The Calm Classroom

Is a calm classroom bad?  I wonder often how to create a classroom environment that is, for the student and the teacher, internally vs. externally stimulating.  How do I spark excitement within the student that is based on sparks flying within their minds and not based on sparks flying in the classroom?  
This is a very personal struggle I am facing currently.  I was a sophomore English teacher at a low performing and very diverse high school from 2002 to 2005.  The school was in a an area saturated with gangs.  Many of the students were involved in those gangs and therefore were prohibited from wearing the colors blue or red.  As a full time teacher at this school, I found that I could build trust and therefore build relationships with my students.  This made it easier to teach more and discipline less.  Classroom management was not my full time job.  I have come back to education as a substitute working on getting my clear credential.  As a substitute in certain areas of the school district I work for, I find that classroom management is the job.  I am thankful that I had previous experience as a full time teacher at a high risk school.  Otherwise, I may only reflect on my current experiences and throw in the towel.  I would like to find a blog that discusses the personal struggles of teachers working with in the inner city.  What works?
I think that a blog for educators in high risk, low income schools would be helpful for both substitutes and full time teachers to compare ideas and share successes and failures.  I imagine it would be important to stay anonymous so that one could feel free to ponder and express ideas freely.  Some teachers I have worked with feel that administrators and parents are sometimes on your side and sometimes not.  A blog would allow a story to unfold, ideas to be expressed in full to many.  It's the pondering of one person that is wanting to share and welcoming feedback.  Blogs are a narrative. 
There is an appropriate place for email, and I think that place is where one person wants to directly communicate to a finite group one piece of information or idea.  An email has a beginning, middle, and end.  It is more of an alert.  It is an FYI. 
The chat room can be useful, but it is probably my least favorite form of communication.  This is not only because I am not a fan of telephone conversations, but also because it requires the real time presence of the participants.  It also requires relatively speedy responses.  I can walk away from a blog or an email to think about an idea or a response.  I'm not able to do that in a live chat.  Does it have benefits?  Sure.  I find those benefits apply more in a personal setting vs.  a professional one. 
I would read a blog about effective teaching techniques that brought in outside resources and provided good stories.  I like a good story that teaches me something, makes me think long after I have left it.