Every teacher has her arsenal of instructional tricks of the trade, always ready to fire away with just what the students need to learn a particular skill or concept.  I, too, have a few tricks up my sleeve: modeling behaviors, creative assignments, graphic organizers, PowerPoint presentations, and collaborative projects.  Modeling good behavior gives the students a living example of how to do things right.  I model good reading strategies when reading out loud, good metacognition strategies by asking myself questions that check for understanding, good responsibility by writing homework assignments on the board, and good behavior by being a respectful listener doing student speeches or presentations.  I also like giving a lot of really creative assignments, both in terms of hands-on arts and crafts projects as well as in terms of the amount of creative outside-the-box thinking is involved.  Graphic organizers are a really effective way to provide a visual representation of the relationship between ideas.  I have also found PowerPoint presentations especially effective for my students, who love to stare at computer and television screens and almost always pay attention to whatever I show them.  Lastly, when done right, collaborative learning is one of the most effective things a teacher can do.   Grouping students according to skill, ability, and/or personality inevitably pairs lower-level students with higher-level students.  Many times the students who understand the assignment and concepts better break it down into a way the struggling students can understand.  There is always some way each student can contribute.  All students must have an assigned task and feel like an equal contributor to the group.  Although there are many more instructional skills and teaching strategies that I know and continue to learn about, I feel that it is important for a teacher to consider her own strengths and weaknesses.  What works best for me is modeling behavior, giving hands-on assignments, using graphic organizers, showing PowerPoint presentations, and giving group work.