Saturday, February 16, 2019

8 Lessons To Look Forward To Before & After Winter Break

Students are full of energy in the days leading up to winter break AND the days after it. These 8 seasonal lessons will channel that into engagement.


Middle school and high school students are full of energy in the days leading up to winter break AND the days after it. Work with that excitement rather than against by planning a few days before and/or after winter break to engage in some seasonal lessons. Because, hey! secondary students deserve to have fun just as much as elementary school students. These 8 resources connecting to Christmas, New Years, and the winter season will channel students' energy into engagement.



What I'm Reading & Teaching in December

We're kicking off a new unit "Facing Fear," with short stories and poetry before moving into nonfiction. Choice reading and writing routines continue.

My predictions about November being over in the blink of an eye were correct and now we're into December! Perhaps because October was a nightmare of a month for me (my entire household had Covid and I missed nearly 3 weeks of school), November seemed easy breezy in comparison. I also feel incredibly fortunate that my school has invested in building substitutes so my colleagues and I are not constantly covering classes the way I know so many other educators are right now. 

The biggest positive change for me though was a more relaxed approach to our 3 feet apart rule to allow for temporary student groupings. Students can't sit in groups permanently, but I am now allowed to have a group of students move their desks together while I work with them and then move their desks apart when we're finished. This was especially helpful during the essay writing we just finished up. Prior to this change, all of my teaching was either whole class or one on one, and I am a small group kind of gal. My preferred method of instruction is the station rotation model.