5 Teacher Tasks You NEED to Do Before Spring Break [Episode 186]

Heidi  0:00

This is episode 186 of Teacher Approved.

 

Heidi  0:06

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  0:28

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

 

Emily  0:36

Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we’re sharing five things you need to do before spring break and sharing a teacher approved tip for dealing with missing assignments.

 

Heidi  0:48

Let’s start with try it tomorrow, where we share a quick win you can try in your class tomorrow. Emily, what’s our try it tomorrow prompt this week?

 

Emily  0:55

This week, why not try creating a class cheer or motto? Work with your class to come up with something fun and catchy as a great way to boost your class community.

 

Heidi  1:06

This time of year, everyone is feeling a little too comfortable with each other, and a class cheer or motto can help boost the feeling of community, and keep listening, because later in the episode, we share another way that you might want to use a cheer with your students.

 

Emily  1:21

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? Ratings and reviews are one way that new listeners find us. So all of your ratings and reviews help us so much.

 

Emily  1:34

Coming back home after a trip is the best feeling, isn’t it?

 

Heidi  1:38

Oh, yes, there is nothing like getting to sleep in your own bed again, 10 out of 10 highly recommend.

 

Emily  1:43

Oh, it is the best. That is, until you can’t get into your bed because you left laundry piled all over it, and then you spot the overflowing trash cans that you didn’t have time to take out before you ran out the door, and the empty fridge and pantry awaiting you. So you’re just standing there staring at it all, thinking, How could past me do this to current me? Why didn’t you put the laundry away? Would it have been so hard to put in a grocery delivery order for me to come home to? Past me really is the worst sometimes.

 

Heidi  2:17

Now, if you were the sort of person who has never experienced this when you get home from a trip, you are a hero. I think most of us have probably faced this brutal post vacation return to reality.

 

Emily  2:30

And if you aren’t careful, a similar experience may await you the morning you return to your classroom after spring break, but we do not want that for you. So today, we are sharing five things you must do before spring break so that you don’t have that post school break slap in the face when you return.

 

Heidi  2:49

We are going to give the gift to your future self of returning to a calm classroom all ready to go for a new week of school after spring break. Future self is definitely going to thank you this time. The first thing you’ve got to do before spring break is tidy up your classroom. And the keyword here is tidy, friends, we are not doing a deep clean right now.

 

Emily  3:09

Yeah, this is not the moment to start Marie Kondo-ing your classroom. If you find yourself with the urge to alphabetize your classroom library or organize your math manipulatives in rainbow order, I just need you to say out loud, that is a June problem, and put the label maker away.

 

Heidi  3:27

Back away slowly. But instead of a deep clean, we want to give your class what we’re going to call a light refresh. If you’re quick about it, you could maybe even do this in just five or 10 minutes. Before the kids take off for the break, have them tidy up their tables, make sure the floor is free of you know, the crayons in the corners, and straighten up the classroom library.

 

Emily  3:48

You can make it fun by turning on some music or having them try to beat the clock with their cleanup tasks. Or you can always bribe them with extra minutes of recess. Bribery, I found, works wonders. It’s the afternoon before a long break, so it’s not like they’ll be learning much anyway. You may as well make that time useful.

 

Heidi  4:07

And really a tidy room is a win for everyone. And don’t forget to make sure that the kids take all their coats, backpacks and lunch boxes home with them. You do not want to return to a mystery smell. Ask me how I know about that. Ugh.

 

Emily  4:22

So true. Then after the kids leave, you can do a quick clutter clear of your desk and your small group table. Clear surfaces make a huge impact on overwhelm, so quickly clear any surfaces you can. And don’t shove anything important in a cupboard where you will forget about it. Not that I’ve ever done that before.

 

Heidi  4:41

Oh, no. Fatal mistake. Don’t do that. Now, if you want to get wild, you could maybe bust out the Lysol wipes and do a quick wipe down of all your high traffic services so that you don’t come back to anything sticky.

 

Emily  4:54

Yeah, that should be the bar, though. No sticky. It just, we’ll deal with the sticky stuff. And then that’s enough. Don’t spend four hours after school doing a deep clean. You’ve got Spring Break relaxing to get to.

 

Heidi  5:07

All right, on to the second thing you need to do before spring break, which is set yourself up for success on your first day back. This is so important. Now, of course, Spring Break You will be living her best life. She’s going to be traveling or sleeping in or going to the bathroom whenever she wants, being like a human finally. But First Day Back You, if you’re not careful, she is going to be struggling.

 

Emily  5:34

Oh yeah, she may be questioning all her life choices. So we’re going to throw her a bone by making sure that at the very least the first morning back is ready to go. Before you walk out the door for spring break, change out the date on the board. Make sure your morning work is copied. Get your morning message ready. Plan your morning meeting to have a tell your partner about your break activity or something fun to welcome the kids back.

 

Heidi  5:56

The goal here is to make sure First Day Back You is not expected to be functioning at full brain capacity at 7am on a Monday morning after a week off of school. You know how rough that is. Best case scenario, you’ll probably be about 60% capacity, and that’s if you’re lucky.

 

Emily  6:15

Yeah. And guess what? Your students will be in the same boat. Somehow in one week they completely forget how to school, they will act like they’ve never sat in a desk before. They will have lost the capacity to whisper, and they will have no idea where they’re supposed to get a pencil. How does this happen?

 

Heidi  6:30

So a soft, simple start on the day back is going to be a good idea for everyone, and if you really want to help yourself thrive, get the whole first day ready to go before you walk out the door. And you can totally do this without giving up your free time by working in some pockets of prep the week before you go on spring break.

 

Emily  6:49

Check out Episode 181 for some more help with this. We shared our best tips for finding pockets of prep before spring break. A little bit of prep time here and there can help you have those first day back plans all ready to go before the break, which will be such a gift.

 

Heidi  7:05

The third thing you need to do before spring break is to decide how off the grid you want to be during your time off. And our recommendation is to be very off the grid if you can.

 

Emily  7:16

Yes, set those boundaries for yourself. You deserve to have a true break from school, if at all possible. With the prep you’ve done, you should be able to avoid doing any lesson planning or prep during the break.

 

Heidi  7:27

If you absolutely must check your school email or do some lesson planning during the break, try setting a timer so that you don’t let that work eat up all of your relaxing time. If it can possibly wait, just let it wait.

 

Emily  7:41

Which is why we recommend taking your school email off your phone during the break. There is no reason to let your principal’s email about an upcoming staff meeting interrupt your zen. The emails will be waiting for you when you return. You can even set up an out of office auto reply if you really need to.

 

Heidi  7:58

The fourth thing to do before spring break is to plan something special for yourself. Here’s your permission slip to do something that is just for you, not for your students, not for your family, not for the productivity gods, just you.

 

Emily  8:12

That might be reading a book, visiting your favorite coffee shop, binging the show you’ve been dying to watch, anything that feels like a treat to you. The only rule here is that you choose to do something that you genuinely enjoy. Doesn’t have to be anybody else’s idea of fun, only yours.

 

Heidi  8:28

Now, if you are one of those special magic unicorns who would find cleaning out your closet to be the most fun, then by all means, go for it. We fully support you and invite you over to help with our closets maybe.

 

Emily  8:40

Yes, but if you’re wanting to clean out that closet, out of some vague sense of needing to feel productive, we beg you to step away from the sock drawer. You don’t need to justify your free time with productivity or earn your rest.

 

Heidi  8:57

The fifth and final thing you need to do before spring break is to end on a high note with your students. These kiddos are likely just as ready for a break as you are, so send them off feeling good.

 

Emily  9:07

We love to end the week with a class meeting called closing circle. And the day before spring break is the perfect time to do one.

 

Heidi  9:14

So if you have done morning meeting before, a closing circle has a very similar vibe. You gather the class together in a circle. I guess it’s all in the name. And I would do this with my students on Fridays, so I would have my students silently reflect on the week, or you could do this every day. I did find that kids need some guiding questions to prompt their thoughts, so something like, what’s something you learned this week, or what’s something you tried hard at, what’s the way you show kindness? And then I asked them to choose something that they were proud of, that they wanted to share with the group. And when they knew what they wanted to say, they should give me a thumbs up. Once I saw that also, the kids were ready, we would start going around the circle. And everyone got to share, including me.

 

Heidi  9:53

And then I gave them a few more seconds to think of what they hoped the next day or the next week might bring. And. And again, kids might need some questions to guide their thoughts. What do you hope to learn next week? What kind of thing do you want to say to yourself if you’re having a hard time? You know, just get their thoughts going. Then this was my favorite part. Everyone would whisper their wish into their hands, and then they would just kind of hold their cupped hands like they had a little firefly or something in there, and on the count of three, we let our wishes go so that they could fly up to the ceiling and be waiting for us when we got back.

 

Emily  10:24

I loved doing that, too.

 

Heidi  10:26

So precious. And here’s where you could put that class cheer or motto to good use. We always ended our closing circle with our class cheer. I found it was such a heartwarming way, and I I can’t think of any other way to describe it, it really was heartwarming to tie us all together as we scattered out into the world, and we knew that we would be coming back together in a few hours or days, I guess, if we were headed out on a break.

 

Emily  10:51

But that’s just one way to do a closing circle. You could add a group game or singing time to help build unity. You could do some quick goal setting. You could share highs and lows are the best part of the day. You could share compliments or gratitude or send a friendly goodbye around the circle the way you do a greeting in the morning. And maybe you want to end with a minute of silence or deep breathing before you turn them loose.

 

Heidi  11:13

There are lots of engaging ways to make a closing circle a meaningful way to wrap up the day, and ending on a high note like this is a great reminder that you love each other, even though it’s spring and you are ready to not see their darling faces for a week.

 

Emily  11:28

So to recap, give your first day back from spring break self a gift by doing these five things before spring break. Tidy the classroom, but not like deep clean it ,set yourself up for success on the first day back, set boundaries about working during the break, plan something special for you to do during your time off, and end on a high note with your students.

 

Heidi  11:50

Doing these few simple things will make a big difference in how much you enjoy your break and how smoothly things go when you return.

 

Emily  11:58

We’d love to hear what you do before spring break to set yourself up for success. Come share with us in the Teacher Approved Facebook group.

 

Emily  12:05

Now let’s talk about this week’s teacher approved tip. Each week we leave you with a small actionable tip to elevate what matters and simplify the rest. This week’s teacher approved tip is deal with missing assignments before spring break. So tell us about this, Heidi.

 

Heidi  12:19

Well before heading out on a long break, you might want to schedule some extra time for catching up on missing assignments. That way everyone gets a fresh start when you come back from spring break.

 

Emily  12:29

Back in episode 179 we talked about ketchup, mustard and pickles tasks. Before the break, it might be helpful to schedule an hour or so for ketchup and mustard. Catch up tasks are anything that students need to catch up on. This is any unfinished or missing assignments, retaking a test, or anything else students need to catch up on. Then kids move on to mustard or must do tasks. That could be anything from completing a vocabulary activity to cleaning out a desk, depending on what your classroom needs before heading into a break. And then students can pick from the more fun activities on the pickles list. Maybe that’s playing math games, getting out the inside recess games, doing art or anything else your students enjoy doing.

 

Heidi  13:11

Just make sure that everyone gets to spend at least a few minutes enjoying a fun activity. Think how disheartening it would be for our slower workers to get so bogged down in the ketchup and mustard tasks that they never get to do the fun stuff that makes school fun.

 

Emily  13:27

For sure.

 

Heidi  13:29

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

 

Emily  13:33

I’m giving extra credit to Olipop. The crisp apple is my favorite. I have tried a bunch of flavors, and I think I’ve landed on that one. It’s just my go to, and I usually have one every afternoon as a little treat. It’s a great way to hit my old lady fiber goals.

 

Heidi  13:36

Those have been such a lifesaver. I just had to stock up.

 

Emily  13:52

Yep, yeah. I always have a stash in my fridge. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

 

Heidi  13:58

Well, speaking of boring old lady healthcare, I’m giving extra credit to my Sonicare toothbrush.

 

Emily  14:04

Ooh.

 

Heidi  14:06

For some reason I’ve just always gotten the Oral B because I liked the round brush. The commercials told me it was superior, but I decided to walk on the wild side and give Sonicare a try. Actually, I think it was mostly because if you have an Oral B brush, they have, like, holes in the brush, hole things.

 

Emily  14:22

It’s like a hole thing,

 

Heidi  14:23

Yes, it just grosses me out, and I couldn’t deal with anymore.

 

Emily  14:27

Yeah, I have a whole system for cleaning my toothbrush head every time I use it because of that. I’m like, why is it designed this way? It makes no sense.

 

Heidi  14:34

No, no. And I thought it must be a standard with all electric toothbrushes, but no. So you might want to give Sonicare a try. Emily, I’ve been really impressed. I feel like it does a great job. It holds a charge for a long time, and it gets my mouth sparkly clean, which is what I’m after. And there aren’t any gross hole stuff to clean out.

 

Emily  14:51

Okay, I’ll have to consider it, my Oral B cost of fortune so it might be a little while.

 

Heidi  14:57

I just bought, like, the $25 one at target.

 

Emily  15:02

I splurged on a fancy one after my dentist was like, Why are you so mean to your gums? And I was like, oh, okay, I gotta get something that will tell me if I’m being mean to my gums. So that’s why, but I don’t know that I needed to really invest so much, but eventually maybe I will check out Sonicare instead.

 

Heidi  15:20

Yeah, sponsor us, Sonicare.

 

Emily  15:22

Yeah, seriously.

 

Heidi  15:24

That’s it for today’s episode. Add our five things to do before spring break to your to do list, and don’t forget our teacher approved tip for scheduling catch up time before the break.

 

Heidi  15:36

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

 

Emily  15:39

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  15:46

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  15:53

Bye.