Boost Morale Among Your Coworkers!
I just recently started a “Brag Book” I will call it. In this book I wrote something encouraging to one teacher and dated he entry. The teacher that the book was passed to will write something nice about another teacher and so on. At the end of the year, the book will be filled with kind words. Teachers are always beaten down by how they don’t measure up. As if they are the only ones who caused their students to not achieve. Teachers do have something to do with student growth, BUT there are many other factors involved. If a child doesn’t achieve it isn’t always because of the teacher! Teachers aren’t responsible for every aspect of a child’s life and will never be able to replace parents who raises their child with work ethic and values. Take a deep breath teachers! All you can do is your best. After that go home with the peace of mind that you did your best. 🙂
So to continue the story of the Brag Book, I had this idea for a while and only recently put it together. I just began passing it around. Here’s to a more encouraging school year where we lift one another up…it is so easy to tear people down with our words when we get frustrated with the demands of work.
Below you sill see some photos of the Brag Book. You are welcome to copy this idea to boost morale in your own building.
When I made this I was going for quick and easy. I used silver duct tape and some other washi type tape for color decoration. If I was to do it again, I wouldn’t use silver duct tape since I found out it shows fingerprints and smudges. Duct tape did work nicely to cover well. It WAS quick AND easy.
I got these inspirational stickers at Hobby Lobby to stick all over the book. I really like the phrases that were inn them.
I look forward by the end of the year to have lots of encouragement inside one book!
Don’t Throw Out a Broken Clock! You Can Do This
In the current school I work in, we had many broken clocks that wouldn’t keep time. When I discovered some of our smartest students couldn’t tell time, I had an idea! I thought I would use one of these old and broken clocks for a teaching tool. I took it home and broke the hard plastic off the front. Then I ruled off sections on the clock with lines and put circles around the numbers. Each number’s circle color matches the section behind it. The reason for this is to help children know that if they see the hour hand anywhere in the colored section that the hour belongs to the number with the same color. I had a little friend who was very interested in telling time.
If you like this idea for teaching children analog time, you will love the Telling Clock Time unit here! There are these ideas and more used to teach analog time.
Check Out These Fun Fall Activities!
Did you know Super Teacher Worksheets has fun fall puzzles and activities? Check them out!
5 Things I Wish I Had Known as a New Teacher Part 2
6. Do you stay late at school trying to make sure your lessons are engaging and that everything is ready. Almost EVERYONE is not working as hard as you. Go home. Keep things simple.
7. Pick one day and go home at contract hours. You may think this is hurting your students, but actually you will be more refreshed if you take some time to take care of your life and yourself. Your body and mind being refreshed will bring enthusiasm to your teaching because you are refreshed.
8. In my many years of teaching I can only remember my lesson plans being requested four times. That is it! Did you fret because you didn’t write the perfect lesson plan? Why? No one will be looking…in fact even if you don’t have one, no one will know but you. Now, I don’t recommend not having plans!! However, if something came up, and you didn’t have time to write one you will be okay. As long as you have an idea of what you are teaching, you will be fine. (Now the only exception to this may be if you are in a high needs school that is being looked at with a fine toothed comb.)
9. Even the nicest parent at the beginning of the year, can turn on you and go crazy at the end because of something that happened right before summer break. Having about one parent do this at the end is normal–most likely it wasn’t something you did.
10. Don’t depend on your school’s retirement plan as your only income when you retire. Put money into other investment opportunities such as a Roth IRA or maybe even rental property. Vanguard funds are great for both long and short term savings I learned about them from another teacher.
5 Things I wish I Had Known as a New Teacher Part 1
1. I wish I had known not to work so hard. It took COVID for me to see that I had let my job absorb nearly my whole life. Taking a step back with the ups and downs of the 2020-2021 school year made it evident that there is more to life than work. I now have an alarm set on my phone so that I am more aware that I need to go home and take care of myself.
2. Look at the pay scale from the bottom. An old wise teacher once told me this. I wish I had done this. Now that I am at the bottom of the scale, of course I am looking at this, but as a new teacher I always looked at the top few levels. This is especially true if you don’t want to move around and work at different school districts.
3. Build up some sick leave, but once you have it built up, if your district offers no incentive, MAKE SURE YOU TAKE SOME TIME OFF FOR YOURSELF! When you are gone you will be replaced easily. For your family you are not easily replaced! Stress is the root of disease in most cases, so love yourself.
4. Every school building has a cow who wears a bell. I have worked in many schools, and most of them had a cow with a bell. The cow makes him or herself valuable. This is the person who helps the administrator out thereby escaping administrative criticism. This person carries influence. Be friendly to the cow even if you don’t like him or her.
5. Your boss has a shiny nickel–the thing that makes him or her say “WOW”. At one of my first jobs the shiny nickel was a pretty bulletin board. To my advantage, I liked making a pretty bulletin board, so I had the shiny nickel and was favored for this and several other reasons. Find out what your principal’s shiny nickel is–ask veteran teachers at your school.
Set Up Your Cooperative Groups by Doing This
Each time I begin a year, we practice these expectations.
Number 1. We talk about how sharing materials could go badly–scattering materials, sharing germs, not everyone’s hand can fit in the container, etc.
Number 2. We practice saying all of these rules several times so that students get accustomed to saying these words and have this tool in their tool chest of ways to interact with peers.
Number 3. I let the students discuss how they will settle a disagreement. Most students arrive at Rock Paper Scissors as being the best way to solve disagreements. Students also say things like that they could talk out whose ideas was the best. I also mention who has the birthday closest to today, who is closer to the floor (shorter), closest to the ceiling (taller).
After we have talked over all of these rules, we practice saying them first thing in class for several class periods. Before long there are very few disagreements or problems among students.
I hope this helps your cooperative groups run more smoothly, too!
Who Doesn’t Love Giveaways?
I’m really looking forward to a new school year in which the restrictions are lessened! I think it will bring new joy to learning! In celebration of this new school year, let’s take part in a giveaway!
GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
Prize: $100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card
Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)
Co-hosts: An Apple for the Teacher, Mrs. Wennings Clasroom, Chocolate 4 Teachers, Simone, TheBeezyTeacher, Angelica’s Resources, The Homeschool Style-Katie Ring, Star Kids , Mickey’s Place, The Froggy Factory, Jackie Crews, Teaching Where You’re Called, Kamp Kindergarten, Mrs Hansens Helpfuls, Teaching Ideas for Those Who Love Teaching, In the Land of Teaching, Ms. K, Tried and True Teaching Tools, Teach Me T, and A Plus Kids.
Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 8/13/21 and is open worldwide.
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a Rafflecopter giveaway7 Cents Will Buy You This!
Seven cents doesn’t buy you much anymore, but it will buy you this! Did you know that 7 cents a day is all it costs for a Super Teacher Worksheets membership? That’s right! For just $24.95 a year you get this amazing value. And LOOK at all the back to school worksheets there are to choose from!
Have You Used These for Grading Pens?
For grading pens there are many options, but I am going to tell you about one I used last year that I wished I had used before–Crayola fine line markers. These worked wonderfully for me to grade creativity tests in which there are so many components. The colors helped me keep track of each test part. Not only are they great for using because of their multiple colors, they are cheap in comparison to other pens. They can also double as colorful note writing pens. I enjoyed these more than flair pens or Vis a Vis although I have used both of those for grading also. I hope you scoop up a few extra packs at back to school season time to last you throughout the year!
What a Great Way to Start the Year!
This is just a quick post to share a lesson idea. I came across this book the other day, picked it up, and read it in Hobby Lobby. I thought it would make a great lesson for back to school. It celebrates students individual talents and gifts. This would be a great ice breaker activity to display the individuality of students in their “Hot Air Balloons”. Students could. build these maybe out of coffee filters OR whatever else you imagine!
