Heading into the Holidays
For some students, the holidays bring the fear of limited resources at home, stress or facing circumstances the student may have no control over. These feelings can bleed over into the classroom as vacation time nears. Remember that structure in your classroom should be consistent, follow-though on consequences should be fair and remember to always be kind. Continue to teach well and hold students to high expectations for learning and behavior. Use every moment to teach your students. I had a wise mentor once tell me to maintain all of my regular classroom practices through the very last day before break. Great advice.
Starting the School Year
Whether you are a veteran teacher or new to the profession, here are some tips to remember as you start a new school year.
Be prepared: lesson plans are the key to a successful classroom. Winging it never ends well for you or your students. Plan, plan, plan.
Take advantage of your pre-service days in school to make sure that you have your lesson plans ready to go for your first unit. Yes, I said unit. Each plan in your unit should be aligned to your state’s content standards, write a strong learning objective based on your standard, then immediately write how you are going to assess the learning target. Once these key pieces are in place, then it is time to develop the lesson. Make sure the majority of your lesson is spent with students doing the work, processing and thinking their way through the lesson. Follow the lead from Doug Lemov, Teach Like A Champion: Write a manageable objective – it can be taught in one lesson. Make is measurable – you need to be able to measure the lesson objective by the end of class, made first- the lesson objective comes before activities are planned, always, most important – it must be aligned to your state standards. If you are looking for a great lesson template, take a look at what Understanding by Design has to offer. Find a template attached! Happy planning!
Be thoughtful: As you think through how you want your classroom to function during the day, consider these things:
Start teaching content your first day of school, but make sure you are practicing routines daily for as long as it takes to make them seamless. Hold all students to the same standard of excellence in routines, behavior and academics. A great reference for the first days of school is Harry Wong’s Book, The First Day’s of School: How to be an Effective Teacher.
Be compassionate and determined: You can hold your students to high standards for behavior and learning, just make sure that you operate with compassion and hope. Our job as educators is to meet our students with compassion and grace at the door while holding them to high expectations. Teach them well, speak hope into their lives and never give up on them. Effective teachers use data to teach, reteach and extend learning for their students. Teachers must also teach students that it is ok to fail. Sometimes failure is out greatest teacher! Most of all, assume the best of yourself and your students. We really are not all that different.
Great resource: Differentiated Instructional Management,