Teaching Ideas Academic Lessons, Games, Greetings and Morning Meetings
Here you will find practical teaching ideas to support middle school educators as they implement the Developmental Designs approach. We've included templates, activities, examples, and articles that reinforce the following basic areas of practice. Print, use, and distribute these materials as needed.
Engaged Learning: Resources to keep students engaged in learning and having fun—including POWER Learning lessons, student reflection sheets, and a sampling of Engaged Learning Strategies
Classroom Management: Resources for proactively and reactively addressing problem behaviors (e.g., Fix-it Plans and Behavior Contracts), orientation (the first weeks of school), goal-setting, and more
Community-building: Games, greetings, sharing ideas, and Daily News examples for the Circle of Power and Respect (advisory meeting format) or any class hour, and more
Activities are designated as Community Level 1/ Acquainted, 2/ Familiar, 3/Comfortable, or 4/Trusting. Educators use their judgment as to where on the continuum their groups fall at any particular time. For example, one class may be ready for "Familiar" games at the end of week 2, while another class may need to wait much longer.
To find the resources that you need, browse alphabetically by title or sort by the DDMS teaching practices in the drop-down list. We update this list regularly, so visit often, email us with an idea or a game (we'll give you credit), or give us feedback on whether this resource is what you need. We truly appreciate hearing from you!
Teaching Ideas