More Resources

I've had an absolutely fantastic week of being in classrooms and learning how to manage remote employees, which has left me with exactly zero minutes for writing to you all during working hours. SO. This is going to be quick 'n dirty. Hold onto your hats!

20 Tips to Help De-escalate Interactions with Anxious or Defiant Students - An ounce of prevention is the best way to deal, but these are also very good.

A Simple Way to Map out Your Career Ambitions - Yes, of course I want you to stay! The reality is we have to curate our careers like a fine art collection. This is a cool way to plan what's next.

3 Ways to Boost Students' Conceptual Thinking - I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Yemi Stembridge last year and this human is amazing. He spoke frequently of the need to link concepts the kids already knew with ones we're trying to teach. The example he gave involved going to a foreign place like Tokyo. His friends would ask him, "What's it like?" and he would have to relate it to cities they've visited in order to get them to truly understand this unseen land. What would student learning be like if we were able to relate some of these big SEL topics to things the kids experience every day?

6 Opening and Closing Routines - These are great. Try one on at a time for 2-3 weeks each and see what works.

Why It's So Important that Teachers Cultivate Their Own Resilience - If you don't know, I quit teaching after my fifth year in Ohio. Sure, there were a lot of factors like poor admins, literally no job security, and obnoxiously low pay... but, you know the biggest factor? I hadn't built up my tolerance to discomfort. This lovely article may have just the tip you need.

Why I Scrapped my Classroom Library - Ignore the title and focus on the completely amazing learning circle technique described within.

Relationships Matter More than Rules - Yep.

Our First Resource Dump of the Year

Hello!

If you're new here, welcome! If you're familiar with my charming writing, flawless sense of humor, and perfect memes, welcome back!


I tried writing these each Monday last year, but it became waaay too much so you can expect to see these in your email accounts every two weeks.

A lovely graphic for your "Whole Pie Eaters"

Since it's the beginning of the year, I have boatloads of articles that I've been saving for you over the summer. So, take a look at the following list. If you find anything particularly meaningful, try it on for size!

How Do You Get Middle School Students to Stop Talking?  - I love a lot of these ideas, especially the hairspray technique!

8 Proactive Classroom Management Tips - I cannot stress the importance of proactive management strongly enough. If you're brand new to your program, this is an excellent guide. It takes a while to master these tips, but they will likely reduce the number of stress-related headaches you experience. Heck, even if you've been around the block a few times, refresh yourself!

Lizzo: Self Care Has to be Rooted in Self Preservation, Not Just Mimosas and Spa Days - Preach it, Lizzo! We all have to learn how to care for ourselves in the moment. The better *we* are at this, the easier it is for us to teach our youth how to do it. Here's my favorite quote from this article:

"I feel like my job is to push the narrative about self-care further and not just give up because it's mainstream now. I can't be like, Cool. Love yourself! Bye! I have to have answers when people ask, How? How do I love myself?
And I have to be able to start to answer those questions for myself: How do I love myself on the days when I hate myself? How do I love myself on the days where I'm dealing with some boy and he's not treating me the way I deserve to be treated? How do I love myself in a world that doesn't love me? How do I love myself in the face of systemic racism and misogyny? How do I love myself amid fat-phobia? How do I love myself still?"

What a stellar message for our kiddos.

Free Growth Mindset Posters - These are pretty cute, if you have access to a color printer!

Never Take a Bad Work Day Home Again, Using These 3 Steps - Would you believe me if I told you I do a seven-minute self reflection before signing off work every single day? I do. And it helps. We have difficult, stressful, oh-so-rewarding jobs and I urge you to refill your cup before going home.

The Power of Short Writing Assignments - Many of you have students write when they enter the room. That's awesome! Consider trying some of these techniques to get them practicing skills that will generalize to other classes.

Calm Schools Initiative - I guess this was a raging success because they've stopped taking applications for the free teacher version of the app. Anyway, I believe there's a free version AND and you can scope out this cool explanation of the benefits of mindfulness. There are tons and tons of mindfulness activities you can find online, as well.

How Teachers can Help Kids Find Their Political Voices - Here's a really cool TED Talk that supports the social justice work we incorporate. My fave quote is...

"Working for justice, engaging in activism, helps students build skills like leadership and critical thinking, and it correlates positively with their political participation and their civic engagement and their commitment to their communities later in life. So in other words, students are telling us that social justice matters to them and researchers are telling us that it helps students learn.

Ok, I've got, like, 15 more things to share, but I'll end with this for the week...

My uncle says my family is "not very smart, but we're persistent."
Persistence is your best friend when working with kids.
Keep norming your classrooms and your efforts will reward you ten-fold!