5 Smart Switch-Ups for May Classroom Management [Episode 257]

Heidi 0:00
This is episode 257 of Teacher Approved.

Heidi 0:03
You’re listening to teacher approved, the podcast helping educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I’m Heidi.

Emily 0:13
And I’m Emily. We’re the creators behind Second Story Window, where we give research-based and teacher approved strategies that make teaching less stressful and more effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

Heidi 0:27
We’re so glad you’re tuning in today. Let’s get to the show.

Emily 0:31
Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we are talking about how to survive that mid-May slump, where you can see summer but you can’t quite reach it yet, and we’re sharing a tip for holding the day steady when the routine is falling apart.

Heidi 0:51
But first, let’s start with a try it tomorrow, where we share a quick win that you can try in your classroom right away. Emily, what is our suggestion for this week?

Emily 1:00
This week, try complimenting a colleague in front of their class. May is the season where teacher burnout really starts to bite, and one of the best antidotes to burnout is connection. We get so isolated in our own classrooms with our own problems, and it’s easy to forget that there are other adults in the building who totally get it. And really, this couldn’t be easier. Just the next time you’re talking to a colleague who has students with them, just say something nice about them in front of their class.

Heidi 1:29
My friend Vicki was so good at this. Anytime she popped into my classroom, she’d say something like, Do you guys know how awesome your teacher is? You are so lucky to be in her class. This did two things at once, obviously, like, I loved Vicki for it, but it also gave me an opening to praise my class. I’d always say something back, like, it’s pretty easy to be a good teacher when your class is this awesome. I’m so lucky to have these kids in my room.

Emily 1:55
Oh, I love that. And then I bet everybody’s day was just a little bit brighter when she did that. Well, if you like this idea or anything else we share here on the podcast, we would love it so much if you take a second and give us a five star rating on your podcast listening app.

Emily 2:09
Okay, so let’s talk about why this stretch of May is so brutal, because it’s not just one thing, it’s like three things stacked up on top of each other in a trench coat.

Heidi 2:19
Of course it is, and that’s why it’s so tricky to manage. First up, everyone’s emotions are all over the map. Some kids are crying because they don’t want fourth grade to end, and other kids are crying because fourth grade isn’t ending fast enough, and they’re fed up. And you’re probably somewhere in the middle, just trying to hold it all together.

Emily 2:36
And then there’s the structure thing. Your Kids genuinely need your routines right now because they are so dysregulated, but they push back on every single one of them. They want to know what’s coming next, but they don’t actually want to do what’s coming next.

Heidi 2:50
Yeah, that’s a fun puzzle to solve at the end of the year when your tank is totally empty.

Emily 2:56
And that’s the third piece, their energy is going up, yours is going down, and there are still three or more weeks at school left, and your calendar looks like it was filled out by someone on a dare.

Heidi 3:07
Or maybe by an adrenaline junkie. There are the assemblies and dress up days in all of the end of your celebrations.

Emily 3:14
Yep.

Heidi 3:14
Given a choice, no rational person would choose to cram this many extras into an already heated situation. It’s kind of like tossing gasoline onto a fire.

Emily 3:25
I know, I’m always like the parents don’t want this much, the teachers don’t want this much. Why, why does they have to be like this? Well, with so much going on, I think teachers feel like they have to pick a side either you double down on structure and you hold the line on every single rule, which, you know just makes the kids push back harder, or you let it all go and try to coast through the days, and that means, you know, your classroom is in chaos by 10am.

Heidi 3:50
Neither of those approaches work particularly well. That’s because May is not an all or nothing kind of month. You don’t have to choose between structure and fun. You just have to make sure they’re balanced.

Emily 4:01
If you’re new here, welcome. We’re so glad to have you. This might be a new concept if you’re new here, but if you’ve been here a while, then you already know that this is one of our favorite topics.

Heidi 4:11
Yeah, in fact, we love it so much we just wrote 70,000 words about it.

Emily 4:16
I mean, you know what? We were like, that’s gonna be so hard to write such a long book, and we were contracted for a 60,000 word book, which felt like a lot, but, you know, we just had so much to say. We felt like we needed that extra 10,000 words to say it all.

Heidi 4:30
We tried to cut it back, but there’s just so much to say.

Emily 4:33
Every time we cut something, I think we just added something else, somewhere else.

Heidi 4:36
So if you need a refresher, a calmly managed class requires a balance between two energies, structure and spark. That balance shifts depending on where you are in the school year. These last few weeks are what we call the home stretch. This is the season where rebalancing matters most. Too much rigidity right now triggers resistance, but too much looseness sends the whole class into free fall.

Emily 5:02
So the trick in this season is to maintain the predictability your class needs, to feel grounded, and add just enough novelty to keep them interested, but not hyper.

Heidi 5:12
And that is a trick, but we are here to help you out. Today, we are sharing five small switch ups. These are little shifts that add the spark your students are craving, without giving up the structure that’s keeping you functioning. And none of these require very much prep at all.

Emily 5:29
Yeah, these are just tiny tweaks to what you’re already doing. And our first smart switch up is the change of scenery. This is exactly what it sounds like, you do your regular activity, you just move it to a new location.

Heidi 5:40
And it’s almost magic how well this works. It can be as small as moving your read aloud from the back carpet to the front of the room, or having silent reading under desks instead of at desks.

Emily 5:51
And if your class really needs a bigger shift, or you think they can handle a bigger shift, you can do something like math review in the gym or a science lesson in a different teacher’s classroom. You don’t have to do anything different with the content, but a new spot makes everything fresh.

Heidi 6:06
One of my favorite versions of this is doing a class swap. If you have a willing teammate or two, try rotating classes. So each teacher plans one activity, and the kids rotate through. That way you only have to plan one activity, and the kids are getting three or four new experiences.

Emily 6:21
Yeah. Plus, kids often behave a lot better for teachers that they don’t see every day, so that kind of gives you a nice break from refereeing the same arguments that you’ve been refereeing all year.

Heidi 6:33
The reason a change of scene works so well is because novelty triggers the brain to release dopamine, which is the chemical tied to motivation and engagement. When something familiar shows up in slightly different ways, the brain perks up and pays attention. That new location is doing the management work for you.

Emily 6:51
Okay, so our second switch up is playing the favorites. This is just bringing back the hits from earlier in the year.

Heidi 6:58
This one is so underrated. When teachers think about adding spark at the end of the year, they usually think they have to plan something brand new. But honestly, the best stuff often already exists in your room. You’ve spent nine months building this class culture, so use it.

Emily 7:14
Yeah, think about all the activities your kids loved this year, the favorite read aloud, the math game that everybody asked to play again, the science experiment that got everyone talking. You can just bring those back.

Heidi 7:25
I had a class one year that was, like, weirdly obsessed with musicals, and they were a tough class, especially at the end of the day. They had just had it. So I made a deal with them, if they would clean up quickly at the end of the day, we could watch part of a musical until the bell rang. So at the end of the year, it just felt right to spend an afternoon watching Sound of Music in one go, instead of in like five minute chunks. The kids were so into it, except, obviously I did fast forward Climb Every Mountain, because nobody, nobody has the patience for that one.

Emily 7:57
No, why is that song in there?

Heidi 7:59
There’s one in every show, you’re just like, okay, come on.

Emily 8:02
Yeah, but that is the perfect example of playing the favorites. It wasn’t a brand new activity, it was something your class already loved that they got to do in a bigger, more satisfying way at the end of the year.

Heidi 8:13
What makes this so genius for May specifically, is that the kids already know how to do these activities, so they can just dive in. You don’t have to teach the rules or model anything.

Emily 8:23
And while the kids are busy, you get a pocket of prep, which means you can pack a bin or grade a stack of papers. That’s the kind of hack you need at the end of the year.

Heidi 8:32
So as you were thinking about your last weeks, think back over the year. What activities did your kids ask to do again? What lit them up? Don’t reinvent the wheel. Just use the wheel you already have.

Emily 8:45
Our third switch up is one a lot of teachers don’t think about, and it’s a really fun one. Give your students a peek at what they’ll learn next year.

Heidi 8:53
I love this one because it taps into something kids really want, which is to feel like they’re growing up. By May they have been in your grade all year. They want to know what’s next, and they want to feel like the big kids.

Emily 9:05
So go peek at the curriculum for the grade above yours and pick something that has a natural wow factor. So if you teach second grade, maybe you do a mini lesson on cursive. If you teach third grade, maybe you introduce two digit multiplication. If you teach fifth grade, maybe you give them a taste of middle school science.

Heidi 9:24
To really boost the buy in. Present it with some fanfare. You can say something like, You guys have learned so much, I think you’re ready for something kids usually don’t see until next year. That kind of framing just turns this lesson into a whole event.

Emily 9:38
Yeah, and it like raises the level of concern in the room in a good way, because suddenly the kids are leaning in like, Ooh, this is something I’m going to need. And they pay closer attention, because the stakes feel important.

Heidi 9:51
Just make sure that those stakes aren’t causing any anxiety.

Emily 9:55
Yeah.

Heidi 9:55
Frame it as a sneak peek, not as a preview of how hard things are going to get.

Emily 10:01
And also be considerate of next year’s teacher. You don’t want to step on their toes by going too deep into a topic that they’re going to teach in the fall. Just stick to introductory, hands on stuff. The goal is to spark curiosity, not to teach mastery.

Heidi 10:14
So a really good example of this is multiplication tricks. Kids think they’re so cool, but if you teach a bunch of shortcuts before they’ve built the conceptual understanding, you’re going to undermine the work that next year’s teacher is trying to do. So keep it light. You’re not responsible for teaching this, so just enjoy the fun part of it.

Emily 10:33
And if you don’t want to deep dive into one topic, you can also just do a broader sampling. Pull up the curriculum for next year and let kids preview a bunch of different things, let them share what they already know about each one and what they’re excited to learn.

Heidi 10:47
This is one of those switch ups that delivers structure and spark at the same time. There’s spark because it’s new and exciting and a bit of a mystery, and there’s structure because the kids naturally lean in when they realize that this content actually matters.

Emily 11:01
Okay, switch up number four is team up time, and this one solves a really specific May problem, which is that kids are dying for social interaction right now.

Heidi 11:09
Yeah, they pretty much want to talk non stop, but you can’t just let them sit in a corner and chat. Although that’s probably tempting. So we need a structured outlet for that energy.

Emily 11:20
One of the best ways to do this is to team up with a class in a different grade, reach out to a teacher friend, ideally, one whose class is two or three grade levels different from yours, and see if they’d be interested in partnering with your class.

Heidi 11:33
When I taught second grade, my friend Angela taught fifth, so it worked out really well for our classes to partner up. My kids would bring math games or books to read with their buddies, and then Angela and I got a chance to hang out for a few minutes.

Emily 11:46
And what’s so great about this is that it satisfies the social hunger without the chaos that usually comes with it. The older kids show up to those buddy sessions like little mentors. They want to be impressive role models, and the younger kids want to impress them right back, so they’re on their best behavior because they’re trying to seem grown up.

Heidi 12:06
Plus that has real academic value. The little kids get one on one support, which is hard to come by in any classroom, and the older kids get a chance to review skills that they may not have practiced in a while. Even a fifth grader can use some more time with subtraction facts and reading fluency.

Emily 12:21
One important tip if you do this, be sure to assign the buddies. Do not let the kids pick, otherwise you’re going to have somebody standing alone, and then you’ll feel terrible. So make a pairing list ahead of time, so you can pair kids strategically based on social and emotional needs.

Heidi 12:38
And a really nice bonus of team up time is that kids who struggle with behavior in your room often shine in this setting. Because the dynamic is different, they get to be the helper, and this can really be such a confidence boost for kids who don’t usually get to feel that.

Emily 12:54
Okay. Our last switch up is little freedoms. Loosening one low stakes rule can make your students feel like they got handed the keys to the castle.

Heidi 13:05
This one is maybe the most counterintuitive on the list, but stick with us. It seems like relaxing a rule will just make everything fall apart, right? But that is genuinely not what happens, as long as you do it strategically.

Emily 13:18
Yeah, the strategy is the most important part here. Start with something that has insignificant impact on your routine. So if your normal rule is no toys at school, maybe you say you can bring a small stuffed animal or a fidget for your desk tomorrow. Even if the rest of the day is completely ordinary, that one little freedom feels like a treat.

Heidi 13:38
If you are relaxing a rule in one place, you need to fortify the structure around it. Make the boundaries clear. Maybe the stuffies only come out during quiet reading time, or you can read aloud to your stuffy for fluency practice. The parameters make sure that freedom feels fun.

Emily 13:55
If you try this one, make sure to set limits on what they can bring. So no electronics, nothing expensive or irreplaceable, because you do not want to be the reason that Dylan loses his beloved teddy bear that he sleeps with every night.

Heidi 14:07
Yeah, his parents aren’t going to thank you for that. And you also don’t want to have somebody’s Switch mysteriously disappear from their backpack.

Emily 14:14
Oh gosh, yeah.

Heidi 14:16
Your classroom rules exist for a reason. So if you are deciding to relax a rule, you have to account for all of the potential side effects.

Emily 14:24
Yeah, somehow it takes a lot of extra rules to support one relaxed rule, which feels a little funny, but it works because it gives kids that taste of freedom that they’re craving without giving up control.

Heidi 14:35
Another easy little freedom is loosening hallway expectations, not in a crazy way. We don’t do crazy hallway here.

Emily 14:42
No.

Heidi 14:42
But you can let the line leader pick a silly walk, as long as everyone stays silent. Or turn the hallway into a freeze game. When you turn around, everyone has to pose like a statue.

Emily 14:52
Instead of relaxing a rule, you can try implementing a new rule, but this rule is meant just for fun. So growing up, because we’re old, we watched Pee Wee’s Playhouse on Saturday mornings, and Pee Wee always had a secret word, and whenever you heard it, you were supposed to scream.

Heidi 15:11
I always tried so hard to remember the word after the episode was over, but no luck. Memory like a sieve even when I was eight. But you can apply the same principle in your classroom.

Emily 15:21
Yeah, but not with the screaming part.

Heidi 15:23
Yeah, no screaming.

Emily 15:24
Do something like maybe take a nod from Finding Nemo and have a class call and response. So anytime the teacher says Shark Bait, the class says, ooh, haha.

Heidi 15:33
That’s such an easy way to add some whimsy to the day. The only catch is remembering that you have to say Shark Bait a few times a day.

Emily 15:42
Yeah, maybe you need to set a little alarm on your phone to remind you to do it.

Heidi 15:46
If you decide to try offering some little freedoms, stick to one relaxed rule at a time. Don’t listen to everything at once, or it really will fall apart. And frame it as a privilege that the kids earned through being responsible. Be willing to pull back if things get wild.

Emily 16:02
So those are our five smart switch ups for the messy middle of May. Change a scene, play the favorites, peek ahead, team up time, and little freedoms. That’s how you keep structure and spark balanced in May.

Heidi 16:15
And if this topic was helpful, you are going to love our new book. It’s coming out in August, and it will walk you through how to reset the balance between structure and spark all year long.

Emily 16:26
The book is available for pre-order, and we would love your support. If you’ve gotten value out of these conversations around the podcast, pre-ordering our book would be a great way to support us. Every author says that, but it is so true, the pre-orders really do make a big difference for authors.

Heidi 16:41
And as a bit of spark to the structure, we have some really fun pre-order bonuses on the way, and we will tell you more about those soon.

Emily 16:47
Yeah, and if you’ve already pre-ordered, you’ll still get all the bonuses after so don’t worry. There is a link in the show notes if you’re ready to pre-order, and a huge thank you in advance to anyone who does. It really means so much to us.

Emily 17:00
Now for our Teacher Approved Tip of the Week, where we share an actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and simplify the rest. This week’s teacher approved tip is to protect your morning routine. Let’s talk about it, Heidi.

Heidi 17:12
Oh, this is so important. We just spent the whole main segment talking about adding spark to the day, and now we’re saying, But wait, not in the morning. Mornings set the tone for the whole day. If you start the day with too much excitement, that energy keeps climbing until it crashes. You know, usually around 10:30 in the form of a meltdown over a missing pencil. Your students need predictability more than ever right now, because they are so dysregulated. The kids who resist structure are usually the ones who need it the most, and the morning is the anchor for all of those swaying nervous systems.

Emily 17:47
Yeah. So even when you’re loosening rules and switching things up later in the day, keep your morning the same. That predictability is what lets them handle the spark that you are going to add in later.

Heidi 17:59
And that’s what makes the rest of your day work. If the morning is steady and predictable, then the change of scene later feels like a fun shift, instead of just one more thing in a chaotic day.

Emily 18:09
Right.

Heidi 18:11
To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily 18:21
I’m giving extra credit to the miracle foot cream that I got, except it’s not called that. It doesn’t even like, have a name. It’s just like a made, I don’t know.

Heidi 18:24
Black market?

Emily 18:26
No. It’s just like, not like a name brand. It’s just like a cheap brand on on Amazon, it says grocerism is the name.

Heidi 18:33
Grocerism?

Emily 18:34
Grocerism, yep.

Heidi 18:36
Okay.

Emily 18:37
It is a 40% urea cream, which sounds like, oh, that might be spicy. It’s not spicy at all. It just feels like a nice lotion, and it’s got a little bit of salicylic acid in it, and like a couple of other things, like aloe vera and stuff. And like, you put this thing on at night and you will have soft feet in the morning. I’m not even joking.

Heidi 18:52
Oh, okay,

Emily 18:53
I’ve been using it on the back of my 10 year old’s arms too, because she’s got the keratosis polaris problem. Hers was getting pretty bad, and so we put that on and like the next day, it already was a ton better. So check it out. It works good.

Heidi 19:06
Okay, I’m sure there’ll be a link in the show notes.

Emily 19:09
There will. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Heidi 19:12
I’m giving extra credit to the three wins app. I think this was only on iPhone, so apologies to Android users. But I’ve been using this for a couple months now, and I love it. So the idea is that, I think it’s set up where, like at the start of the day, you pick the three most important things you want to get done in that day, and then at the end of the day you come back and you say whether or not you’ve done those. But I use it just at the end of the day to make a list of everything I managed to get done.

Heidi 19:39
And as someone who struggles with productivity guilt, this has been a game changer. It’s so easy. I just go through it, I list everything I got done, because sometimes you get to the end of the day and you see everything you didn’t get done, or what you feel like you got done isn’t enough, or you just take for granted all the little things you did, like, you know, getting a load of laundry done, or putting the groceries away. Like, once you start listing it out, it’s just been such a huge relief to me to be like, Oh, I’m crushing it. I’m doing so much here. And if you check off all the wins for the date, you get confetti. So, that’s extra fun.

Emily 20:15
It’s like, now that you’re a Libby user, you’ll have to know this, that when, if you return a book early, they pop up a little bouquet on the screen, and if you click that, then it shoots all these flowers. I didn’t even know this until a couple months ago, I was returning books early and not getting a celebration.

Heidi 20:30
Yeah, you’ve missed out.

Emily 20:32
Yes, but I will check this out, because it’s, usually at the end of the day I’m like, What did I even do today? Even though I know I did stuff and it’s way easier to just focus on all the things you didn’t get done.

Heidi 20:45
Yep, I used to have a journal that I would try and write in, but I just couldn’t keep up with it. But it’s so easy on my phone. So I give this five stars.

Heidi 20:54
That is it for this week. May is a tug of war between holding on and letting go, and the way through that middle stretch is not to pick a side, but to rebalance. Try one switch up this week and see what happens.

Emily 21:07
We’d love to hear which one you tried. So come find us on Instagram @2ndstorywindow, and that’s with a two. And don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. We will see you next week.

Heidi 21:19
We hope you enjoyed this episode of teacher approved. I’m Heidi.

Emily 21:23
And I’m Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an episode.

Heidi 21:29
You can connect with us and other teachers in the Teacher Approved Facebook group. We’ll see you here next week. Bye for now.

Emily 21:37
Bye.