PSSST ... PASS IT ON There’s no reason not to be in uniform, says Dorchester, Mass., middle school teacher Delois Paige. Her school mandates that students wear uniforms and recommends that students buy five uniform shirts, which some kids say they simply can't afford to do. So, the school asks the graduating eighth-graders to donate their shirts to the school, which then launders them for the next school year. The shirts are passed along to students who can't afford to buy more than three shirts.

BINGO! This popular game can be used to motivate students and make learning fun, says retired teacher Muriel Reiffe of Delray Beach, Fla., who used it to help teach Gregg Shorthand "brief forms" to high school students in the Bronx. (Brief forms are arbitrary shorthand outlines that have to be memorized, and students had to learn as many as 20 each week.) Reiffe created a bingo card on a half-sheet of paper with blank boxes and a "free" box in the center, then copied the card and gave one to each student. Next, she wrote 24 brief forms on the board and had students randomly place each form in a box on their card; then she erased the board. One by one she would call out a "form" and the students would cover the words as they located them on their cards. Reiffe says the "excitement was great," and when the game was over, her students "really knew those brief forms." Winners got extra credit. The game can be adapted for use in almost any classroom: Match states with capitals; presidents with vice presidents; countries with leaders; vitamins/calories with foods; or to learn foreign language vocabulary, English parts of speech, and so on. "The imagination of the teacher and students can take this much further," Reiffe says.

PERFECT ATTENDANCE That would be "perfect" as a verb, not an adjective. Seventh-grade technology teacher Ann Pace of Dallas, Texas, is able to tally attendance for her computer class in under a minute. Here’s how: She puts a number at the top of each monitor in her computer classroom. On the first day of class, she assigns each student to a specific computer (1-28). Then she passes out a seating chart showing 28 numbered computers, with two lines underneath each one. She has students write their first and last names in pencil underneath the computer to which they've been assigned. All Pace has to do when she takes roll is to look at a vacant seat to know who’s absent. And, she can change seating simply by erasing the names and rearranging them on the chart.

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