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What Are Teacher Approved Tips?
This is a special series of episodes from the Teacher Approved podcast.
Every Thursday, we’re bringing you a weekly bonus episode highlighting new and favorite teacher-approved tips you can apply in your classroom as soon as today.
This Week’s Teacher Approved Tip:
[05:20]: Tip #1: Start creating an idea bank of independent activities that your students can do.
For us, it’s Christmas in July! Part of Christmas is gift-giving, and we’re continuing our favorite activity of giving a gift to your future self by having a classroom Christmas in July.
Even though you’re on summer break, there are still things you can do now in order to make your life easier in December and January. We’re sharing a tip for creating a bank of independent activities for your students to do during your transitional content stop-and-start days around winter break.
[09:23]: Tip #2: Steps for getting planning done in December without doing extra work.
In a replay of Episode 107, we’re sharing ways to get your first January lessons planned before winter break even begins. Once again, this is giving a gift to your future self, but it can be difficult to find time during the school day to have extra time to plan.
However, with the help of our four simple steps, you will have a stress-free return to school. We share how to get pockets of prep time throughout the day, independent activity ideas for your students, and lists to make to keep you organized. This episode is truly a classroom Christmas in July!
Do You Have a Teacher Approved Tip?
If you have a teacher-approved tip that you would like to share, please send an email to [email protected]. Or, you can leave us a quick voice message here!
We would love to feature your tip in an upcoming episode of Teacher Approved.
Resources Mentioned:
- Christmas Activities Mega Bundle of Resources
- December Planner Freebie
- Classroom Procedures & Routines Editable Slides
- Episode 107, Get Ahead For January Now With 4 Easy Steps
- Grab your free ticket to the Teacher Summer Talks Summit
- Join our BTS Success course
- Connect with us on Instagram @2ndstorywindow
- Shop our teacher-approved resources
- Join our Facebook group, Teacher Approved
Read the transcript for episode 141:
Emily 0:37
Hey, there, thanks for joining us today. Today we are celebrating America’s birthday the way that the Founding Fathers would have wanted by celebrating Christmas in July.
Heidi 0:51
You know, those guys couldn’t get enough of Jingle Bells. Or I’m sure they couldn’t have if Jingle Bells had been written back then.
Emily 0:59
Well, unlike George Washington, I can’t get enough of I’m guessing I’m not alone. Oh, same. Why are we talking to teachers about Christmas right now?
Heidi 1:11
Well, it is all about the gifts of course. And I mean, our favorite kind of gift, a gift to our future selves. December is a tough time to be a teacher you may have noticed. And even if you love all of the magic and excitement, it is very draining.
Heidi 1:28
But have you ever considered that there is a lot you can do in the summer to make your life easier in December? Here’s a secret you can even do things now to make life easier in January.
Emily 1:41
Wow. It feels like it needs like a light bulb ding. Considering a lot of teachers don’t even have their class lists yet, that does feel like a tall order here.
Heidi 1:53
Well yes, there are still a lot of unknowns about life between now and December. But that doesn’t mean that it is all unknown. For example, your district has probably released their year calendar, you can know the dates of when winter break starts. And when it ends.
Emily 2:08
That means today, right this very minute, as long as you’re not driving, you can do two things, you can schedule your stop and start dates. So explain what that means Heidi.
Heidi 2:19
So if you got your calendar, the first thing is to schedule the date in December, when you are going to stop teaching new content.
Heidi 2:27
So using our local district as an example, they have a half day on Friday, December 20. That’s last day before the break, I’m guessing it’s going to be party time. Wednesday and Thursday of that week are not going to be particularly productive. So if I were the teacher, I definitely would not want to teach new content on those days. But then what about Monday and Tuesday.
Emily 2:51
This is where it can be tricky. If I take off Monday and Tuesday from covering new content. That means the last day I’m teaching new lessons is Friday, December 13. And that feels really early. However, there’s no way I can effectively cover a full weekly unit on that last week of school. I just end up re teaching everything in January anyway.
Heidi 3:12
So I think if it were me, I would schedule my stop new content date as December 13. That means I have covered my math units for the month, my phonics content, all of that. But I’m going to use the Monday and the Tuesday of that week as my backup buffer days. If I get behind on my pacing guide, I’ve got some room to catch up. But if I stay on track, we can switch to review. And I won’t have to worry about new lessons that week at all.
Emily 3:41
Okay, so December 13 is your stop date, what’s your start date?
Heidi 3:45
So I’m looking at that calendar, teachers go back January 6, but the kids don’t go back until Tuesday, January 7, the first day back whenever that happens to be is your second first day of school.
Heidi 4:00
And I like to use that day to revisit my procedures, reconnect as a class and just kind of gently ease everyone back into school life. Yeah. So I have to decide, is my class going to be ready to get back to normal on that Wednesday? And even if they are do I want to be starting content in the middle of a week?
Emily 4:20
It is a lot to figure out. I think the biggest question is whether or not you’ll get behind if you wait.
Heidi 4:25
Yeah, math as a pretty strict pacing guide. I think for most teachers, getting behind there will really cause headaches down the road, especially if I get behind the rest of my team. So maybe my official completely back to normal start date is January 13. But I use that Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to just start adding pieces back into our day.
Emily 4:48
It’s crazy to think that we won’t have a normal school day from December 13 to January 13. But if you’ve taught before you know that even if you’re planning normal school days during that time they won’t end up being normal.
Heidi 5:01
Right. And then you just end up giving yourself extra stress, trying to cram a normal day’s worth of lessons into a space that is not normal at all.
Emily 5:12
So what can teachers do on those loosey goosey days when they’re not covering regular content, but they also don’t want a bunch of extra planning to do?
Heidi 5:20
Well, this just happens to be another gift you can give your December self. And that is to start creating an idea bank of independent activities that your students can do. Academic games that they would enjoy playing, content to review, centers they could revisit, educational movies to watch, and our two favorites work packets and festive breaks.
Emily 5:42
If we asked you to plan your first week of December lessons right now, that would be impossible, you might have a good idea of what you need to cover that week based on your pacing guides. But it’s impossible to know if your class will really be ready for those lessons at that point. But because we’re talking about activities that don’t need to follow a sequence, you can still plan and even prep a lot of things right now.
Heidi 6:05
If this seems like a lot to keep track of, don’t worry, we have a gift for you.
Emily 6:10
And this is a gift you can use right now you don’t even have to wait until December. We have made for you a December teacher Survival Guide. And as a Christmas in July present, we have made it free for you. Head to secondstorywindow.net/decemberplanner.
Emily 6:31
But here’s a little hint, jump on it right now. Because it may not be free anymore come November. So Heidi, tell us about this kit that you have spent so much time working on for our lovely listeners.
Heidi 6:43
I would love to I am actually so excited about this. So it is all in Google Sheets so that it is completely editable. It starts with an overview of the three keys to thriving in December, which are have the right mindset, use the right tools, and make the right plans and all of that is broken down in it.
Heidi 7:01
Then there are pages to list your behavior expectations, so you can review them with your squirrely December students. Plus, we added something I’m really excited about a reward system planner.
Emily 7:15
Our regular management plans usually need a little boost in December. And introducing a reward system can be a great way to keep kids engaged. This planner walks you through everything you need to consider before launching rewards with your class.
Heidi 7:30
And we also added a thank you list so you can keep track of gifts from your students. That part doesn’t really have much to do with teaching, but it seemed like it fit there. And of course, there are calendars and scheduling pages. I especially love that the schedules help you plan your pockets of prep time.
Emily 7:48
And if you don’t know what pockets of prep time are, keep listening for a replay of Episode 107, where we explain all about them. Pockets of prep will be your new favorite thing.
Heidi 7:59
And we also included calendars and schedule pages for January as well as December. So you can not only plan your December activities, but you today in the middle of July can start planning your first days back in January, maybe wait till the Fourth of July barbecue is over. But then we are doing all December all the time.
Emily 8:20
If you want to get some school stuff done, but don’t want to feel like you have to fully commit to being in back to school mode. Starting with your December prep can be a great way to check some things off your list without having to dive all the way back into school.
Heidi 8:33
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention are the idea banks. We have one for December and one for January. So you can start rounding up ideas for meaningful activities to fill your schedule.
Emily 8:45
Plus, we’ve got some activities that you’ll definitely want to add to your idea banks. We put together a mega bundle of all our Christmas resources for an awesome discount. Plus, it’s on a super sale right now for our Christmas in July celebration. So you can grab this bundle at the link in our show notes.
Heidi 9:05
Definitely take advantage of that sale now. And think of how ahead your future self will be that’s such a gift. And make sure to keep listening to the replay from Episode 107, where we share all the details on how to get your planning done without having to do extra work.
Emily 9:23
It’s that time of year when we think a lot about gifts.
Heidi 9:27
But instead of adding something to your shopping list, we’re going to talk about our favorite kind of gift, a gift to your future self.
Emily 9:34
And bonus, you don’t even have to wrap it.
Heidi 9:34
So really this is a win all around.
Emily 9:39
And what is this winning gift to yourself? Well it is the gift of having your first January lessons planned and prepped before you go on winter break.
Heidi 9:49
It may sound tricky to add extra work on top of the work overload you’re already managing. But we’re breaking it down into some clear steps to help you find some pockets of time for getting it all done.
Emily 9:56
To pull this off, there are four main steps. First, you need to finish teaching your December content. Second, make a plan for filling the remaining days in meaningful, easy ways. Third, plan your first January lessons. And fourth purposefully create small pockets of time to prep those January lessons.
Heidi 10:21
So let’s start by discussing the first step. Finish teaching your December content. Emily, tell us more about this.
Emily 10:27
Well, there’s a point in December where it becomes futile to introduce anything new. We all know this moment, it just hits you. The kids are too hyper to focus, kids will be absent because they’re sick or traveling. And we’re headed into a break. And so kids are going to forget.
Heidi 10:43
Even though teaching new content may feel like you’re making progress on your curriculum map. If you’re gonna have to reteach everything in a few weeks anyway, you’re really just creating more work.
Emily 10:52
Yeah, so schedule a stopping point. Add it to your calendar. This point will be different for each classroom, but it’ll probably be a few days before the break.
Heidi 11:02
Once you have identified your new content stop date, you need to start two lists. The first list is everything you need to prep to finish your December lessons.
Emily 11:13
And the second list is to gather ideas for meaningful, easy ways to fill the rest of the month. That’s the second step in getting ahead for January.
Heidi 11:21
The key to making this work is finding activities your students can do without your direct guidance and support. Maybe during your regular math time you get out the math games you’ve played so far this year, and you just have kids rotate through the games. Or if you have access to technology, you can have the kids playing online math games.
Emily 11:40
Just because you’re not teaching a lesson doesn’t mean you’re wasting learning time. I really want to stress this because I know some principals make it seem like only certain types of lessons count as teaching. But if you look at the research for how learning happens, review is an important part of the process.
Heidi 11:56
So if you are scheduling review time, you’re not shortchanging the kids. You are strengthening the neuronal networks, the brain needs to retrieve information from long term memory and move it to working memory.
Emily 12:09
Yeah, feel free to drop that knowledge bomb on your admin get any pushback.
Heidi 12:14
Or you know, you could just send us their email address because we would love to chat with them about retrieval practice.
Emily 12:20
We do love retrieval practice. And one of our favorite ways to incorporate retrieval practice is with a work packet. Whoo, whoo. Yes, it’s exciting. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it is.
Heidi 12:29
It really is. A word packet does sound like a bummer. But I swear my kids really did enjoy work packets. I have analyzed this and analyze this to try and figure out why maybe it was because I let them have free choice about the order they worked on the pages. So that they you know, some of them could do the fun stuff first, and some of them savored it and saved it. Or maybe it was because I used a fun theme. I don’t know the reason but they would genuinely cheer when I handed them out.
Emily 12:58
I know my kids always liked him too. Maybe it’s because we use them strategically and we don’t overuse them. So maybe that was part of it. So to make a packet, we would just gather a mix of math and language arts pages.
Heidi 13:09
Plus a few just for fun pages like word searches or mazes.
Emily 13:13
And then we like to reduce each page to half size and copy four worksheets on each sheet of paper.
Heidi 13:20
I usually plan about 45 minutes to an hour of work time in the morning. And then I have the students keep their packets at their desks as a fast finisher for that day. To fill that much time I aim for about 16 worksheets, you could do 12 they won’t play as much time and 20 seems like a lot.
Emily 13:38
Better to have too much than not enough.
Heidi 13:39
Yes, absolutely. So maybe I would end up with six math review pages, six language arts pages, and maybe four fun pages.
Emily 13:47
That’s enough work to keep kids busy for a while and it’s nice that you can fit so much practice onto four sheets of paper.
Heidi 13:53
So add work packets to your list of easy meaningful independent activities alongside review games.
Emily 14:00
And another thing to add is movies. Now, I don’t mean full length films. But a 25 minute PBS video can be very informative for your students. Plus it gives you a little break.
Heidi 14:11
Besides review and movies do you want to use these loosey goosey December days for any end of term assessment? So we’re probably coming up on that end of second term here. And it can be tricky to manage a whole class assessment when a bunch of kids are absent. But maybe you can get a head start on a few things.
Emily 14:29
We always had parent teacher conferences the second Thursday in January. I didn’t want to give my winter break for the depressing slog of grading. So I was scrambling when January started to get all my assessments and grading done before report cards were due.
Heidi 14:44
It definitely makes sense to get progress monitoring or math interviews or any other assessments done before the break if you can. Maybe you can’t get through the whole class in December. But really any progress is going to mean less work and less stress when you come back to school.
Emily 15:00
Once you’ve got a list for what to prep for your December content and assessments and a list of easy meaningful activities, it’s time for step three, plan your first January lessons.
Heidi 15:10
To start with, let’s just figure out your first day back. How much of your regular routine are you going to dive into?
Emily 15:17
You definitely want to get things back on track after that big December disruption. But before you launch all your new units, make sure to schedule time to review your procedures and routines.
Heidi 15:28
Your first day back after winter break is like your second first day of school. So make sure you’re setting yourself up for smooth sailing by revisiting all of your wonderful procedures.
Emily 15:39
If you want some support doing that we have a digital product to help you. It’s a set of Google Slides. And there are different color combinations to keep things interesting. But all the slides are the same.
Heidi 15:49
We tried to make this as teacher friendly as possible. All you have to do is type the name of a procedure you want to review with your class. And then you have your class rate, how well they usually follow directions with that procedure from a one to five.
Heidi 16:03
So let’s say they give themselves a four you just click four times and four stars appear. Then on the next slide, you have a class discussion about what they can do better, and what they need to stop doing.
Emily 16:15
And if you have some real trouble spots, you can pull up the tail try tally talk slides from the beginning of the year. And reteach your procedure step by step.
Heidi 16:24
If students understand that you really expect them to do what you say the battle is to get them to follow directions will be greatly minimized.
Emily 16:34
We will link to both the procedure review slides and the tell try tally talk slides in the show notes so you can add them to your January plans.
Heidi 16:42
Besides procedure review, what else do you want to do on your first day back? Maybe you need time to finish any assessments you couldn’t do in December, maybe you want to do some new year goal setting or add a new activity to your daily routine.
Emily 16:55
It makes a lot of sense to introduce anything new before you try settling into your regular routine.
Heidi 17:01
Once you have a schedule for your first day back, consider how much of January you want to prep in advance.
Emily 17:08
Yeah, maybe you just want to get a couple days prepped, so you don’t feel like you have to work over your break.
Heidi 17:13
If you are starting back in the middle of the week, you might just want to prep for those few days so you can get ready to get back to your regular units when you’re back to your normal weekly schedule.
Emily 17:23
Even if you don’t want to prep much of January in advance, I would strongly urge you to plan and prep at least your first day back.
Heidi 17:30
Yeah, not only does that protect your break from interruptions and work guilt, the worst, but it’s a good insurance policy. If you’re sick or a flight is delayed or something else happens so that you need a sub, you will have the relief of knowing everything is ready to go. Instead of sending frantic emails to your co workers.
Emily 17:49
Going back to school is hard enough, no one needs any stress on top of that.
Heidi 17:54
Plus, think how happy your January self will be to walk into your classroom that first day and know that everything is planned, prepped and ready to go.
Emily 18:03
That is definitely a gift your future self will appreciate. So how do we make this possible?
Heidi 18:09
Well, that is the fourth step in how to get ahead for January. We’re going to create small pockets of prep. And then we’re going to be super intentional about how we use each of those prep times.
Emily 18:21
This is where your students independent work time comes into play. Let’s say your last day of school is on a Thursday, that day is going to be full a party. So you want to use Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for extra prep.
Heidi 18:32
If I were still teaching second grade, my schedule would go something like this. I keep my regular morning routine to help keep the kids calm, right, we’re keeping that structure in place. After morning meeting instead of starting writing time though, I would introduce the work packet. I’d have the kids work on that until morning recess, which means I just gave myself a 45 minute prep time. After recess, we would do 30 minutes of math review games and that’s 30 minutes I can work.
Emily 18:59
Obviously, while the kids are working, you can’t be up in the work room cutting construction paper. But there’s a lot you can do in your class while still keeping an eye on what the kids are doing.
Heidi 19:09
Before lunch maybe we want to mix things up and do a festive break. Maybe I’d read them a story or have them make a 3D Gingerbread Man picture from our festive break set. Most of our Christmas festive break activities can be done independently. So bonus once the kids get started, I can be working at my desk.
Emily 19:27
The nice thing about starting the packet in the morning is that I already introduced all of the pages and so it makes it a handy fast finisher all day. The kids can work on it for a few minutes before lunch if you have some time to fill after they make their pictures.
Heidi 19:39
And that is a bonus. After lunch the second grades have planning time when I could go work in the workroom for a bit. When the kids got back we’d do a lesson or activity together and then we could do our regular reading time and center rotations. Except I wouldn’t have work with the teachers one of the centers. I would be using that time to grade or prep or plan.
Emily 20:03
Or you could still have small groups during centers and use that time for assessments with the kids in the group. Either way, you’re getting ahead. And that’s what we’re after right now.
Heidi 20:11
After reading and centers, we could do an activity together, or maybe I’d show Wild Kratts Creature Christmas, it’s on Amazon, and it’s 50 minutes. So we can watch over a couple of days. And that way, they’re getting in a little bit of science as well. And you know, then we would just wrap up the day as normal.
Emily 20:28
And that’s pretty good. The kids were engaged in learning activities the whole day, and you manage to claim more than two hours to get your own work done. You wouldn’t want every day to look like that. But it’s a pretty good system for a few days, especially right before break.
Heidi 20:41
Think of how much you can accomplish with two extra hours of prep. The key to maximizing the extra time is knowing exactly what you need to get done.
Emily 20:51
Go back to those lists we mentioned at the beginning. You want a list of everything you still need to prep for your December lessons, and everything you need to prep for your meaningful time fillers.
Heidi 21:00
And now let’s add some more lists. We love lists. And that’s a good thing because we want a list of what you need ready in January. So think about the copies to make slides to prep books to pull centers to organize assessments to give grades to enter all the fun stuff.
Emily 21:18
And don’t forget your room. What does it need to be January ready? This is especially important if you have conferences coming up. What seasonal stuff needs to be switched out what needs to be tidied? Do you need to switch the calendar or class jobs or bulletin boards or your seating arrangement? Start a list of everything your room needs.
Heidi 21:35
Okay, these lists might start looking a little overwhelming. So let’s tame them a bit. We want to save time by batching similar tasks at the same time.
Emily 21:45
Making all your copies at once is much more efficient than making five trips to the work room. Although the work room was across the hall from my room, so it was pretty quick for me to make a trip.
Heidi 21:55
That’s lucky I had to trek up to the front of the school.
Emily 21:57
Yours was far away. Mine was so close, I could I could run right in there real quick. But for most people, it’s probably pretty far. So look at which of your tasks can be done together.
Heidi 22:06
At this point, you might want to regroup your lists. Make a list for all of your copies, make a list for all of your reading group prep, make a list of all of the books you need to gather, make a list of all the grades you need to enter.
Emily 22:19
And it’s okay if you have a few outliers those can be their own list.
Heidi 22:23
Once you’ve grouped your tasks, start assigning them to one of your prep times. Maybe before school on Monday is the time for gathering books. Maybe while the kids do their work packet on Monday, you’re catching up on your grading. Just don’t create the work packet is not that important.
Emily 22:38
Oh never grad a work packet.
Heidi 22:40
During math games, maybe you work on the slides that you’ll need for the first week of January’s math lessons.
Emily 22:46
Do your tasks in whatever order makes sense for you. But you may want to set aside your regular daily prep time for making copies or any other outside of the room tasks. Since you don’t have to worry about supervising kids during that time.
Heidi 22:59
Batching tasks and scheduling when to do them, it’s not necessary for getting ahead, but it does help you maximize your time. If you wait to decide what you’ll work on in the moment, you’re going to end up wasting time and minutes matter here.
Emily 23:15
If you’re going to all the effort to create extra planning time you don’t want to waste it.
Heidi 23:20
So hopefully this helps ease that transition out of winter break mode and into January teacher mode. Decide when you’ll stop teaching new December content.
Emily 23:29
Then make a plan for filling the remaining days in meaningful easy ways and plan your first January lessons.
Heidi 23:36
And use your students independent work time to create small pockets of prep time so you can get ahead for the new year.
Emily 23:43
Do you have any tips for planning ahead for January? Come during the conversation in our teacher approved Facebook group.
Heidi 23:50
That’s it for today’s episode. Grab our freebie December Survival Guide while it is still a freebie and get started on your end of December early January plans now.
Emily 24:01
And don’t miss the super sale on all our Christmas resources for the Christmas in July celebration. All the links are in the show notes.
More About Teacher Approved:
Do you ever feel like there’s just not enough time in the day to be the kind of teacher you really want to be? The Teacher Approved podcast is here to help you learn how to elevate what matters and simplify the rest. Join co-hosts Emily and Heidi of Second Story Window each week as they share research-based and teacher-approved strategies you can count on to make your teaching more efficient and effective than ever before.