Gearing Up

 

 If you're anything like me, this is probably what you look like when you check out the calendar and realize summer break is coming to an end. When I find myself in this situation, I tend to do one of three things.

1. Ignore it for another week and convince myself that next week I'll get motivated to go back to school.

2. Bite the bullet and get started on my classroom. (Yeah...that's so not happening yet.)

3. Continue to enjoy the summer while reading something motivating and stalking Pinterest for new ideas. This works well since I can do this beside the pool. We have a winner!

   This year I'm teaming with two other teachers and will have three classes throughout the day. Needless to say,  a lot of planning and consistency between the three of us will be required in order to for things to run smoothly. (Well, as smoothly as possible). Something cool I found on Pinterest that I want to share with my team are the teacher call backs by Herding Kats in Kindergarten. Call backs are great for grabbing student's attention, quieting the room down, and so on.  Check out my Start of the School Year Board for more great ideas from other teachers.

To gather motivation, I'm rereading Teach Like a Pirate  by Dave Burgess on my Kindle app. I read this the first time with a book study group.  I like this book because it's a good reminder of why we are teachers and what's most important...our students. It's so full of ideas that I couldn't possibly implement them all. I chose a couple of ideas to start with at the time. One of my favorite was something simple, yet it increased motivation. At the start of each day, I wrote something on the board and asked what the question could be. For example, from a story we've read or are reading I could write,  Alexander kicked his brother. The question could be Why did Alexander have to pay a fine? Why did Alexander get in trouble by his father? How can you tell Alexander was angry by being teased by his brother? ...and so on. It's an informal way to check comprehension and start discussion and the kids get into thinking of possible questions. 

Chances are you've already read this book, but if you haven't, I recommend it. It's worth reading.  You can find it to right of this page as one of my affiliate links. 

Enjoy the rest of your summer!