Blog – Needs Focused Teaching

28 Time-Saving Tips for Teachers

13th October 2018
/ Uncategorised

Create a block of time during free periods and other non-teaching time to handle paperwork. Schedule this in your planner and stick to it. Chatting with colleagues is an effective way to let off steam

Zen Productivity for Teachers

20th July 2018
/ Uncategorised
/ 1 COMMENT

Zen Productivity & Time Management for Teachers – it’s a game changer. I came up with this recently by accident. I’ve been tidying up one of our rental properties at present with

This ONE WORD Guarantees INSTANT Student Engagement

1st March 2018
/ Uncategorised

Would you like to know about a teaching strategy you can use at the start of ANY lesson to gain instant engagement and participation from all your students? I can sum this strategy up in just ONE WORD.

6 Questioning Techniques To Guarantee Student Participation

22nd February 2018
/ Motivating students

Six Questioning Techniques To Guarantee Student ParticipationIn this video recording, I interview my colleague Martin Renton on using different questioning techniques to improve student attainment, engagement

10 Quick Ways to Bring Humour to Your Classroom

26th January 2018
/ funny Lesson Improvement Student Engagement Student/teacher relationships

Want some ideas for bringing humour into your classroom? Then look no further as we’ve 10 ideas for you right here!… 1. Tell your students to do the ‘Dying z’ whenever a question is too

5 Techniques for Learning Student Names Quickly!

23rd January 2018
/ Classroom Management Strategies Lesson Improvement Student Engagement Student/teacher relationships

Want a way to connect with your students? Then what better way than learning the names of your new students as quickly as possible. Here are 5 tips to help you achieve just that… 1. Name Chain Ask

Three MORE Ways to Make Praise More Effective

18th January 2018
/ Classroom Management Articles Classroom Management Strategies Lesson Improvement Motivating students Student Engagement

Way back in August 2017, we published a blog post titled ‘Three Ways to Make Praise More Effective’… Three Ways to Make Praise More Effective We received a lot of POSITIVE comments

Dealing with students who won’t complete homework

16th January 2018
/ Classroom Management Articles Lesson Improvement Noisy Class Student/teacher relationships
/ 1 COMMENT

Getting students to complete homework is a typical problem for teachers – especially with students who lack motivation. If they’re not working in class where we can stand over them, they certainly

Dealing with students who have no interest in the lesson

18th September 2017
/ Classroom Management Strategies Lesson Improvement Motivating students Student/teacher relationships

A student who has no interest in lessons and anything you say and do, can have a terrible impact on the rest of the class. What you must remember however is that this student probably wants to succeed

Dealing with students who don’t bring equipment to class

6th September 2017
/ Classroom Management Articles Lesson Improvement Noisy Class Student/teacher relationships
/ 1 COMMENT

This is one of those seemingly unimportant management issues which is often swept under the carpet by a teacher who is frantically trying to concentrate efforts on more serious issues. In a lively class,

A quick, fun way to encourage learning

25th August 2017
/ Lesson Improvement Motivating students Student Engagement

Teach-back activities are fun ways to encourage students to cement their learning by teaching others what they have been taught – by demonstrating, explaining and teaching. Remember the saying ‘You

Great activity to get students working together

22nd August 2017
/ General Lesson Improvement Motivating students

The following activity is wonderful for getting students to work together to find their own solutions to their problems – from both a subject-based or personal perspective. It can be used as a basis

Three Ways to Make Praise More Effective

18th August 2017
/ Classroom Management Articles Classroom Management Strategies Lesson Improvement Motivating students Student Engagement
/ 1 COMMENT

Here are some ways of improving praise so that it creates the kind of positive changes you want to see in your challenging students… Effective Praise Enhancer # 1: Make it SPECIFIC. Let’s make a concerted

Consolidate learning with mini-reviews

7th August 2017
/ Lesson Improvement Motivating students Student Engagement Student/teacher relationships

Mini Reviews are a fantastic way to consolidate or reinforce any piece of learning in a fun, active way. I have used these successfully with all ages – young children in school right through to

Brilliant Review Activity – Gets ALL Your Students Involved

13th July 2017
/ Lesson Improvement Motivating students Student Engagement
/ 1 COMMENT

This plenary activity is fantastic for getting students to work collaboratively. It’s very ingenious (some would say downright sneaky) and effectively results in EVERY STUDENT taking part. If you would

About Rob Plevin..

As a new teacher in a comprehensive school, I really struggled to maintain control in the classroom before finally discovering how certain key strategies would lead to an immediate improvement in the way challenging students responded to me. Using these principles as a foundation I went on to develop a complete system for preventing and dealing with behaviour problems and improving student motivation in the classroom.

The ideas are easy to implement and work FAST. I've spent the last 10 years teaching these techniques and concepts to literally THOUSANDS of teachers and lecturers in schools and colleges all over the world and their comments on this site should convince you that this system works.