Teacher burnout doesn’t just happen to new teachers, or to people who “aren’t cut out for the job.” It shows up for experienced educators, passionate educators, even the ones who care the most—often because they care so much.

It can feel like you’re constantly behind, no matter how much you do. Like the work never really ends. Like the parts of teaching you once loved are still there somewhere, but buried under everything else you’re carrying.

And maybe the hardest part is the quiet question underneath all of it: Is it me?

It’s not.

Burnout isn’t a personal failure. It’s what happens when you’re working in a role that asks you to give more than is sustainable—day after day, without enough space to recover.

In this article, we’re going to walk through what teacher burnout actually is, how to recognize it, why it happens, and what you can do about it—whether you want to stay in the classroom or you’re starting to wonder if it’s time for something else.

What is teacher burnout?

Teacher burnout isn’t just about feeling tired at the end of a long week.

It’s the kind of exhaustion that lingers, the kind that doesn’t fully go away even after rest, because it’s not just physical—it’s emotional, mental, and cumulative.

Over time, it can start to look like:

• Feeling drained before the day even begins
• Carrying a constant sense of pressure or urgency
• Struggling to feel motivated, even when you care deeply

And what makes it especially difficult is that teaching isn’t just a job you clock in and out of. It follows you home—in your thoughts, your to-do list, your emotional energy.

So burnout isn’t just about working hard.

It’s about working in a way that doesn’t give you enough back to sustain you.

Signs and Symptoms of Teacher Burnout

Burnout rarely announces itself in a clear or dramatic way. It doesn’t usually show up as a single moment where everything falls apart. Instead, it builds quietly—through long days, constant pressure, and the slow accumulation of things that never quite get finished.

At first, you might just feel tired. Then a little more overwhelmed than usual. Then, over time, something deeper shifts—not just in your energy, but in your mental health, your focus, and even how you relate to your work as a teacher.

You start to feel like you’re always behind. Like no matter how much you do, it’s never enough.
Like you’re running through your day, but never actually catching up.

One teacher described it this way:

“I was working 24/7… I didn’t know how much longer I could make it.”

That feeling—of constantly giving and never quite arriving at a place of “done”—is one of the clearest burnout symptoms educators experience, especially in a profession that often requires sustained energy over long periods of time.

You feel constantly overwhelmed—and never quite caught up

There’s always something waiting.

Even on your most productive days, there’s still more:
another lesson to plan, another email to respond to, another task you didn’t get to.

And over time, that creates a kind of mental load that doesn’t go away when the day ends. It follows you home. It lingers in your thoughts when you’re trying to rest, making it harder to fully disconnect from work.

This constant sense of unfinished work is one of the biggest drivers of teacher stress, and it often contributes to ongoing stress and anxiety that can feel difficult to manage.

If this feels familiar, read Navigating Teacher Anxiety When You’re Drowning in Work—it offers a more grounded way to think about that constant overwhelm.

Navigating teacher anxiety when you’re drowning in work

You’re emotionally and mentally exhausted

What often makes this kind of exhaustion confusing is that it doesn’t always match how hard you’re working in a visible way.

You might have days where, on paper, you didn’t do anything extraordinary—no major events, no unusually difficult situations—and yet you still end the day feeling completely depleted.

That’s because burnout isn’t just about what you do.

It’s about the constant cognitive and emotional load you’re carrying in the background:
keeping track of student needs, adjusting lessons in real time, managing behavior, anticipating problems before they happen.

All of that requires energy—and when it happens every day without pause, it builds into the kind of fatigue that doesn’t go away with a good night’s sleep.

This kind of exhaustion isn’t just about needing more sleep.

It’s the result of prolonged chronic stress—being “on” for extended periods of time without enough recovery. You’re constantly responding, supporting, adjusting, and managing, often without a real break.

You might notice:

• You’re more easily irritated
• You feel detached or numb
• Your patience feels thinner than it used to

This emotional exhaustion is one of the most defining characteristics of burnout in the teaching profession, and it can affect not just your work, but your overall mental health as well.

You’ve lost motivation or joy in teaching

This can be one of the most unsettling parts of burnout because you still care. You still want to show up for your students. You still believe in the work. But the energy that used to come naturally—the creativity, the enthusiasm, the sense of purpose—feels harder to access.

And that can lead to a quiet kind of doubt: What changed?

Often, it’s not your passion that disappeared—it’s that your energy has been depleted over time.

You feel anxious, pressured, or constantly “on”

For many teachers, burnout shows up not just as exhaustion, but as persistent stress and anxiety.

Your mind keeps going, even when you’re not working:

• Thinking about what you didn’t finish
• Replaying interactions with students
• Anticipating what’s coming next

This constant mental activity can make it difficult to relax, and over time, it can begin to affect both your emotional state and your physical health.

Helpful to read: How teachers can conquer anxiety, overwhelm, and the pressure to always do more becomes especially helpful—it focuses on small ways to create space in that constant pressure.

How teachers can conquer anxiety, overwhelm, and the pressure to always do more

You’re noticing physical symptoms of burnout

Burnout doesn’t stay contained in your classroom. It shows up in your body, your energy, your relationships. You might notice trouble sleeping, getting sick more often, feeling drained even outside of work. And when that happens, it’s often a sign that this isn’t something you can just push through anymore.

You might experience:

• Frequent fatigue
• Headaches or tension
• Trouble sleeping
• Getting sick more often

These physical symptoms are often the body’s response to prolonged chronic stress, and they’re an important signal that your current pace may not be sustainable.

You’re starting to question whether you can keep going

This is the moment many teachers don’t talk about out loud.

When the thought shifts from:
“This is hard” to “I don’t know if I can keep doing this.”

And if you’ve had that thought—even once—it’s worth paying attention to.

What Causes Teacher Burnout?

It’s easy to assume burnout is something you should be able to fix with better time management, more organization, or just trying a little harder.

But that’s rarely the real issue.

Burnout in the teaching profession is rarely about individual failure.

Most of the time, burnout isn’t happening because you’re not doing enough.

It’s happening because you’re being asked to do too much, for too long, without enough support or space to recover.

1. The workload is simply too much

Teaching isn’t just teaching anymore—it’s planning, grading, meetings, emails, data tracking, behavior management, and responding to diverse student behaviors, all layered on top of one another.

And even when you’re working efficiently, the list doesn’t shrink. Because the issue isn’t productivity. It’s volume.

As one idea puts it:

There are simply too many things demanding your time and attention.

And no amount of time management can fully solve that.

And what makes this especially challenging is that much of this work is invisible.

From the outside, teaching might look like a series of lessons delivered throughout the day.

But behind those lessons are hours of preparation, decision-making, and follow-through that often go unseen.

It’s not just the time spent working—it’s the mental bandwidth required to hold everything together.

And when that bandwidth is constantly maxed out, even small tasks can start to feel overwhelming.

We explore this more deeply in Fewer Things, Better: 4 Beliefs to Help You Focus on What Matters Most, which challenges the idea that productivity alone can solve burnout.

Fewer things, better: 4 beliefs to help you focus on what matters most

2. Being good at your job can actually increase your workload

The more capable you are, the more is often expected of you.

You might be given:

• More challenging students
• Additional responsibilities
• Leadership roles without reduced workload

Over time, this can lead to increased teacher stress, especially when expectations continue to rise without clear boundaries.

If this resonates, Why great teachers get saddled with the biggest workload (and how to advocate for yourself) offers a really honest look at this dynamic.

Why great teachers get saddled with the biggest workload (and how to advocate for yourself)

3. The emotional labor adds up

Teaching requires a level of emotional engagement that goes far beyond instruction.

You’re supporting students through academic challenges, personal struggles, and behavioral issues—all while maintaining a calm, steady presence.

That emotional output, repeated daily, contributes significantly to burnout symptoms and can impact overall teacher well-being if not balanced with recovery time.

You’re also navigating a wide range of student needs at any given time.

Some students need academic support. Others need emotional reassurance. Some are dealing with challenges outside of school that affect how they show up in your classroom.

Responding to all of that requires presence, patience, and adaptability—and that kind of sustained attention can be exhausting, even when you’re deeply committed to your students.

Over time, this emotional load becomes one of the most significant contributors to burnout, especially when it’s paired with high expectations and limited recovery time.

4. The pressure to do more never really stops

There’s always something else you could be doing.

Even outside of work hours, many teachers feel the pull to keep going—reviewing lessons, planning ahead, or thinking about what they could improve.

These long hours and constant mental engagement make it difficult to fully rest, which reinforces the cycle of burnout.

5. Some of the challenges are systemic

There are also factors that go beyond any one teacher’s control:

• Staffing shortages
• Changing expectations
• Increasing demands

Recognizing this matters because it helps you step out of the mindset that this is something you should be able to “fix” on your own.

How to Prevent Teacher Burnout

Burnout doesn’t always happen suddenly.

Which means there are ways to shift your experience before it reaches that point—but not by doing more.

By doing things differently.

Stay connected to what matters most

It’s easy to get pulled into the daily frustrations of teaching—the repetition, the interruptions, the paperwork.

But those aren’t the reason you became a teacher.

Reconnecting with your purpose, even in small ways, helps keep those frustrations in perspective.

Build support instead of doing everything alone

Teaching can feel isolating, even when you’re surrounded by people.

Having someone you can talk to—someone who understands—can make a significant difference in how manageable the work feels.

The full framework in 8 Keys to Avoiding Teacher Burnout includes practical ways to build that support and protect your energy.

8 keys to avoiding teacher burnout (part one)

Make space for a life outside of teaching

When teaching becomes your entire life, it takes more than it gives.

Having interests, relationships, and routines outside of work isn’t a luxury—it’s what helps you come back with energy

How to Overcome Teacher Burnout (When You’re Already There)

When you’re already burned out, the goal isn’t to push harder.

It’s to begin creating conditions that support your mental health, your energy, and your overall physical health.

Do fewer things, better

You are not going to get everything done.

And more importantly—you’re not supposed to.

Trying to keep up with everything is what leads to burnout in the first place.

Instead, the shift becomes:
What actually matters?
What doesn’t?
What can I let go of?

This approach supports both your effectiveness and your teacher well-being, because it allows you to focus your energy where it has the most impact.

Start here: Fewer Things, Better: 4 Beliefs to Help You Focus on What Matters Most

Fewer things, better: 4 beliefs to help you focus on what matters most

This doesn’t mean lowering your standards or caring less about your work.

It means being more intentional about where your energy goes.

Because when everything feels equally important, nothing gets the attention it truly deserves.

And that’s often where burnout intensifies—the feeling that you’re doing everything, but not doing anything well enough.

By narrowing your focus, you’re not giving less.

You’re giving more of yourself to fewer, more meaningful things—and that shift alone can start to change how your work feels.

Make small, consistent shifts

When everything feels overwhelming, big changes can feel unrealistic.

Small adjustments—like creating moments of stillness or removing unnecessary tasks—can gradually reduce stress and anxiety.

How Teachers Can Conquer Anxiety, Overwhelm, and the Pressure to Always Do More introduces this idea through simple, practical approaches.

How teachers can conquer anxiety, overwhelm, and the pressure to always do more

These small shifts also help rebuild a sense of control.

When you’re burned out, it can feel like everything is happening to you—that you’re reacting all day, without any real agency.

But even small choices—like pausing before moving to the next task, or deciding not to take on something extra—can begin to shift that dynamic.

And over time, those moments add up.

They create space not just in your schedule, but in your experience of the day.

Let go of the pressure to do everything perfectly

Burnout is often fueled by the belief that you should be doing more.

But sometimes, the most effective change is learning to let go.

As one idea puts it:

There’s a lot of power in letting go.

This is explored more deeply in Letting Go Instead of Trying Harder.

Letting go instead of trying harder

Change the story you’re telling yourself

Burnout isn’t just about workload.

It’s also shaped by the way you interpret your experience.

One teacher described this shift in a powerful way:

“I realized I was telling myself a story I didn’t want to live.”

That realization became a turning point.

Because when the story changes, the experience begins to change too.

You can see how this played out in From Burnout to Teacher of the Year: Pam’s Story of Loving Her Job Again

From burnout to Teacher of the Year: Pam’s story of loving her job again

Real Stories of Teacher Burnout and Recovery

Sometimes what you need most isn’t another strategy.

It’s reassurance that recovery is possible.

Pam’s story is a powerful example.

After nearly 20 years in the classroom, she found herself dealing with intense burnout—working long hours, experiencing significant stress, and feeling disconnected from her work.

She described it this way:

“I was exhausted, stressed to the max, and I truly just didn’t know how much longer I could make it.”

Her experience reflects what many educators face when chronic stress goes unaddressed.

But what changed things wasn’t one major decision.

It was a series of smaller shifts:

• Rebuilding her routines
• Practicing gratitude
• Engaging in meaningful professional development
• Changing how she viewed her work

One of the most important turning points came when she realized:

“The story I was telling myself was not one I wanted to live.”

Another important part of Pam’s experience was recognizing how much of her stress was tied to how she was approaching her work—not just the work itself.

She realized that she had been equating longer hours with being more effective, and that belief was keeping her stuck in a cycle of overworking without actually feeling accomplished.

When she began to track her time more intentionally, she noticed that multitasking was slowing her down, not helping her.

That awareness allowed her to make small adjustments—focusing on one task at a time, planning more intentionally, and giving herself permission to step away when needed.

These weren’t dramatic changes, but they were consistent.

And consistency is what allowed her to gradually rebuild both her energy and her confidence.

Over time, those changes supported both her mental health and her sense of purpose—and ultimately helped her rediscover her passion for teaching.

Should You Quit Teaching Because of Burnout?

This is a deeply personal question—and one that deserves space. Sometimes burnout is tied to a specific environment. Other times, it’s a sign that something more fundamental isn’t working. And sometimes, the answer isn’t immediate.

It might be the environment. A different school, role, or team can completely change your experience.

It might be time for something different. If the work itself no longer feels sustainable, it’s worth exploring what else is possible.

You don’t need a perfect next step

You don’t have to replace teaching with something you’re equally passionate about. Sometimes, a role that gives you more balance and energy is enough.

If you’re in this space, Is Teaching Still the Right Career for You? walks through how to think about that decision realistically.

Is teaching still the right career for you?

Final Thoughts

Burnout isn’t something you’re meant to just endure. It’s a signal that something needs to shift.

And while not everything is within your control, more is within your influence than it might feel right now.

You don’t have to figure it all out at once. But you can start somewhere.

And even small shifts, over time, can change how this feels.

The post How to Deal With Teacher Burnout (Without Quitting Right Away) appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Yet, here we are washed down by the gulfs, touching the happy isles and while we are not exhibiting the same strength before the pandemic, we can still move heaven and earth to do our jobs. Maybe Alred Lord Tennyson was onto something – our strength cannot yield, our passion cannot buckle – “that which we are, we are.” We are change. We need to be disruption.

As we plot a course of action, we need systems to cease being those very gulfs that Tennyson mentions in “Ulysses” because we find ourselves once strong and triumphant, now beaten, broken, withered, and battered. We are, however, ready for change. There’s a reason so many teachers are leaving the profession — read the news, listen to the conversations. Change and disruption can stem our losses.

Consider some of the research conducted by McKinsey & Company when they found, “The pandemic widened preexisting opportunity and achievement gaps, hitting historically disadvantaged students hardest. In math, students in majority Black schools ended the year with six months of unfinished learning, students in low-income schools with seven.” Pause for a second and consider this information.

Consider the true affront to education that happened when learning was interrupted. Deficit thinking maintains that our kids, especially our kids of color cannot recover from this pandemic. I reject that thinking. Our kids come to us with brilliance, magic, and desire. There is so much capital they come to us with — even after the pandemic, however, there is work to be done.

When factoring in issues of access, opportunity, and technology equity, it could be said that there are some students who were and are still reeling from the effects of the pandemic. This is not a student problem. Let me be clear here, while the pandemic is of no blame to any one person or group in education, moving on from its effects is an adult problem to solve, it’s a district problem to acknowledge, and a state/federal problem to invest in for the future. Anything short of acknowledging, planning, investing, and reimaging is consigning to being a complicit actor in the miseducation of thousands.

There was some hope that the pandemic would give pause then rise to an almost Renaissance of rebirth and reimagination of what education could be as opposed to what it had been. Looking forward with new hope and no longer stuck looking back wishing what could have been. Virtual learning was tough, yes, but it afforded so many of us from teachers to other education staff to those in district offices to truly rethink the “brick and mortar” approach, to ask tough questions such as: Who is left behind? How can we redesign more equitably? Virtual was the pause we desperately needed to take a breath, think, disrupt, change.

The question now becomes: How do we move from disillusionment to true reinvention? How can teachers find that former strength which in the past has moved heaven and earth? We do right by kids and their families day after day, year after year, but when will the moment come for the system to do right by teachers?

Business as usual has hurt black and brown students, left those with disabilities and special needs behind and yet we are told to march and soldier on. A major disruption is needed to heed the call of new. So where and when does it begin?

The research is pretty clear again in areas where we can improve, rethink, and ultimately shake things up. McKiney & Company go on to say, “Students didn’t just lose academic learning during the pandemic. Some lost family members; others had caregivers who lost their jobs and sources of income; and almost all experienced social isolation. These pressures have taken a toll on students of all ages. In our recent survey of 16,370 parents across every state in America, 35 percent of parents said they were very or extremely concerned about their child’s mental health…”

Our next steps are clear if we are brave enough to stop, name, replace the existing, and do something bold for once. There is a difference between helping students process their mental health and providing resources versus a school having a social-emotional learning (SEL) program, but no one trained to implement the program, follow up with teachers, families or help students. At that point, our programs are no more than lip-service to make us feel better so we can continue our complicity. This leads me to argue what McKiney & Company also agree with, “Beyond these foundational elements, districts may consider reimagining other aspects of the system.”

Teachers, leaders, and families need to come together and understand the trauma of the last two-plus years. Deep healing and coping have not been fully processed by children or adults. Mental health needs to be at the front of any disruptive charge or change to education. Further, teachers should be empowered with high-quality instructional materials that invite students in to learn. Teachers need high-quality professional development to refine their skills and begin to interrogate their own biases to make them more critically conscious and aware.

The school day itself needs to be structured around being aware of time (time to learn, time to plan, time to heal, etc.). Schools and districts should also design with inverse thinking: how can we design with an equity lens, an anti-racist lens? This equity lens by design can change an entire building when we design with universal design principles, special education tenets because we know these can raise all boats and prioritize some of the most left behind groups. The list goes on, but this is just the beginning to what kinetic disruption could be. At present, we are living with potential … just waiting for that push.

In life, we have these “remember when” moments. Wouldn’t it be great to ask the collective, remember when education did something bold? Our moment is now, lest the gulfs wash us down and we see no happy isles and we no longer can move heaven or earth. We can do this. We must do this because we are, that which we are and WE are teachers. WE change lives. WE make things possible. The call is now, will you pick up?

Reference:
McKinsey & Company Covid Education Research

The post Emerging from the fog of our pandemic school years to look toward a true reimagining of education appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

One of the best ways to maintain health, both physical health and mental health by being able to foster bonds with those we live with, is to eat at home. I am excited to share with you the ways that cooking has been an everyday part of my life and how I’ve made that happen. For reference, all of the recipes detailed in this article are available in this google document if you want to print any out in an easier format.

Why cook at home?

This Eating Well article explains why cooking at home is better for your body with multiple details. It references this study from Johns Hopkins University which reveals how people who cook at home eat healthier overall even if they’re not trying to lose weight. Those articles mostly discuss physical benefits.

Eating as a family also has enormous benefits for social and emotional health. This interview through the Harvard EdCast Podcast goes into detail about the benefits of eating communally, something that seems to be rarer in many metropolitan areas where after-school activities and work schedules can prevent connections among families. Multiple studies are referenced also in this article in Parents Magazine supporting the benefits of eating at home.

Personally, I love cooking and baking. I grew up in an environment where my mom cooked almost every single night. We had homemade bread around for the holidays and other times if she was up to it. There often were chocolate chip cookies or banana bread around for the taking. I remember taking snickerdoodle cookies into my 4th-grade class one day, and everyone loved them so much that my mom made copies of the recipe and handed it out to my class in the cafeteria.

Snicker Doodles

Ingredients: 

1 C butter
1 ½ C sugar
2 eggs
2 ¾ C flour
2 t cream of tartar
1 t baking soda
¼ t salt

Procedure:

Mix the butter and sugar together with a beater. Mix in eggs. Mix dry ingredients together (flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt) then add into the butter, sugar, and egg mixture gradually.

Mix in a small bowl:
2 T sugar
1 T cinnamon

Roll the cookie dough into 1 inch balls and roll them in the sugar and cinnamon mix.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes.

Luckily for me, I picked up on these habits. Whenever I share that I cook almost every meal and eat out usually one meal per week, many neighbors and colleagues are in disbelief. Even more so, they are in disbelief that I’m happy with this arrangement. I love cooking and while I know not everyone finds it as relaxing or enjoyable or relatively easy as I do, I think there are ways to make it easier and more enjoyable. That’s what I want to share with you in the hopes that the burden of cooking is lighter, yet you can still glean the benefits of it.

Each strategy below is a direct response to a protest I hear from people whenever I talk about cooking or baking with a colleague, friend, or neighbor.

Protest #1: I’m not a chef. I just can’t come up with good ideas. I can’t plan that many good things.

Solution #1: Relax your standards to a level no one else will notice but you.

If you’re a member of the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club or you heard me on Episode 240 of the Truth for Teacher Podcast, you’ll know about the Big 5. This phrase comes directly from the Big 5 Tips for Teacher Productivity. In chatting with other people, they often dismiss their cooking abilities as simply not good enough to cook at home. There are many things you can do with a minimal level of skill in the kitchen.

The “Big 5” tips for teacher productivity to reduce overwhelm

A friend of mine is a mother of 4 (all of whom are fairly picky although some are more limited than others) who consistently cooks the same set of 5 meals every single week. On Mondays, they have a meal such as mac and cheese and apple slices. Tuesdays they do chicken nuggets and fries. Other nights are buttered pasta and veggies, breakfast for dinner (pancakes), grilled cheese, pizza, etc. She cooks what they will eat and the routine of planning simplifies her life.

She usually makes a modification for herself such as putting the chicken tenders she made for the kids over a salad for herself. She does not post these meals on social media or search for new recipes constantly. I know from talking with her that this was not her vision. She truly saw herself as the one who would make more elaborate dinners and roasts on Sundays, and this is not her reality, but she is successful with cooking dinners for her family.

Her success is in the consistency of her meal prep. No one is analyzing those meals or comparing them to the vision she had when she was younger, and she can feel good about the fact that she is preparing food for her family that they will eat and that’s working for their life. If you’re thinking that someone is judging you for how you feed your kids because it’s not a plate of rainbows, take a deep breath and remember that no one is looking over your shoulder to rate your meal. Relax your standards to a level that no one else will notice but you.

Protest #2: I can’t cook. I know nothing. I didn’t grow up with a parent who cooked.

Solution #2: Know how to do essential skills. Practice how to prepare a bunch of simple things.

Although I’ll be sharing a bunch of recipes below, the secret to my success (I think) is not following a recipe or making an official meal from a recipe each night. Cooking is really just a rearrangement of multiple different ingredients and skills.

Here are some essential skills to know how to do in a kitchen:

• Season food with salt and pepper
• Boil pasta
• Hard boil eggs, fry eggs, scramble eggs
• Chop an onion
• Chop vegetables
• Saute chicken breast
• Saute onion and ground beef
• Roast vegetables in an oven
• Use a meat thermometer to check done-ness
• Keep surfaces clean and separate (separate raw meat and veggies for example)

Once you know how to do basic preparation, you can follow a multitude of recipes if you want to venture out and you can rearrange the same dish in countless ways.

Let’s take pasta dishes, for example.

You can change a pasta dish in so many ways:

• Change the sauce (tomato, alfredo, pesto, lemon cream, butter, and parmesan)
• Add vegetables (peas, spinach, broccoli, edamame, bell peppers)
• Add meat (chicken, ground beef, salmon)
• Change the pasta itself (use half zucchini noodles/half linguini, change the noodle type, use an alternative pasta, etc.)

From the same basic preparation of boiling water to make pasta, heating up some vegetables and sauce in a saute pan, then mixing the pasta with a little bit of pasta water into the other ingredients, you have a different dish almost every time. You get lots of variety at the table even though the procedure for preparation is the same.

Here is one vegan pasta recipe I enjoy that could be easily modified.

Roasted Cherry Tomato and Asparagus Penne

Ingredients

12 oz cherry or grape tomatoes
2 t thyme
1 t salt
½ t sugar
8 oz asparagus cut up into 2-inch pieces
1 lb penne pasta (or rotini, etc)
2-3 T Olive oil

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. On a large sheet pan, place the tomatoes and asparagus with olive oil, salt, thyme, and sugar. Toss to coat. Place in the preheated oven and set a timer for 20 minutes.
3. Place a pot of boiling water on the stove. Salt liberally. Once boiling, cook the pasta according to package directions.
4. After the pasta is cooked, reserve 1 C of pasta water. Drain the pasta.
5. Check the tomatoes and asparagus for doneness. If the tomatoes are starting to burst, it’s ready. Place them back in for 5 minutes or so if they need longer.
6. Pour the tomatoes and asparagus into the pasta once finished cooking. Stir everything together, bursting the tomatoes to create a sauce. Add some pasta water to add to create the sauce. Drizzle with olive oil to finish.
7. Optional modifications: add leftover chicken, cook shrimp with the vegetables in the second half of time in the oven, add slices of sausage, and use fresh spinach instead of asparagus at the end which will wilt when stirred in the pasta.

Protest #3: I don’t mind cooking, but I hate shopping.

Solution #3: Have a set grocery list that meets those stock preparations.

I keep my grocery list in the Notes app on my phone with checkboxes. I check it off when I get it at the store and I’ll uncheck it when I’ve used up enough to need it at the store again. When I’m at the store, I just buy the things that are unchecked. If you’re making similar types of meals and rotating through those on a weekly basis (see more about that below), you can keep your list pretty much the same all the time.

Modify your own list to suit your own tastes and what you keep around most often. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Protest #4: You probably have all the gadgets and use all this fancy stuff. I don’t have time for that. I don’t even know what the things I have are for.

Solution #4: Have a small set of tools that make cooking easy to do. Get rid of (or set aside) anything you don’t know how to use.

I think this is not a huge stumbling block for most people. Most people have sheet pans, frying pans, and some pots, but if not, get those few things. The biggest thing I’ve seen that gets in the way is not having sharp knives. If you are struggling while cutting meat or vegetables, you need to sharpen your knives or just buy some new ones. You can get decent knives at the grocery store for a great price. You do not need to invest in the best of the best; just get something that will make it easier for you to do the job of cooking.

Also, above I mentioned using a meat thermometer to check for done-ness, so a meat thermometer can be a great tool especially if you’re not sure when something is cooked until you’ve already cut into it. This gets easier to tell over time the more you cook, but if you’re less experienced, purchasing a meat thermometer for $10 online will give lots of peace of mind that you’re cooking meat thoroughly and safely.

Here’s a short list:

• Large frying/saute pan
• Large sheet pan
• Large pot for soup and boiling pasta water
• Cutting boards (at least 2)
• Sharp knives (large chopping one often labeled “chef’s knife”, serrated knife for meat, a smaller paring knife for small fruits and vegetables)
• Cheese grater (a box grater with zester and large and small size holes is perfect)
• Colander for pasta or rinsing vegetables
• Vegetable peelers (for root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots)
• Meat thermometer
• Spatula (flexible rubber for softer things and harder plastic for sauteing/flipping)
• Large plastic spoon for stirring
• Measuring cups and spoons (more for baking; I rarely measure things when cooking)
• Rice cooker (makes this task a million times easier)
• Electric mixer (handheld works great!) for baking tasks

Protest #5: I am not creative enough to come up with all those ideas. My family would get bored if I cooked all the time.

Solution #5: Have a rotating list of meals that everyone (or mostly everyone) likes.

Routine is often welcome. If you’re eating seasonally, then every few months you can also change the fruits and vegetables that are offered, have more soups in the winter, more grilled meats in the summer, etc. It might surprise you how little variety is needed.

As I mentioned in the first part of my post, consider a weekly rotation of meals that works for you. I am including 6 themes with the idea that one night is likely to be leftovers or dining out. I find having theme days like this allows me to plan meals on a weekly basis more easily since I can always swap my pasta and salad nights depending on my mood or time. This also keeps more variety for me than choosing to have the same meal every Monday which I personally enjoy.

The added benefit of these meal themes is limiting the dishes. I hate doing dishes, luckily my significant other does them and doesn’t mind. Still, I don’t like to have a ton of dishes and containers around anyway.

For pasta dishes, I typically need a pot to boil water and a large saute pan. For oven meals, 1-2 sheet pans are great. I love extra large sheet pans where you can do half of a meal on one side and half on the other. For crock pot meals and soup, hopefully, it’s just the crock pot or large pot you’re using. By repeating the same types of meals over and over, you can keep using the same materials to cook and reduce the accumulation of different types of dishes constantly.

Below are some recipe ideas for each category or theme I’ve listed.

Pasta Ideas

• Spaghetti and Meatballs (see below for my favorite meatball recipe)
• Chicken and Alfredo Pasta (use pre-made alfredo sauce and rotisserie chicken to keep this fast; add vegetables such as frozen broccoli or spinach for greens)
• Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Asparagus Penne (earlier in the article)
• Shrimp Scampi (see next section in the article)
• Beef Stroganoff (below)

Meatballs

Ingredients

1 lb. ground beef
1 egg
4 slices of bread ripped up and soaked in a little milk until soft
grated parmesan cheese (couple handfuls)
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper (½ tsp each)

Procedure

Mix everything together and form into balls. Add breadcrumbs if too wet. Fry in oil in a saute pan until brown. Turn as each side gets brown.

Beef Stroganoff

Ingredients:

8 oz egg noodles
1 garlic clove
2T salt
1 T paprika
1 medium onion, chopped
2 T oil
½ lb. – 1lb. ground beef
1 can or box of cream of mushroom soup
6-8 oz mushrooms, sliced (can add more if you use less beef)
Heavy whipping cream, plain yogurt, or sour cream

Procedure:

1. Put water on to boil. Salt liberally.
2. Brown garlic, onion, and beef in a large saute pan.
3. Add the salt, paprika, and mushrooms. Add cream of mushroom soup and simmer. Cook on low flame under boiling point for about 10 minutes.
4. While it is thickening, cook egg noodles in the now boiling water.
5. Mix into the beef mixture ½ C sour cream or greek yogurt or ¼ C whipping cream. If using whipping cream and it is not creating a thick enough sauce, add 1T flour to thicken.
6. Serve the beef stroganoff over the noodles

Note: While traditionally this uses sour cream and much more of it, I have found multiple substitutes work to create a creamy enough sauce while limiting calories.

Stovetop Meal Ideas

Tacos (don’t be afraid to rely on spice mix or taco sauce – I like the brand Frontera)

Peanut Thai Salmon (below)

Shrimp Fried Rice (many recipes are online and you can just mix the rice with any frozen vegetables you want along with soy sauce and oil to toast)

Pork Chops and Spanish Rice (you can buy rice mixes with seasoning which are typically prepared

Peanut Thai Salmon

Ingredients

Salmon (about a 4 oz portion for each person)
Edamame (frozen and shelled is best)
Pappardelle egg noodles (often come in little nests; fettucini is also fine)
2 Tbsp Soy sauce
1/2 cup Peanut butter (preferably smooth)
1-2 Tbsp brown sugar (or other sweeteners)
1 tsp ground ginger (you can buy it in a jar and it will keep in the fridge a long time)
2-3 garlic cloves, grated
3 Tbsp sesame seeds
Salt and pepper
Optional: chili garlic sauce or red pepper flakes or sriracha

Procedure

1. In a large saute pan, put some oil on medium heat.
2. Place the salmon skin side down in the pan with some oil. Season with salt and pepper and cover with a lid.
3. Place salted water in a pot to boil.
4. Prepare the Thai peanut sauce in a small bowl by mixing together the peanut butter, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, and garlic. If it is too thick, you can add a little warm water or vinegar or lime juice if you like more acidity. Feel free to taste and add more sweetness or saltiness as you prefer.
5. Add the frozen edamame to the pan with the salmon and let them cook in the pan. If the salmon is thicker, flip it to cook the top some, and then you can flip it back skin side down later. Leave the top off unless it looks as though it needs much more time.
6. Cook the pasta according to package directions once the water is boiled.
7. Take the salmon out and set it aside. (the other option is to break it up and just mix it all together)
8. Put the pasta into the pan with the edamame. Add the peanut sauce. Stir everything to coat. Add most of the sesame seeds into the mixture.
9. To plate, put the edamame and pasta mixture in a large, shallow dinner bowl. Then, place the salmon on top and sprinkle it with sesame seeds and any extra sauce if you happen to have some.

Sheet Pan/Oven Meal Ideas

Roasted Vegetables with Decadent Chicken (below)

Baked Herbed Salmon and Rice (tuck the salmon in an aluminum foil pocket with a little oil and any herbs you like such as rosemary or Herbes de Provence)

Lemon Infused Fish and Rice (layer lemon slices over a white fish such as haddock or tilapia with salt and pepper. Savory leaves are a nice touch if you can get them. Other herbs are also great)

Homemade Fries and “Fried” Chicken (below)

Breaded Asparagus with your choice of meat (bake asparagus with ½ parmesan and ½ breadcrumbs on top)

Roasted Vegetables and Decadent Chicken

Ingredients

Decadent Chicken Breasts
Mix ½ C mayo and ½ C parmesan cheese. Spread on top of chicken.
Shake breadcrumbs on top of the mixture.
Bake 350 for 40-50 minutes.

Procedure

For roasted vegetables, chop into 1” cubes any kind of vegetable that works for you such as potatoes, carrots, squash, zucchini, broccoli, etc. Roast for up to 45 minutes (especially for potatoes) at 400.

Homemade Fries and “Fried” Chicken

Ingredients

Chicken legs and/or thighs (or another part of the bird with skin and bones) – enough for 1-3 pieces per person depending on the cuts chosen
3 cups Flour (approximately)
Buttermilk (can use an egg with some milk instead in a pinch) – 2 Cups (approximately)
Salt and Pepper
Potatoes (1 per person)
Safflower or Canola oil

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Pat dry the chicken with paper towels.
3. Pour some flour into a large Ziploc bag or large, shallow bowl/container. Add salt and pepper and any other seasonings you might like such as thyme or paprika.
4. Also prepare another shallow container with buttermilk.
5. Toss the chicken in the flour to coat.
6. Then, put the chicken in the buttermilk to coat. Let any excess drip off.
7. Place the chicken back into the flour and toss to coat again.
8. Coat a large sheet pan with oil (preferably safflower or canola which can tolerate higher temperatures than olive oil but olive oil is okay or a spray can of oil is fine) and place the chicken in the oil. Roll the chicken around a little to lightly coat it with oil.
9. Put the chicken in the preheated oven with a timer for 45 minutes.
10. Cut up the potatoes (typically ½ – 1 potato per person) into wedges or small fry sizes.
11. Place the potatoes on a large sheet pan ensuring one layer of fries. Toss to coat in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and any other seasonings you like such as rosemary or paprika.
12. Place the potatoes in the oven. When you do this, turn the chicken. Hopefully, this is about ⅓-½ way through cooking time.
13. Turn the fries when there are about 10 minutes remaining so that another side can get browned. Test the chicken and adjust the timing accordingly. They can be removed as the fries keep cooking and rest outside the oven. Breasts will take longer to cook while legs will take less time.

Crock Pot Ideas

Taco Meat (makes it easy to prep ahead)

Chicken Noodle Soup (below)

Barbecue Pork or Chicken (this is great to make sandwiches)

Beef and Potato Stew (use a large piece of beef such as a chuck roast and place on top of large carrot chunks, celery sliced in 2-inch pieces, quartered potatoes, add salt and pepper, and cook up to 8 hours)

Moroccan Stew (below)

Moroccan Stew

2 t curry
2 onions
2 carrots
2 t ginger
1 t cinnamon
2 t cumin
½ t paprika
½ t turmeric
2 cans chickpeas
2 cans tomatoes
4 C vegetable stock
2 T lemon juice
salt and pepper
2 zucchini chopped
2 cans kidney beans

Onions and oil and spices first
Then add everything else
Low 6 hours
Possible toppings: dried fruit, olives, yogurt, cilantro, hot peppers

Chicken Noodle Soup

1 onion chopped
3 carrots, sliced
3 stalks of celery, sliced
2 garlic cloves
4 C chicken broth/water
1-2 chicken breasts or 4 thighs (depending on size)
½ t salt
¼ t pepper

1 C egg noodles added towards the end

Can be done on the stovetop (sear chicken first then add vegetables then broth) or in a crock pot

Salad Ideas

Curry Chicken Salad (below)

Egg Salad (I like to add paprika with onion, mayo, celery, and paprika)

Pasta Salad with Spinach and Arugula (I like to use a salad dressing such as lemon juice and olive oil or mustard and white wine vinegar and olive oil and orzo for the pasta)

Bowtie Pasta Salad with Hard Boiled Eggs (I love ranch dressing or poppyseed dressing and romaine lettuce for this salad)

Curry Chicken Salad

Amounts can be easily adjusted to suit your desires.

2-3 C cubed cooked chicken
5 oz can, sliced water chestnuts
1 T curry powder
⅔ C mayonnaise
1 t salt
1 t soy sauce
½ C sliced almonds
½ c chopped celery
½ C halved seedless grapes (apples are a good alternative as well)

Breakfast Ideas

Buttermilk Pancakes (recipe below)

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes (recipe below)

Omelets (Cook the filling separately and keep the heat low for the eggs)

Egg Sandwiches or Egg Burritos (so many ideas for this to swap out bread, cheese, meats, etc)

Cinnamon Rolls or Biscuits and Scrambled Eggs (I love using Annie’s cinnamon rolls or biscuits that are easy to pop in the oven and serve with eggs in any style)

Crepes with Fruit and Yogurt (easy recipes online, never worry about the first crepe being bad)

Buttermilk Pancakes

Ingredients

1 ¾ C flour
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
2 C buttermilk
2 beaten eggs

Procedure

Beat eggs into the buttermilk then add to dry ingredients. Do not overmix.

Cook on medium-high heat using butter.

Optional: add blueberries, chocolate chips, or serve with maple syrup or jam.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes

In a bowl, combine: 1 C regular or quick oats
1C whole wheat flour
¼ C wheat germ
1t baking soda
¼ t salt
1 T brown sugar

In another bowl, combine:
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 C buttermilk
4 T canola oil

Add all at once to dry ingredients and stir until well blended.

Cook at 325 degrees. Good with vanilla yogurt and fruit on top.

Protest #6: I make the plans but then I’m too tired to do it. I end up wasting food.

Solution #6: Have backup meals that are easy and require little effort.

These backup meals are actually faster than ordering take out or even delivery of something. These options are always available for me so I know that I can rely on them if I’m too tired to make my original plan, running behind on time, or had to rearrange for any number of reasons. The best way to ensure the default is cooking vs. the default being to dine out is to have backup plans in place.

My backup meals include:

• Omelets (you need eggs, milk, cheese, and then it’s great to have some veggies or lunchmeat/breakfast meat to mix in based on preference)
• Frozen ravioli with pasta sauce or just olive oil and parmesan
• Shrimp scampi (below)
• Macaroni and cheese from a box (often I’ll add fresh spinach or leftover ground beef or peas)
• Salad Mixes (I’ll sometimes add a hard-boiled egg or leftover chicken or steak)
• Sandwiches (I like grilled cheese because I always have cheese and bread)

Shrimp Scampi

Ingredients

½ C butter (1 stick)
1 lb angel hair (or spaghetti or linguini)
2 or more garlic cloves
1 tsp oregano
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

Procedure

Boil a pot of water. Salt liberally. While waiting for the pasta to boil, melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the shrimp, garlic, and seasonings. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain the pasta and mix it into the shrimp and butter. Use some pasta water if you need to thin the sauce.

Protest #7: I’m trying to do too much at once when I cook. I can’t do it. And when I do it well, it takes me hours to follow the recipe I want.

Solution #7: Focus on the act of cooking.

Another Big 5 tip is to Avoid Multitasking unless the work is mindless. You may get to a point where some meals are fairly mindless or parts of meals like boiling pasta or waiting for something to cook in the oven is pretty easy. You can do other tasks while you wait for a timer or talk to your significant other or kid while you chop veggies.

Don’t let yourself set an expectation that’s so high that the house would have to be on fire for you to look away. At the same time, don’t assume you should be able to do all the things all at once. That is not realistic! Cooking takes time and focus and energy. It’s not something that can be done at the same time as a million other things. There is joy and satisfaction in completing a task.

Worry less about whether your meal is ideally healthy and focus on the fact that you made it. If you can’t tell by this article, I am obsessed with the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. One show I used to watch as a child (yes, as a child I loved watching cooking shows!) was Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee. (This was 2nd in line behind Everyday Italian with Giada de Laurentiis).

The idea of semi-homemade was that it was still better to focus on making the meal yourself and eating with friends and family at a table than to make the default to eat out. It was better to bake your own cake out of a box and add your own little touch of decoration than to merely buy one. The personal touch mattered.

When you are trying to cook at home, especially after a period of not taking on that task, try to take steps toward semi-homemade. It’s okay to buy some things pre-made and make another part of it.

Protest #8: My food just doesn’t taste as good as a restaurant.

Solution #8: Season your food. Don’t be afraid of oil and butter, salt and pepper, herbs, and sauces.

This is my last addition because I know so many people who said that their parents didn’t cook that well. My dad used to hate spinach with a passion until he ate some that were salted and not out of a can. Restaurant meals have more fat/butter/oils, seasoning such as salt and pepper, and sauces or herbs. This often means those restaurant meals can have excess salt and butter, but it is acceptable that your meals at home have butter and salt. Just because you are trying to cook healthier at home does not mean you need to avoid all of those things.

If you think that all vegetables you make at home taste terrible, add a little butter and salt, and you might change your mind! Using frozen vegetables are as nutrient-rich as fresh, but sometimes the texture of fresh might win you over. Not everything you make at home needs to be the epitome of health. Your meal is very, very likely still going to be fewer calories than what you would eat out at a restaurant so don’t beat yourself up for not making an ideal meal.

Choose what you tell yourself about your meals. It is more important to be cooking for and with the family than it is to have the “ideal” meal. Consider the meal that’s best for you and your family, not an elusive ideal that might not even suit you!

Make your standard attainable by focusing on the goal of cooking vs. the goal of being the perfect chef. Focus on the process and that will achieve your goal.

Bon appetit!

The post How to make weeknight meals less stressful (even if you’re not a planner, good cook, or creative in the kitchen) appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

There are so many factors that have influenced the fact that reading a whole book as a class can end up being painful – time constraints due to testing in schools, learning loss from the pandemic that has made reading, in general, a struggle, and general lack of motivation within our students. As opposed to reading a full book in the classroom, excerpts can serve as an opportunity to better engage students and expose them to readings that vary in length, style and complexity.

If you are about to start a new unit and preparing to read a full book, see if you can possibly keep the theme of what you’re teaching and use reading excerpts around that theme. First, let’s consider why reading excerpts are beneficial for students.

Students have limited attention spans

The biggest concern that teachers in the classroom have right now is engaging students due to their limited attention span. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep students engaged in an entire lesson without feeling like you (the teacher) have to literally put on a full performance with multiple moving parts in order to keep students’ attention.

While increasing student attention spans is an entirely different subject in itself and there is no one solution to that at this time, imagine the pain that a student feels when they are forced to read an entire book that they may not understand or just don’t connect to. At least if you incorporate reading excerpts, it’s likely that the next passage or reading may at least engage them if they weren’t super interested in the last one. Regardless, the alternation of different texts can allow them to take their attention off of one reading and know that there will be another one coming up soon.

It allows students to read different literature and author styles

Some students become unmotivated in reading not because they don’t know how to read but because they don’t find interest in what they’re being forced to read. I was that type of student myself. I still remember being miserable in high school when I was forced to read Beowulf. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t find an interest in the text. I managed to deal with the text in class and just did the best I could on the assignments and passed.

Years later, I tried to read Beowulf again just to see if I would feel different about the text as a college student. I still abhorred the text when I read it as an adult, and something clicked in me as a teacher. I realized that not all texts are appropriate for all people, even those that are readers. I think that all English teachers should keep this in mind. When we force all students to read the same text and read the whole book, you will likely still have several students that will be unmotivated simply because of a lack of interest in the text.

Reading excerpts of books allows the student to also read a variety of different writing styles, which accommodates different students. Some writers have a style that is easier to understand while some writers have a style that is more complex and more appropriate for strong readers. When using excerpts, it’s important to vary up the style of the passages to acknowledge both reluctant and avid readers.

It helps with test preparation

When possible, I still try to give students opportunities to improve their test-taking skills. While the pandemic surely helped with encouraging testing companies to give students less pressure on some college admissions tests, public school systems seem to be testing even more than before to catch up on the lack of testing that was done during the pandemic. Truthfully, we don’t know what they will do with the data on testing at this point, but as long as tests are still being administered to students, I like to err on the side of caution and provide them with opportunities to succeed on those tests.

From looking at the workbooks that I use on test prep and sample tests that are provided for my district’s standardized test, I’m seeing that the majority of the reading done on ELA standardized tests is passages and excerpts from literature. What better way to prepare students for the structure of standardized tests than by incorporating excerpts in your own lessons?

How To Do It Effectively

If you are considering teaching with excerpts and think that it would be beneficial to your students, try it out! However, there are some things to keep in mind so that your plans are coherent and have a thematic element. As I continue to describe how to effectively teach with passages, I’ll give more details on how I recently taught a Sci-fi unit with excerpts.

Keep a theme going

Frame your excerpts around the curricular theme you are focusing on. If you’re ready to write a narrative, a great way to incorporate excerpts is to have students read excerpts from different memoirs/narratives to help them also see authors’ different styles of writing. Keeping a theme helps you have consistency and a connection in your readings.

When I taught the Sci-Fi unit, I decided to focus on dystopian fiction since our focus was on helping the student make a connection between the real world and what happens in fictional texts. Dystopian novels (old and new) are often realistic to some extent and discuss the worst-case-scenario of what can happen when government control or technological advancements get taken too far.

Once I knew that their essay would require them to compare one of the themes of the fictional texts to a non-fiction reading, I decided to focus on dystopian passages that would show the student different worlds created in fiction literature. This way, they would also be able to have a choice in which theme they would focus on within the essay.

We read passages from Fahrenheit 451, Hunger Games, and Divergent. I had two more passages I would have liked to use, but we ran out of time as the school year came to an end. This, however, is why teaching with passages can be beneficial. If you run out of time, you can typically still get your objectives and goals met without feeling upset that you didn’t get to finish reading a particular book.

Include background context with the passage to start off

Depending on where your passage starts, give the students a brief introduction to the text and some context to help them understand what the passage is about. It’s also helpful to give them information such as the author and publication date in case students are interested in reading the full book at their own leisure. That’s another plus with excerpts: it encourages students to read by giving them a small “taste” of different books. You will be delightfully surprised to find that a few students will ask you about some passages they found interesting.

When teaching the Sci-fi unit, I made an introduction sheet that I included before the text of each passage. It included a picture of the book cover, the book’s author and publication date, the “back of the book summary” as well as a small amount of text to discuss what has happened so far in the book (for when we read a passage that wasn’t the beginning of the book).

This helps the students figure out not only details on the book that they can use if they want to check it out at the library or get their own copy of the book, but it also prepares them for what we’ll be reading and where we will begin.

Keep activities that help them tie the texts together

Finally, be sure to incorporate activities in the lesson plan that tie the texts together. Since you’re likely doing a thematic lesson, it shouldn’t be hard to do this. You can put students in groups and ask them general questions (based on figurative language, plot elements, dialogue) and let them choose which excerpt they would like to explore. You could also do this after each excerpt to ensure that students are going back to the reading and exploring deeper parts of the text to help gauge comprehension.

As we read our Sci-fi passages, we completed a range of activities in between the readings and continued to tie them together both through independent activities and group work. When we first read Fahrenheit 451, our first assignment was a group activity where students identified different figurative language and summarized specific parts of the excerpt we had read (since Fahrenheit can be considered a complex read). By the time we were done with the next two excerpts, we were able to start giving students choice on which passage they did work on, and we could start building on comparing and contrasting the different texts and different plots.

As you continue to do more passages, you can start having activities that somehow tie the texts together or continue to require students to go back to previous readings (to reinforce learning and prevent them from forgetting a passage that they read). If you have control over the type of essay or writing task that students will complete, consider having them write or complete a project that compares/contrasts the passages or ties them together in some way.

The post 3 ways to teach with book excerpts instead of entire texts (and why this benefits students) appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Over the years I was proud to have built up my use of the word NO from my understanding of this common phrase. I believed I had to build a protective circle around my schedule. “Are you able to help with Parents Night?” “No, I need to be home to get my kids ready for bed.” “Would you like to teach Sunday School?” “No, my plate is full of teaching at school currently.” “Can you volunteer to coach t-ball? “No, I would like my kids to experience learning from others besides just mom and dad.”

My first years of teaching were overwhelming. Like all new teachers, I was finding my place, my routines, and my voice among the plans, paperwork, student needs, and parent demands. I worked in three different districts in the first four years of my career. I had children and took maternity leave twice. Looking back on my first few years of teaching is the same as the first year of parenting my twins: a blur.

There were so many mandates and requirements that my work schedule was already full during contract hours and the additional hours I allotted myself outside of school. I needed to hold the line on the rest of my time. I needed to develop a better work-life balance. The time I had available was finite. I could not make more hours in the day (nor did I want to because they would be full too!).

Family dinner, a friend’s birthday party, a playdate… Grocery shopping, laundry, dishes… adding anything to my teaching responsibilities meant less time for family and friends, less time for household business, and less time for me. So I said NO to many of the additional work requests and volunteer opportunities that came my way.

Then I started tracking my hours, batching tasks, and planning with my team. I stayed in the same district and grade level for several years. I felt my career responsibilities start to become a lighter load. I felt like I was finally able to take a breath and my pace had gone from running to walking. I felt like my eyes were opened to the shift I needed to make as I entered the next chapter of my career: step up.

My fellow teammates were veterans with 10 to 20 years more experience than me. What were they doing that I wasn’t doing? Volunteering in a leadership capacity. One teammate served as the building representative for our teacher’s union. He had time to connect with all the staff in the building, meet with administration to address contract issues, and coordinate with the executive team.

My other teammate, our grade chair, worked with an educational organization outside of the school to plan, schedule, and implement different enrichment programs, assemblies, and field trips for the entire school. These examples set before me were the catalyst for the shift in my “no” mindset as I was finishing my first decade of teaching.

I wanted to do more. I knew I could do more. Yet, before I could say yes, I knew I had to be selective. My years of saying “no” had shown me that what I said “yes” to had to be a good fit. Where I wanted to add to my schedule had to work for my family, friends, and myself. I was going to be picky to ensure my yes did not upend the balance in my home or school schedule.

What do I feel passionate about?

It is easy to identify what I feel passionate about because I could talk about these topics at length to anyone. I can explain the importance, relate it to the classroom and real world, answer questions, and even make others feel passionate about it as well. This is where I know I should say YES.

STEAM is a current hot topic that may excite you and speak to your interests that may not always fit into the curriculum. You may be inspired by a summer PD book and want to share this excitement beyond just your own classroom. Scheduling and structuring a recess, both indoor and outdoors, to better meet the needs of both students and teachers, could be an area your building needs to focus on.  Decreasing math anxiety or helping students become life-long readers is as important as the curriculum.

What skill set do I have to offer?

I love to scrapbook my vacations. Putting together the pictures with receipts, brochures, and stickers has always been therapeutic for me. After being on the Retirement Committee for a few years, I offered to make retiree memory books. I gathered the memories and well wishes from faculty and staff over several weeks and then put them together in memory books. I could batch this task and make several memory books at once. Also, because of my enjoyment of scrapbooking, the memory books did not seem like work at all.

If you have a green thumb and gardening is your summer hobby, it may be time to research the possibility of and funding for a community garden at your school. You may enjoy photography or even have a part-time business taking photos. This skill could be utilized by taking pictures throughout the year or at school events to contribute to the yearbook. Attending or hosting a book club is something you never miss, so you should share this with your colleagues or students.

What project will be different for me?

Teaching works a certain part of my brain. Teaching also consumes a large portion of my thoughts. I want to make sure that I am giving myself opportunities to both differentiate my portfolio and work another part of my brain.

A chance that would allow working with students from a different grade level than I teach. Volunteering with different teachers than I work with on a daily basis. Helping students who feel marginalized in a way I do not experience. Supporting the passions of my students over my personal interest choices.

When I chose to step up and take on extra, my focus in the classroom actually increased. I was able to streamline my attention during my time for planning, prep, or grading because I knew my other time would be put into my new responsibilities. I was motivated to get my classroom work done due to the different tasks I would then get to do within my new leadership position.

Do you have time in your schedule to say yes? Do you find that you have something to offer? Do you bring a different perspective or helpful voice to the table?

We are all still reeling from pandemic teaching. We are still overwhelmed. I see teachers being resistant to volunteering. I see teachers who are shouldering too much. “I can’t quit because no one else will do it if I don’t.”  I see how collectively we are hurting our own efforts. “I don’t have enough members at the meeting to even vote on the budget.”

Find the equilibrium in your schedule and stick with that system. Observe veteran teachers and see the needs. Join an existing committee or start a new project. Say no when you need to but seek out chances to give your best yes. Help shoulder the burden. Review each opportunity. Create a space where you can succeed.

As we enter the new school year full of fresh possibilities, let’s take this wisdom from John Maxwell: “Learn to say ‘no’ to the good so you can say ‘yes’ to the best.”

The post When to step up: Learning how to say NO to the good and YES to the BEST appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

I’m one of those people who always knew I wanted to be a teacher. I heard a calling early in life and never doubted it. When I was a teenager, my church looked for volunteers to take care of young children in the church basement during services. I eagerly signed up. I wanted to be there every week, helping pass out the tiny cups of apple juice and graham crackers for a snack. Guiding little hands as they reached for fat crayons to draw colorful pictures or leading children in storytime or sing-alongs. I loved every minute.

So it wasn’t a surprise when I decided to major in elementary education in college, preparing myself to launch into a long career where I knew I would find success and fulfillment. I was thrilled to set up my first classroom in the early 1990s, a first-grade on the lower east side of Manhattan. I remember the long tables and tiny chairs — the small tubs with newly sharpened pencils and workbooks waiting to be opened for the first time. The children who filled the room taught me how to be a teacher. They showed me what worked and what didn’t work. I learned from them and with them that year.

I also remember the exhaustion that would overwhelm me at the end of each day that no one in my teacher preparation classes told me about. After school, I would walk through the classroom picking up papers and pencils left behind by the kids until one day, a student’s parents (also teachers) stopped by to see me and saw what I was doing. “Oh, no!” they said as they saw the tired look on my face, my hands full of pencils and scraps of paper. “You don’t pick them up. You have the students pick them up before they leave for the day. That’s their job.” I never thought of that. No one ever told me.

There are many things no one told me as I began teaching. Decades later, I am still learning ways to be more efficient in my work. Sometimes it still feels like I am picking up endless amounts of pencils at the end of a day, looking for a better way.  The exhaustion that I felt back in my first year of teaching has stayed with me for most of my career.

Teachers are hard-working, dedicated, and generous people, right? So I just assumed exhaustion went with the job. That was until I was introduced to the Truth For Teachers 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club (40HTW).

I remember when I first heard about the program. I was folding laundry on a Saturday morning while listening to a podcast by Angela Watson about time management. She mentioned the program, and I immediately thought, “40 hours?  No way! There is no way I could do my job in 40 hours!” But I decided to give the program a try. Not only was I looking for ways to prevent burnout in my job, but I was also looking for teaching strategies to help me survive pandemic teaching, and this program offered both.

I signed up for the full-year course and committed to listening to a part of each monthly module once a week while I did the inevitable family chore of folding laundry. Putting time for it into my schedule helped me commit to the program and thoroughly consider each part. There are many lessons I have taken away from the podcast and the 40HTW program, but here are the ones that have been most valuable for me.

Strategies for using a list-making system, prioritizing tasks, and being efficient during the day

Practically speaking, the 40HTW list-making system helped me learn how to organize and prioritize tasks so I could focus on the most important things I had to get done during the school day. I learned how to batch similar tasks together and decide when the best time of day would be to accomplish them.  It helped me look at my day more carefully and plan wisely on how I would use my available time. Therefore, I could achieve more and be less overwhelmed by my to-do list. Learning how to be more efficient with my work during the day meant I could bring less work home. I eventually accomplished the most important tasks between 8:00-4:30 during the week, with weekends free of schoolwork most of the time.

Gr K-12 Stress-Free Report Card Comment System

The report card writing system I learned from the 40 Hour program was a game-changer for me! I cannot describe how much stress it took away from report card writing time. Instead of dreading the task, I actually enjoyed writing report cards about my students because the templates in this resource gave me ideas and a structure to use that alleviated much of the time I was spending trying to create original comments for each student. As a result, I completed the task in half the time! Reflecting on my students’ progress, strengths, and challenges became a manageable task. I learned strategies to help me complete the job efficiently without giving up an entire weekend (or more) to do so.

Gaining a new perspective

The most important thing 40HTW gave me was a new perspective. I came into teaching when it was culturally acceptable for teachers to work all the time. (Some things never change!) The pandemic did not help this because the lines between home and school became so blurred that I felt like I was working all the time.

Giving up nights, weekends, and early mornings was what I did because it was assumed teachers were dedicated people who had to work long, hard hours to get the job done and be effective in their work. 40 Hour helped me challenge that idea, heal from that mentality, and rethink that perspective.  It helped me remember that I work under a contract, and I am not obligated to work past my contractual hours.  Every hour I give to school after those hours end is my choice.  Suddenly I realized I needed to make better choices.

Protecting my time

With this new perspective, I became more careful about how I spent my time and to whom I was giving it. I realized time was like pieces of a pie — there was a limited amount.  How much of the pie did I want to give to schoolwork? I slowly began doing things differently and letting go of guilt when things were left incomplete. I realized my time matters. I matter. My health and my time with my family matter.

There are times in your life when you do have to give more — the first few years of teaching, starting a new grade level, or a new school — but overall, teachers have to learn how to set boundaries around how much of their time they are willing and able to devote to schoolwork and put more value on the amount of time they give to their own personal needs. 40 Hour Teacher Workweek helped me be as efficient as possible during my work hours, learning better management systems for my classroom and personal planning time, so I could be an effective teacher while still having more pieces of that pie leftover for me!

As a result, I was able to take classes on topics in education that interested me, and I began a side hustle of writing about what works in education, all of which have made me a better, stronger teacher in the classroom and a happier person overall.

Advocating to be treated as a professional

Another thing I have learned from 40HTW and podcast guests on Truth For Teachers is how important it is to advocate for yourself as a professional — a professional who receives more planning time and less recess duty time. It is so important for teachers to come together and use their shared voices to create the working conditions they need and deserve to make the best learning environment possible for students. Being a part of 40 Hour gave me the skills, motivation, and inspiration from others to do this.

I learned how to stand up for what I believed was right for my students, connect with similar-minded colleagues, and advocate together for what we needed to do our jobs well — like getting the professional development we needed, having more planning time to prepare high-quality learning activities for students,  and time during our workday to collaborate with colleagues.

For example, when remote learning wasn’t working for my students, I advocated for having a local university come in to facilitate a PLC to help us develop the outdoor learning program at our school.  It ended up being the most rewarding professional development we had all year. By holding a space for educators to come together to learn and support each other, our jobs become more sustainable.

Being a new teacher (or a veteran teacher) is a hard job. Teachers need other teachers to guide them along the way to make this work sustainable in the long run. This benefits teachers, and it also benefits the students we serve every day.  I’m so grateful for the support and resources 40HTW has offered me. This kind of support is something every teacher, new or veteran, needs and deserves.

Through this program, I’ve been inspired by other educators committed to creating a positive, child-centered learning environment for students and a sustainable workload for teachers.  It does not need to be one or the other. In a post-pandemic world, where most of us are reimaging what education should look like- both are equally important in creating healthy, thriving schools.

By the way, the custodian at my school complimented me the other day on how picked up my room always is at the end of the day.

“There’s never any paper or pencils on the floor in your classroom!” he said in surprise.

“That’s right!” I replied. “The kids do that. I learned that trick from another teacher.”

We need each other.  The Truth For Teachers community is a supportive place to learn those tips we all need to be the best educators we can be, so that teaching becomes a sustainable, fulfilling career we all can be proud of.

The post How I reallocated my time to create a more sustainable teacher workload appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Now we are desperately trying to make sense of the past year while still knee-deep in “the muck”. Emotions felt include but are not limited to: helplessness, anxiety, fear, and general malaise. Concerning, yes, as teaching requires our physical body, mind, and heart, and our emotions impact the whole self. Simply put, how teachers feel on a daily basis matter. It matters not only because we are real people with our own lives and families, but also because of our impact on society.

Just like when a child thrives when a parent is well, the classroom thrives when a teacher is well. We focus on our students so intensely, at times to our own detriment, and now we must reflect inward to take a long good look at our own wellness. Because strong mental health and overall well-being will in turn directly affect and profoundly influence our students and school community.

The good news? Yes, we are burning out, but we have the power to regain some brightness, by doing what I call “freeing our shine.” Let me explain. Every baby is born with a light that shines brightly. You know what I am talking about.  This light is apparent in their laugh, smile, and in their eyes. You can see it immediately, feeling the intensity with your own wonder. As we grow, the shine in some of us begins to dim. Some lights are altered due to trauma or circumstance (like COVID), or by realizing the world isn’t what we thought it was going to be (teacher life in general). When this happens we need to reach back inside ourselves and adjust the dimmer switch or maybe even entirely change the lightbulb. Whatever it takes to get that light shining again.

At this moment all teachers’ lights need to be adjusted, to varying degrees. The thing is, we have to do this for ourselves. The electrician isn’t coming, this is a total DIY project. But there is more good news. We are already used to saving ourselves in education! We do this daily. Teachers are innovative, motivated, creative, and resourceful.  We can do this. The time has come more than ever to turn our attention and focus on our own well-being. Free that shine.

1. Regain Control

This year has been completely out of our control. What an eye-opening group exercise this has been in practicing acceptance! No, we cannot control much of our circumstances but what we can do is stop reacting and start responding. Identify and understand your emotions first, and then use them to your advantage. For example, anxiety and anger are helpful emotions when you need a quick solution to a complicated problem. Fear encourages motivated action and perseverance. Frustration leads to “bigger picture” thinking in brainstorming sessions. And sadness encourages slower systematic processing and paying more attention to detail. No wonder if I am in a sad mood why I love to put my headphones on and “hide” grading papers! As humans, we experience a range of emotions but emotionally intelligent people know how to regain control of their emotions and use them to their advantage.

2. Unlock Your Power of Creation

I am not talking about creating lesson plans or activities. You are already a rockstar at that. I am talking about paying attention to the vocabulary we use, out loud and in our heads, to describe a situation. Words have power, as teachers, we know this well, so manipulate your words the next time you find yourself in a challenging interaction with a parent, or when technology has failed you for the hundredth time in a week. We have the potential to construct our own reality through our thoughts, so reframe the experience with different words. Create your own meaning and purpose in daily life.

3. Trust One Thing

Teachers put a lot of pressure on themselves to do it all, and to do it near perfectly. Instead of having a long laundry list of things you need to do to make your classroom or school or community a better place, trust yourself to pick ONE thing. It could be one thing for each category but it’s easier to keep it simple and choose one thing that can apply to all areas. What is your one thing that could make a daily difference? Maybe it’s your intention. Maybe it’s compassion. Perhaps it’s joy. Whatever it is, trust that one word to guide your focus and see the changes that emerge.

4. Choose Authenticity.

When you value transparency, and are the same person to everyone you meet regardless of the setting, the best version of your true self shines. In teaching this means asking for help from colleagues, admitting when you make a mistake (even to parents), speaking your opinions respectfully in staff meetings, saying no when you cannot commit to a plan, and learning from your mistakes. Not only do authentic people tend to be more satisfied with their lives, but they are also generally viewed as inspirational.  Embrace your true self for an enjoyable and more meaningful school day.

5. Hack Your Happiness 

Pleasure is temporary, happiness is self-created. Inside and outside of the school building you must work towards this mindset every day, and it comes from within. Author of The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor, writes that “Happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential.” You are happy when you progress through life working toward and achieving goals. Create short term, attainable goals to slay and track your successes. Choose a simple goal like organizing a classroom closet that has gotten out of control, trying a completely new strategy you have been meaning to implement, or reading one “non-school” book this month. It doesn’t matter what you choose, when you are making progress satisfaction inevitably follows. You have the power!

6. Commit to Conscious Personal Self-Growth

Personal growth is a choice, and if you are dedicated, an ongoing life-long process of transformation. It leads to reduced stress, better health, improved relationships, increased resilience, greater happiness, and more. As teachers we always look to grow professionally, and so growing personally is a natural leap. Identify how you want to develop and why it’s important to you, seek opportunities to educate yourself in that area, acquire the tools you need, and hold yourself accountable. This conscious evolution leads to success and more meaning in life. I’m not going to lie, the work can be uncomfortable, sometimes even painful. But I promise you, it’s worth it.

“Freeing your shine” is not a destination, it’s an ever-changing process to consciously work towards. You consistently strive to adjust the way you react to daily irritants, obstacles, and stressors to take active steps towards brightness. Acknowledge that your discomfort is a totally valid, normal part of life, and then evaluate how your mindset could shift to make the situation a bit easier. Sometimes this will be really hard. Sometimes you won’t want to do it. That’s okay. Over time and with more practice shifting your mindset becomes natural, and can occur without force. You might find that what you need one moment or day or in one season of your life is not what you may need in another. That’s okay too. Be gentle with yourself, as you would with your students. That’s where the thriving begins.

The post When your passion for teaching dims, these 6 mindset shifts can help you shine brighter appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Whenever things go awry in the use of this technology (often due to user error), my students like to say, “This SMART board isn’t very smart, is it?” and giggle at their developing use of pun.

Sitting at my computer screen after being directed to explore the results of the latest adaptive assessment, “smart tests”, required by the district, I hear their little joke in my head and think, “No, it sure isn’t.”

Adaptive assessments, i.e. personalized learning or individualized instruction tools, are (often) computer-based, multiple-choice tests that adjust to get increasingly difficult or easier in response to correct/incorrect answers. Results pinpoint a student’s knowledge to a specific list of skills. From these programs, teachers are armed with “personalized learning plans” for each student.

As assessment tools, these tests, and the learning plans they generate, fail to meet the needs of teachers and learners.

Instead, teachers and learners need assessments (not tests) that are indicators of students’ growing ability to create, question, and discover. We need assessments that can facilitate that growth.

While we may not be able to decide not to administer the next scheduled adaptive test, we can rethink our use of them within our classroom walls and use the time and space we have with students to implement assessments with a different kind of teaching and learning in mind.

Impact on meaningful learning 

In the land of individualized learning, the purpose becomes to increase, not knowledge or understanding, and certainly not curiosity, but a score.

Instead of engaging with what they’re learning, students are asked to concentrate on how well they are learning it. Teachers’ valuable, and limited, time is spent measuring and analyzing progress as defined by the test, when they could be doing a whole host of more meaningful tasks.

Meaningful learning can not be measured in terms of stagnant facts and memorizable terms.

Assessments should reflect the learning that is valued in a classroom, not the values of corporations who want to create a deficit model in order to sell programs to remediate the “deficits” their tests create.

Impact on students’ understanding of their learning

Adaptive assessments are designed so that a certain number of questions will be too difficult for the student to answer correctly. Students, parents, and teachers alike have observed the frustration caused by adaptive assessments designed to increase in difficulty until the student incorrectly answers enough questions.

Subjecting children to frustration-level questions repeatedly is counter-intuitive to what educators know about teaching within a student’s zone of proximal development and scaffolding her learning.

Adaptive assessment programs have algorithms to produce flags for “rushing” when students click through answers too quickly, indicating the frequency of disengagement that teachers can attest to.

Quality assessments should engage both teachers and students in expression of their learning.

Assessments don’t have to be tests

Albert Einstein said, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” 

Here I will share effective assessment strategies I have used in my elementary classrooms. These strategies allow for students to demonstrate their understanding while using creativity, problem solving, and inquiry skills. They are challenging and compelling to students and informative to me.

And they aren’t tests.

They won’t produce numbers. They don’t have a rubric or scale attached. Really, hold on tight, they won’t even be summed up with a grade.

But they will assess.

They provide qualitative evidence of a student’s understanding of a concept. They make space for students to express their individuality. They highlight interests, strengths, and areas in need of support and development that you, the teacher, may guide them in growing.

These assessments have a symbiotic relationship with a student-centered classroom where the teacher is constantly learning from observational evidence and direct conversations with the students.

Assessment strategies that allow for student individuality

The Brain Dump

A freeform outpouring of everything a student is able to express in writing (words and pictures) on a proposed topic

What to do:

Give each student a large sheet of butcher or chart paper and allow each student to select a table or floor workspace. Deferring from everyday-use paper creates a sense of novelty and the larger size inspires higher volume production (or just write really big and that’s fun, too).

Instruct students to write or draw; express ideas in complete sentences, phrases, or keywords; create diagrams, labels, or charts based on the current unit. They may express concrete understandings or share lingering questions. Anything they can think of in response to the topic is acceptable fodder for the Brain Dump.

Set a time limit that is appropriate for continuous work but creates a sense of excitement and urgency. I’ve found that students love the energy of the timed Brain Dump. Using a countdown timer is a fun way to build anticipation. Note that the time can be extended if students are actively working. Students who don’t work well under time constraints can have more time. The timer is a fun gimmick, not a restriction, use it as you see fit.

Make the Brain Dump engaging and support students by building in some “lifelines” such as:

• Notebook Check: 1-2 minutes to look back at their notes to get a reminder, check a fact, or be inspired with another idea.
• Phone a Friend: 2-3 minutes of collaboration with a classmate. Share their Brain Dump with a neighbor to get ideas or check their accuracy.
• Shout Outs: periodically set off a signal and shout out a significant keyword, such as: “ORBIT! Have you used orbit yet?” Students may jot the word and add ideas that demonstrate their understanding. Projecting an image (location, object, person) is a possible variation.

Benefits and considerations: 

Brain Dumps recognize student’s understanding on a spectrum. For example, a student may be able to remember a key word, make a connection to the word with a drawing, give the meaning of the word, provide an example, or communicate a deeper understanding with a diagram, comparison, or chart. Students are not punished with an incorrect score or an incomplete understanding of an idea, or limited by the specificity of knowledge expressed in a single question.

In encouraging any written representation, the Brain Dump supports individuality. English-Language Learners may express ideas in their home language. Computers, letter stamps, and magazines/cut paper are other possible accommodations.

Learn more by following up a Brain Dump with student interviews. Students share and explain their thinking with the teacher, a small group, or the class. Take note of students’ verbal articulation of their written ideas as further anecdotal evidence.

Classroom example: 

4th grade Science unit on Space (Learning objective: Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to compare and contrast the physical attributes of stars and planets).

This unit worked particularly well for a Brain Dump, because student interest varied greatly. While some students researched composition of planets, others explored historical evolution of space travel or current events in space exploration, and some became enthralled with black holes.

Assessing student knowledge of this topic with a multiple-choice test would have limited them to only the information selected for the test. In exploring their Brain Dumps, I discovered learning that was in-depth and well beyond the standards.

Unlike a scored test, there were no qualifications for success or failure. Every idea conveyed was a demonstration of understanding and was celebrated. Incorrect representations or incomplete ideas were prompts for further inquiry. Well-developed depictions could lead to deeper investigation, serve as a resource for other learners, or provide insight to a student’s interests for relationship building and future learning.

Students expressed pride in their Brain Dumps such that I’d never seen from a computer-based or teacher-created test, asking to display their work in the classroom or bring it home to show their families.

Socratic Seminar

A discussion circle, based on a prepared text, in which a small group of students engage in respectful discourse, listening to others’ voices, expressing their own ideas or responses to others, and asking questions to develop a deeper understanding of a topic and its application

What to do:

Provide students with at least two recommended resources, such as an article, opinion essay, poem, piece of art, video, or shared text related to a unit of study. Depending on the age and content, allow for enough time and support for students to access and analyze the resources.

Provide students with an overarching question and ask students to prepare ideas to support a discussion. Ideas can be expressed in written form or discussed with the teacher (for younger students or as an accommodation).

In a Socratic Seminar, a small group of 5-7 students will participate in the discussion while the rest of the class observes, each group taking a turn. Unlike a debate, participants do not attempt to weaken or argue against opposing opinions but to consider and value them.

To begin, ask students to sit in a small inner circle with observing classmates seated around them. Review the tenets of a Socratic Seminar including respectful discourse, use of engaging prompts, listening to each other, and allowing all voices to be heard.

During the timed discussion circle (each small group was given 7 minutes), one student would be selected or volunteer to begin the discussion. As the facilitator, I would sit outside the circle, making notes and coding students’ uses of evidence, probing questions, and connections to classmates.

Following the Socratic Seminar, students were given 5 minutes of quiet written reflection and then open, whole group feedback and discussion.

Strengthen your students’ ability to engage during the Socratic Seminar by providing sentence frames:

• I agree/disagree with what you said about ___ because ___.
• Will you explain more about ___?
• Why do you think that ____?
• Something I was thinking that supports/challenges what you said is _____.
• What you said makes me think of/question/wonder _____.

Benefits, considerations: 

A Socratic Seminar is a platform for engaging in respectful discourse, a practice that is becoming less and less prevalent as our society becomes more polarized and opposing opinions are more likely to be ignored or avoided than confronted respectfully. Teaching today’s young people to listen to those with a different stance on an issue, and to do so calmly and open-mindedly, is important to the health of our society.

Socratic Seminars can be especially powerful with a current event issue related to the unit. Students are able to draw on the understanding they’ve acquired from their study to form and support their ideas.

Consider the classroom environment when planning for a Socratic Seminar. Discussions will flourish healthily in spaces where students feel safe and secure. Beginning with low-risk topics is a wise way to build the practice and students’ comfort before confronting issues with deep roots and strong feelings.

Classroom example: 

3rd grade Social Studies unit on the American Revolutionary War (Learning objective: Describe the influence of key individuals and groups during the American Revolution).

After studying the causes, events, and significant figures in the American Revolutionary War, students were invited to engage in a Socratic Seminar to discuss the role of historical accuracy in their own educational experience.

Students were given two informational texts about George Washington, one highlighted his accomplishments as a General and President with particular attention to his perseverance and leadership in difficult circumstances. The second article brought to light his role as a slave owner and record of harsh treatment of slaves before transitioning to a moderate abolitionist stance that he never publicly promoted.

Students were given a series of questions to engage with individually and bring to the table to discuss in the Socratic Seminar:

• How did the first article make you feel about George Washington? How did the author create that effect for you?
• How did you feel after reading the second article?
• Do you believe American history school books and teachers should teach information like this about George Washington and the other Founding Fathers?
• Is it important to teach bad things and good things about important people in history?

Students were given support in the two days leading up to the Socratic Seminar to access the text through shared reading and small groups. Students were given a document to record notes, questions, and evidence.

Some students investigated further by researching other Founding Fathers’ stances and histories on the issue of slavery. Some brought evidence to the Socratic Seminar regarding George Washington’s accomplishments and role in developing American democracy and eventual abolition of slavery.

They brought their notes and annotated articles to use in the discussion.

Students were able to build and practice effective communication skills and take a stance on demands they have for their own educational experience.

Dream Creations 

An open-ended prompt to create (art, music, written, or verbal expression) a representation of a dream

What to do:

Engage students in imagining a solution to a problem, an ideal scenario, or alternate circumstances (for example: imagine a world where everyone always feels safe, or imagine a community where everyone helped one another) and have an open discussion about what they envision.

Ask questions to deepen the discussion (such as: Who might not feel the same way as you? Are you forgetting anyone? What would make this real? What would change?).

Invite students to create a representation of their dream. They could create a symbolic or realistic visual representation, perform a play, sing a song, write music or a poem, build a sculpture or design a building.

Provide students with a wide range of materials, such as:

• play dough
• paint
• cut paper
• magazines/postcards/photographs
• maps
• figurines
• LEGOs
• blocks
• costumes
• puppets
• musical instruments

Allow students to create freely. Observe and question students as they work to develop an understanding of their vision and their attempts to represent it in a tangible way.

Benefits and considerations: 

Some children may struggle with the open-endedness of the Dream Creations project, but it can work well in a space where children have become accustomed to creative expression.

While the Brain Dump and Socratic Seminar are assessment tools that reflect a depth of understanding and ability to express ideas on a specific topic, the Dream Creation does not require that students demonstrate a level of knowledge.

A Dream Creation is a cumulation of ideas that students have engaged with over the course of a unit, but could also be done as an opening to a unit or in response to a current event or teachable moment in class. Dream Creations are excellent tools of critical thinking as they invite students’ interpretation and synthesis of a concept.

Classroom example: 

Kindergarten Social Studies unit on national symbols (Learning Objective: Identify significant national symbols).

In the course of our study we focused our discussion on the keywords: liberty (meaning freedom), justice (fairness), and for all (for everyone).

Over several lessons we developed our understanding of these words. We observed and analyzed photographs of the flag in various circumstances (over the White House, on the moon, wrapped around a victorious Olympic athlete, at a Black Lives Matter rally, and at the front door of a home). We discussed the constitutional right to protest when the promises of liberty and justice for all are not being kept and observed photographs of protests. We examined several symbols of the United States such as the flag, song (the National Anthem), statue (the Statue of Liberty), and buildings (Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial).

Students were invited to imagine: “If you dreamed of a world where there was liberty and justice for all, what would it look like?” and share their ideas. We inquired about justice for animals and the planet and wondered if non-living things, like places and objects, could have fairness and freedom, too.

Just as the symbols we’d studied represented ideas that are important to our country, students were invited to create a symbol for their idea.

Students used class time and a wide range of provided materials to make their Dream Creations. They shared the dreams represented by their symbols in short class presentations or one-on-one teacher interviews.

Students were able to explain how they envisioned the concepts of justice, liberty, and equality in beautiful, unique ways.

Individualized versus individuality; Personalized versus personal

I don’t deny that adaptive tests have been individualized, the software’s ability to adjust in difficulty will create an aggregate of questions distinctive to each tester. But as the questions themselves are pulled from a pool of program-specific skills and can only determine achievement in terms of the test’s qualification of those skills as more or less difficult, individualized still equals standardized.

To then manipulate learning to accommodate the test’s demands looks like an education that is custom-made for each child but, in reality, is conformity disguised as differentiation.

A personalized learning plan promises to “give each child what she needs”. But who says she needs it, other than the test itself? And why does she need it, other than to produce a higher score the next time she takes that very same test?

As Alfie Kohn puts it, “Personal learning entails working with each child to create projects of intellectual discovery that reflect his or her unique needs and interests. It requires the presence of a caring teacher who knows each child well. Personalized learning entails adjusting the difficulty level of prefabricated skills-based exercises based on students’ test scores.”

Learning crafted around these test results is personalized, not personal.

The tests are individualized but do not allow for individuality.

These three assessment strategies reflect Alfie Kohn’s definition of personal learning. They are projects that assess learning while making space for discovery and individuality. In using assessments like these, whether your district requires the use of adaptive assessments or not, reflects the values of inquiry, creativity, and individuality in your classroom.

I think it’s the smart way to go.

The post Stop working off a deficit model with 3 assessment ideas that support student individuality appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Every little thing will distract me, from notification pings to suddenly having the desire to Marie-Kondo my space (tidying up is life-changing magic as well as a useful procrastination tool).

At this point in many of our teaching journeys, we are relearning how to work in the spaces where we are allowed. The staggering differences in our work environments — from changing office spaces to living room couches — can easily overwhelm our familiar systems in times of change. After all, how can we still do our jobs well when so much of our lives have changed? On top of that, how can we still find the energy to grade things? *Cue the mouse eating the cookie.*

If you are a teacher in the world in 2021, you might have had these thoughts at some point in the last year or yesterday:

How can I find the focus to get work done? 

How can I keep my home separate from my work, even when I work from home? 

How can I rest — really rest?

I have to be honest, though; much of my teaching structure has not changed in the last year of the pandemic. I know. How can I pretend to know what it’s like to restructure everything?

My frame of reference goes to the moment that a colleague recommended me to enroll in the 40-hour Teacher Workweek a few years ago; she had watched and heard me become overwhelmed with grading — especially as an adult with ADD — and she knew that 40HTW could change my trajectory like a hard right turn on a backroad.

Since completing the 40HTW in 2018, I’ve adjusted the principles to meet my needs in my own context. I work at an American international school in Taiwan, a country that wore masks comfortably long before the pandemic (because of being sick, avoiding pollution, having a pimple, etc.). Since moving to Taiwan and beginning my teaching career, I’ve been relearning how to focus and grade in my context.

My goal is not to tell you what to grade with this article (I can give you the tools to turn the steering wheel on your trajectory, too). I’ll also be giving you hacks from my ADD experience of focus that can benefit both ADD and non-ADD educators.

1. Make physical space.

Do not grade anywhere that you eat, relax, sleep, or even check your phone routinely. Even if the only place you can work is your kitchen table (though you should try not to work where people might interrupt you at home), assign seats for tasks. When I’m working at my kitchen table, I have an eating chair, a working chair, and a “put your head down and GRADE” chair. I actually get hungry if I try to work while sitting in my eating chair.

ADD Hack: Have an assigned tea for work time. This sounds silly, but studies show that your memory is more easily accessed when you connect it to a smell and taste. According to Psychologist and neuroscientist Hadley Bergstrom, “Taste memories tend to be the strongest of associative memories that you can make.”

I used to study for classes exclusively with cinnamon tea so that I could then chew cinnamon gum during tests (it worked startlingly well). For working at home, I drink blueberry tea because of its delicious, pungent flavor that doesn’t turn bitter even when the tea goes cold.

2. Make mental space.

Write everything down. Seriously.

If you’re the type of person that keeps your “To-Do” list on your phone, consider switching to the “To-Do” list extension in your Gmail. If even checking that list via Gmail sends you into a Wonderland of seemingly-more-important-than-your-grading emails, consider using paper. Once your task is written down, covet to not think about that task until you’re ready for it.

I loved the printout PDF of the 40HTW to-do list, but now, I keep all of my To-Dos in my Erin Condren Teacher Lesson Planner. If you want this planner, know that the company restocks the next calendar year in the spring. The planner has the benefits of the same structure of “to-do” area as the 40HTW planner (along with ways to split up my types of To-Dos by personal, grading, teaching, etc.), a full-calendar year, a gradebook, and grid pages for other types of planning. If you think this leather-bound planner is too plain, check out the whole beautiful collection!).

ADD Hack: Fidget.

Wait. What?

Yes. Notice how you are moving in small, non-distracting ways and lean into that. According to Dr. John R Ratey in Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, small repetitive physical activities, or fidgeting, can increase neurotransmitters in our brain in a way that increases focus and attention. I shift my weight in my seat, rub one foot on the other, and scratch the pads of my thumbs with my forefinger.

ADD Hack: disable notifications on your phone (set to Do Not Disturb), your computer (Settings->Notifications->Do Not Disturb on Mac), and your life when you’re grading (politely tell your loved ones that you can’t do anything during 6-7p on Tuesdays because that time is already scheduled).

3. CLEAR mental space.

When you are feeling that notification of “your computer is out of memory and scratch disk space is full” (what even is a scratch disk?) in your own brain OR you are having a hard time turning off “school” in a healthy way, consider these tips:

Reset your eyes every 20 minutes using the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, stare at an object 20 feet away for 20 seconds. It’s so helpful in staving off those burning eye twitches after staring into the eyes of Google Drive for hours.

When you’re finished grading or working for the day, do something physical followed by a clear “winding down” practice. As soon as I finish work, I workout, shower, and change clothes. If you do some version of this out of order like working at night after you shower, still do some sort of activity (NOT watching TV or scrolling through social media) regularly that lets your brain know when it’s time to shelve the material it had open on your mental tables for school. If I have to work later, I will also wash dishes before following my bedtime routine.

If school is on your mind while you’re trying to sleep, keep a notepad by your bed and write down those intrusive thoughts (“I will update the gradebook tomorrow”).

4. Give yourself grace.

Most importantly, recognize the power that our own thoughts about our work have on us. If we are constantly thinking about how distracted we are or how annoying it is to do the work that we do on our own personal time, our bodies and hearts will follow with the focus we’ve allotted. If we instead reinforce the good thoughts we have, we can trick (avoid the negative connotation here) our minds into producing more focus and attention for longer.

I am not perfect, and my work conditions may be less-than-ideal right now, but everyone else is in the same boat. That’s okay. I can work well under pressure. I can face challenges and adapt. I can adjust my grading practices to meet the needs of my students. Isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?

The post Rituals + routines to help you make space for focused grading appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

However, there are those times when I’m trying something new and I need to slow down. Not knowing doesn’t deter me or make me feel less prepared to teach. I am always becoming the teacher I want to be and that means that I am always learning, experimenting, and exploring better ways to teach my students. For me, it’s the journey and not the destination that matters.

So, when I entered the world of virtual teaching this year, I did it willingly. I was primed for a challenge and I figured I would learn along the way. What I know now, and couldn’t foresee way back in September, is that not only were there things I didn’t know how to do (you can always learn what you don’t know), but there were also situations I couldn’t anticipate and was not prepared to deal with. The hardest of these has been the silence that often characterizes online classes. Not knowing whether students are present (mentally and physically) behind the square with their name on it, continues to be a challenge for me.

Some of the questions that arose early on were:

How do I manage Google Classroom so that it is easy for me to post and for students to find and submit assignments? 

How am I going to teach everything I normally teach to a group of 8 – 10-year-olds in no more than 1 ½ to 2 hours of synchronous instruction a day? 

How can I design the most effective synchronous and asynchronous learning experiences for students? What exactly does that mean anyway? 

Will asynchronous assignments be too much or not enough? Too long or too short? Too complicated or too simple? 

And later: How am I going to respond to all of the parent emails that ping my inbox 24/7?

Assessment? Where do I even begin?

Every day I am taxed with new problems to solve. Fortunately, I am not the only teacher in our virtual classroom just as I’m not the only teacher when we are in-person. Through this experience, my students and I have become knowledgeable about how to use different platforms and teach each other how to navigate them.

I feel like a brand new teacher all over again and I’d forgotten how taxing that is.

Creating meaningful relationships in an online environment has been a trial and error process. I needed to figure out what was going to be the same and what was going to be different teaching online from teaching face to face. The realization that I needed to develop relationships with students I’d never met in person hit me hard when I struggled to connect with a few students. I had taken for granted the ways in which I had been doing this when seeing students in person every day. How was I going to get to know them if their cameras were turned off or if I never heard their voices in class?

First, let me say that it has not been easy. But I do not shy away from difficult situations. In fact, I tend to embrace them. So, during the spring and summer (and to this day), I read books, articles, and blog posts, and I participated in Zoom sessions (too many to count) that addressed, among other things, how to build authentic connections and relationships in online spaces. Everyone had advice to offer and it all sounded doable until I got in front of a computer screen.

The best advice someone gave during one of these engagements, and that has guided everything I do, was to remember that what is important in-person is still important online. Creating spaces for students to feel safe, seen and challenged is as important online as it is in the physical classroom, perhaps more important, but it needs to be adapted to this new environment.

With these initial ideas in mind, I began to explore ways to develop meaningful connections and relationships with students. The good news is that it is possible to do this online. The hard truth is that this is not easy. Every day I have a razor-sharp focus on developing relationships with my students; some days I am more successful than others. When something doesn’t work, I try something else. And, when that doesn’t work, I try something else entirely. Same as in the classroom.

Lessons learned:

• Students need multiple ways to communicate during an online class. This is not rocket science and is not different from what I would do in person. In my class, students know they can respond by using emojis, hand signals, the chat and/or their microphone. If I’m presenting and I can’t see the class, other students use their microphones to let me know if someone is raising their hand or has typed something in the chat. Which leads me to lesson #2…
• We are all teachers and we are all learners in our online space.  No one knows everything and everyone knows something. So, we teach each other how to problem solve tech situations, but we also model positive behaviors and remind each other of what matters when we are together.
• Students need opportunities to nurture their social wellbeing. I make sure that the chat is available for kids to greet each other or to share tidbits of information at the beginning of class. I make a point of greeting students and posting instructions in the chat for students who may be late to class – this happens more often than in-person. Students have also used the chat to provide encouragement and support to their peers. I am learning who encourages others, who has news to share every day and how students communicate with each other. It’s not a perfect source of data, but it’s something I pay attention to. For example, I know that Joe (a pseudonym) loves playing video games and is often looking for a classmate to join him in a game.
• During online learning, it’s important to use a variety of ways to communicate with students. I use email, and the commenting features in Google docs, Padlet and other online platforms. At times the feedback is immediate and at other times it is asynchronous. These documents and platforms are shared spaces and everybody is privy to the ways we talk with each other. I try to use these as models for how we can best support each other in respectful ways.
• The time I have for online classes is not enough to help me reach all of my students so I created 10- to 15-minute one-on-one or small group sessions with students every week. This has been one of the best ways I’ve found to get to know my students as people and learners. During these sessions, I ask students how everything is going, including about any hobbies or outside activities they are involved in. I ask them if there’s something they would like to review, ask me or get support in. If they do, I go with that. If they say everything is fine (some do say that), I always have something I can address that week that is a whole class or individual goal. During these sessions students are more communicative than in online classes, which allow for deeper connections.
•  I constantly remind myself of the power of authentic connections, of letting down our guard, of laughing and joking and just letting kids be kids. I laugh with my students when I see that the chat is all about the expressions I use and that kids find amusing. Other times, I shake my head when the conversation gets derailed. But the truth is more of the former and less of the latter is happening now. So, I welcome pets, younger siblings and anything else my students want to share. Instead of seeing these as interruptions, I see them as opportunities to make connections and build relationships.

I want my students to see me as more than just their teacher; I want them to get to know me in the same way I am trying to get to know them. That is why I laugh at myself often. I smile, they smile. I laugh, they laugh. We struggle and we persevere. We make mistakes and we try again the next day.

All of this makes teaching and learning online not only bearable in this indescribably challenging year, but also reminds us that we can still get to know each other and care about each other even though we’ve never met face to face. And, that realization is what keeps me coming back to the computer screen day after day.

As this school year comes to an end, there are many people giving advice about online learning. There have even been books written this year about teaching online. In addition to the lessons I have learned, the ideas shared below are at the top of my mind as I finish up this unprecedented school year. So, if you end up doing some version of remote teaching in the coming year or even if you only teach in person, I share the following tips and suggestions, in no order of importance, in the hopes that at least one of them resonates with you.

1. Assume the best from kids.

Communication in an online class can be frustrating for teachers as sometimes students may not participate in lessons or do assigned work. If I teach online again, even if for a short while, or even when I am in person, I will schedule weekly check in times with small groups of students to make sure they understand instructions to assigned projects, especially ones with several steps that require time management to complete. Although I have done this informally in the past, I plan to be more intentional moving forward.

2. Ask clarifying questions.

When students submit assignments asynchronously or say something in an online class that is unclear, it’s important to ask questions. Even though this is common sense, I am embarrassed to admit how many times I caught myself assuming negative intentions or faulty understanding without pursuing it further. So, it behooves us to seek clarification. Don’t hesitate to ask as many questions as possible or to respond with the phrase, “Say more”, until you can clearly paraphrase what was said or there is an aha moment of understanding for the teacher, the student or both.

3. Be patient and kind to yourself and to your students.

Although this is an obvious reminder, it can be difficult to put into practice. Teachers are our own worst enemies. We are unduly and unrealistically hard on ourselves. Instead of acknowledging mistakes and learning from them, we often beat ourselves up about what we could have done or should have done, but didn’t do. It’s time to stop that. We are all trying our best to do the impossible: teach kids online through a pandemic. Give. Yourself. Grace. 

4. Meet with kids in small groups (outside of regular synchronous classes) or one-on-one as often as possible.

One of the best things I did this year was to institute one-on-one sessions with students. In fact, I have always preferred them to small group sessions when teaching in person. This is where individualization, personalization and differentiation truly happens. Letting kids know in advance the focus of the one-on-one conference, for example addressing a particular assignment, has allowed me to really understand what students are comprehending and are confused about. Moving forward I will do them in the early stages of an assignment and at the end to provide students with face-to-face feedback, virtually or in person.

5. Provide multiple online spaces where students and families can find information.

I have fluctuated between providing too little vs. too much information and, of course, just the right amount of information is what we should be aiming for. My best advice is: don’t spend too much time aiming for perfection because that’s never going to happen. Instead, provide essential information and then let it go. It will never be perfect. Some will understand right away and others won’t. Trying to please everyone or to address everyone’s level of understanding at the same time is almost impossible. And, that is where the one-on-one sessions come in so you can provide targeted support.

6. Use shared Google apps often.

I wish I had realized this sooner. Google has a suite of apps that can do just about anything you want them to do and there are many teacher techies out there who are willing to help you navigate them. For example, I used shared documents weekly for kids to write their goals and to track their independent reading and writing. I used the commenting feature to provide feedback and ask questions. Eventually, the comments served as a record of a running conversation between myself and each student that other students could also engage in, if they wished. As an unplanned perk, students started responding to each other.

7. Use a few versatile and flexible platforms, rather than getting drawn into the marketing tricks used by the creators of flashy new apps.

My top three platforms for creating content for, with and by students are: Google (docs, presentation slides, Jamboard and forms are my top go-to Google apps), Padlet, and Flipgrid.

8. As a Spanish bilingual teacher, I have discovered that online classes work well to engage students in back-and-forth question-response type conversations with me and with each other.

A recent addition to our Spanish time has been to use a shared Google Doc to write about our weekend plans on Fridays that is then updated on Mondays. We practice future and past tense, as well as subject-verb agreement through talking, writing and commenting. Finally, we summarize the weekend activities of our classmates orally and in written form.

9. Keep everything as organized as possible.

Finally, out of necessity, I invented two hacks to help keep everything organized, or as organized as possible. First, I created a Google Doc with all of the links I needed for teaching online during the week. (I will continue this habit during in-person teaching.) Google has an app — Keep — where you can do this, as well. I found that having a Google Doc pinned to my browser allowed me easy access to anything I needed during the week without having a gazillion windows open. Second, I created templates for just about everything: the weekly schedule, one-on-one sessions, independent writing and reading tracking sheets, goal-setting documents and more.

I loved teaching online AND I am truly looking forward to being back in person with students. However, because of everything I learned this year, and especially because of all of the mistakes I made, I am now more prepared to move into online teaching, if necessary, and I can use this huge learning curve to enhance teaching in person.

My hope for teachers is that the upcoming school year is replete with experiences that uplift and nurture our teacher spirit: it is long overdue.

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