It is that time of year again—school is almost over and students are more excited than ever for summer break. At times, it may be difficult to get students to focus during the last few weeks of school. We've compiled four activities that will refocus your students and motivate them to finish out the year strong.

Educating Student in Poverty: Effective Practices for Leadership and Teaching, by Mark Y. Lineburg and Rex Gearheart provides essential strategies to help socioeconomically disadvantaged students achieve academic and lifelong success. This tip provides five tips for effectively communicating with all families, especially the familes of children in poverty.

One of the most effective interventions for improving student performance and relationships with parents and families is communication. Each day school leaders and all school personnel have the opportunity to engage with families. The communicated message to the families is of paramount importance.

The following guest post was written by Rebekah Stathakis, author of A Good Start:147 Warm-Up Activities for Spanish Class. This is the last in a three-part series on game playing in the classroom. .

This post is the last in a three-part series. In the first part, I shared my top five reasons why I believe games are a powerful instructional tool. The second part included some common concerns with games and how I respond to those concerns. Here are seven tips for developing and utilizing games in the classroom.

Assessing Critical Thinking in Elementary Schools: Meeting the Common Core and Assessing Critical Thinking in Middle and High Schools: Meeting the Common Core, by Rebecca Stobaugh, are practical, effective resources to help teachers and curriculum leaders develop the skills to design instructional tasks and assessments that engage students in higher-level critical thinking, as recommended by the Common Core State Standards. This tip, and the accompanying video clip, focus on one of those higher-level critical thinking skills: Critquing.

Without practice, students often rank choices based completely on personal preferences instead of developing logical criteria, thus making poor conclusions and decisions. Failing to build Critiquing skills leaves students unable to grapple with the complexities of life or to reasonably select the best option.

In Authentic Learning Experiences: A Real-World Approach to Project-Based Learning, Dayna Laur provides step-by-step instructions on how to create authentiv learning experiences to engage students in critical thinking, teach important skills such as research and collaboration, and improve student learning. In this tip, she outlines the process of taking the first steps to designing an Authentic Learning Experience.

To begin a Project-Based or Authentic Learning Experience, you must start with a way in which to engage your students. If you truly want to make this an Authentic Learning Experience, you have to move beyond mock letters written by a pretend interested party. Remember, if this experience is going to be authentic, you have to make the start of the experience real!

The following poem and tip were written by Annette Breaux and featured in her book with Eye On Education: 101 "Answers" for New Teachers and Their Mentors: Effective Teaching Tips for Daily Classroom Use, 2nd Ed.

I once heard a teacher announce to her class, “Look, I’m having a bad day. I’ve been up all night with a sick child, so I’m not in a good mood. I’m going to try to concentrate on my teaching, but I’m tired. Also, we’ve fallen way behind in the textbook, so we’re going to have to move fast today. Stay in your seats, and don’t mess with me!”

Ben Johnson, currently a school principal in San Antonio, TX, has 28 years of experience in education as a teacher, district administrator and university program manager. He also teaches online for the University of Phoenix's teacher- and principal-preparation program.

In this video clip from Thinking as the Main Learning Tool, Ben Johnson discusses the foundation of Critical Thinking: Student Engagement.

The following guest blog post was written by PJ Caposey, author of Building a Culture of Support: Strategies for School Leaders. PJ is the principal of Oregon High School, an adjunct professor in the educational leadership department for Aurora University, and he is currently pursuing his Doctoral degree through Western Illinois University. He can be found on Twitter @principalpc, and he is a guest blogger for many websites such as ASCD, Edutopia, and Test Soup.

Just because something is discussed does not mean that collaboration has occurred. I think this is one of the most common misnomers in education today. Teachers talk about curriculum and instruction an awful lot—but are these discussions really collaborative?

100 Games and Activities for the Introductory Foreign Language Classroom by Thierry Boucquey et al. is filled with stimulating, engaging, and effective games and activities to offer students alternatives to learning by rote or performing drills. This activity, Train Tour, is designed to help students learn and remember travel vocabulary, geography, and iconic regional monuments.

The following blog post is part of a blog series called "Comments on the Common Core," written by Eye On Education's Senior Editor, Lauren Davis. For more insight from Lauren Davis, check out her book series Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources.

Close reading is a hot topic these days. At IRA’s recent convention, there were countless sessions about teaching close reading for the Common Core. However, everyone seems to have a different understanding of what close reading entails. Here is how the authors of the Common Core describe it:

Dropout Prevention Fieldbook: Best Practices from the Field showcases the collected efforts of dedicated educators from across the country, selected and presented by one of today's leading experts in dropout prevention, Franklin Schargel.

Research consistently finds that family engagement has a direct, positive effect on children's achievement and is the most accurate predictor of a student's success in school. When family provides support to the school, a strong infrastructure sustains a caring, supportive environment where youth can thrive and succeed. Below are 10 practices designed to make your school family friendly.

Teacher & Staff Appreciation Week is scheduled for May 6-10, 2013, and May 7th is National Teacher Day. What are you doing to celebrate the teachers in your school or district? Recognizing teachers benefits the staff, students, and school environment. If you haven't thought of what to do yet, or are looking for a few extra ideas, here's a list we've put together:

Franklin P. Schargel is a graduate of the University of the City of New York. Franklin holds a master’s degree in secondary education from City University and a second master’s degree from Pace University in school administration and supervision. His career spans thirty-three years of classroom teaching, counseling, and eight years of supervision and administration as a school administrator. Additionally, Franklin taught a course in Dowling College’s MBA Program.

In this clip from a recent segment on Eye On New Mexico, Franklin Schargel discusses school violence, school pride, dropout factories, the importance of attendance, and vocational training.