Latest / New Teacher Talk / Ep 131: Wrap Up Your School Year: Organizational and Student Engagement Tips for New Teachers

Transcript

Ep 131: Wrap Up Your School Year: Organizational and Student Engagement Tips for New Teachers · New Teacher Talk

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  Welcome to New Teacher Talk.
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  This channel is designed to support those new to teaching.
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  We'll talk about the most common challenges educators face
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  and offer some suggestions for answers,
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  whether you're working in an urban, suburban,
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  or rural school.
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  Thanks for joining us.
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  Welcome to New Teacher Talk.
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  My name is Dr.
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  Jacqueline J.
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  Cleven,
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  and I teach second grade at South Prairie Elementary in
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  Sycamore, Illinois.
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  Today I will talk to you about strategies to engage your
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  school as the year comes to an end.
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  When I was thinking about this,
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  I had something really interesting come to mind right away.
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  I like to savor the last days of school with my class,
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  but I don't like to do an actual countdown of like a
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  balloon pop or something like that.
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  Rather, I like to do an A to Z Book Countdown.
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  I have a friend that I curate a list with that's in third
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  grade,
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  and the cool thing about the way we do this as we're both
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  reading the same book each day to our students,
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  but this year we're going to curate another stack A to Z.
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  So we'll have two stacks of A to Z books that we can rotate
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  for the last days of school as a countdown,
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  and the students just love it.
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  They vote on their favorite.
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  They give them a rating each time we read a book,
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  and they can't wait for the next book.
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  As the sun starts to get brighter,
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  students need to move more,
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  and they really need many opportunities to move to keep
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  behavior in check.
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  So that's really important for teachers to remember and not
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  to react to it,
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  when they're having a lot of issues with behavior.
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  Make sure your students know the change in your schedule.
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  Sometimes it's just as simple as the schedule is way
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  different than it normally is during the school year
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  because it's the end,
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  and there's all of these added things happening,
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  and if they know each day what that change is going to be,
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  you're going to have a lot more success with that.
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  I was at a recent conference where a preschool teacher told
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  me that whenever she has a change in the school day,
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  she adds a brightly colored triangle to the schedule,
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  and they talk about what that change is going to be.
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  So I thought,
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  I really like that and I'm going to give that a try.
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  It's important to give parents the opportunity to help at
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  the end of the school year, too.
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  Students are having a hard time with the end.
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  You're having a hard time,
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  and parents are having a hard time.
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  So look for those opportunities where parents can help
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  out.
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  When I think about the school year as it comes to a close,
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  one thing that I believe to be very important for me is to
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  have a to-do list of secretarial items like report cards
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  and end of the year folders,
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  things like that that you know are coming up.
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  It's very important that teachers have a predictable list
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  of things that they can add to and cross off to make sure
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  that they're leaving the school year in the most prepared
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  way for the next school year.
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  So,
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  when you're checking out of your room there may be a school
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  list but also you might have your own list.
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  Also curriculum plans for work over the summer,
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  I like to take and have a little area where I stack things
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  up that I plan to work on for the next school year over the
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  summer.
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  That way I'm not trying to get into a building that's
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  closed or dig through boxes,
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  and I'm not really sure where the items are.
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  I know most people have a lot of things prepared digitally,
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  and they can look things up that way,
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  but your manuals and stuff like that,
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  if you're going to take them with you,
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  you need to like have those set aside so that you can load
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  them into your car as you're leaving the building.
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  The other thing is copy orders for the year.
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  It's really important that if you have like year-long items
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  that you use that are consistent,
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  predictable things you do every day,
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  for example I do word letters every morning with my
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  students.
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  I like to have those prepared for the next year.
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  I don't want to be messing with those in the fall.
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  I also like to make sure that all of my beginning of the
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  year copies, if I'm teaching the same grade level,
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  and I know what I'm going to need for the fall,
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  kind of have that set because you're trying to build your
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  schedule in the fall,
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  and you're trying to build consistency in your own life
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  when you go back and for the students to have
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  predictability. So if you have those things prepared ahead
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  of time that's really going to be a win for you in the
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  fall.
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  Also the end of the school year is a really good time to
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  purge things.
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  Teachers are notorious, especially at the elementary level,
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  for making stacks and then they just never have time to put
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  the stacks away.
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  Well don't leave those stacks there for the next fall.
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  Put those stacks away.
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  Get everything organized the way you want it to be when you
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  start the year in the fall and that includes your library.
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  It's way easier to have your students help you make sure
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  the library is back to its original organization before it
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  goes in boxes than just throwing books into boxes.
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  At my school,
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  we have to pack the library up into boxes and put it on the
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  counter.
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  So I want to make sure all the books that need to be
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  together in a particular bin,
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  maybe I have the books by genre or topic,
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  are where they need to be,
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  so that it's all set when you put them back into your
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  library for the fall.
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  The other thing that I was thinking about,
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  one of my last couple of things that I think can creep up
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  on a teacher and then they think, uh-oh,
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  I didn't do that or I need to do that,
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  and you're running short on time is,
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  you need to make sure that you properly thank all the
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  people that have helped you throughout the school year to
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  be successful with your class and your students.
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  So have a plan for that.
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  And then the last thing that I wanted to share is if you
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  are the kind of teacher that likes to give an end-of-the
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  -year gift, plan ahead for what that will be.
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  I like to give a book and then put a picture of the class
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  inside of the book,
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  but that takes time and finding a dollar book also takes
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  time.
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  They're just not dollar books out there anymore.
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  So you want to make sure that you give enough time to
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  consider what you want to give kids and that it's all set
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  for you as you're ending the month of May.
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  So these are some really cool things that I thought of when
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  I consider the end of the school year and wrapping my mind
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  around what that looks like and what I should do.
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  And I hope that that can help you as a new teacher.
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  Thanks for joining us for today's episode of New Teacher
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  Talk.
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