60-Second Strategies for Educators

Explicitly teaching and celebrating kindness is a simple yet powerful way to build a positive classroom culture.

When kids explain their mathematical thinking to their peers, they learn there’s more to math than just the right answer.

Nurture a positive, supportive atmosphere in your classroom with fun and fast peer shout-outs.

When students help each other in the classroom, they gain confidence and independence—and you get to keep on teaching.

A simple activity can help preschoolers better understand boundaries and learn to be gentle when it comes to physical contact.

This quick exercise scaffolds peer critique for elementary students.

Looking for an easy way to ensure all voices are heard in your classroom? Try equity sticks.

A short contemplative exercise can help students calm themselves and get ready to learn.

When teachers make their teaching and learning goals clear to their class, every activity has a purpose and every student understands what they’re doing.

This fun classroom activity helps students find their voice by teaching the basics of debate in an accessible way.

By making small goal setting part of the everyday routine, teachers help students build the skills they need to achieve larger and longer-term objectives.

An opening and closing exercise where every student contributes is a way to ensure that they all feel seen and heard in the classroom.

This simple activity helps students practice giving and receiving peer feedback—and gets them out of their desks.

When students need to get their wiggles out so they can settle down to learn, this fun movement-based brain break does the trick.

A quick formative assessment tool also encourages all students—even shy ones—to participate in discussions.

Demystify math word problems with this easy technique that helps kids see the story beyond the numbers.

Improve the quality of class discussions by giving young kids a checklist of key things to look for when their peers talk.

When students take charge of their own feedback, they learn to work with others in the room—and not just their friends.

An active math warm-up that is inclusive and fun puts students in a positive frame of mind—and gets them ready to learn.

When time is up at the end of a lesson, there’s one last question teachers can ask to get students to reflect on their work—and how they’d improve next time.

A simple strategy encourages students to give their full attention when listening to others.

Giving students randomly assigned roles in their group work helps ensure that they all participate.

An easy, fair way to manage multiple students' needs when they’re working independently or in groups.

Looking for a way to get your students writing—fast? Try a low-stakes timed exercise.

A face-to-face chat provides an alternative for students who struggle to show what they know on tests.

An intentional greeting at the door forges a strong teacher-student bond.

A quick way to get students talking positively about their peers’ work—and thinking about how they might improve their own.

This simple technique can help ease students’ anxiety about sharing out in class—and make it more fun.

Providing the active listeners in the outer ring of a Socratic circle a way to jump in with their burning questions and comments keeps all students engaged.

Getting students up on their feet and solving problems together helps build engagement—and stronger math thinkers.

With a series of quick check-ins, students can assess their own learning—which lets teachers plan their next lesson with ease.

When middle school students play an improvisation game that encourages a bit of silliness, they get more comfortable with each other and themselves.

Transforming a mundane task like roll call into a chance to connect and share a moment with students makes the start of class more joyful.

This quick warm-up sharpens critical thinking—students wrestle with moral and ethical questions while also gaining communication and writing skills.

Getting content to stick can actually be fun if you use a quick and energetic activity to review the material.

A discussion technique based on peer feedback helps students delve into complex texts and develop communication skills.

A basic pen-and-paper warm-up activity helps teachers see that students are on track in a self-paced blended learning classroom.

With a simple discussion activity that gets every learner in the class speaking and listening, teachers can help students boost conversation skills—and develop their opinions.

A quick, low-key way to build community in your classroom on a daily basis.

Following discussions with a short reflection exercise helps students sharpen their speaking and listening skills.

An active, fun classroom activity fosters open dialogue while releasing pent-up energy.

For anyone who’s ever wondered, “How do I get their attention back in a 1:1 environment?”

A strategy for using a quick, whole-class reflection on content as a verbal exit ticket.

Having staff stand for meetings keeps them tight—15 minutes, max—and efficient.

The team competition is fierce in this informal assessment activity, in which students have to work together to win.

By giving each student a job to do when tackling complex text, teachers help ensure that students actually understand what they are reading.

Differentiated levels of “heat” for these math worksheets mean every student starts class feeling both challenged and accomplished.

In this formative assessment game, table groups compete against each other to categorize key terms and concepts from the previous night’s assignment.