7 Engaging Ron Clark Academy Techniques to Energize Your Elementary Classroom

Are you looking to create an energized and dynamic learning environment in your elementary classroom? Look no further than the Ron Clark Academy! Known for its innovative and engaging teaching techniques, the Ron Clark Academy provides valuable insights that can transform your classroom into a hub of excitement and learning.

In this blog post, I'm going to share seven techniques that I learned during my visit to the Ron Clark Academy that will bring new life to your elementary classroom. Let's dive in!

The Power of Music and Movement:

The Ron Clark Academy is full of music and movement! You can check out some of their videos here.

You can tap into the natural energy of your elementary students by incorporating music and movement into your lessons. Use catchy tunes, songs, or even simple chants to make learning more memorable and enjoyable. Incorporate movement activities like dance breaks, physical gestures, or interactive games to keep your students engaged and active throughout the day.

We love to start out our day with a morning song like this one:

Math Fact Relay Game

We also love playing this math fact relay game to add movement to our math practice! I have a ton of math games on my YouTube channel.

Other music and movement resources to check out:

Teaching and So Fourth has a ton of songs that she's already written that you can use.

Teach With Mr. C has some great skip-counting songs!

Scoot Games are a great way to get your kids up and moving!

Interactive Learning Stations:

Transform your classroom into a vibrant hub of learning by setting up interactive learning stations. Create various stations where students can explore different concepts, work collaboratively, and engage in hands-on activities. These stations can include art corners filled with art supplies and color-by-number activities, science experiments, reading nooks, or even a mini-museum. Rotating stations regularly keeps the learning environment fresh and exciting.

Passion Projects:

Encourage your students to pursue their passions and interests by implementing the concept of passion projects. Allow students to choose a topic or theme they are passionate about and provide them with the time and resources to research, create, and present their projects. This approach fosters intrinsic motivation, critical thinking, and creativity among your elementary students.

High-Energy Transitions:

Make transitions between lessons or activities more exciting and seamless by incorporating high-energy transitions. Use music, countdowns, or quick brain breaks to ensure smooth transitions while maintaining an energetic atmosphere. This technique helps minimize downtime and keeps  students focused and engaged throughout the day.

Cooperative Learning:

Implement cooperative learning strategies to promote collaboration, teamwork, and social skills in your elementary classroom. Assign group projects, structured discussions, or problem-solving activities that require students to work together towards a common goal. Encourage active participation, respectful communication, and shared responsibilities, fostering a positive and cooperative classroom environment.

Real-World Connections:

Bring the outside world into your classroom by making real-world connections to the curriculum. Help your elementary students understand the relevance of their learning by showcasing how concepts and skills are applied in real-life situations. Invite guest speakers, organize field trips, or use technology to virtually explore places and experiences that relate to the content being taught.

Celebrate Achievements:

Recognize and celebrate the achievements of your students regularly. Create a culture of celebration in your elementary classroom by acknowledging academic milestones, personal growth, and positive behavior. 

Use certificates, special privileges, or class-wide celebrations to reinforce the importance of hard work, perseverance, and character development.

By incorporating these engaging techniques inspired by the Ron Clark Academy into your elementary classroom, you can create a vibrant and dynamic learning environment that ignites a love for learning in your students. Remember, every classroom is unique, so adapt these techniques to suit the specific needs and interests of your students. Embrace innovation, foster creativity, and watch your classroom come alive with energy and excitement!

Teaching School-Wide Expectations (Ron Clark Academy Inspired)

This post about Teaching School-Wide Behavior Expectations is part of my Visit to Ron Clark Academy series.  You can find all of the posts in that series here.

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

When we visited the Ron Clark Academy, one of the things that really impressed my colleagues and I was the fact that the students were SO well behaved!  

I have already shared the 55 Essential Rules that the students follow at the school, and how I have adapted them in my own classroom, but today I am going to share how we implemented the idea of having school-wide behavior expectations.

My Principal was most impressed with the fact that the students followed essentially the same rules in all of the classrooms, and in all areas of the school.  If we could get the students at our school to do the same, we could accomplish so much more!

We put together a plan that involved the students rotating through behavior stations where the school expectations were taught.  Students rotated with their teacher as a class, so that everyone received the same information.

We go through these rotations once at the beginning of the school year, and then again when we return from Winter Break.

One of the stations was the cafeteria.  Our Dean of Students reminded the students of cafeteria expectations including: cleaning up after yourself, speaking volume, and using manners with the cafeteria staff.

At the Ron Clark Academy during educator training days, students are asked to pair up with several of the teachers to eat lunch together.  I was very impressed with the way that the students interacted with us and were able to answer our questions about the school and their experiences there.

I occasionally share lunch with my students so that we can practice these skills as well.

Another station students attend teaches them our school-wide expectation for assembly behavior.  During this station, our principal also reviews ideas we learned at the Ron Clark Academy such as tracking the speaker, and staying engaged.  She reminds the students that they can use these skills not only during assemblies, but in class as well.

The bathroom expectations station is another important place where we teach school-wide behavior expectations.  We have a sign that is displayed in front of the bathroom to remind students of what is expected when they need to use the restroom.

One thing that I loved about the Ron Clark Academy was how clean the bathrooms were.  You can see pictures of them here.  

There ALWAYS seem to be problems at recess, so one of the stations focused on a problem-solving wheel that is painted on our building.  

The school counselor spoke with the students about coming to the problem solving wheel so that students can learn to solve their own problems.

Here is a close-up picture of the problem solving wheel.

In the past year that we have been teaching the school-wide behavior expectations, we have seen a dramatic increase in on-task behavior and a decrease in problem behavior.

Do you teach school-wide behavior expectations? How are they taught at your school?  I would love to hear your ideas as well! Leave a comment below or tag me on Twitter or Instagram!

And while you're here, enter to win one of our fabulous giveaways!

 I would love to hear from you! ❤️

Have a question? Idea for a resource you might find helpful?

Be so kind and leave a comment below.

Green Highlighter Activity for Peer Tutoring

I have mentioned before how I like to give my students immediate feedback with self grading.  Another way I like to provide feedback AND encourage peer tutoring is with this green highlighter activity.

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

I give my students a small number of problems to solve (usually no more than 5).  

As the first few students finish work, I check their work.  If they solved the problems correctly, I give them a green highlighter.  If not, they try their problems again.

The students who have green highlighters are then tasked with going around to help other students.

My only job during this process is to check completed work, my students with the green highlighters are tasked with tutoring and assisting other students until everyone is done.

If we have more time, I assign a few more problems.

A few things that I like about this process are:

* My fast finishers have something to do instead of sitting around waiting for other students to finish.  

* Students who peer tutor learn the concept even deeper as they teach it to others.  

* I am freed up to collect data regarding which students understand the concept and which students might benefit from re-teaching.

I also got to observe this activity in use during my visit to the Ron Clark Academy which re-affirmed my love for this method! 

Have you tried a method similar to this?  I would love to hear about it in the comments below!

Ron Clark Essential 55 Poster: A Must-Have for Effective Classroom Management

This post is part of a series on my visit to the Ron Clark Academy, where I learned about the importance of classroom management using the Essential 55 Rules from Ron Clark. 

As an experienced teacher, I know that classroom management is essential for student learning and growth. That's why I was blown away by Ron Clark's classroom management system, which is based on the Essential 55 Rules outlined in his book of the same name.

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

After visiting the Ron Clark Academy, I realized that I wasn't always following through, and I hadn't explicitly taught them all of the behaviors and skills that I wanted to see in my classroom. Ron Clark's classroom management is amazing!  If you have never had the opportunity to see him in action, check out this video. You will see that the students are engaged, on task, and problem behavior is managed in seconds!

Ron Clark Essential 55 Poster for Effective Classroom Management

The Ron Clark Academy has a huge banner hanging above the stairs with the Essential 55 Rules, showing just how important they are. These rules cover a range of behaviors and skills that students need to succeed, from respecting others to taking responsibility for their actions.

At first, I was intimidated by the sheer number of rules (55!), but after seeing them in action at the Ron Clark Academy, I knew I had to incorporate them into my own classroom. That's why I purchased the Ron Clark Essential 55 poster from the gift shop and hung it up right away.

I printed out this version of the Essential 55 for each of my students to keep in their binders.

I bought the Essential 55 Rule Workbook to help practice each of these rules with my students.  

We take time each day during our morning meeting to complete the suggested activities and go over each rule individually.

Why the Essential 55 Rules from Ron Clark Are Key to Classroom Success

All of the teachers at the Ron Clark Academy have the same expectations and procedures.  I think the students thrive under these conditions, because they know the routine, and they know exactly what is expected of them throughout the day.

Because my students are with me the entire day, it is easy for me to be consistent with my expectations.  I do tell my students that they are expected to follow these same expectations with specials teachers and substitute teachers even if they aren't explicitly told to do so.

If you're looking for an effective way to manage your classroom and set your students up for success, I highly recommend getting the Ron Clark Essential 55 poster. It's a visual reminder of the rules that will help your students thrive. You can buy one for yourself here.

If you would like to buy the book, The Essential 55 to use in your classroom, you can find it on Amazon here.

The Essential 55 has been updated!  Check out the newest version here:

Have you implemented Ron Clark's rules, the Essential 55 in your classroom? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below or tag me on Twitter or Instagram.


And before you leave, head on over to our Giveaway page to enter our current giveaway!

My Visit to the Ron Clark Academy

I had the great privilege of being able to attend the Ron Clark Academy in October, and I must say it was hands down the BEST professional development training I have ever been to!

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

I have been a fan of Ron Clark since I read his book The Essential 55: An Award-Winning Educator's Rules For Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child. 

It has been on my bucket list to go to the RCA Academy for their teacher training experience for almost just as long.  You can imagine my excitement when my principal started making plans for herself and several teachers to make the trip. Even more exciting was the day that she sent the email with this:

While I was there I posted several pictures to my Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and since then I have received many questions about the experience. 

 I plan on posting a series of blog posts sharing not only some of my experiences from the training, but also, some ways that I have used what I have learned in my own classroom.  I will post a link to all of the posts as I write them here for easy reference.

Questions I have been asked:

1. Which type of session did you attend, the one day or two day session?

The Ron Clark Academy offers a one day session and a two day session.  You can find the dates of both types of upcoming sessions here.

I was lucky enough to be able to attend a 2 day session.  We experienced so much during these two days, I can't imagine how they would squeeze it into 1 day!  

I would highly recommend going to a 2 day session if you attend, but I know that it depends on your time and travel budgets. 

2. Do they actually provide training sessions or do you just observe classrooms?

The experience provides a mix of both, which is amazing!  You attend some sessions with the instructors where they provide professional development, and then you get to see them in action as you observe actual classes with students.

3. Did Ron Clark provide any of the training and is he as amazing in person?

Yes and yes! Not only does Ron Clark provide several sessions, you get to peek into his classroom and even experience what his students do which is quite a treat!  You can get just a little taste of it in this video below: 

4. If I attend the training, what should I wear?

People wore a variety of different types of clothing from business casual to jeans and school t-shirts.  No matter what you wear, you will most likely be comfortable.  I would suggest wearing pants on the day that you get slide certified!

5. What if my school won't pay for me to attend? 

This experience is so worth it!  If you can't get your school to pay for it, I would figure out how to set aside some extra money each month to get there. You might ask friends or relatives to donate in lieu of gifts for your birthday or Christmas.  You can also apply to Donor's Choose for professional development  including this opportunity.

6. The Ron Clark Academy is a private school, can I really use their methods in my own classroom?

Yes!  Although you may not have slide in your classroom, you absolutely can do things a little differently and bring the RCA strategies into your classroom!

I have been using some of these strategies in my classroom since October and both my students and myself have benefited from them!  I can't wait to share them with you!

Ron Clark Academy Inspired Posts

• The Essential 55 - My First Step to Implementing Practices I Learned at the Ron Clark Academy            
• Teaching School-Wide Behavior Expectations

You can also find some additional Ron Clark Academy style ideas I have found pinned on my Ron Clark Academy Pinterest Board.

More Questions?

If you have additional questions I haven't answered yet, feel free to leave them in the comments below and I will answer them as soon as I can!