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.

A teacher uses self-assessment as a formative practice within the classroom. Students self-assess their writing with a stop light system: green (confident with first draft), yellow (unsure and wants clarification), or red (needs support) based on a writing exemplar. Next, they partner with a student with an opposite color to provide feedback or obtain feedback. Finally students use the feedback to revise their writing.

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 lesson, students deepen their understanding of the measurement of plane and solid shapes and use this understanding to solve problems. Students also identify and describe the properties of two-dimensional figures. Students are challenged to set a table for 22 using one unit lengths of paper (each unit length represents one student sitting at the table). They are asked to pretend that they all want to sit together for a dinner, and the table has to be rectangular. They must figure out what the table will look like if it must be rectangular and if everybody must sit at the table. They must determine what's the biggest table going to look like where everybody sits, and what's the smallest table going to look like where everybody sits. Students work to conceptually figure out relationships between perimeter and area in a creative and interactive way. They brainstorm ideas in groups, discuss as a class to determine the best options, and then physically set the two tables using strips of paper that represent "one unit" in length per person.

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.

The aim of this lesson is to help students learn the process of subtracting integers through a real world discovery activity. By the end of the lesson students should be able to:
Discover a rule for subtraction integersApply the rule they discover to subtract integers with like signsApply the rule they discover to subtract integers with different signs
Students use double sided chips to manipulate "cold cubes" and "hot cubes" in order to solve the "Chefs Amazing Soup" problem. Students are asked to add and/or remove "cold cubes" and "hot cubes" to adjust the temperature of the soup and discover rules for subtracting integers in the process.

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.

This lesson unit is intended to help you assess how well students are able to:

Recognize and visualize transformations of 2D shapes.
Translate, reflect and rotate shapes, and combine these transformations.

It also aims to encourage discussion on some common misconceptions about transformations.
Introduction

The lesson unit is structured in the following way:

Before the lesson, students work individually on an assessment task that is designed to reveal their current understandings and difficulties. You then review their work, and create questions for students to consider in order to improve their solutions.
After a whole-class introduction, students work in small groups on a collaborative task.
In a whole-class discussion, students review the main mathematical concepts of the lesson.
Students return to their original task, and try to improve their own responses.

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.