Creative Teacher
If You Had Only One Behavior Strategy to Use in Your Classroom, What Would It Be?
By: Jon Konen | Sep 26, 2022
If you had only one behavior strategy to use in your classroom, what would it be?
This question is nonsensical as we all know it takes several strategies to be an effective teacher, but what strategy works most frequently?
Being a former teacher and principal, and now a superintendent, I have spent my career working to increase the number of tools in all my toolboxes. Whether that ...
6 Questions to Tackle in Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport
By: Jon Konen | Oct 24, 2017
Have you seen the magic between the best teachers and the most difficult students? It seems these teachers know how to connect and correct behavior through positive and meaningful conversations. As an administrator, you want to video these interactions and hit “play” for others to see the subtleness, yet effective ...
11 Ways to Make Every Student an Engaged Learner
By: Amy Konen | Oct 23, 2017
When I went back into the classroom, I found myself having an easier time with behaviors, creating my learning environment, and keeping myself and my students organized. As a first year teacher 24 years ago, these were the areas that kept me up at nights and became objects of my ...
The Love Hate-Relationship and 10 Types to Use Effectively
By: Amy Konen | Sep 8, 2017
Now that we are back to school, have you noticed that even on Day 3 those fidget tools have started turning up in your classrooms? How could they already need a tool, you are asking. It is only the third day of school, how could they possibly need a break? ...
Top Ten English Language Arts Lesson Plan Makers on TeachersPayTeachers.com
By: Kylie Hall | May 22, 2017
If you are a teacher at the secondary level and you haven’t at least explored using Teachers Pay Teachers, you are making a mistake. The website is a marketplace full of teachers and educators from around the country who share lesson plans, activity guides, original quizzes and much more. For ...
The Best Teaming Rubric Out There: How Would You Score Your Team?
By: Jon Konen | Nov 19, 2016
What does teaming look like in your school? Making this concrete for teacher teams may be difficult, but let’s put it into a rubric. Defining what good “teaming” looks like as a staff is powerful. Mix these criteria with high expectations from administration and you have the tools for a ...
8 Steps to Start a Power of Praise Program
By: Jon Konen | Oct 15, 2016
Do you spend more time calling parents on a student’s bad behavior or good behavior? If I could give one piece of advice for new teachers, new administrators, or other educators wanting to change the culture of their school or classroom, it would be to start a Power of Praise ...
5 Components to a Great Weekly Lesson Plan
By: Jon Konen | Oct 7, 2016
What are the five most important components that should be in every lesson plan? Can you make your list with just five components? I think it can be done, even though Madeline Hunter may tell you there are more. In fact, a Madeline Hunter lesson plan includes these seven components¹:
Materials/Resources ...
9 Ideas You Can Use Without Taking Away Recess
By: Jon Konen | Sep 28, 2016
Missing recesses has come under fire recently and rightly so! All the latest brain research in the past decade proclaims increases of academic success are directly related to a student’s physical activity level. Some schools are even going to four recesses per day. In my school most students receive three ...
5 Strategies to Teach Children Patience That My Dad Taught Me
By: Jon Konen | Aug 8, 2016
Can you teach patience? I think you can! Having an amazing dad that is the epitome of patience has taught me a lot. Staff members wonder why I don’t get rattled when a kid yells, screams, or even tries to throw stuff at me when they are frustrated. It goes ...
Not 400:1, But 400 1:1s – 21 Tips to Form Strong Kid Relationships
By: Jon Konen | Jul 29, 2016
Ratios can be valuable pieces of data, if used correctly. Math gets in our way sometimes of seeing what truly is meaningful in education. We track assessment data, individual education plans, and even formative data on how students respond in science classes. The data we can’t track are the intangibles, ...