2nd Anniversary: Our Best Teacher Approved Tips, Ideas, and Favorites [episode 123]

Emily  0:37

Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we’re celebrating the second anniversary of the Teacher Approved podcast and sharing some of the best tips, ideas and favorite things from the last two years.

 

Heidi  0:51

We hope that you’re wearing your party hat because today we are celebrating the two year anniversary of having the teacher approved podcast. Yay. Our podcast is a toddler.

 

Emily  1:04

Aww. We wanted a fun way to look back on the last two years. So we have each chosen our podcast favorites to highlight in this episode.

 

Emily  1:14

And we’re starting with what we always start with our morning message. So Heidi, which favorite morning message did you choose?

 

Heidi  1:21

Well, I have a feeling that we have the same favorites and maybe we’ll share our joint favorite and then each of our own favorites. That was that work. Okay. My favorite was from Episode 100. Which was the craziest thing that your student has brought to school? And I will have memories of that come like flooding back at random moments. And I’ll still be giggling like the girl that brought bees and plastic eggs.

 

Emily  1:46

That one’s epic. I mean, the stuff the stuff kids bring to school. It’s so hilarious, like a non teacher would think this was insane. And like this was an outlier. But no, no. Like every teacher has experiences just like this are crazy. I did like the second grader wearing her mom’s bra under her shirt, or the or the one that brought the gallon of ice cream for her snack in her bag. And several who stole their parents jewelry.

 

Heidi  2:23

Or very personal, private items.

 

Emily  2:27

Yes. And then all of the like wild items like snakes and mice and rats.

 

Heidi  2:33

Or the animal parts. The pieces of thing that can like it like a deer like left on someone’s desk.

 

Emily  2:42

Do you remember what the finale one of that episode was though? It was the second grade boy who brought a tampon and insisted it was his epi pen.

 

Heidi  3:03

Gosh, they’re dumb, but we love them.

 

Emily  3:05

Yeah. The teacher asked him if he usually used an epi pen and he said no, but his book had a whole box of them at home. Bless that teacher so yeah, that was for that one might be forever favorite. I don’t know if that will ever be topped.

 

Heidi  3:24

No. I guess it could do repeat and have like if you didn’t share last time does this time.

 

Emily  3:29

I bet we could get a whole nother new round up of favorites.

 

Heidi  3:33

Well, I’ve got another favorite. And this is a huge vibe switch. But it was from Episode 112, which was when you have to miss school, what do you do to make things easier for your sub? And we got a ton of great responses.

 

Heidi  3:46

I love this because teachers are just the best. I love how quick they are. They’re just so quick to share what works for them with other people in the hopes that it will help them. They’re also you know, looking out for subs. That’s not their job. But we know how hard it is to teach a class. So we do what we can.

 

Heidi  4:07

And people have some great ideas like leaving only review work so that you know the subs not anything new. That’s also helping you out or leaving something like cake cups and chocolate to help the sub out with you know, a little energy boost. I just think it’s just such thoughtful ways to look out for someone. And Emily, did you have another morning message that you wanted to talk about?

 

Emily  4:27

Yes, I did pull up another one. But it is another funny one. And is what student trends are you a survivor of? Do you remember what you were a survivor of?

 

Heidi  4:42

Okay, well, I’ve been teaching a long time. So I’ve seen a lot come and go. I think the first one that really hit me was from Lord of the Rings and the kids that go around all the time, my precious and like yeah, you do that and you lose it. It will be my precious.

 

Emily  4:56

Yes, exactly. And that would get old very really fast. And mine that I shared in that episode was that Tamagotchis had just under resurgence. And so that was a nightmare and one kid stole another kid’s like it was just an insisted it was his own. It was it was a nightmare, but a lot of the other, I noticed that a lot of them were dance trends. Yes. So, dabbing, floss, Fortnite, gritty, like, I think they’re all still dealing with a lot of those.

 

Heidi  5:25

I have a friend that’s a dental hygienist. And she was, you know, cleaning a kid’s teeth and she asked if you flossed and so like in the chair with the bib and her hands and his mouth, he’s trying to like floss and show where he can do the dance. Only reference for flossing.

 

Emily  5:41

So I miss the answer to that question. Yeah, some of the other ones were the cup song.

 

Heidi  5:48

Oh, poor teachers.

 

Emily  5:52

All of the Fidget stuff, fidget spinners, fidget poppers slime. Like they’re all still, I think, in the thick of that the freaking cheese touch. I know that’s banned. I don’t. I know. And my current one that I know is still a thing because my kids will do it is the Liberty Mutual theme. And the Burger King commercial.

 

Heidi  6:12

Oh, that Burger King commercials should be banned.

 

Emily  6:14

I know. So my kids will be like my youngest, especially just the other day of liberty.

 

Heidi  6:22

If only they remembered their math facts as easily as only.

 

Emily  6:27

So bless you, teachers for surviving all of these annoying trends.

 

Heidi  6:31

We love a good morning message. Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to these over the past couple years. Please keep answering your questions on Facebook, we’d love to see responses. And I think it adds so much to our podcast to have all this variety of ideas and input from so many teachers around the world.

 

Heidi  6:49

Okay, Emily, moving on. We’re going to talk about our favorite podcast topic. So what is your favorite podcast topic?

 

Emily  6:55

Well, it was actually hard to narrow down because we’ve done so many episodes that I love so much. And I almost didn’t pick this one because we’ve talked about it so often because we say this is our favorite episode over and over and over. But really is my favorite episode. And that is Episode 35, where we talk about five ways to increase student engagement.

 

Emily  7:16

I think this episode was the first time that we shared our model of student engagement being like an old timey scale, with novelty on one side and structure on the other. And so when one area is getting too overbalanced, we have to counter correct by adding coins to the other side. In this episode, we shared ideas for how to add surprise and delight as a way to add novelty into your classroom to get your students more engaged. Do you remember that episode Heidi?

 

Heidi  7:45

Oh yeah, it’s probably my favorite too.

 

Emily  7:47

So I went back to look at that episode. And we shared five teacher approved avenues of surprise and delight that were really simple. So the first thing you can do is change something. And that can be as simple as mixing up the seating arrangement or having them writing with a different writing tool, like really simple way that can add a lot of engagement.

 

Emily  8:12

The second thing was to add something to your day. And adding something to your day is doing anything you don’t normally do in your day, adding in a different sort of brain break that you’ve never done before, using Oreos to teach the moon phases or can be adding ambiance to your classroom. I liked that idea of just adding in some music if you don’t normally pay music, or maybe nature sounds one day, I really liked that idea.

 

Emily  8:37

The third avenue was to celebrate something. And I loved that idea. Because it’s can be things like celebrating a wacky holiday, like Talk Like a Pirate Day, or doing a quick celebration, like a three minute dance party, that you just randomly decided to do things like that. I think this is an easy one to throw in anytime.

 

Emily  9:00

The fourth avenue is choice. And this one’s another really easy one. Give your students choice about where they’re going to sit to do their assignment today, if normally, that’s not something that you do. This one is a really easy way to boost novelty in your classroom by just giving them some ownership over what you’re doing.

 

Emily  9:17

And then the last one was mystery, and it’s literally a mystery. So give students something to solve. or teach them a mystery math trick, anything like that, where they feel like they’re getting some kind of surprising mystery is going to make them more engaged. So that episode we got into so many details I definitely recommend going back to listen to it is for sure my favorite episode that we’ve ever done.

 

Heidi  9:44

I love that one too. It was so fun. And I think maybe we mentioned it in the episode. But part of the fun is that it makes it fun to be the teacher when you’re able to like surprise kids with something like that. When the kids are having fun when they’re engaged when they’re excited about what’s happening in the classroom, it’s just like, this is where you want to be. This is the classroom you dreamed of having when you were a kid, and not the like, everybody get out your workbook and did it that you have to do all day long.

 

Heidi  10:09

So, especially I think at this time of year when things everyone’s getting a little drained, like really looking for those moments of ways to add surprise and delight, even simple things of like, you can work on the floor under your desk, like you don’t have to do anything as a teacher. But you have just like, created magic in your classroom. So I love that one, too.

 

Emily  10:29

And what was your favorite episode? Heidi?

 

Heidi  10:32

Okay, well, I cheated a little and I picked a three parter. So this is episodes 48, 49 and 50. You probably remember what we talked about Emily. And this was our three part series on classroom transitions, which is not Ooh, la la really is exciting is surprise and delight.

 

Emily  10:52

We know how to have fun around here.

 

Heidi  10:53

So I don’t even know why we decided to do an episode on transitions. I have a feeling though, that I was like, how are we gonna do a whole episode on transitions? Like, what do you say is, you know, transitions, like two minutes long? And you’re like, it will be fine. Because I always say that. And you always say that? And so now, we had so much to say we had three episodes worth to fill, because like an hour of content on transitions. Turns out, there’s a lot to say. Or at least for us.

 

Heidi  10:54

Those episodes are so good, though.

 

Heidi  10:56

Well, I hope so I’ve been trying to think about like, why these episodes were so transformative for me, because as a teacher, I’d never really sat down and thought about what went into a transition, I just kind of did what I did, what I had learned the hard way what to do, you know, but something about like seeing that this minor moment in my classroom day, that was almost just like a throw away, that I could unpack it.

 

Heidi  11:51

And that we could come up with three episodes worth of content, it was just this huge aha, and how complicated and how layered and nuanced everything is that goes into a classroom, like a throw away moment of put away your folders and get out of pencil. Like that takes so much work and thought. And I don’t know why something about just seeing it written out like that turn on this light bulb for me about gosh, guys, teaching is hard.

 

Heidi  12:20

And I think like when you are teaching, I’m gonna get real philosophical here, I think when you’re teaching, you have to live in the past, the present and the future all at once, you have to understand what has already happened, you have to recognize what’s happening in the moment, and know if that’s what you want it to be happening, or if you need to change something. And then you also have to be guiding everything to what you need to happen in the future. And all of that is going on all of the time and a lesson.

 

Heidi  12:48

And then you take something like a transition. And you take all of that complexity, and you compress it into this super intense moment of past, present, and future all at once. And you need these little humans to do like five things in a row. It’s a lot.

 

Heidi  13:05

And then like once we had unpacked all of the layers of transitions, I realized that maybe that all of our overthinking and over planning that we always kind of pride ourselves for that it could have a productive use. And maybe because you know, Emily, you and I take everything so deep. It enables us to break things down into specific steps. And then we can also are aware of the potential pitfalls. And I know that, you know, transitions are not going to make anyone’s top list of favorite things to talk about or listen about. And they are not our most popular episodes.

 

Heidi  13:39

But like these episodes on transition were a transition for me. It kind of moving past my podcast or impostor syndrome, and like this was a full year into podcasting. But something about those episodes, it just helped me feel like maybe we have something unique to bring to the table as educators and that we have a lot we can offer other teachers. I don’t know why it took a year, but transitions did it.

 

Emily  14:06

We needed to transition into being a podcaster, so that’s why.

 

Heidi  14:11

It took 50 episodes.

 

Emily  14:13

And I think the thing I really liked about those episodes was the realization of how much of your day could be wasted with ineffective transitions.

 

Heidi  14:21

Yeah, like that is such a huge time suck if your transition doesn’t go smoothly, not only are you wasting the time lost in the transition, you have all the time lost, trying to get everyone back on track like that can easily eat up 20 minutes. And then the energy I can just feel it in my body that energy of trying to like redirect the mass of you know, 25 other little humans focus and energy and like get it back where it needs to be. It’s exhausting. Transitions are really kind of a make it or break it point as a teacher.

 

Emily  14:54

It’s so true and we’re always feeling like we don’t have enough time. Well that’s a great place to focus if you want to get some more time in your day is to tighten up your transitions and make them more effective. So that’s a great episode. What was the number on that one?

 

Heidi  15:05

It’s a three parter. Remember, we got episodes 48, 49 and 50. So make sure you go back and check those out. And you could boost the numbers on that for us.

 

Emily  15:17

Or listen again, it’s worth a re-listen. Yes, absolutely gonna re listen to them.

 

Heidi  15:22

So okay, besides of our personal deep dives into teaching topics, we’ve also have some fun roundup episodes where we’ve got great community response for people submitting their suggestions for things. So Emily, what has been your favorite community response episode?

 

Emily  15:38

I loved the indoor recess episode, it was maybe one of our first community where I think it was so good. And everyone had such good ideas. Again, this is one of those things that like, nobody thinks about a teacher also having to become a recess entertainer if it’s raining, and for some people, sometimes depending where you live, sometimes it’s days and days of indoor recess, on end with children who need to get outside but can’t go outside. It is not for the faint of heart.

 

Emily  16:08

And so everyone had such good ideas. I would say I think my favorite tip from the episode came from one of our listeners, Michelle, hey, Michelle, she has that plan of each recess, having a different type of activity just blew my mind, I can’t believe I never thought of this.

 

Emily  16:26

So in the morning, or whatever the first recess of the day is she does a short video like magic school bus or books. And then they eat their snack during that time, then lunch is free choice. And she only allows computer time for third recess. And I was like that that’s perfect. It’s perfect. That is the best way to make sure that you’re not going crazy with kids cooped up inside all day, is to mix up what they’re doing at each recess.

 

Heidi  16:55

Yeah, that’s such a brilliant idea to make sure that you’re getting in this wide variety of activities so that playing heads up seven up doesn’t lose its appeal, by the end of the first day or, you know, whatever toys or games you have stashed away, like having a different focus for each recess. So smart. And my head is like, oh, I can have a planner. And then for each section I could. Maybe we’ll make you a rainy day recess planner.

 

Emily  17:21

Add it to the list. I also liked that it would help with the decision fatigue too of like, you won’t have as much of a panic of what am I going to do for inside recess today, if it gets called two minutes before, because it will narrow it down into like, oh, it’s lunch recess. So it’s free choice. So it will be any of my set free choice, indoor activities, or whatever the recess is. So I like that a lot.

 

Emily  17:43

And then a couple others that I liked were balloon volleyball, lazy Lyons, pool noodle drumming, that was a fun idea. They only do it for inside recess. So they’re super excited when they get inside recess, a rotating board game challenge, having printable coloring pages for whatever they’re into right now. Like Gabby’s Dollhouse, or whatever. There’s a ton of other really good ideas in this episode. So definitely check it out. It’s episode 46. What was your favorite RoundUp episode, Heidi?

 

Heidi  18:13

So mine was episode 51, which was how to reset a bad day. And I know sometimes on hard days, I don’t feel like I have the energy to do a reset. And it’s just kind of, you know, running out the clock. And that’s fine. Sometimes all you can do is get through. But we we reached out to our Facebook group, and we asked teachers how they coped with hard days. And I just really appreciated all of their responses. So definitely go back and check out episode 51 If you need a little pep talk to get you through some hard days.

 

Heidi  18:42

But here’s some of my favorite tips. I really appreciate it. A lot of teachers pointed out that they stop everything. And they point out to the kids like, hey, this isn’t going right. What do we need to do to get back on track? So it’s not just the teacher’s job to make sure everything’s happening the way it should. They’re having the kids have some accountability for it, which I think is really important.

 

Heidi  19:03

Angela recommends taking a break with the kids and acknowledging that the day has suck so far. And what can we do to turn it around? Then we read something funny do a brain break in return to our day, it works great for me. And Tim says acknowledged that the current plan is not working and asked for suggestions from the students about how to turn around the day. And Jeff suggested Laffy Taffy jokes, which I thought was like when do is so good.

 

Heidi  19:27

And then I also appreciated the suggestions from listeners who remind us to take care of ourselves as the teachers. I know that so hard to do, especially when you’re so exhausted. But it really does matter. Lauren says go home, leave work at home and try again tomorrow. And Erica says if the day is over, do what you love. So I just love that I love how validating it can feel to hear from other teachers, that they have rough days too that we’re all in the same boat together.

 

Emily  19:54

I love that. So next up, we’re going to talk about the episodes we did last summer, our bonus teacher approved tips episodes, where we had guests share some of their teacher approved tips, and we got some really awesome tips from other teachers. Heidi, what was your favorite tip from that series?

 

Heidi  20:13

Well, mine is from Episode 72, from our friend, Jennifer Martinez. And she shares a small tweak for how you can increase student engagement by promoting higher order thinking activities.

 

Heidi  20:27

So she gives the example of you know, if you have a language arts lesson, and you have the kids read the story, and you give them a worksheet where they’re supposed to identify, you know, the main characters and the setting and all of that. So like, we do that all the time, it’s handy, it works, it gets the job done. But she points out like just as quickly, you could divide the class into small groups give each one a different story. And then their task could be to create a storyboard or a short skit or something that shows that they understand that content instead of just filling out the worksheet.

 

Heidi  21:00

And by doing that shift in activity, suddenly, right, we’ve turned just that simple recall activity of filling out the worksheet into something more collaborative, more creative, and it’s going to be definitely more engaging for your students. So I think is we’re into that spring fever time of year, this could be a really fun way to help keep kids from checking out is if you’re using more of these opportunities for kids to collaborate and to really think and interact with their learning. So things don’t get quite, so dull.

 

Emily  21:31

That’s a great tip. I love Jennifer.

 

Heidi  21:33

She’s got some great stuff. And Emily, what was the tip that you picked to share?

 

Emily  21:38

I picked the tip from Episode 76, with Sam from Engineer Does Education. And she shared about using SOPs in the classroom. So SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedures. And it’s something that you hear about in the business world and engineering world. And she shared how you can use that idea in the classroom.

 

Emily  21:58

And so if you think of it like it’s the quick steps of a procedure, or of any single task you want done in the classroom. And the way to do it is to break down the steps of the procedure or the steps of the process you want the students to do into very specific steps. And then, if possible, include pictures.

 

Emily  22:19

So she had an example that if you wanted the students to get out the math manipulatives in a certain way, that you would have the steps for that posted where you have your math manipulatives so that the students would know exactly what to do to complete that task in the way that you want it done and to reduce confusion and reduce the opportunities for students to go astray on how you want things done. So I thought she has great ideas even though she’s not an elementary teacher, her ideas are so applicable to elementary too.

 

Heidi  22:52

I like following Sam’s account just for me personally. Because yes, she does teach secondary. So there maybe isn’t always a great carry over to an elementary classroom. But I found such great takeaways for just managing my own home my own life.

 

Heidi  23:06

One thing that sticks out to me is a couple months ago, she was showing her classroom on a Friday afternoon and it was just you know, chaos. The kids had left. But you know, everything was a mess and things weren’t where they were supposed to be. And so she said that one of the things she was going to do before she left was to tidy it because she said this isn’t how Friday Sam is going to treat Monday, Sam.

 

Heidi  23:27

You know, we love giving our future selves a gift. I just thought that was such a great idea to love yourself enough to not make your job harder. Yes, even though you’re tired 100%.

 

Heidi  23:41

We also wanted to share our favorite podcast reviews we’ve gotten so far. So Emily, did you pick one out?

 

Emily  23:45

Yes, I picked a short one. And I don’t know the name of this reviewer. I just has her username which I won’t share. And she said, “I’ve been listening to these episodes on my walks and they helped me laugh, relax and think. I love that you share so much great information in such a short period of time. I also love hearing about all your real experiences. I already loved you as TPT creators. And now I feel like I know you I look forward to every new episode.”

 

Heidi  24:10

Oh, that sounds great. Well, I picked two but they’re both short. So when is from Mandy 416 And she says, “After teaching for 16 years I love hearing these two ladies talk about teaching from a realistic but genuinely happy place. They make my work cheerful and remind me why I love my job.” I guess a lot of people take us on walks with them.

 

Emily  24:29

I love it.

 

Heidi  24:30

And Mrs. Kay’s class said, “I’ve been teaching for 20 years and I absolutely love this podcast. It’s a mix of great reminders and new ideas and I find it to be a wonderful way to start the work week every Monday.”

 

Heidi  24:41

And I picked these because I love that what we’re saying speaks so much to established veteran teachers. Like I think it’s such an endorsement. I guess I’m patting myself on the back so hard here. I’m gonna wrench my arm. But I think it’s such an endorsement. If veteran teachers think you have something valuable to add to the conversation, like you must be doing something okay. So I’m gonna take that as such a win, I really appreciate that. I really thought when we started that we would appeal more to younger teachers.

 

Emily  25:12

Yeah, new teachers who need more guidance.

 

Heidi  25:14

Yes, But it’s our peers, the ones that have been in this as long as we have that seemed to have found us and we love it. And we love you. So thank you.

 

Emily  25:22

Yeah, It’s such a great compliment.

 

Heidi  25:24

And thank you to everyone who has rated and reviewed us on Apple. If you haven’t done that already, that would be a great birthday present. Just a hint.

 

Emily  25:33

Next up, we’re going to share our favorite tips that we’ve shared on the podcast. What was your favorite tip, Heidi? It’s hard to narrow it down.

 

Heidi  25:40

It was I picked the tip from our very first episode, which is stop saving things for a special day. And I picked it because it’s something that I still have to remind myself of constantly.

 

Heidi  25:51

So the idea is that, like when we find ourselves holding on to something really awesome that we want to save for just the right moment. We never really find the right moment to use it because we create the specialness spiral of like, oh, well, this there could be more special time to use this in the future a better opportunity. I will be sad if I don’t have it then. And then stuff just never gets used. So stop making a special spiral use what you have today, today is special enough.

 

Emily  26:18

I love that tip.

 

Heidi  26:20

Okay, Emily, what tip did you pick?

 

Emily  26:22

I picked the tip from Episode 53, where we shared, don’t grade everything. This is one of those tips that I just think every teacher probably needs to remind themselves this. I probably could be grading less things than I am, of course it depends on your grade level and what requirements your school has.

 

Emily  26:41

But it seems to me that in most cases, a lot of what you’re doing in the classroom does not need to be done for taking a grade. The important thing is doing it together like one of the big ones is do not grade your morning work, do not grade your morning work. The point of morning work is to review. That’s it. If you don’t need to take a grade for that.

 

Emily  27:00

The more important thing would be spending time as a class correcting it together. I would not take your personal time to grade morning work. And I see things coming home in my own kids backpacks that I’m like, I cannot believe that poor teacher graded this like why did she need to grade it didn’t matter. So there are so many things that I think you probably could get away with not grading if it’s not an assessment, I think you probably don’t need to so that that’s a tip that I think we is worth revisiting in Episode 53.

 

Heidi  27:30

Yes, you have our permission not to grade it.

 

Emily  27:32

Yep, we gave you a permission slip.

 

Heidi  27:33

Okay. And now we love to end with extra credit. So Emily, what is your favorite extra credit?

 

Emily  27:40

That was hard becuase I still love almost everything that I have shared as extra credit. So it was tricky. But I decided to go with connections, The New York Times game connections because it’s still a favorite part of my day that I do every single day. And it just brings me so much joy and happiness.

 

Emily  28:02

It is fun to share the scores with my friends who play it. So it’s it’s truly a point of connection every day that I just I just enjoy it so much. Honestly, there are so many extra credits that I could make a whole list right now, but I’m just going to do that one. It’s connections. What’s your favorite extra credit Heidi?

 

Heidi  28:19

Well, my favorite is an extra credit of yours is from Episode 107. Yes, you made a list of favorite holiday romcom books. And that has been so fun for me. Like my favorite is a holiday picture book like that is my catnip. My big weakness. Yeah, my secret shame of hoarding. But right after that is a holiday rom com, please sign me up, I want them all. So like having a list and seeing all that that was really fun to get some fun ideas and to revisit to share some of my favorites, as well, as I added to the list that you started, so.

 

Emily  28:55

I wonder if we should make a non holiday rom com book list to share? I’ll have to think about that.

 

Heidi  29:01

Yeah, that would be fun. Thank you so much to all of you who have come on this two year journey with us. Whether this is your first episode, which maybe this is a prize. If this is your first episode, or you’ve been with us from the beginning. We’re so happy that you’re here. Please come join us in the Facebook group so we can get all of your fun insights for morning messages.

 

Heidi  29:23

Let us know what podcast topics you want to hear more about in the future, send in your questions that you might want a teacher  approved answer for. And if you haven’t already, we would appreciate it so much if you left us a five star rating and a review on Apple podcasts. It really does make it easier for other teachers to find us the more reviews you have. And we know that teachers love to help other teachers so you’re not just helping us you’re helping everyone out there. Find our great podcast.

 

Emily  29:49

Happy Birthday Teacher Approved!

 

Heidi  29:50

Yay!