Though we may love teaching, most of us also love spending the summer recharging and having extra time with our families. As we prepare to begin a new school year, and all the hectic activity that goes with it, here are a few posts sharing key advice that’s worth all of us keeping in mind.
They include wise counsel from our teacher colleagues about how to sustain ourselves during the school year by reducing the amount of school work we take home with us; simple ideas on how we might be able to improve our craft; how we can create the conditions in our classroom to encourage students to motivate themselves; and how to help students see that our lessons are relevant to their lives.
I think a “refresh” on all these topics might do us, and our colleagues, good.
1. Teachers, Don’t Take Your Work Home
Want to create a better boundary between school and home? Here are 20 ways to do that. Read more.
2. 10 Ways to Help Students Motivate Themselves
From the outset, enabling students to feel like they belong can encourage them to strive to do their best. Read more.
3. Teaching Is About the Messy Work of Being Human. Here’s How to Embrace It
It’s OK to feel uncomfortable as you work with your students; it can even be a better choice than trying to control the learning process. Read more.
4. 3 Ways to Make Learning Relevant to Students
Research shows that content relevance is key to student engagement, but many students aren’t feeling it. What needs to change? Read more.
5. Want to Start the Year off Right? Teachers Share Their Best Tips
A contract, a biographical poem, identity portraits—some of the many ways educators are engaging their students from Day 1. Read more.
6. Don’t Waste Instructional Time at the Beginning of the Year
Use those first weeks to explicitly teach listening, speaking, and thinking skills that will help build relationships as well. Read more.
7. 3 Educators Offer Their Best Ideas for Starting the Year Off Right
The first two weeks of school can help set the tone for everything that will follow. Read more.
Similar topics from Classroom Q&A:
- Want Insight Into Schooling? Here’s Advice From Some Top Experts
- How to Make Parent Engagement Meaningful
- If I’d Only Known. Veteran Teachers Offer Advice for Beginners
- 10 Ways to Build a Healthier Classroom
- What’s the Best Professional-Development Advice? Teachers and Students Have Their Say
- Plenty of Instructional Strategies Are Out There. Here’s What Works Best for Your Students
- Looking for Ways to Organize Your Classroom? Try Out These Tip
