List of Articles

• 10 Reasons to Use Heterogeneous Teams

  Why do we advocate mixed teams rather than random teams or homogeneous teams? Here are 10 reasons why your base teams should reflect the diversity you have in your classroom. Read Article

• 12 Tips for Parent-Teacher Conferences

  Whether you have parent conferences coming up, or just finished your conferences, here are a dozen tips to help you make the most of your parent-teacher conferences. Read Article

• 6 Major Transparency or PowerPoint Mistakes

  Regardless of who or what you teach, being aware of and avoiding these 6 common presenter errors will help you deliver that dynamic lesson. Read Article

• 9 Deadly Sins

  So you want to be a dynamic trainer? Standing in your way are 9 deadly sins. Commit just one and it can spell trouble for your training. Learn what the 9 sins are and how to avoid them in your presentations. Read Article

• Are Our Children in Jeopardy?

  Tune into Alex Trebek, er… I mean Vern Minor for a round of Jeopardy. Find out what the achievement gap is, why it has persisted, and, most importantly, what we can do about it. Read Article

• Are You Outstanding?

  What do outstanding teachers and presenters have in common? What makes them so great? Find out what respondents identify as outstanding characteristics. And hear what makes poor teachers and presenters terrible. You might be surprised to learn what students and participants cite as best and worst qualities. How would you rate? Read Article

• Bad Habits and Distractions?

  Do you make your audience dizzy as you flit around the room like a hummingbird on caffeine? Do you twirl your pen like the drum major of a Rose Parade marching band? Or do you, like "umm" I mean, like totally "umm" use more annoying, redundant expressions than a teenager in a tunnel? Use this checklist to analyze your teaching habits and deliver your message, not your distractions. Read Article

• Changing Base Teams

  It’s time to change base teams, but students don’t want to. They’ve formed strong bonds with their teammates and don’t want to be split up. Rick shares the rationale for changing base teams as well as a parting activity that creates closure and gets students ready to form strong bonds with new teammates. Read Article

• Cheers! Honor Their Effort

  Pump up the fun in your classroom or workshop with cheers and praisers. Laurie shares 10 reasons why celebrations enhance learning and offers some of her personal favorite team cheers and praisers. You'll boost attention and motivation with the Team Cheer, Truck Driver, and Boxer. Read Article

• Creating a Supportive Environment through Feedback Forms

  Do have your students fill out feedback forms? If so, you know the power of feedback for validating students, assessing difficulties, and improving the climate. If not, this brief article provides the rationale, sentence starters, and printable feedback forms you can use. Read Article

• Creating School Community

  As we move toward professional learning communities, schools are looking for ways to build staff bonds. Here's a great staffbuilding activity that's easy to do and pays off all year long. Read Article

• Differentiated Instruction with Kagan Structures

  Here's a baker's dozen of DI tips to reach students at every level in your classroom. Provide more onramps onto your curriculum for students who struggle to learn while providing a mentally stimulating curriculum for your advanced learners. Read Article

• Differentiating with Kagan Structures

  How can we differentiate Kagan Structures to make them even more accessible to English Language Learners and special needs students? Kagan Trainer Bill Stater offers 5 specific modifications. Read Article

• Eight Quick Tips for Presenters

  Do you want to make your presentations more lively and more memorable? These quick tips will help you on your way to becoming a Dynamic Trainer. Read Article

• Empowering Transparencies - Are You Great at Show and Tell?

  The overhead projector and transparencies are tools of the teaching and training trade. Pick up some quick tips about transparencies and how they can be used to boost the effectiveness and retention of just about any presentation. Read Article

• Enhancing Learning with Visuals

  Teachers and trainers who use visuals are more effective than those who don't! Laurie recaps the importance of using visual aids while teaching and/or presenting and offers practical tips for making your graphics more effective. Read Article

• Enriching the Environment through Random Teams

  Laurie Kagan describes the importance of the occasional use of random teams and some her favorite ways to create them including: Count Off, Mixed Four, Pairs Pair, Puzzled People, Song Match, Mixed Match, Create a Puzzle, One Stray, Carousel Stray, and GroupEms. Includes blacklines. Read Article

• Find A Partner

  Ever see energy and attention wane in your class? Wish you had a quick, easy way to pick students up without making a Starbucks run? Wish no more. With Find A Partner, your students pair up with different partners to process learning in novel ways. Read Article

• Flip Chart Tips & Tricks

  Laurie Kagan shares flipchart tips and tricks you don't want to miss. Read Article

• Give Me A Signal!

  How do you know if your students really understand you or the content? Laurie Kagan shares Traffic Signals, her new strategy for checking for comprehension. Includes printable blacklines for you to use with your students. Read Article

• It's Not What You Say. It's How You Say It.

  You can improve your audience's perception of you and your presentation without changing a single word. Learn four delivery factors that will improve the total impact of your presentation. Whether you're teaching students or adults, you'll find some valuable advice from an expert trainer and creator of "The Dynamic Trainer," course. Read Article

• Kagan Lesson Planning 101

  How do you plan lessons using Kagan Structures? Laurie offers an intro "course" using a simple lesson framework to plan engaging lessons using interactive structures. The sample lesson plans for language arts, math, and social studies help illustrate how integrating some simple structures can transform any lesson into a highly engaging experience. Read Article

• Laugh A Little

  Humor can enhance your teaching message and learners' perception of you. Learn some tips and tricks to integrate humor into your lessons and presentations even if you're not a comedian. Read Article

• Manage Your Teams Like a Pro

  Kagan Structures involve team work and pair work. Students sit in teams and interact with classmates frequently. To make teamwork work, you need to manage your teams like a pro. This article will show you how. Read Article

• Managing Multi-Step Structures

  Avoid common pitfalls when teaching your students how to use Kagan Structures. Learn how to effectively manage multi-step teaching strategies new to you and your students. Read Article

• Managing Time

  Time management is integral to many Kagan Structures. Laurie previews how to use time management with seven structures to make learning more equal, and to reduce downtime and management problems. Laurie also introduces her two favorite time management tools: the TeachTimer, and TimerTools. Read Article

• Mind Mapping

  Use Mind Mapping in your class or your training. In this article, you will find an assortment of seven sample blackline mind maps:
  1. Learning Maps - Directions for creating Mind Maps.
  2. Me Mind Map - A teambuilding activity with Team Interview.
  3. The Eight Intelligences
  4. The Six Keys to Cooperative Learning - With steps and directions.
  5. Forming Teams
  6. Numbered Heads Together - A one page lesson design to use when teaching this structure.
  7. Blank Structure Mind Map - To fill out when planning a structure lesson.
  Read Article

• Movement, A Must!

  Laurie Kagan briefly describes the connection between movement and learning. She encourages you to add movement to your class or workshops and includes a couple downloadable activities. Read Article

• Multiple Intelligences

  Enhance your trainings by engaging learners' multiple intelligences. Here's a quick checklist of things you can do to activate each intelligence and improve your workshops or seminars. Read Article

• Music Touches the Heart

  Laurie Kagan shares ideas to reach the musical/rhythmic intelligence in classrooms and workshops. She shares "The Structure Limbo," one of her favorite songs sent in by a teacher. Laurie also shares her current favorite CD and collection of heart warming stories, poems, lyrics and anecdotes about the world's most noble profession. It's sure to touch the heart of every educator. Read Article

• Pairing Up

  Many Kagan Structures involve students pairing up. Well, what do you do when kids pass each other up? Rachel offers some helpful tips that will get your kids pairing up like pros. Read Article

• Positive Closure

  Fitting in one more bit of content is not as important as getting good closure on the content taught. Laurie Kagan shares her top four suggestions for creating positive closure for her workshops. Read Article

• Provide Balance: Novelty & Routines

  Brain research tells us novelty is important for attention, motivation, learning. Students like things to be new and fresh. But then, brain research also suggests that the brain seeks patterns and safety created by routines. Do we teach with more novelty or routine? As you likely guessed from the title, we balance the two. Kagan Structures are a practical tool for balancing novelty and routine. Read Article

• Providing Sentence Stems with Kagan Structures

  Communication skills is one of the most important sets of skills teachers want students to acquire. Communication skills are also among the most highly desired workplace skills. However, students are sometimes anxious about how to answer or just don't know how to formulate their responses. Sentence starters to the rescue! Sentence starters help get the communication started. Read Article

• Questions About Questions

  Questions are an integral aspect to any training. Learn the do's and don'ts of asking questions, responding to questions, and receiving questions. Learn how to handle questions to which you don't know the answer, what to say to postpone questions, and what do when no one asks any questions. Any questions? Read on. Read Article

• Random Teams Rock

  Laurie revisits random team formation methods and shares 5 of her current favorites: candy teams, puzzle picture pieces, deck of cards, trading cards, and theme teams. Use random teams to spice up any lesson or training. Read Article

• Same-Side Chat

  Students don't care how much we know until they know how much we care! The same is often true for workshop participants. This simple strategy puts us on the same side as our students and/or participants and reduces disruptive behavior. Read Article

• Slates Are Great!

  Laurie Kagan describes how to increase active participation and learning through the use of slates, mini-chalkboards for students and teams. She provides ideas for using slates with 25 Kagan structures, how to make and store slates, and other classroom uses. Read Article

• Take Time to Process

  How do students learn better: Receiving constant input or receiving input punctuated by breaks for processing the input? You probably guessed it. Taking the time to process reinforces learning. In this article, Laurie Kagan provides ten of her favorite processing ideas you can use with your students. Includes blackline masters. Read Article

• Taking Turns

  Here's a small management tip that makes a big difference. For turn-taking structures, pass around a tangible item so everyone knows whose turn it is. Read Article

• Teacher & Training Tips

  Kagan Structures involve team work and pair work. Students sit in teams and interact with classmates frequently. To make teamwork work, you need to manage your teams like a pro. This article will show you how. Read Article

• Teambuilders, Classbuilders, and Brain Breaks Before You Sit

  Just before students sit back down, sneak in a quick and fun little assignment and watch your class light up. These little Teambuilders, Classbuilders, and Brain Breaks will transform the entire tone of your classroom. Remember, a safe and fun class learns much more! Read Article

• The Bodily/Kinesthetic Learner

  As teachers and trainers, we need to involve all types of learners to make the acquisition of information accessible to everyone. Bodily/Kinesthetic learners learn by touching, feeling, moving, and experiencing. Kinesthetic Symbols is a Kagan Structure to symbolize learning using hand gestures. Enclosed are a few blackline examples for using Kinesthetic Symbols. Read Article

• The Essential Role of the Recorder

  Take a closer look at this important role on the student team and how to use it to engage all students. Read Article

• The Freeze

  Cooler than an ice storm. Easier than baking a pie. Here's a superCOOL strategy to energize any room full of learners. It's a breeze - it's called The Freeze. Read Article

• The Kagan Parent Letter Home

  Here's a downloadable letter you can use to inform parents why you chose to use Kagan in your class. Highlights benefits students get from being more fully engaged in your class. Addresses some parents' concerns of poorly-designed teamwork and how Kagan engages everyone. Download it and make it your own! Read Article

• The Magic of Music

  Bring the magic of music to your classroom. Laurie provides insight to using music for silent reflection, beginning a lesson, closing lessons, and breaks. Read Article

• The Sound of Music

  Music can make the classroom more lively. Music can improve concentration. Music can energize students. Make sure you are playing the right kind of music for the desired outcome. Read Article

• Two Hot Management Tips: Triggering & Bite-Sized Instruction

  Provide crisp instructions with these two management tips. Triggering will keep attention high and interruptions low. Bite-Sized Instruction breaks long instructions into manageable pieces so no one gets lost and everyone's on the same page. Two great tips, especially for teachers who use active teaching strategies. Read Article

• Two Tips from Two Trainers

  Here are two different tips from two Kagan Trainers. The first involves the creation of question cards for some of your favorite structures. The second is a management technique to ensure great teambuilders and classbuilders all year long. Read Article

• Two Tips: Parent Meetings & Class Goals

  Looking for a way to introduce Kagan to parents? Want to create a more cooperative class? Here are two quick tips that inspired a teacher to write about her Kagan successes. Read Article

• Upbeat Music Enhances Your Brain-Friendly Teaching Environment

  Make your classroom or training room a fun place to be with upbeat music. Laurie suggests when upbeat music is most appropriate and shares some of her favorite tunes to play from Kagan's new 3-CD set, Energizing Hits, featuring top hits from the 60's that will get your students or participants moovin' and groovin'! Read Article

• Varying Volumes

  Kagan Structures have students interact. Volume levels can escalate and become a management problem if students lack the skills to adjust their volumes. Use these tips to develop students’ skills to match their volumes to the learning situation. Crank up the interaction, but keep the volume at the right level. Read Article

• Wake Up Your Brain

  Break the stream of content with fun, physical movement to stimulate the brain. Laurie Kagan shares some of her favorite Silly Sports and Goofy Games. Includes printable activities. Read Article

• Want to Be Funny?

  Here are a few quick tips to put humor to work for you. Your students or participants will like and remember your presentation more. And everyone will have more fun, including you! Read Article

• What If Students Have Nothing to Say?

  What do you do if you set students to discuss in pairs or in teams and a student has nothing to share? Here are some great tips to encourage lively discussions on the content and full participation by everyone. Read Article

• Who's On First?

  Whether teaching students or teachers, a constant question remains: Who's on first? That is, who starts? Who starts the discussion? Who starts the team project? Who is the first to answer the first question? Who is the first to share the team's idea with the class? Laurie provides nearly fifty fun and quick ways to determine who's on first. Students and teachers will have more fun, and get to know each other better with these great suggestions. Read Article

• Wonderful Wraps

  Get a checklist for designing the closing moments for each time you train or teach. Planning in advance how to end is the start of lessons that last. Laurie gives you tips and rules she's learned over the course of her accolade-filled career. See how just a short amount of pre-planning on your part will empower your learners to apply what they learn, celebrate their new knowledge, see the big picture, and concentrate on the positive. Read Article