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11/25/2020 2 Comments

Time for Gratefulness

Last week I wrote about slowing down. Slowing down to focus. I hope you all have been able to do that this week.

This week I am keeping the blog simple. 

This week I hope you think about you. 

This week, I hope you thank yourself for all the goodness you put out into the world. 
I hope you thank yourself for putting your physical and mental health on the line for others. 

I hope you thank yourself for educating students and working with your teams in the best way you can.

I hope you thank yourself for keeping your close friends and family safe, and for being even more thoughtful than you already are.

I hope you thank yourself for being you. There is no one else like you.

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2 Comments

11/19/2020 0 Comments

Slow Down, Jazz Cats

Teaching life means we are in a state of constant movement. Fast movement. All the time.
Things are urgent. Always urgent.
We rush around, flitting through stacks of books, papers, reports, articles, pots-its, digging through packed cupboards, quickly trying to find something we think we need to teach, or give to a parent or admin. 

This continuous rushing around can negatively impact our effectiveness and shift our focus away from our students. We let all the "emergencies" or urgent things distract us from our students. We feel like this is inevitable and this feeling makes us think that by not filling in paperwork, writing that report, or getting those lessons written just right, that we are less than the best teacher we know we are. 

It way easier for us to get wound up than it is to slow down and unwind - but the good news is that we can do this. We can refocus on our students AND tend to the other things - but we can only do that if we intentionally to tell ourselves to SLOW DOWN, even just a little.
  • Slowing down can mean taking a few minutes to think about the how, the what, and the when,
  • Slowing down can mean evaluating your planned experiences for students so they cover big ideas or concepts to open up time for deeper learning, 
  • Slowing down can mean observing students and reflecting on how the presented experience is received in real time,
  • Slowing down can mean capping your administrative task time to 20 minutes in your day, prioritizing the most "urgent" task to be completed first on your schedule.

Slowing down definitely does not mean to stop doing what you need to do. It just means being more intentional about your use of time and thinking about your priorities.
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0 Comments

11/12/2020 0 Comments

How to Refocus on your learners

We know it's easy to lose sight of our learners because there's just a lot of stuff in teaching, isn't there? It's sad but true. 

So how do we refocus on our learners when there is so much in our spaces and on our minds? Is it every really possible?

What it comes down to is a strategic use of time and energy when creating a 
student-centered classroom culture rather than a compliance-driven one. This means that we reconnect with our people first, then get to our to-do lists.

A few months ago, I wrote a short post for Achieve the Core on just this idea. Let's take a look at one of these ideas to refocus on our people, without complicating teaching or crowding the teaching space. 

One thing we can do is let our guard down.

What does this mean?
  • We can be human! And express how much we rely on our coffee or tea as a source of sanity!
  • We can ​be vulnerable with our students and share how we are feeling - this includes those feelings that can be viewed as negative. It's important our students recognize that we all have feelings and we can all share them. 
  • We can share stories for students to get to know a bit about us.
  • We can empathize with our learners, thinking about what they might be going through at home and in class​
  • We can tell some dad jokes!

These are just a few simple ideas, things we likely often think about, but maybe do not always actually do for a refocus.

Fortunately, this requires no extra planning or resources! It's just a few minutes that can make your student's day.​
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Read the Achieve the Core post, "Refocusing on Your Learners" here.
Subscribe to this blog and be entered to win this month's book draw or giveaway (sometimes there are surprises).
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0 Comments

11/5/2020 0 Comments

The Stuff That Clutters Teaching

There's no denying that there's too much stuff that clutters teaching. Let's make a non-exhaustive list.
  • supplies
  • programs
  • ideas
  • strategies
  • assessments
  • resources
  • forms
  • mandates
  • deadlines
  • google folders
  • post-its
  • emails
  • meetings
  • all the to-do's (if you needed help with that, download this free toolkit to take control of your to-do's)

So, when we have all of this in our periphery, what happens?

We lose focus, don't we?

Now, ask yourself... why do I teach? ....

Your response here, is your priority. Focus on that (them) and think less about the list above. It's not going anywhere and doesn't deserve so much of your attention.

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Subscribe to this blog and be entered to win this month's book draw.
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