucky to have coaches and mentors at her school site. Dr. Royce visits to evaluate one of Ms. Shawns lessons. Her coach works with her over the course of two weeks before Dr. Royce returns to see a second lesson. See the growth in Ms. Shawns instruction in just two weeks.

7th Grade Math Teacher Chris McCloud from the School of the Future in New York explains how he talks to students about lost class time and how a few minutes each day adds up to a lot of time over a week or a month. He quantifies wasted time doodling or not being focused for 5 minutes in 1 class period to losing 100 minutes in a month, which comes to about 2 full class periods lost in a month.

Fifth graders in Ms. Noonans class earn and lose points based on their individual and group behavior throughout the day. Students measure progress using a number line, which reinforces not only the desired behavior but also the manipulation of points on a number line.Ms. Noonan gives examples of desired behaviors that she measures with the number line and shares how students move points up and down on the number line as they earn and lose points based on their behavior.

High school teacher Peter McIntosh has his students use Khan Academy to practice math concepts. While the students work on computers, Peter circulates around the room and gives extra help to the students who need it. By using Khan Academy, students are motivated to practice math independently. This independent practice is possible because students are able to access hints and get extra help while working on their own. By using "coach mode" of Khan Academy, Peter is able to assess his students' learning through a variety of measures. Peter explains how using Khan Academy has increased student engagement and achievement.

Ms. Castellano and Ms. Wielopolski see art as an expression of student lives and leverage that expression to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. Viewing art as a set of conscious decisions, both teachers ask students to explore and experiment with artistic elements such as color, texture, space and technique, making decisions about use of these elements purposefully. This experience is different for students because they must think critically and plan around a subject that is non-linear in nature.Emphasis is placed on the importance of the arts in developing traditionally academic skills and ideas, making connections to studentsŐ ability to think analytically, write and understand poetry and express ideas verbally and in writing as a result of this learning.