An "Ahhaa!" Moment

I just started reading Donna Walker Tileston’s book on classroom management. The foundation of her method is that behavioral problems can be avoided if children are adequately engaged with the learning process, nothing new that I haven’t heard before. When she started elaborating on the neurological process of learning, I knew this book was right up my alley!
For the first time, I feel like I am reading something that is speaking my language, something I can actually put into practice effectively. While I understand that “in theory” and “in practice” are two totally different things, I feel immensely inspired by her method. While reading, my thoughts went beyond just concerns over classroom management, I actually could visualize myself implementing the methods in a lesson plan and it felt natural and comfortable to me.
Some points that thus far I am taking from the text that I want to remember for the future:

1. Engage students immediately by beginning the lesson with an activity that appeals to one of their senses. For instance, I could start a history lesson with a visualization exercise, helping to place them in a period of history using guided visualization and period music. This can help personalize the learning experience (“intrinsic motivation”.) Another sensory exercise that can be used to learn examples of geometrical shapes in the real world is to put common place objects that, for example, are cones into a pillow case or bag . Students could work in groups to feel the objects through the bag to identify what the objects are. Or, using that same tecnique, put several different geometrical shaped objects in the bag and have students use their knowledge of shape properties to identify what the shape is.

2. Have students teach each other. For example, to help build vocabulary, each week, students can be assigned to pick a word from the dictionary that they don’t know and present it to the class. The presentation would consist of teaching the class the definition, spelling, type and how to use it in a sentence. Students would be allowed to present the concepts in any creative way they choose. Each student will keep a vocab list of the words their peers teach and an writing assignment involving the use of the words would be due each weak. The writing assignments could built upon one another so that by the end of the year, all the words learned would have to appear in the story, helping memorization of new words and building of vocabulary. Guidelines can also be put in place like 5 letter words, words that start with “s” or adjectives only or use the words to write a story about a particular topic; to challenge and provide variety.

3. Connecting the material to something children can relate to. Giving lessons a proper introduction that tells students, before you get into the subject matter, how they can apply it to their lives, immediately, develops a purpose for the student to become involved in the lesson and listen/ participate (“self-system”.)