Quiet and Focused Students From Rachelle Kean, an earth and space science teacher at Hempfield Area High School in Greensburg, Pennsylvania: "Different activities require different levels of student interactions and behavior. In order to keep my classroom under control in any situation, I like to communicate my expectations for the day. If I want almost pure silence for times when we are taking a test, reading, or giving attention to a guest speaker, I have students write the word QUIET across the top of their paper. If I want the room to be on task, with some talking within groups, or during labs, I have them write the word FOCUS across the top. Students quickly learn what this means and will even write it on their papers ahead of time. I cross off a letter every time there is a problem. For students that are terrific, I add exclamation points for positive reinforcement. You can come up with your own system for rewards or consequences, but mine seem to like getting an extra point on the next test if they don't lose a letter. The whole thing works great too if I just write it on the board once as a method of letting students know if the room gets too loud or off task. The beauty is that students can earn their letters back by improving. Most students never get that chance with other systems