How to Keep Students Engaged Through Every Season of the School Year [Episode 230]

Heidi 0:00
This is episode 230 of Teacher Approved.

Heidi 0:05
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.

Emily 0:28
We’re so glad you’re tuning in today. Let’s get to the show.

Emily 0:35
Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we are revisiting our discussion about how to channel classroom energy all year long, and sharing a new teacher approved tip for cheering students on.

Heidi 0:48
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 0:56
Tomorrow, take a minute and ask your students, What’s one thing that’s been working really well in our class lately? You can turn it into a journal prompt, a class discussion, or even have students write it on sticky notes that you can display on the board.

Heidi 1:09
This is a great way to help students appreciate the things that are going right, and the more that we focus on the good things around us, the more that we start to notice it. Plus this gives you helpful feedback too.

Emily 1:21
Yeah, and you could even turn this into a regular part of your routine and set aside a few minutes every week for a what’s working for us Wednesday, or how are things Thursday.

Heidi 1:31
Yeah, you’ll be surprised at what your kids notice and really how insightful they can be.

Emily 1:37
If you like this idea or anything else we share here on the podcast, would you take a second and give us a five star rating and review in your podcast listening app?

Heidi 1:45
All right, everyone, announcement time. Emily and I have some exciting news.

Emily 1:51
Yes, drum roll, please. Wherever you’re listening, give us a drum roll. We are writing a book! And you may have heard us sneak that announcement in mid episode last week, but now is the formal announcement. We’re writing a book cue, the air horn. We’re so excited.

Heidi 2:08
And because we have to send this off to the publisher this week, we did not have time to prepare a whole new episode. So this episode is a little bit of a Frankenstein.

Heidi 2:18
Well, that’s appropriate, because it’s Halloween this week.

Heidi 2:20
Oh that works out, yeah.

Emily 2:21
We added a new try it tomorrow segment at the beginning that you just heard. And we’ve got a new teacher approved tip that we’re going to share after we replay. And we’ve got fresh extra credits coming in hot, so make sure to stick around till the end.

Heidi 2:35
But you know, the middle section is a replay from an episode that we aired last year.

Emily 2:40
And even if you listened to it before, you probably don’t remember it. So go ahead and re listen to it either way. And we felt it was only right to replay this episode this week because it was the starting point for our book.

Heidi 2:52
Yeah, this, this was not anything we had planned on. But after Emily and I finished recording the episode last fall, I said, You know what? I think this feels like a book. So that afternoon, I wrote up an outline based on our episode, and then we just put it aside because we had so many other things going on, and we had no plans to write a book.

Emily 3:09
And it’s a good thing you did write that outline, because about a month after we did that episode, an editor reached out and asked if we had any thoughts for a book. And you know what, we just so happened to have this one idea, and she said it sounded great, and asked us to write up a book proposal, which was a lot easier to do because the outline was already written.

Heidi 3:29
It was so lucky. And then a few weeks after that, we signed a contract. It all happened very quickly, and now here we are, down to the very last minute trying to get it all done. We are we are so close. But guys, it turns out that writing a whole book is a lot of work.

Emily 3:48
I know! Who knew? I thought it was going to be so easy. So while we go finish up our word count, we hope you enjoy this replay of episode 165 about student engagement in every season of the school year.

Heidi 4:01
But here is a little behind the scenes sneak peek. In this episode, we talk about maintaining the balance of structure and novelty in the classroom. You know, that is one of our favorite topics, but we have changed that a little bit in the book.

Emily 4:15
I feel like that idea has come along the whole time on our podcast, like every time we revisit it, grows a little, changes a little. Well, we changed it a little in the book, because instead of novelty, we are calling it spark, and that is actually the title of the book, Structure and Spark.

Heidi 4:31
I don’t know if we’re supposed to announce that yet, so act surprised when we do a big reveal later on.

Emily 4:38
This book will be out next summer, and we will let you know all about it once we have more details and it’s ready to pre order, but until then, enjoy this little preview of what’s to come, and stay with us at the end for the new teacher approved tip and extra credit.

Emily 4:52
Now we’ve shared this idea before, but just hold with us again as we explain about how student engagement is like an old timey balance scale. One bucket is structure and the other bucket is novelty. In the middle, where it’s more or less balanced, our students are engaged. If the scale tips too far to the structure side, kids are bored. If the scale tips too much to the novelty side, kids are overwhelmed.

Heidi 5:18
Good teaching means you respond to what’s happening in your classroom in the moment. To keep kids engaged in that learning zone, you are constantly tweaking the levels of structure and novelty to maintain that balance between boredom and overwhelm.

Emily 5:32
It’s that old buzzword from college, monitor and adjust, and it really is constant work. The arrival of a new student, a student teacher in music class, a last minute change of the lunch schedule, or a fire drill, all seem like minor disturbances, but they can quickly overflow that novelty bucket and dip your class into overwhelm if you’re not paying attention.

Heidi 5:56
On the other hand, having the same seating arrangement for too long, using the same fast finisher after every lesson, and expecting too much seat work, are structures that can create boredom if you’re not careful.

Emily 6:08
Maintaining student engagement really comes down to a minute by minute dance of monitoring and adjusting, like we said. But even though we have to adapt on the fly if our plans aren’t working, that doesn’t mean we can’t anticipate some of the ups and downs of student engagement.

Heidi 6:24
Right. Like you can’t predict that on October 29 a bee will get into your class and disrupt the rest of the morning.

Emily 6:30
That happened to me.

Heidi 6:32
Me too. Or a spider on the wall.

Emily 6:35
Yep, that happened too.

Heidi 6:37
But you can guess that on October 29 your students are likely to be more restless than usual because they’re excited for Halloween. And so you can make your plans accordingly.

Emily 6:47
Because kids are kids, no matter where you teach, the seasons of the school year, and the pros and cons of each one will apply to most classrooms.

Heidi 6:55
And we’re not talking about the seasons of fall, winter and spring. We are talking about the seven seasons of the school year. Did you know there were seven? Bet you did.

Emily 7:03
Of course I did.

Heidi 7:05
If you’re on a non traditional schedule or, you know, if you teach outside the US, these might not perfectly align with your classroom, but I think for most classrooms, we can kind of fudge these to make them fit most school settings. We start with back to school season, of course, that moves to the season of settling in, the holiday ramp up, back to work season, testing season, spring fever, and making it to the end.

Emily 7:30
Yeah, that’s a perfect distillation of a year of school. Unlike natural seasons, the seasons of the school year can have wildly varying lengths. The holiday ramp up might be three weeks and the back to work season that starts in January can last two or more months.

Heidi 7:46
Or it might be much shorter than that if you have to dive into heavy duty test prep right away in January. The specific seasons of your school calendar will vary, but there are a few things that are constant. First, each season brings its own hoorays and headaches, and each season needs its own approach to engagement in academics and behavior management. A lot of the ups and downs of the school year are predictable, and that means if you’re aware of them, you can plan in advance for how to address them. So let’s take a deeper look at each of our school seasons, starting with our favorite back to school season.

Emily 8:23
Oh, it really is our favorite, because there are so many big hoorays that come with starting the new school year, the fresh start, meeting your new class and getting to try new things is so much fun, but the headaches that come with back to school season are real and they’re intense. It is so much work to start the year. You are at your most tired at the time when you need your most energy. So it can take a toll.

Heidi 8:47
For students, novelty is the highest it will be all year during back to school. Everything is new. So as the teachers, we need to lean really hard into creating structure. We are teaching dozens of procedures, building routines and creating a class culture.

Emily 9:05
When it comes to academics, the main goal is to figure out where everybody is. That means lots of assessments. We also need to make up for the summer slide and review last year’s content to refresh their little memories.

Heidi 9:17
We have three goals that come with behavior management, prevent, plan and predict. We’re going to prevent problems all year long by laying a strong foundation during the back to school season. We use strategic seating. We teach and reinforce our attention signals and transition expectations. Our plan for addressing problems can often be handled by teaching procedures and expectations. These guidelines will help students know exactly what to do, and we predict problems by establishing clear and consistent consequences. We want students to know early on that when they don’t meet our expectations, they are invited to try again correctly.

Emily 9:56
Ideally, we are preparing in advance for each of our school seasons. But since this episode is going out in the middle of October, we’re not going to dive into all of the back to school resources we have available to help you with that season. You’ve got a few months before you need to worry about that again, so we’ll just put a little pin in that.

Heidi 10:14
But keep listening, because, you know, we’ll swing back around to it in a few months. However, if you are listening to this in the spring or summer. Scroll back through our podcast episodes for a very robust catalog of back to school tips. We’ve definitely got you covered when it’s time for back to school prep.

Emily 10:31
So we’ve made it through the first few weeks of school. We’re now in the golden season of settling in. Hooray! Classroom community is taking shape. Everyone is getting a sense of this is our class, and this is who we are. These early days have their own kind of magic.

Heidi 10:47
And they also have their own kind of headaches. Once students start to feel comfortable, they start pushing boundaries. This is where the prevention that we established in back to school season becomes important. Predict that this will happen and have a plan in place for reinforcing your expectations when the boundaries are pushed. At this point, you might need to do your first desk switch. Check out our interactive seating chart tool to learn our system for strategically assigning seats to minimize problems.

Emily 11:15
As kids settle in, structure and novelty become more balanced. Your students are used to the day’s routine, so boredom can start to creep in. Try introducing some surprise and delight to keep things fresh. You can hear all about surprise and delight in episodes 35 and 156.

Heidi 11:32
Depending on what holidays are celebrated in your community, the holiday ramp up season may start early in the school year or wait until right before winter break. Halloween may be the entry point, or maybe Halloween is just a blip, and things don’t really kick off until the end of November.

Emily 11:48
Regardless of the official starting point, we want to make sure we’re ready when that day arrives. I love seasonal fun, so for me, holiday ramp up season came with a lot of hoorays. We did themed math games and fun writing activities. But of course, all that novelty brings its own headaches.

Heidi 12:06
Right, when novelty is increasing, we need to balance that by leaning into structure. Make sure you’re being consistent with your procedures and expectations. As the holiday ramp up season goes on, you might need to actually increase the structure in your classroom. In that case, you might consider adding a reward system.

Emily 12:25
Now we are not big fans of doing a year round reward system, because they just don’t work. Kids get tired of them, and they become a big hassle for teachers to manage.

Heidi 12:34
Also for a lot of the year, during most of these seasons, kids can manage their behavior just fine without external rewards. So why make your job harder?

Emily 12:43
Exactly. However, when novelty reaches a point that kids can’t control themselves, they need us to provide support. So we talk in depth about short term reward systems in episodes 104 and just recently, in episode 158. Check those out if you want our deep thoughts and best tips for using a short term reward system.

Heidi 13:05
We have some resources to help with both novelty and structure during holiday ramp up season. Check out our festive breaks for some holiday fun that won’t cost you your sanity. And check out our holiday behavior helps for support with setting up a short term reward system. And there are links to both of those in the show notes.

Emily 13:23
And make sure to check out our December teacher survival kit if you want some extra resources for managing your students’ behavior during holiday ramp up season.

Heidi 13:32
That kit also has some suggestions for managing academics in the holiday season. You want to do your best to stay on track with your pacing guides, but you will reach a day in December when it is pointless to introduce new content. Either you don’t want to teach important material right before a long break, or your kids are just going to be too hyper to learn, or maybe, you know, a mixture of both. So schedule your stop teaching new content date and then make a plan for how to fill the remaining days of school with meaningful, low prep activities.

Emily 14:05
And when you come back to school in January, you’re ready to kick off back to work season. This season combines the best of back to school season and settling in season. You have the magic of a new beginning round two, but you’re not back at square one. You’re starting over with a fresh chance to get things right, though.

Heidi 14:23
It’s important to use the first few days back to re establish those important structures that make your classroom run smoothly. Reteach and practice important procedures, have class discussions about how things were before and how they better improve going forward.

Emily 14:39
After the New Year sparkle has worn off, though, the back to work season can drag. There’s too many days of inside recess. The kids are bored of the same routine day in and day out. After so many big gains early in the year, learning progress can start to stall.

Heidi 14:53
When you hit the midwinter blahs, look for ways to freshen things up. Introduce a new center choice, give opportunities for more group work, integrate art into less creative subjects, rearrange the seating more often, and of course, look for some chances to sprinkle in some surprise and delight.

Emily 15:11
If you haven’t been doing it all year, you probably want to schedule a dedicated time for spiral review each day. It may feel a long way off, but testing season is right around the corner from back to work season.

Heidi 15:23
Spiral review is a form of retrieval practice. It’s how our brains turn information we’ve heard into information we can remember. It’s absolutely vital to learning and the best way to prepare for testing. Our favorite way of incorporating spiral review is through our morning work. But that doesn’t mean you only have to limit spiral review to the morning. You can do spiral review any time of day.

Emily 15:46
Yep, there aren’t many things that we’d say that pretty much every single classroom needs to do, but spiral review really is a must. If you want more information on spiral review, retrieval practice, or morning work, check out episode 91.

Heidi 16:00
Depending on your testing schedule, you may hit testing season right after back to work season, or you may have spring fever in the middle of it all.

Emily 16:10
Because testing windows vary so wildly from place to place, the last three seasons of the year are hard to match up to exact months. If you live in a state that does end of your testing in January or February, your back to work season may just be a few days of relaunching your class and then a deep dive into test prep.

Heidi 16:28
But if you have the other extreme, and you don’t test until May or June, you may have a long stretch of back to work season and spring fever before testing season really kicks off.

Emily 16:40
Adjust our examples to fit your calendar, but for the sake of simplicity, we’re going to assume you test near the end of April or early May. That means between back to work season and testing season, you might have a long stretch of spring fever.

Heidi 16:57
Spring fever is tricky because it doesn’t just affect the students. It hits teachers so hard as well. Finally, winter is over, or, you know, we’ve had a couple sunny days, and so now we have the hope that winter will someday be over. That first warm, sunny day feels like the lights have finally turned on. It can be such a relief after so many dreary months.

Emily 17:20
But of course, there are some headaches that come with spring fever. And I don’t just mean allergies. Though those are bad, and they do give me headaches.

Heidi 17:29
So bad.

Emily 17:30
Spring fever headaches come in many forms. For example, it feels like school should be wrapping up, but you might have a full term or more left. The regular structure of the classroom starts to feel confining. Things that used to run smoothly in your class suddenly develop potholes.

Heidi 17:47
To manage these headaches, one thing you can do is to try offering more choices. The options don’t have to be big or complicated. You could try letting kids choose if they want to do the work in pencil or crayon, right? Simple, you still get the work you need done and the kids have a little bit of freedom. Or you can try letting them decide if they want to write in their journal first or do their science vocabulary first.

Emily 18:09
Letting kids have a little more control is an easy way to add some novelty without sacrificing too much structure. Also, don’t be afraid to revisit your procedures and expectations more often during the spring fever season.

Heidi 18:22
We definitely don’t want to fall into the trap of thinking that, because we are getting close to the end, it’s too late to fix behavior problems. You’ve still got time. We’ve got some handy procedure rating slides to guide a class discussion on what’s going well and what needs to be better.

Emily 18:39
Or you could make procedure review just a part of your daily schedule going forward. Pause before going to specialty classes and have kids reflect on how they need to act, or have a quick discussion before recess starts. Keeping your expectations alive in your classroom will make spring fever much more manageable. And if you need some more help navigating the season of spring fever, check out episode 124 where we go all into the details about the difficulties of spring fever and how to survive them.

Emily 19:10
And once you make it through spring fever, now it’s time to move into testing season.

Heidi 19:15
Just thinking ahead to testing season is a downer. It’s really not my favorite time of the year, so I had to dig really deep to come up with any hoorays for this season, but I did find a few. So because you know each other so well, by that time of year, it’s a good time to really focus on social emotional learning.

Emily 19:37
And leaning more into SEL is a good way to plan for addressing the behavior problems that crop up because your class is so comfortable together. You know it’s coming, so you may as well be ready to address it.

Heidi 19:48
That class familiarity also makes testing season a good time for class projects. Maybe you use this time to plan a performance or have your kids get involved in a service project. Lean into the advantages of the class bonding that is also making it trickier to get things done.

Emily 20:05
Because there’s so much to review before testing, we don’t want to burn kids out with drill and kill. Add some novelty to a time of high structure by using games to review instead of relying on worksheets all the time.

Heidi 20:17
When you get to your actual testing days, you will likely need to adapt your daily schedule. Keep the time before the test predictable and calm, help students feel grounded and prepared, and then after the day’s testing, make sure you’ve planned activities that are lighter and more fun. Kids need novelty after so many hours of intense structure.

Emily 20:38
Because your schedule is going to be out of whack for a few days. you may need to increase your behavior management system. You might need to plan some extra behavior supports the same way you did before the holidays.

Heidi 20:48
You might even need to start with this before testing season starts. I found that usually by the end of February, my classes were just kind of over it. So I needed a longer term, short term plan. For me, a class economy worked well. I would have my second graders earn plastic coins, because we had to learn how to count money, and when they had $1 they could buy something from the reward catalog. And that worked pretty well for a couple months, right up until we got to making it to the end season, and then all bets are off.

Emily 21:18
Yeah, as hectic as it is, making it to the end season can be fun too. Once testing is out of the way, it feels like one big hooray. I love to add more hands on math projects and crafts and fun celebrations, but that season is also one giant management nightmare.

Heidi 21:37
Right. You are so exhausted by that point, and the kids are checked out, and there are still so many hours between you and summer break. Normally, when novelty is high like that, we would recommend increasing the structure, but the structure is part of the problem, because after eight months, the kids are bored of just the same old, same old.

Emily 21:57
But you can’t add much novelty because they’re about an inch away from tipping into complete overwhelm. So you need to add structured novelty or novel structure.

Heidi 22:07
Either way, you just need something new that doesn’t require a lot from the tired teacher. That’s why we love theme days during making it to the end season. The theme adds some novelty to your regular classroom routines, but it also increases the structure. That’s going to cut back on a lot of out of control behaviors.

Emily 22:27
But don’t be afraid to launch a new reward system, if that’s what it takes to rein in the excitement. Adding a new system is another way to increase novelty and structure at the same time.

Heidi 22:37
Plus you don’t have to worry about kids becoming dependent on these rewards, because you’ve got a built in end date. You’re almost a summer break baby.

Emily 22:46
Even though we’ve got five more seasons to get through before we actually get to summer. The end of the school year will be here before you know it. Making a strategic plan for what’s ahead is one way to prevent burnout. Plus, it’s kind of helpful just to have a vision of where we’re headed this year.

Emily 23:04
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 have fun with your praise. Tell us about this, Heidi.

Heidi 23:16
Well during a lesson, when a student gives you a correct response, you probably say something like, Hey, that’s right, or Great thinking. But if you want to add in a little bit of novelty, or, you know, Spark, try leveling up your praise with an action. You’re right, six times seven is 42, give yourself a pat on the back for knowing that. And then extend that to the rest of the class to help keep them engaged. And all of you, give yourselves a pat on the back if you also knew the answer.

Emily 23:41
And you’re not limited to pats on the back. You can sprinkle in a bit more fun by having students give themselves a pat on the nose or a pat on the knee, or even give themselves a high five.

Heidi 23:51
I also like to add a little moment of connection. You’re right, everyone give yourself a pat on the back if you also knew that Layla is the main character, and give yourself a pat on the elbow because I like you.

Emily 24:04
And kids will love it if you lean into the silliness a bit. Give yourself a high five if you knew the answer. And give me an air high five because I did such a good job teaching you. Or give yourself a thumbs up if you solve the problem the same way Connor did, and give your neighbor a thumbs up because we’re glad they’re here. It takes two seconds, but it gives the whole class a huge mood boost.

Heidi 24:25
And here’s a little pro tip. I did this in an observation once, and my vice principal was very impressed, so you might want to keep this in your back pocket for the next time your principal stops by.

Emily 24:35
Oh, good idea.

Heidi 24:37
To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily 24:42
I’m giving extra credit to the TV show Blood of My Blood. If you’re not familiar, this is a prequel to the Outlander series, which I also watched and enjoyed. Blood of my blood is unique because it has two main couples. So it’s the parents of Jamie and the parents of Claire from Outlander. I got so sucked into the show and binged the whole season in a week. You might have to suspend some disbelief in a show like this, in general.

Heidi 25:09
Time travel.

Emily 25:09
Yes, especially in this one where it’s a little like, okay, so like, the exact same thing that happens to Claire when she’s grown up? Okay, sure. But you know what, I don’t even care, because I think I would go as far as to say that I might even like this more than Outlander.

Heidi 25:23
Oh, wow.

Emily 25:25
The only bummer is that I hope it doesn’t follow the same release schedule that Outlander has followed, which is sometimes like two years in between seasons. So hopefully, hopefully it’s not going to be like that. But our podcast editor, Sara, Hi Sara, we’ve been in deep discussion about the finale this weekend on Voxer, so you’re gonna have to watch it, Heidi.

Heidi 25:46
Yeah, I started Outlander, but it was just a little too gritty for me, so.

Emily 25:50
Yeah, and I didn’t find this to be as gritty, although I’m like, maybe I’m just more hardened now than when I watched Outlander the first time. But I did not find it to be as like, you know, like gruesome or, or nakey. There’s some nakey, but not as much nakey. I think. It’s really hard to quantify the amount of nakedness without, like, really taking a tally. I did not do that, but it seemed like less nakedness.

Heidi 26:21
Maybe I’ll try. It looks stunning, and it’s always so beautiful. And who doesn’t want to go to Scotland, so I’ll have to try it out.

Emily 26:28
What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Heidi 26:30
Okay, well, this is a very abrupt vibe shit. My extra credit goes out to Haul out the Halloween on the Hallmark Channel.

Emily 26:41
Hey, look, we can contain multitudes. We can like the Hallmark Channel and Starz, okay.

Heidi 26:48
So if you’re not familiar, this is the third movie in the Haul Out series. The first two are about Christmas, and obviously this one is about Halloween. And like all Hallmark movies and time travel movies, you have to suspend your disbelief to be able to enjoy it. But I think these are so funny. They’re probably my favorite of the Hallmark movie genre.

Emily 27:09
Oh, for sure, as long as you know that it’s all tongue in cheek, like, you know, they’re leaning into being ridiculous, then you can just enjoy it. And it’s funny.

Heidi 27:16
I think it helps that, like they’re not taking themselves too seriously. They know that this is just bananas, and they’re having fun with it.

Emily 27:23
Yeah.

Heidi 27:23
But the premise is a subdivision that is absolutely obsessed with the holidays to the point that celebrating them is mandated. And in this movie, a couple of Halloween obsessed neighbors move onto the street and they upset the norm. Of course, it’s just over the top silly, and the new neighbors are played by Marnie and Cal from the Halloween Town movies, if you know those. So that was a fun surprise. And then the supporting cast is awesome, and there’s so so many fun Easter eggs. I was laughing out loud a ton. Lacey Chabert is the main female lead, and she’s from the Mean Girl movies. There’s a great Mean Girls joke just kind of slid right in. It’s very fun.

Emily 28:04
She’s also from Party of Five. I feel like I have to say justice for Party of Five, because I love Party of Five. And in the second Christmas movie, the new neighbor lady that moves in is from Party of Five.

Heidi 28:16
Oh, I didn’t catch that. There’s so many subtle things. And if you’re from Utah, you will extra love this because it’s set in Utah, and it’s obviously written by someone from Utah. So there are all kinds of little like Utah specific details in this one. Funeral Potatoes get a mention.

Emily 28:31
Oh, and there’s so many that like, if you’re not from Utah, if we were to tell you now, you will just think, who cares? Why is that funny? But for the Utah people, it’s just a nice little wink. It’s fun.

Heidi 28:42
Yes, there’s a moment with a bunch of limes. I don’t want to spoil it, because I’m, I know you haven’t seen it, Emily, but, like.

Emily 28:47
I recorded it.

Heidi 28:48
Okay. I laughed so hard. You need maybe a hint of the culture to get it. But I could be surprised. Maybe everyone will love it.

Emily 28:57
I think it’s a good movie, even if you’re not from Yeah, you just maybe will get, like, all of the little nods, some of them are pretty subtle.

Heidi 29:03
Yes, and you don’t have to have seen the two Christmas movies before watching this, trust me, the plot is straightforward enough that you will catch on very quickly.

Emily 29:12
I think that’s a nice thing about Hallmark. You just jump in anywhere.

Heidi 29:17
Doesn’t matter. Last 10 minutes. You got the whole show.

Emily 29:19
Ah but we love it.

Heidi 29:22
Yes.

Heidi 29:23
That is it for today’s episode. To help maintain student engagement plan for the upcoming seasons of the school year, and try adding a bit of spark to your praise.

Heidi 29:34
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I’m Heidi.

Emily 29:38
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 29:45
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 29:52
Bye.