It always rankles me to hear derisive comments about teachers’ breaks (“we get too many”) and summer vacation (“we don’t deserve it”). Though I’m a much more efficient teacher than I was early in my career, when I was regularly up past midnight and my gradebook became an extra appendage, I learned that teaching is both a lifestyle and a job.

Yes, breaks are part of that lifestyle, but so is time spent working nights and weekends from home, time spent beyond circumscribed hours for tutorials and extracurriculars, and time spent planning and developing new materials and instructional strategies. I often look forward to breaks so that I have time to do more work!

There are days when I’m so busy that it’s difficult to get a bathroom break and I have to eat on the go. I love it, but the responsibilities that teachers have are many and growing. That’s why our breaks are not only welcome but also necessary; they provide the opportunity to catch up, recharge, and avoid burnout. As we transition from the end of the school year to summer, there are a number of strategies to renew energy and enthusiasm.

Indulge in a creative outlet

I love to bake. I think I’m happiest when planning and executing a new recipe; the kitchen is my sanctuary. I make sure that I bake a few times a week, since I don’t have time to do that much during the school year. It’s so important to have a creative outlet and to nurture that interest which translates into higher quality work.

Get organized

I take the opportunity during breaks to organize as much as I can. Organization doesn’t come easily to me, so I constantly work on it. On breaks, I organize all of my upcoming lesson plans and materials, as well as student assignments. When I have the time, such as on longer breaks, I organize around the house. My major project for last summer was to organize the 5000+ photos our family has. I feel a sense of accomplishment when I’m done, and it’s easier for me to concentrate when my environment is orderly.

Do your homework

It seems counterintuitive that working on a break can reenergize us, but research can lead to stimulating new ideas. Beyond planning for upcoming units, breaks are a wonderful opportunity to read the latest educational magazines, pore through sample textbooks and educational books, and search for new materials and ideas. I often find strategies to implement that reignite my passion for what I teach and how I teach.

Embrace novelty

Breaks provide an opportunity for new experiences; new experiences often lead to new ideas. Novel experiences also support emotional well-being. Local museums and public parks are often free or low cost resources for adventures. Websites such as VolunteerMatch can help match you with appropriate opportunities for volunteering. Cultivate a new interest. Wander around your local library and check out the programs and trips offered. Throw a themed party. Begin a new exercise routine. See a play, watch a new movie, go to a concert. The possibilities are endless!

RELAX

We need the occasional lazy day to rest both mentally and physically. When I’m feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, I prioritize. Quite often, what seems urgent can wait. Our well being comes first, and giving ourselves permission to relax allows us to decompress and avoid feeling burned out. We spend a great deal of time nurturing others; we need to remember to nurture ourselves.

Whatever you choose to do over the break, I hope it’s enjoyable and that you return for the new school year feeling refreshed and enthusiastic.

Students get sent out of classrooms everyday. They are either sent to spend the day in the office, another teacher’s classroom, or sent home if they happen to be suspended. This is a punitive way of dealing with discipline and does not build on the student’s academic or social participation in their classroom community. In fact, students who spend an extended amount of time outside of the classroom, especially on a suspension-type consequence, are 23% more likely to drop out of school, according to a 2006 study in Florida. They are also more apt to being suspended again.

Why do these students who are suspended or sent out of classrooms for extended periods of time have a higher rate of dropping out or getting suspended? There are a number of possibilities. When being sent out of the classroom, the student consequently misses class work. The student then needs to do more work to catch up, and this can be frustrating. The student might act out because of this and then get sent out of the classroom again, further widening the gap between the student and his/her peers.

So what can we do, as educators, to not use punitive measures, like suspensions, while still keeping the classroom safe? A possible solution is what I like to call ‘buddy classrooms’. These classrooms are designated at the beginning of a school year, where two teachers agree to use each other’s classes as either ‘work classrooms’ or as ‘I need a break classrooms’. In this model, the teachers can give a student a pass to just have a different space to get their work done if they are unable to function as their best self in a classroom. There is a time-limit set on each work classroom, as to get the student ready to come back to the community in a safe way. If the student just needs an emotional break, this would function in the same way, with a time limit, and again, the end result having the student back in the classroom within the day, and even within the hour.

The goal is to have the student back in the classroom as soon as he/she is ready. Independence and self-monitoring of behavior can become a classroom norm. When a student needs a break, he or she can choose to take that time without teacher interference. Of course, this procedure has to be explicitly taught, modeled, and monitored (and should be grade appropriate). This gives control to the student while also keeping the classroom and the student on track academically and socially. Everybody wins 🙂

Have you ever heard or said a version of the phrase “Technology (or the Internet or computers) brings the world into the classroom”? While undoubtedly that’s true, video conferencing offers the chance to connect with real people outside the classroom in real time, which is a valuable learning opportunity.

Mystery Skype

You may only know Skype as a way to talk to out of town relatives. But Skype is also a valuable resource for educators!

A great way to use Skype in the classroom is Mystery Skype—a “global guessing game” played by two classrooms. Each class gets 20 questions to figure out where in the country or world the other class is. Mystery Skype can also be used to bring in virtual guest speakers to talk with students about a fun career or a subject you’re studying. Finally, Mystery Skype can be used as a tool for students to practice a foreign language with native speakers and for English language learners to hone their English skills. Visit Skype’s education page to find participating classrooms and speakers.

Google Hangouts

Like Skype, Google Hangouts is another free way to bring guest speakers into your classroom. But Hangouts has some additional and useful features. Hangouts makes it easy to have multiple people in a conference at once, which you can use to host a virtual career day or a debate about a topic. Hangouts also allows screen sharing, which makes it easy for speakers to show a presentation or other documents while talking to your classroom.

In addition to connecting with other classrooms or bringing in guest speakers, you can use video conferencing to bring parents into the classroom to watch student presentations without requiring them to leave their home or office. Oh, and both these tools can be used for free!

And remember, safety first. Before using any videoconferencing in the classroom:

• Inform students, school administration, and parents. Detail in writing who will participate, when the conference or chat will take place, and its purpose.
• Work with the outside participant(s) to set ground rules. Rules may include who will be present and whether the conference can be recorded.

If you give a man a fish….or in my case, if you attach a file to an email for a colleague, they will never learn to be self sufficient with technology! I have quite a few friendly neighbors who still call me frantically when their printer won’t work, only to have me rush over and plug it in. This is funny the first few times and makes me feel useful, but does it really help anyone? It is hard not to shake my head when this kind of thing happens (which is quite often), but it doesn’t help the problem.

We’ve heard about the digital divide amongst our students, but what about the digital divide between younger and more veteran teachers? And does it matter? I believe it does. A teacher’s attitude toward technology can have a huge impact on student learning, so I made it my mission to be a technology ambassador at my school, and if you’re even remotely tech savvy (if you’re reading this, you are) you should, too.

Here’s Why: Growth Mindset

Hopefully you’ve heard about all of the research by Carol Dweck out of Stanford about Growth Mindset. I so often hear teachers say, “I’m not techie” or “I can’t figure out computers.” What they may not realize, is that they are demonstrating their fixed mindset to their students. An easy change would be for them to say, “I’m still learning how to use computers” or “I haven’t learned how to do this yet, I need help.” But for some reason, this is often a black and white issue for certain people, and they feel they are either good with computers or not. A common trait amongst these naysayers I’ve observed, is the fear of failure. Those of us who are comfortable using technology with our students aren’t afraid of technical difficulties, or appearing not to know something. For some teachers, this is extremely uncomfortable.

Here’s How: Change Attitudes, Encourage Risk Taking

The first thing I did at my school was hold an all inclusive, tech 101 workshop for tech-phobic teachers. Without judgement, I walked them through the basics, from how to turn on the machine, to how to attach a file to an email. Without rolling my eyes, I let them go at their own pace, and ask questions they’ve always been too embarrassed to ask, (like, what is the cloud? And what’s an MP3?). The next step is to ask your colleagues what they would like help with. You’re not going to gain any followers by trying to teach them to code in their first workshop. They may just want to learn how to troubleshoot their classroom technology, so that’s where you should start. After that, you can slowly introduce tools that you think are useful, such Google Drive or ClassDojo, but don’t start with these. Make sure you allow a lot of time for exploration, everyone should have a device in front of them while you demonstrate and you shouldn’t move on until they’ve caught up. Sound familiar? Yes, this is just good teaching! Adult learners differ from kids in many ways, but when it comes to trying something new, we all bring different experiences to the table. We all need time and room to fail.

If you have 1:1 devices in your classroom, first, take a minute to give thanks! After that, think about some of the great opportunities you have to differentiate instruction with your students using these devices. There are a lot of great resources that will track and assess your students’ work, responding to their needs and moving them forward accordingly.

My favorite is a little-known company—you may not have heard of it—called Khan Academy. Ok… it’s no secret. Many people know about this video-based lesson platform. However, many teachers think that’s all it is—YouTube for Math class. Take another look. Their new teacher dashboard system has all the bells and whistles when it comes to adaptive learning. You start your students off by taking a placement test, and then Khan suggests lessons for them based on how they did. You can override those suggestions at any time, if you need to. On top of that, Khan’s student-facing LMS is very game-like, which keeps the kids interested and pushing to ‘unlock’ the next level. If you want more information, check out my post from a few months ago.

For English/Language Arts (ELA), I would look into MyON. This online library isn’t free, but it’s worth talking to your principal about setting up a trial subscription. The system is web-based, so you can use it whether you have laptops, iPads, or mobile devices. You can assign readings to your students, allow them to choose, or let the system provide recommendations to them. The recommendations are all based on Lexile level, which is determined by a pre-assessment that students take when they first sign in. Probably the most useful aspect of this service is that it tracks all student reading time. Since research shows there’s a correlation between test scores and the time spent reading per day, a service like this is very useful. Consider creating a contest based on minutes spent reading.

There are a lot of other adaptive learning systems out there, and they can make it seem like you have several teacher assistants in class with you at all times. Take a minute to look into a few of them, or ask colleagues or members of your PLN about what has worked for them.

Most teachers are always looking for new ways to get their students interested in reading. One of our favorite reading activities is a “Read to the Top” contest. In these contests, much like in some local library summer reading programs, students compete to read the most books.

There are several resources that can help you plan a similar activity. A lot of libraries have Pinterest boards set up with book ideas (some are left over from summer reading programs – but hey, don’t we all wish it were summertime all year round?). Another great Pinterest board has links to all kinds of library-based activities to complete with your students, but my favorite is this awesome March Madness-esque bracket, where students read each book, then vote on the winner. Why not start a blog where students have to post their rationales for choosing the winner based on some good, old-fashioned CCSS criteria like an analysis of the author’s craft and structure?

Not interested in tracking the number of books your students read, but rather the actual time they spend reading? You may have heard of a service called MyON, which provides students with thousands of eBooks (they can read on or offline). The system allows teachers to assign specific books, but it will also just recommend books to students based on Lexile level (derived from a diagnostic test students take when they start using it). Then, the system tracks how many minutes each student spends reading.

You could pull up the dashboard for your class each day on the interactive whiteboard and spend a moment tracking who is in the lead. You’ll see those times start to soar as the finish line looms.

What is your favorite activity to encourage your students to read? Post about it below in the comments!

As an fifth grade ELA teacher, one of the major assignments in my class each year is a research project. Research projects are a great way to introduce students to the discussion of reliable sources and primary versus secondary resources. One of my greatest concerns with any research project is the autonomy I am providing my fifth graders as they search the Internet for sources, images, and facts. Even with the strongest of filters, things can slip through the hands of an educator quickly. However, I have found technology that helps manage such searches, creating a much safer environment.

Here’s a small list of safe and effective tools for your upcoming research projects.

**1. Turn on the Safe Search in Chrome.**All bias thoughts aside, Chrome is my preferred browser. All the computers in my classroom have Chrome as the default browser. Chrome enables me to use a Safe Search feature with a simple on/off option. To lock your Safe Search, you simply log into your Google account and lock.

2. Provide students with reliable search engines. Since I strive to provide technology-rich projects, I want to provide students with the proper tools. One of those tools are reliable and safe search engines. There are several out there on the Internet, but my favorites are Kidtopia and KidRex. Both of these search engines are Google driven and loved by my fifth graders!

3. Use Pinterest as a research hub. To use Pinterest in my classroom, I set up a gmail and Pinterest account just for student use. Students can browse the selected pieces and collaborate on a group board. With the use of these accounts, students are provided with a mini-lesson on digital ethics. They are forewarned of the loss of internet privileges which are spelled out in their Computer Users Contract provided by our district. I have never had an incident where major consequences had to be enforced. In my opinion, my students are choosing to respect the integrity of their work environment because I am giving them the tools they love to use outside of the classroom.

There are many websites and teaching techniques that will ensure safety and reliability when it comes to using technology in the classroom. As technology continues to be a part of my students’ lives, I am forever researching better ways to use these tools in the classroom!

In order to learn something new, students need to obviously be motivated – but they also must feel safe. When learning how to drive a stick-shift, my instructor used to shrug when I stalled at stop lights. “It happens,” he would say. My previous instructor wasn’t so understanding, and as a result I stalled a lot more. As teachers we need to make sure students feel supported, even when they make mistakes. Here are a few tips for making sure all students feel supported when learning something new:

1) Be patient

Be ready for the learning process to take a little (or a lot) longer than you predict. Be patient and stay consistent in your teaching.

2) Set an example

It doesn’t matter how many times you say “It’s okay to make mistakes”, getting upset when you make a mistake sends the opposite message. Set an example by keeping your cool.

3) Take an evening class

Taking a class gives you insight into what it’s like to be in your students’ shoes. For example, I hate it when my night-school teachers choose my groups or partners for me. Not because I want to slack off with my buddies but because I am inhibited by working with strangers. You also forget how scary it is to have a new teacher and how long it takes to get comfortable.

4) Encourage humor

Try to add some humor to your lessons! When I teach digestion, I make ‘cat food’ out of Mars bars and orange jello. I force it through some tights/hose, while narrating the digestive system. When I’m done I lick my finger. Not only do students remember that lesson for a long time but it makes for a warmer atmosphere in class.

5) Help the bullies

Young people who victimize others are usually the ones that feel insecure. I had a class of students who would pepper the air with put-downs. I found out their strengths and praised them, as frequently as possible. As they grew in self-confidence, they attacked each other far less.

I hope you will share more ideas in the comments!

Have you ever sat down to write a report card, or tried to have a parent teacher conference, feeling very confident that you know how a student is doing, only to realize you don’t really have a way to show it? ClassDojo has made keeping track of behaviors very simple, but documenting learning is not an easy thing to do.

The best tool that I have found for documenting student work is Evernote (although I am sure there are others). The reason I like this tool is because it makes it really easy to document everything that happens in the classroom, including learning moments that aren’t always apparent in a final piece of work. I used this application with my fifth grade class this past year, and it was pretty life changing.

There is a bit of a learning curve, as with any new product you try, but it is worth the time it will take you to integrate this tool into your workflow. I recommend making a file, or a “note” for each student, including each project they are working on. As I started teaching my students a unit on persuasive writing, I made each student a “note” and captured all of our conferences in that note. Every time I met with a student I would take a picture of their work and write down the gist of our discussion. This ended up being invaluable in so many ways.

To sum up why Evernote helped me so much, I’ve narrowed it down to four major benefits:

1. When I would meet with each student, I would have a very clear idea about what they were working on, and I didn’t have to try figure out what they were doing at each meeting.

2. Grading was super easy because I had given so much feedback along the way, I was able to summarize all of the things we had already discussed.

3. Parents loved seeing concrete evidence of their child’s learning process (and they couldn’t do the work for their child at home!).

4. Documenting student work in this way emphasizes the importance of learning as a process, not a product, and it helps make the abstract very tangible.

Give it a try !🙂

I believe that people inherently want to do the right thing. This absolutely includes our students (although it sometimes might not seem like it). Most people like to know where they stand. We all like to know what is acceptable and what will get us into trouble. Students often test teachers in order to explore these boundaries. There is nothing worse than having a teacher leaping out to enforce rules and regulations that students were only dimly aware of.

Your students already know the rules

If your classroom’s rules are fair and clear, most students will be following them within a couple of months, if not before. I teach middle (and sometimes high) school. The students I teach have attended school for many years. They already know how to behave in a classroom. When I was their age, there was nothing worse than the first week of term when every single teacher’s first lesson was about their behavior expectations. I try to take a different approach. My first lesson is a real lesson, I teach them something. Then I decide if I need to tackle poor behavior or if they are already on track.

Seriously, they already know the rules!

Most of my colleagues ask students which rules they would like for their classroom. I have not done this since my first year of teaching when a 12 year old said “Miss, you’re the teacher. You tell us,” and would not accept my appeals that I wanted the class to have ownership. Anyway, the rules I would be asking them to ‘write’ are the standard “Listen to others, be respectful, be prepared for lessons” etc etc.

Beware the floating voters

Instead, choose five things that you want to see in your classroom, five things you want your students to do every lesson. And recognize them for it. Your major behavioral problems are not coming so much from the minority of children with behavioral special needs (although, of course those students are challenging), but from the floating voters. The children who need to see which way the wind is blowing before they act. If those children see that you appreciate their good behavior, they are much less likely to act up.

Consistency is not as big a deal as everyone says (sorry)

But, and this is a bit rebellious of me, don’t worry about consistency that much. Rewards are much more powerful when they are a bit unpredictable. Yes, students want you to be consistent and I’m not suggesting you should be actively unfair. But it is okay to forget to reward certain behaviors once in a while. Just as long as you get around to it the next time.

The ultimate goal is to be intrinsically motivated

You do not want to create adults who only do things because they will be praised or get 5 minutes of free time. You want adults who self-regulate their behavior because it is the right thing to do. Slowly start to wean your students off of extrinsic rewards towards the end of the year. See if they continue this positive behavior. If your students are doing the right thing without external motivation, then the rewards have served their purpose.