Big Little Things

50 Tools for Building a Better Classroom

Ron Nash

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2024
• Edition: 2
• eBook ISBN:
  9781475874679
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Classroom Management

Having observed and coached in hundreds of K-12 classrooms since 1994, Ron Nash has come to a few conclusions about what makes teachers tick and classrooms click. The best teachers attend to those seemingly little things that cost nothing, even as they create classroom climates where students can't wait to walk through the door every day. The big little things that great teachers do have students up, moving, pairing, sharing, laughing, and learning in an atmosphere full of trust, respect, and high expectations. Great teachers are obsessed with continuous improvement. This second edition of Big Little Things highlights 50 tools for building better classrooms at all levels.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Easy Doesn’t Do It
• 2 Providing Choice
• 3 “But I Told Them!”
• 4 Congruence
• 5 The Fear Factor
• 6 Reassuring Redundancies
• 7 Everyone in the (Learning) Pool
• 8 The Lighter Side
• 9 “You in the Yellow Shirt!”
• 10 Trigger the Calm
• 11 Model and Teach Effective Listening Skills
• 12 The Best Is (Often) Silence
• 13 Press and Release
• 14 Kids Gotta Move
• 15 Perma Pairs
• 16 Choosing Partners
• 17 Priming
• 18 Whole-Class Discussions
• 19 Have at It!
• 20 Process-Related Dipstick Checks
• 21 Reflective Learners
• 22 Purposeful and Thoughtful Praise
• 23 The Smooth Shifting of Transitional Gears
• 24 Avoid Unnecessary Decisions
• 25 Transfer Skills to the Collaborative Setting
• 26 Provide Easy Access to Complex Tasks
• 27 The First Few Minutes
• 28 Last Impressions
• 29 That’s the Plan
• 30 If the Font Fits, Share It
• 31 Visuals Always Win: (Make That Work for You!)
• 32 Attention to Voice
• 33 Arms Control
• 34 Hitting the Right Notes
• 35 As You Were
• 36 Bringing Them Back
• 37 One-at-a-Time Directions
• 38 Avoid Competing with the Lawnmower
• 39 Teach Students to Paraphrase for Understanding
• 40 The Two-Minute Drill
• 41 Connecting with Stories
• 42 Getting Better at Getting Better
• 43 Tolerate Ambiguity and Encourage Questions
• 44 Harness the Power of Novelty
• 45 Physical and Mental State Changes
• 46 Avoid the Blame Game
• 47 Those Too Busy to Complain
• 48 The Extra Mile
• 49 The Power of Collaboration
• 50 Looking Back at Those Who Look Forward
• Afterword
• References
• Index