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In this video, Becky Ramirez from Odessa, Texas talks about a great idea she’s implemented in her classroom – student-built learning stations! Often we think of station teaching as a strategy for teaching elementary school students. I’ve always encouraged teachers to use stations for classes at every grade level, and Becky’s use of stations with her freshman English classes is a great example – with a “novel” twist.

Becky’s class is split into groups; as they work through a unit, each group puts together a station for their fellow students on an assigned portion of the material. One of the rules – and I think this is one of the most important things in implementing stations in the classroom – is that the Center must not be a worksheet. The point of station teaching is getting students involved with the material in unique ways, and worksheets just aren’t effective in engaging students.

Once the stations are ready, each group rotates to work on the activities at the other groups’ centers. Becky’s class had come up with some great ideas for stations; “I’ve had vocabulary quilts, I’ve had timed quizzes, we’ve had Twister with different things, Monopoly-based games on short stories.”

Like all group activities, grading can be a challenge. In Becky’s class, goals for each station are established from the beginning. Once students have finished their stations and visited each of the other stations, the class discusses each station’s activity, pointing out the things they really enjoyed and learned from and providing constructive ideas for how the stations could be more effective. Students grade each others’ work as well as their own, and the final grades take into account how well the students worked together in their groups. As new students come into the classroom, they see examples of previous students’ work so they know what’s expected of them when they create their own stations.

Many teachers don’t implement stations because they can take a considerable amount of time – and creativity – to put together. By allowing students to teach each other by constructing centers for their classmates, this burden is lifted and students become much more deeply engaged with the material as they think up ideas to teach their classmates. As Becky says, “Their ideas are much better than anything I could have come up with, and they love it because they’re ‘owning’ their products.”

In our November newsletter, we offered some examples of ways to motivate students by including them actively in the learning process. Some of my seminar participants have offered additional strategies for motivating students.

One thing teachers can do to keep students enthusiastic is to offer rewards. Ricki Miller uses a bubblegum machine filled with plastic containers. Each container has a slip of paper with a reward such as “sit with a friend for a day,” “homework pass,” etc. The students earn “coins” for chances at the gum machine.

Even the driest topic can be made fun by “acting out” the concepts being taught. For example, when Karen McKibbin of Niles High School in Michigan is teaching States of Matter, she arranges the desks in the shape of a beaker. Then all the students stand inside and behave as particles of a solid, liquid, or gas. The teacher provides the energy to change the particles to a different state.

The possibilities for turning real world situations and current events into a lesson are endless. A journalism teacher that didn’t give us their name teaches about interviewing by “acting out” a press conference. They play the part of the person being interviewed and the students practice being reporters. Then they write an article or press release based on the content of the press conference.

We all know one. Whether it’s in the classroom or the office, there’s always (at least) one person who can’t sit still and, when forced to stay in one place, taps a pen on any available surface. For some people, listening to this day in and day out can be the equivalent of torture. But there’s an easy solution, and you’ll find it at your local dollar store!

Susie Hanes from Odessa High School was struggling with a chronic pen tapper when she came to my seminar. I work with a lot of teachers who have students with AD(H)D, and I always encourage them to allow students to funnel their energy in productive ways. Whether it’s coloring a mandala or providing quiet “fidget tools,” there are several outlets you can provide your students.

But what about that pen tapper? I suggested a simple solution – sponge curlers. Wrapping the sponge curler around the offending pen stops the noise. Once her other students saw the sponge curler, they all wanted one, so Susie put a supply of them on her desk for students to pick up at the beginning of class and drop off as they left. As Susie says, “It sounds so small, but it made such a difference in my kid’s and in my environment. Made me happy, made other students happy, life was great. Simple but great.”

We spent the day discussing teaching strategies and ways to involve all learners in the classroom. At the end of the full day session, Dr. Twomey got up and endorsed the ideas I had spoken about.  He expressed his desire to see the strategies that we covered actually being implemented in the classroom and was so passionate about that desire that he offered an incentive to his staff.  He asked that teachers nominate each other and identify who they saw actually using strategies to differentiate instruction in their classrooms. He promised that he would have periodic drawings  to recognize and reward those teachers for implementing strategies learned in the session.

I  learned late last week that Dr. Twomey had just awarded a FREE day off to each of three outstanding teachers (one from each district campus).  I’m not talking about extra prep time, or a sick day.  This administrator awarded each of these outstanding teachers a day off, with pay, and no strings attached!

So often administrators fail to follow through, or simply don’t know how to support their teachers, or motivate them to be the best teachers that they can be.   I could not pass up the opportunity to recognize Dr. Twomey and the tenacious support he offers his teachers and, in turn, the students of Havana School District 126.

Congratulations to Wendy Saylor, Music Teacher at New Central Elementary, Janet Barker, 5th Grade Teacher at Havana Middle School, and Barb Ramsey, Chemistry Teacher at Havana High School for their hard work and dedication to good teaching!

Jan teaches GED courses for adults at a local community college. In her first class after attending the seminar, she was planning on starting a new unit on Social Studies. “One of the things I’m hoping to start right away is to have the students work together to create some of their own mnemonic techniques,” she told me. Laughing, she commented that “I think [the students] are going to enjoy that more than always listening to me!”

Most of the time, when we consider techniques and strategies for the classroom, we think in terms of elementary, middle, and high school. But these strategies can be used anywhere learning takes place, including at the college level – and even in the corporate world, where “students” go through workplace training and continuing education.

Then there are the days where the audience is overwhelmingly extroverted and there’s a low rumble in the background all day. Extroverts process their learning by talking their process. I do get complaints on these days that some audience members can’t hear. Of course, I’m an extrovert, so these days are very energizing for me. I have tons of energy flying around the room to keep me going!

I taught high school for most of my career. I also taught a third/fourth grade, did some work through my Master’s program with second, fourth and fifth grade and did anger management work with middle school as well as high school students. Now that I teach adult learners much of the time, I’m fascinated at how the personality of learners creates the same dynamic in any learning environment, regardless of the age of the learner. It reminds me every day of the key question teachers ask themselves, “How do I reach every learner in my classroom?” I have tremendous respect for how hard teachers have to work to create a successful learning environment for all learning styles.

I got some fantastic strategies and tips from my audience today. Given the hour, I plan to collect the tips this week and post them next week when I’m back in the office for a few days. Please check back for some very cool strategies, tips and resources from the trenches.