It’s been one crazy year, and I’m exhausted. We’ve finally made it to the end, and my instinct is to play a movie for the last week of class next week. BUT, kids have worked hard, and I don’t want to just tap out. I’m sure many of you are in the same boat, so I made a list of activities that are fun and creative while still being moderately standards- related. Some of these require some prep, but others none at all! I hope this list helps your students ( and you!) relax and make memories as the school year. 1. Write a Thank You Note This activity can…
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Declutter Your Digital Files – in 3 Easy Steps
If you love to declutter or you really need some help to declutter your digital files this guide is for you! Around April every year, my teacher brain starts getting antsy. When there is less planning to think about, I can’t ignore all of the digital files I’ve collected throughout the year – copies of copies of documents from professional development; graphic organizers I saw online, saved, and never used; and ideas I started working on but never finished. I’m a big fan of Marie Kondo, and when I started teaching I decided I should apply her methods to my classroom too! There’s nothing better than looking at a tidy…
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How To Prepare for Equitable Remote Learning
On Friday night, my school board voted to go virtual for a week. YIKES! We teachers have only a few days to plan ( and, yes, those days are outside of working hours). Your school may have gone virtual already, and we all may be facing the possibility of off/ on remote this year. I wanted to share how I prepare my units for equitable remote learning, because with a little planning and preparation you can ease a lot of the burden from yourself if and when this happens at your school. This is also important as we are seeing upticks in the number of absent students who are quarantining…
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How To: Weekly Lesson Planning in Only 10 Minutes
7 years in, and I still write a lesson plan for every day. Yep, It’s true! It might seem like a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to be! I’ve developed a system for weekly lesson planning. And yes, in only 10 minutes a week! This method comes in handy for a lot of reasons: It holds me accountable to making a strong, objective- aligned class period for students. If an administrator, coach, or colleague asks to see it ( or I’m being observed) I’m golden. If I need to take an unplanned day off ( or a week , hello COVID). I can be more flexible with class…
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10 Easy Bell Ringers to Use This Year
After pandemic teaching, I have realized how important it is to give students a minute or so to decompress in between classes. I used to be a “when the bell rings, you’re in your seat working on the bell work (or else)!” but I realize now that even the real world doesn’t operate like that. Meetings often start a minute or two after the start time, movies have trailers, etc. And I myself often need a minute or two to reset from the previous class. These 10 easy bell ringers will do both! 10 Easy Bell Ringers: 1. Vibe Check I have printed quarter sheets of paper with a range…
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5 Lessons I Learned from a Year of Pandemic Teaching
I’m going to say something that is not being said enough: The pandemic did not create problems in education. It forced us to recognize and stop ignoring the ones that were already there. Before, there was no money to waste on 1:1 technology. Suddenly, students had access to wifi and laptops. Before, students had to sit in a chair for each class from 7-3. Suddenly, we could give independent, asynchronous options. The list goes on. Although this year of teaching has easily been the longest and most exhausting year of my career, I realize that in a lot of ways it has been a blessing, and not just because my…
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How to Organize Your Digital Files
Spring Cleaning for Teachers Series – Part 2 My favorite work avoidance tactic is cleaning, organizing, and decluttering the spaces in which I live and work. I imagine there are a lot of us out there with massively unorganized Google Drives, especially with the state of hybrid and remote teaching this year. In this part of the Spring Cleaning for Teachers series, I want to share with you my best tips for creating and maintaining a well organized digital filing system. Today, I will walk you my tips to organize digital files so you can set yourself up for success for next school year! Are you ready for a little…
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My 5 Favorite Classroom Tech Tools
I had to change my teaching to make it engaging for both remote and in- person students. These are the 5 classroom tech tools that I use daily.
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ELA Strategies I Love: Hexagonal Thinking
Have you ever heard of or seen a new teaching strategy from a coworker and said, “I have to try that TOMORROW!”? That was me last week when I heard about Hexagonal Thinking from the Brave New Teaching Podcast. It just SOUNDS cool. I immediately paused my podcast, put down my vacuum ( because who doesn’t listen to podcasts while they’re cleaning? It’s a thing, I swear), and ran to my computer. I googled “Hexagonal Thinking” and found Betsy Potash’s incredibly innovative strategy for critical thinking on her Spark Creativity blog. I was immediately obsessed and worked it into my Hamlet lesson for the next week. Here’s how the Hexagonal…
