Summer is a time to step back, relax, and enjoy a little "me" time. It is also a time of reflection. How did the 2021 - 2022 school go? What did we do well? Where are areas of growth? What do we know about our teaching duties for the upcoming year? How can we use summer to prepare for returning to school in the fall?
1. Keeping abreast of the COVID situation There is no denying that the pandemic has been a defining feature of how and what we teach for the last couple of years. During the summer, it would be wise to travel safely and be aware of the numbers in the areas in which you choose to travel. Keep a few at-home tests handy, and take the precautions necessary for your health needs so that you are infection-free when you need to return to school. 2. Keeping what works, dumping what doesn't Given the challenges we have endured the last few years, you likely have tried new things in the classroom, and while some may have worked wonderfully, others were likely less than ideal. These could have been anything from new policies around homework, to using new technology or apps in the classroom. Take some time to sit down and make a list of what worked and what didn’t and cut the “didn’t” items from your fall 2022 plans, while making an effort to incorporate the “did” items more thoroughly. 3. Professional Development Summer is a great time to evaluate the areas of professional development you need or would like to try. One up-side of the post-pandemic world is the plethora of online opportunities for personal and professional growth. 4. Practice good self-care Pessimists are predicting that there will be a teacher/staff shortage in the next couple of years. Use this time in the summer to re-energize your passion for teaching. Set healthy boundaries on your time. Don't spend the entire thinking about and preparing for the fall term! Connect with other teachers and people with interests similar to your own. Celebrate your success! Then gird your loins for next term!
0 Comments
With second semester underway, your daydreams may be turning to spring break. Will you spend it sunning yourself on a beach somewhere? Hitting the ski slopes? Maybe you’re going to visit some friends or relatives. All of these sound good to us, but there are also some ways to use your break productively.
No matter what you have planned for spring break, try to incorporate something productive too, to keep your momentum moving forward. In this post, we’ll outline ten ways to stay productive during spring break, even if you’ve already got big plans. To find out more, keep reading. 1. Work On Your College List If applying to college is in your future, spring break is the perfect time to get serious about your college list. Regardless of how much progress you’ve made on your college list, spring break is a good time to research schools, reach out to friends and family to learn more about colleges they think you’d like, and spend some time organizing your college materials. 2. Create a College App Timeline As you’ve probably figured out by now, applying to college isn’t usually something that you spontaneously decide to wake up one morning and do. Instead, it takes some forethought and planning. Do some research online to determine the timeline your need to follow to be admitted to the college of your choice. Making a plan is a great way to hold yourself accountable and stay ahead. 3. Visit A College or Two If there are local schools that you’re interested in, go ahead and plan a college visit. If you’ve just getting started, you might begin with a casual wander around the campus. If you’re more serious about the college, see if you can go on a more formal campus tour. Alternatively, if there are no colleges nearby that interest you and you don’t plan to travel to any college campuses, check out the virtual campus tours available online. One popular site providing this service is eCampus Tours. Here, you’ll find a virtual tour of over 1,300 colleges searchable by state. 4. Get Ahead on Your Scholarship Search Some scholarships have prerequisites that require extensive foresight. One example? If you want to be eligible for the National Key Club scholarship program, you must be a member of the Key Club with two years of tenure. Other scholarships have strict GPA or standardized test score requirements. Begin your research early and arm yourself with knowledge about the scholarships best suited to you. Spring break is the ideal time to put some energy towards your scholarship search. 5. Take Personality or Career Tests It’s never too early to bounce ideas around when it comes to your future. Taking personality and career tests can actually be a fun way to consider your options and to frame your unique strengths and interests in a productive way. Explore some of these tests online. Taking them with friends can even be a fun, social activity. 6. Build Study Habits The saying about old habits dying hard is full of truth. If you want to develop far-reaching study habits and a work ethic that serves you well in the long run, now is the time to begin. 7. Put in Some Test Prep Hours Studying for SATs or ACTs isn’t just intellectually challenging. It can also be a real drain on your free time. Just taking and scoring a practice test can take up half a day. Take advantage of your free time over spring break and get ahead on your test prep. This is the perfect time to take a practice test, gauge your progress, and make a new study plan to move forward. To learn more about how to structure your standardized test prep, do some research online: 8. Do Service Work All strong college applicants will need to show that they care about the community around them. You can do this through a number of different ways, but consistently giving back to the causes that are personally relevant to you is a great way to show empathy and demonstrate that you’re a positive contributor to your community. Ideally, you should aim to volunteer through organizations or programs with which you have an existing relationship. If you haven’t been involved in the past, choose a cause that is personally relevant to you or that’s closely connected to your interests or passions. Then, try to sustain your involvement past your spring break by maintaining connections and arranging for future volunteer opportunities the next time you have some downtime. 9. Build Work Experience If you need some extra hours at work to save some money, spring break is the perfect time to bolster that bank account. Even if you don’t need the money, dedicating yourself to your job shows an ability to commit and follow through. If you don’t have a job, arranging to shadow a professional can be a worthwhile activity during spring break. Think of a career or profession that interests you and reach out in advance to find out if it’s feasible for you to follow a practitioner for a few days. Alternatively, network with friends and family to find someone working in fields that interest you. This will allow you to learn more about what these professionals do on a day-to-day basis. If you can make a few connections, capitalize on them by asking lots of questions: find out why they went into their chosen career, how they chose a specialty if relevant, and how they recommend you prepare for a similar career. 10. Bolster Your Life Skills By the time you get to college, there are a few things you should know how to do in order to live independently. For example, you should be able to wash, fold, and iron your own laundry. You should be able to create and stick to a budget. You should know how to balance a checkbook and cook a few simple meals. Maybe you’d like to learn how to change a flat tire or cook a few simple meals. Whatever the case may be, taking some time over spring break to build life skills is an important an easily done task. To get started, simply find a family member, mentor, or coach who knows a skill you’d like to learn. Ask if he or she would be willing to give you a quick tutorial over break. Alternatively, look up the skill online and watch enough videos that you feel comfortable giving it a shot on your own. Spring break is a time to cook back and relax without the everyday pressures of school work and extracurricular commitments. You have earned the chance to put your feet up and enjoy some relaxation. But just because you plan to spend some time relaxing, that doesn’t mean that you can’t also accomplish a few productive tasks over spring break. Use our tips above to turn your spring break into a fruitful respite. Looking for help navigating the road to college as a high school student? Download this free guide for 9th graders or free guide for 10th graders. Literacy is most commonly defined as the ability to read and write. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. Reading and writing abilities vary in our students, along with their ability to apply subject content vocabulary within their writing. Nowadays, ‘reading’ encompasses complex visual and digital media as well as printed material.
The writing traditions of the English language make reading comprehension an essential part of literacy. Students need literacy in order to engage with the written word in everyday life. Think of how often students encounter a text in your classroom. It’s not just articles like this one that require literacy, but signs, labels, and the messages on a phone, too. The same goes for writing. Nowadays, even phone calls have given way to instant messaging and text-based communication, making the ability to read all the more important. But beyond the functional level, literacy plays a vital role in transforming students into socially engaged citizens. Being able to read and write means being able to keep up with current events, communicate effectively, and understand the issues that are shaping our world. Ways to support literacy development Literacy development should be a combined effort between home and school. Here are a few things you can do to support literacy skills: Encourage reading - Reading is the first pillar of literacy, so encourage learners to immerse themselves in it frequently and deeply. This should involve exposure to a broad variety of different genres, such as newspapers, novels, comics, magazines, films, reference material, and websites. Discuss texts together - Actively discussing what has been read encourages learners to make connections and think deeply about the ideas contained in texts. Follow up the reading or viewing of a text with a discussion of what it made learners think and feel. Use games and activities that support literacy development
Make use of the library or spend time at your favorite book store - Immersing children in a huge range of texts encourages them to dive in and explore. There’s no better place to do this than the school or community library, where you can obtain a plethora of materials and not have to build an addition to your home to store them. I spend time at my favorite bookstore several times a month and have thousands of books on my e-reader. It’s not the same pleasure of holding a book—however it does give one the opportunity to have thousands of books without the clutter of storing them. ![]() Snow Days! The kids can’t wait for them…until they have to “make them up” at the end of the school year! Traditional snow days — and the excitement they evoke as kids wait for that early morning call — could be going the way of the overhead slide projector once commonplace in school districts across the U.S. A growing number of districts are shifting toward “e-learning” or virtual learning days rather than cancelling classes in the face of inclement weather. So far this quarter we have had two e-learning days in place of snow days. Because students might need our help at different times throughout the day, Bernadette and I will be on zoom from 9:00 - 11:00; then again from 12:00 - 2:00. You can drop in for a few minutes or spend some quality time with your teachers getting any help you need. You can find the zoom link on TeacherEase. All teachers have been directed to be available on a similar schedule, and you should be able to reach them by email if they do not provide you a zoom link. Students are held accountable for all the work assigned on eLearning days. you can choose when and where to complete your work, as long as it is finished by the time we return to school. Maximize your e-learning by polishing up those communication skills. Ask us questions in zoom, send us an email, text us, or use your internet skills to phrase a good query search using key words. Believe it or not this is an opportunity for growth and increased achievement. This plan produces far greater results than when schools tack on snow make–up days at the end of the year after the state achievement tests have already been administered or when they add additional minutes to the end of the school days as a way to make up for this time out of school. Take advantage of this opportunity to become responsible for your own learning, try your best, and reach out for help if you need it. If we have learned one thing during this pandemic, it is the importance of resilience. Resilience means being able to bounce back or move forward from a problem. It also sees you keep going when faced with difficult challenges or when you fail at something. Bouncing back means that you recover from a problem. We all have times when we are more or less resilient, but the good news is that resilience is something you can improve and develop. Resilience is a process of adaptation, and is about you managing well in the face of adversity through developing and using coping strategies when things get tough. Think of this as having the ability to ‘bounce back’ from challenging, difficult and stressful experiences. It’s helpful to accept that problems will happen and that you can learn to cope and tackle the challenge ahead. How can I develop my Resilience?
You can improve your resilience in lots of different ways:
Is it too early to plan for 2nd semester finals? Here are 10 study hacks to try during 2nd semester to help you prepare for the end of the year. Study hacks are meant to help you prepare for what lies ahead. It might feel like everything is piling up right now, but you can manage your studying with these tips. Here are some study hacks to keep in mind and help you ace all your tests!
The holidays can be a particularly blue time of the year for people, including children and teenagers. The darker days of winter can bring about a gloomy mood and the hype of the holidays can set unrealistic expectations for children. There are many reasons children may feel sad or anxious around the holidays, including added stress around having to be with one or the other parent (not both), in cases of divorced families, or coping with the loss of a loved one who recently passed away. Transitioning from home to school and back to school again can be stressful for students who need regular routines. The holidays can be a very fun and exciting time of the year. It’s normal to experience an occasional sense of sadness, but learning to talk through those feelings and setting realistic expectations for the holidays can help make this season the happiest time of the year. Here’s a list of ways we can be kind to ourselves during the holidays.
From Hacking Homework: 10 Strategies that Inspire Learning Outside the Classroom
The Problem: Students lack independent problem-solving skills when it comes to homework, relying too often on parents to “tell them how to do it.” The Solution: Teach parents how to use the Boomerang Model, which empowers students to find solutions to their own homework problems. Barnes explains: “So they come to me, and they say, ‘Dad, I need help with this. I don’t get it.’ I’m going to respond with, ‘How can you help yourself? What strategy can you use that maybe you haven’t tried yet? Where should you start, because maybe you missed the real starting point? What evidence do you have to support this?’ If they say, ‘Is this right? Should I do this this way?’ I can say, ‘Well, what evidence do you have?’ We don’t want their automatic response to a struggle to be, ‘I need help from a teacher,’ or ‘I need help from a parent.’ We want them to help themselves.” What You Can Do Tomorrow: Create a list of questions parents can “boomerang back” to their kids, then practice using them yourself, so students get used to hearing and responding to them. Introduce this concept to parents in a newsletter or better yet, a video demonstrating how it’s done. Here are some boomerang questions to help with the homework during this unit (11/29 and 12/7).
It is the start of a new quarter...another opportunity to re-start our batteries and motivate students to engage in their own education. Here are five questions to ask yourself about motivating your students.
1. HOW IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR STUDENTS, REALLY? Multiple studies have shown a significant connection between student motivation and the quality of the teacher-student relationship. A good teacher-student relationship provides students with a sense of stability and safety, which sets the stage for more academic risk-taking. So what kind of relationship do you have with your least motivated students? How well do you really know them? Do you have conversations with them about the things they care about? Or have you more or less given up on them? My response: At first, I’m thinking I do pretty well in this area. I teach mini lessons, I look for signs of disengagement or fatigue. When I think about my less-motivated kids, I offer support and choices. It is really important for me to build a rapport with my students. Yes, I am there to transmit information and to “do” fun things like Funglish and brain teasers—even have an open discussion or two. It is important to create boundaries and expectations, while at the same time giving students some autonomy and ownership. How we can do better: Just becoming more aware of the value of relationships is the most important step. From there, consider one of these resources:
2. HOW MUCH CHOICE DO YOUR STUDENTS ACTUALLY HAVE? Study after study points to choice as a major factor in motivation. Most of us have probably heard this, but we may not have fully embraced it. After all, providing choice can be messy, with students completing different tasks at different rates, making it hard to be consistent with grading. It can also mean a lot more prep work: If you’re going to give students three different options for an assignment that means you have to prepare all three options ahead of time. Or do you? Isn’t that kind of prep work more in line with worksheet-oriented teaching, where students are doing low-level work that was largely prepared by the teacher? If students are engaged in more long-term, authentic, creative projects, it’s much easier to provide them with choices, because we aren’t constantly trying to provide them with new busywork every day. My response: I am pretty good about letting students choose topics for projects, but I also require a lot of seat work as well. When it comes to long term assignments that require research or a strict structure, support is extremely important. It’s a good idea to divide the students into different groups. One day you might be creating a thesis statement with a homogenous group. Another day might be heterogenous groups evaluating research sources. I provide sources at different reading levels. I model how to write a thesis statement. I might even help a student write the thesis statement or assist in compiling their research. I have also differentiated the output. Maybe all the student can do is create a PowerPoint or make a poster. Criteria has to flexible enough to allow that diversity in ability. I could allow students more input on the larger assignments I give them. If students take a more active role in their own learning, they might be more engaged. How we can do better: There are lots of ways you can allow more choice in your classroom without having to completely overhaul your way of doing things. Even adding a small amount of choice to what students already have is an improvement. Consider letting them choose:
3. ARE YOU RELYING HEAVILY ON CARROTS AND STICKS…OR JOLLY RANCHERS? Many, many teachers count on rewards (“carrots”) and punishments (“sticks”) to motivate students. And those who study motivation tell us that extrinsic reinforcement can be motivating if the task is something easy: If you’re trying to get students to clean up the classroom quickly, for example, offering class points toward a party can get them to speed up. But for tasks that require creativity and complex thought, extrinsic rewards actually reduce motivation. In your class, how much of your motivational approach is extrinsic? How often do you use grades, treats, privileges or punishments to prod students into doing something they don’t really want to do, something they have no real interest in? If extrinsic reinforcement is your primary approach, you may actually be killing off any natural motivation students might have otherwise had. My response: I have used rewards like Jolly Ranchers, pizza parties, etc. I did those things because they worked—a little. But they can backfire. When you put a price tag on good behavior by offering rewards, your students will demand higher and more frequent payments. Rewards, you see, are not only ineffective in the long term, but they weaken over time. If you’ve used rewards in the past, you’ve experienced this. What is exciting and fun at first, like extra recess, becomes boring and not a big deal after a while. Therefore, you have to continue to increase the payment or the frequency of the reward. There’s a difference between getting kids to do what you want and truly, deeply motivating them. How we can do better: Try to catch yourself the next time you’re about to tie a challenging activity to a reward or consequence. When introducing a task, try focusing on its inherent interest or value, or how much students are going to learn, rather than on a separate reward or grade. Consider the difference in these two statements:
4. DO YOUR WORDS CONTRIBUTE TO A GROWTH MINDSET OR A FIXED MINDSET? What could be wrong with saying “You’re so smart”? It’s nice, right? It boosts their confidence, no? Well, it’s more complicated than that. Students are motivated to persist at a challenging task when they believe they can get better at it. That requires them to have a growth mindset, a belief that their intelligence and abilities can be developed with effort. Teachers can have an impact on this mindset with the things we say to students. So when we say “You’re so smart,” “You have natural math ability,” or “You’re a great writer,” we are telling the student it’s their natural ability that got them where they are. We’re contributing to a fixed mindset. And that’s not motivating. My response: A few years ago all of our staff professional development focused on the growth mindset. One of the biggest obstacles students at our school face are overcoming the years of being told negative things about their efforts or developing a set of beliefs about their own limitations. We need to model this as well. On those days when we feel defeated or bogged down with so many demands, stop and check the internal dialog—is it positive or negative? When students are frustrated or defeated are we instilling a positive mindset? Learning takes practice. Growth takes time. How we can do better:
5. WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MAKE YOUR CONTENT RELEVANT TO STUDENTS’ LIVES? I think this is another one of those principles that’s been around for so long, we assume we’re doing it more than we actually are. But showing students how the content relates to their lives really does make a difference. When students believe they are doing something authentic, something that will improve their lives or have some kind of impact, they are naturally motivated. So how are you doing in this area? Do you regularly provide opportunities for students to connect what they’re learning to the world they currently live in? My response: I got pretty lazy about this. I have some gimmicks like word of the day, or door buster warm-ups. But I often cut corners on making my material relevant. I am often much more focused on getting through content and tasks than I on making it meaningful. How we can do better:
WHERE TO GO FROM HERE This is a great time to reflect on how to increase the relevance, timeliness and engagement this school year. We struggle against many factors to motivate our students. Let's just make sure our instructional decisions don't provide more grist for the mill (of negative self-talk or school work disconnected from real life.) So pick one area and start there. Make a small adjustment this week and see what happens. Share in the comments where you think you could improve, then come back and tell me what changes made a difference. To solve a problem as complicated as student motivation, there is no magic bullet; instead we’ll need a set of tools that we blend and refine over time. This is a process that will definitely be slower and more frustrating than a single, easy solution, but we’re professionals. This is our craft. We can do this. -30- These Halloween minute to win it games are super fun! They’re perfect for a party, a school event or just some fun at home with the kids. The whole family will have a blast playing these together.
|
AuthorI have been teaching since 1996. I became a special education teacher in 2013. I currently work at a therapeutic day school in suburban Chicago. Archives
May 2022
Categories |