teaching tips Archives - Page 2 of 2

Right now I’m about halfway through my winter break. I had a little bit of schoolwork to do, but I finished it up on the first Monday so I could spend my time doing all the things I never seem to have quite enough time to do as I would like to – read for pleasure, play guitar, draw, watch movies, and spend time with family.

It’s also a time when we many of us make New Year’s resolutions in an attempt to get a good start to the year. And while teachers are halfway through the year already, there are some good practices we can put into place to make the rest of the school year go better. They won’t drastically change the way we teach, but they might just make us better teachers.

1. Stop thinking you can get it all done.

Because you can’t. There will always be more to do, and you can suck up all your free time working on schoolwork if you’re not careful.

I am all caught up on grading and have the first week planned out in all my classes. However, I could use my break to plan out the next week, and then the next week after that. I could also fall into the trap of overplanning – going over and over the first week’s lessons to see if I can make any changes that will make the lesson go smoother.

I read a book that talked about the healthy habit of learning when to say that you’ve done enough. If we want to, we can spend all of our evenings and weekends on schoolwork. However, we’ll never get caught up because there’s always something else you can do. Learn to set manageable goals for how much time you’ll spend on schoolwork and you won’t feel so overwhelmed all the time. It will all get done eventually.

One easy way to do this that I learned from Angela Watson is to set an intention for how much you’ll actually work on schoolwork over the weekend and put it in your calendar. If you say “I’m going to grade papers and plan on Sunday from 2 to 4” you avoid the trap of spending the entire weekend on school business.

2. Stop giving too much of yourself.

Remember that teaching is only one of the things you chose to do with your life, and having a healthy, interesting life outside of the classroom is the best thing you can do for your overall well-being. This means interests, hobbies, and other pursuits. Some of the happiest teachers I know are those that are doing something really cool with their time outside of school – rock climbing, playing in a band, or building stuff in a wood shop. It gives them another way to feel success and mastery, which is important for teachers if they are really having a hard time.

Where do these people find the time? They don’t. They make the time. You’ll never find the time for hobbies and interests. You have to make the time, and these teachers are good at budgeting time for the activities that are important to them.

Chances are, there’s something you once enjoyed doing that you no longer feel like you have the time to do. Pick it up again. If it made you happy once, it will again. And the great thing is if you have a bad day at school, you always have your hobbies to give you peace.

Just like with schoolwork, you may have to actually put into your calendar that you’ll play the guitar from 3-3:30 in the afternoon. If you do that, you’re less likely to use that time to do something else. And be selfish with that time. You deserve it.

3. Stop letting other people determine your worth.

As a teacher it’s easy to feel like you’re constantly being judged in ways that you don’t want to. But you’re actually allowed to set the terms.

For one thing, don’t let people you’ll never meet determine your worth. You will never meet any of the politicians whose decisions cause you such despair. Same thing with news reporters who seem to always be spending their time being critical of teachers. Wouldn’t you rather be judged by the people you see face to face?

But what about those people you interact with every day? Kids, administrators, and other people in the building? Some you can avoid: you can choose not to eat lunch with certain teachers because of their negative attitude. But just because you have to interact with your students, parents, and administrators doesn’t mean that you have to hand the remote control of your feelings to these people and say, “here you go. You get to determine how I feel about myself today.” A bad student or a bad interaction with a parent may be discouraging, but it does not make you a bad teacher.

And here’s a bonus one:

Only send out positive messages on social media.

Every year on Facebook I see posts about “The Myths of Summer’s Off,” “Why I Quit Teaching,” or “How Many Hours Teachers Actually Work.” I know that we send those messages out to support each other, but I tend to get really anxious and sad when I see them. I’ve never felt better about my job and more encouraged to do well. They seem positive and supportive, but they really aren’t. And they might actually encourage someone to quit the profession because the odds seem insurmountable.

So make a point to only spread positive messages about our profession. Think before you post or repost: is this likely to make someone have a better day? If it isn’t, leave it alone. Or make it your job to be the teacher who’s above the fray and only posts messages of encouragement. Who knows? You might make someone’s day brighter.

Have a great 2016!

An InLinkz Link-up

Learning should be fun! Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store for fun comic resources like those below.

Winter break is almost here, and everyone in the building is looking forward to the time off. Many teachers in my building are working hard to get that last bit of material covered or getting their students ready for one last assessment, anxious to get some time off. And we have to do all of this while shopping for presents and going to holiday parties and concerts.

So our break is well deserved. However, it can easily seem like we never had a break if we let it happen. If we spend too much time on schoolwork during winter break, we don’t have time to recharge. And if all we do is think about what we are going to do when we get back, it can seem like we’re working even if we aren’t really doing anything. Then we go back to school grumpy, complaining about how teachers really don’t get any time off at all.

Doing some work over break may be inevitable for some teachers. You may have a few papers or tests to grade, or you may be taking down Christmas decorations and putting up new ones. However, one way that I’ve found that saves my sanity over break is this:

Have your plans ready for the week you get back, especially on Monday.

I never leave the building to go on break without knowing exactly what I’m going to do when I get back. I will plan out my Monday more thoroughly than any other day of the year, because I don’t want that day hanging over my head for two weeks.

Here’s an example of why this is important. Last spring break my wife and I were planning a unit together that we were doing right after break (we teach the same class, but in different schools.) Our children weren’t on break, so we had plenty of uninterrupted time to figure out what we wanted to do. We put it off until break in part because we were still teaching the week before, but mostly because we had the time to do it then. Even though we didn’t spend all that much time planning – maybe a few hours each day – it still felt like we never really went on break because we had created PD for ourselves almost every day. To make matters worse, it was something neither of us had taught before, and this only compounded the anxiety.

Winter break can become like that if you’re not careful about managing your time. One of my rules for teaching that applies here is this: If I’m trying to decide which of many tasks to do, planning trumps grading.

When I’m choosing between whether to plan or grade, I always choose planning. During the school day, I get more stressed if I don’t have a good handle on what I’m doing in class than I do by a stack of papers I need to grade. If I find myself going through the day teaching good lessons that could have been great lessons with a little more planning, I feel frustrated and discouraged. If I’m properly planned for the day, I end the day with an “I’ve got this” confidence and it makes it a lot easier to tackle those papers when I get the chance. Grading will eventually get done; planning has to be done once the students arrive.

Therefore, starting two weeks before winter break, I start planning my lessons for after break even though I have grading to do. In particular I want to make sure that I have Monday nailed down, sometimes to the minute. I make my copies, leave my lesson plans on my desk, and allow myself the luxury of not thinking about what I’m teaching at all because I’ve got it covered. Here are some good tips for a back to school lesson:

Teach something you’re really familiar with.

In English 9 we’ll be doing Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, which I’ve taught numerous times (it also involves some movie clips, which is always nice). I know exactly what I’ll be doing because I’ve taught it eight times.

Review.

Students will forget a lot over break. The first few days back in AP Lit we’ll be reviewing poetry terms and how to annotate a poem. I’m not really teaching anything I have to plan for – I can use material I’ve already created.

Stay off your feet and make the students do most of the work.

The first day back can be tiring, and standing in front of the class leading a discussion or covering material can be hard, especially on your voice which hasn’t been used vigorously for a couple of weeks. Try to have the students do the heavy lifting. They’ll be a little tired too, and an activity that keeps them engaged will be a good choice.

We’ll all probably have to do a little work over break, but look on the bright side- it will keep you engaged and focused on your job if you approach it the right way. Just don’t put it all off until the day before you go back or you’ll have it hanging over your head for two weeks. Enjoy your break and your time off. As teachers we get two weeks off at a very convenient time of year. Don’t spend your break worrying about what you’re going to do when you get back.

Would you like to read more great holiday tips from teachers? Check out Twelve Days of December page! There are lots of great giveaways too – like Target gift cards, Amazon gifts cards, and much more! Here’s a link to the giveaway: The 12 Days of December