"When the school year begins, teachers spend a lot of time getting the classroom ready, planning lessons, and getting to know his/her students. The following list includes 20 ideas that you may not have thought of in terms of a successful classroom arrangement or organization.
Each item takes no longer than an hour and can make a big difference throughout the year."
This post comes out of Australia, and the school year begins in February...so for some of us this may be a bit late (or very early) but the 20 quick actions they suggest may still be of use this year. Several of the ideas are listed below. Each is explained in more detail in the post and in some cases links are provided for additional resources.
Action #1 Set up your classroom in an “active learning” format (15-30 minutes).
Action #5 Develop a plan for quieting the class (10 minutes a day for a few days)
Action #9 Create a list of “question words” that help you with effective questioning (10 minutes) (This one has a link to a resource on how to practice effective questioning.)
Action #20 Use a learning styles assessment (1 hour)
Check out the post for the 16 additional suggestions.