Resilience - The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
Teaching requires more emotional resilience than most other professions. Lacking resilience is a common thread that creates burnout and leaving the profession. Resilience is not something we are taught in school, but there are things that we can do to strengthen our resilience.
Don’t isolate yourself in your classroom. Get to know other teachers in your building and your students’ parents. Building relationships with your co-workers and parents can strengthen your resilience. Take care of yourself. If you’re worn out and not feeling well, you are more likely to isolate and avoid others.
What is your resilience level?
Time Management
Do you often feel that there is never enough time to get things done?
This is often a big challenge for teachers, causing stress which can lead to negative consequences. If this is you, know that you are not alone! The good news is that there are ways to increase efficiency and productivity in the way you plan and execute your day-to-day work. Using adequate time management can allow you to have a balanced professional, personal and social life.
Before you start your day, create a To Do List:
Make a list of all the tasks you need to complete and the amount of time you spend on each.
Put them in order of importance with things that must be done at the top. If you have large tasks to do, you can break them up – you don’t have to do them all at once.
Look at your day and see where you can schedule these tasks throughout the day.
Commit to the schedule – find a place to work away from distractions or have 3 set times of the day to check your phone.
You can’t add more time to the day but with some tips and tricks, you can make good use of your time.
I would love to share with all of you the FREE program I designed for my RTOY advocacy! It is called Ride and Read! Any insight and or ideas that you could share would be fabulous. I have this idea - but am working on getting sponsors and grants etc. I would love if it could go global. SO many families could benefit from it! Check out more FREE info on my website; www.ginapepin.com. Here is the promotional video: https://www.canva.com/design/DAF6ok8DV0I/UWGwMq-QVjVyWoMSJrfnRQ/watch
Digital literacy tools can play a significant role in supporting literacy development across grade levels by providing personalized and engaging experiences for students.
In what ways do you think this is beneficial?
What are some efficient ways to track an analyze student data without becoming overwhelmed?
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This year our school is using the theme - board games for reading month. We all design and create board games on our classroom doors. We make them interactive so that students and families can enjoy them!
My door is based on the game Mad Gab - and I used the sentences from UFLI to create this fun activity!
What advice do you have for preparing the portfolio and reflection components of the National Board Certification process?
Are you able to have live classroom pets? What are some good suggestions for classroom pets?
We are not able to have any pets with fur due to allergies, other than our school therapy dog. Several of our teachers have fish or turtles.
How do you modify your teaching when you have a significant number of students out with illness? For example, today half my Kindergarten students are out sick today, and I am reviewing some ideas with the students who are here while introducing a few new things that I can review as students slowly return. How do you handle situations like this when one or more students are absent?
What are some effective ways to integrate technology into lessons without overwhelming students or losing focus on the core content?
How can I incorporate play-based learning into my classroom, even if it’s not the primary instructional method?
Tis the season...for progress monitoring! We use MAP testing in our district for elementary students and one of my favorite ways to encourage them to meet their goals is to first meet with them before the test and discuss what they feel their strengths are and what is something that they'd like more help in. For MAP, they receive their score at the end so I love to write a sticky note (or put it at the top of their scratch paper) what their goal score is so they know immediately if they met it or not. I will also put an encouraging note beside it to remind them how awesome they are.
What are some ways you encourage your students to meet their goals when taking tests?
What are the key indicators that a student might have a reading disability, and how do you respond to those signs?
Today, and hour into our day, the power went out in parts of the building due to weather. How do you quickly switch your teaching when you have no power or Internet?
What are your best practices for designing lessons that meet diverse student needs?
I try to connect content to the real world. Today, we were talking about earthquakes, and I related to Hurricane Helene. In math, provide support for students who have not memorized their multiplication facts. Show how they can build a list of multiples to solve the problem. Stop when you are reading a text and have students talk to a partner to check for comprehension. When you are creating your lesson plans, make sure that the activities are varied.
What other ideas can you share to meet these student needs?
I loved teaching science and one of my favorite sections of science with severe weather. Before moving to South Carolina, I didn't experience much severe weather in Pennsylvania other than a few blizzards growing up. Once I moved here, I realized how valuable this lesson in science truly was. I have attached a planning guide and rubric from when I taught severe storms. I have done this a number of ways, but this refers to a board -- we had Discovery Education so students could create 'boards' to share this information. This also easily done in PPT, Canva, or any other computer tool (if you have great ideas on how to present this, please add below!). You can also have students use paper to create this! Some students have created pamphlets before and they've been just as creative!
Another favorite family literacy activity that we encourage is a New Year New You - Vision Board! Together as a family - members can create a vision board using magazines, books, or printed words. Each of these represent hopes and goals for the year ahead.
What family literacy activities do you share with your families?
