Keeping your students focused and on task is no easy task, especially if they've just spent the entire day in a classroom prior to coming to the Literacy Center. Student management is the crux to student engagement and it's no easy feat. Read below to discover four tips to keep in mind the next time you step into a TLC classroom.

                      4 tips for better student engagements:  

1. Love Your Students: To love a student means that you are taking the time know and understand them. Each week check-in and see what your students have been up to and how they are doing. Doing so shows you genuinely care about them. It will also provide you with perspective on how to most effectively communicate and manage them. 

2. Be a Cheerleader: Often as a teacher we are faced with big, undesired behaviors. In such circumstances it's easy to resort to being Mr. or Ms. "no". However, just as you cheer for your favorite sport's team to win, you also need to cheer for your students to win too. Positive encouragement works-- simple as that. Make it a regular practice in your teaching to lift students up rather than take them down, even for the most challenging ones. Be your students' biggest fan!

3. Movement Matters: Children who are more active are better students-- motion increases energy and engagement. A still student will almost always become a silly one. Create opportunities for your students to move! Make learning mobile--it keeps things fresh, engaging, and fun!

4. Ask More Questions: Most people don't like being told what to do, especially if they already know how to do it. By asking questions you will be able to uncover what a student already knows about something and likely you will be blown away.  These questions also increase student agency and choice. So before you tell a student what to do, take a moment to see what they already know.