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171. 5 Tried and True Tips for Teaching in December · Teacher Approved: Elementary Teacher Tips & Strategies

• 0:36
  Emily: Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today's
• 0:39
  episode, we're sharing five tried and true tips for teaching
• 0:43
  in December, and we've got a teacher approved tip for finding
• 0:46
  some more December teaching inspiration.
• 0:49
  Heidi: We start our episodes with a morning message, just
• 0:52
  like we used to do at morning meeting in our classrooms. This
• 0:55
  week's morning message is describe teaching in December in
• 0:58
  five words. Emily, what five words would you give to
• 1:01
  December?
• 1:02
  Emily: Mine would be that is a January problem.
• 1:07
  Heidi: Oh, yes, those are almost famous last words as well as
• 1:10
  December descriptors.
• 1:12
  Emily: Yes, do what I say, not what I do. What are your five
• 1:16
  words Heidi?
• 1:17
  Heidi: Well, I know this is an old joke, but every time I
• 1:19
  think, scrape kids off ceiling. Repeat.
• 1:23
  Emily: That's so true. We have some fun responses from our
• 1:29
  teacher approved community. Celeste says Advil is my best
• 1:33
  friend. Andrea says, Serenity now, Serenity now, now!
• 1:40
  Heidi: And I appreciate she added a gif to that too.
• 1:42
  Emily: Yes Michelle said, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Oh,
• 1:48
  100% she doesn't even need five words to say what she's got to
• 1:52
  say. Sara said, cover mouth and wash hands.
• 1:57
  Heidi: Yeah, that probably works for the whole winter.
• 1:58
  Emily: Yes. Diane said, Help, help, help, help. Abby said, the
• 2:07
  classroom inside is frightful.
• 2:09
  Heidi: I want to hear the rest of that song now Emily.
• 2:11
  Emily: Yeah I'm not going to be singing it for you. And let's
• 2:14
  finish with this gem from Amy, who said it's like living in
• 2:17
  hell. Oh, a merry little hell I hope. We'd love to hear your
• 2:26
  five word descriptions of December. Come share with us in
• 2:29
  the teacher approved Facebook group.
• 2:31
  Heidi: If you didn't know before, you could probably guess
• 2:33
  from those five word descriptions that teaching in
• 2:36
  December can be a bit of a challenge.
• 2:39
  Emily: I loved being a teacher in December, there were so many
• 2:42
  fun things to do, but I frequently drained every ounce
• 2:46
  of energy from my body.
• 2:48
  Heidi: Yeah, December teaching is a real mixed bag of highs and
• 2:53
  lows. In last week's episode, we shared some ideas for managing
• 2:56
  the fun highs, so it only seems fair that this week we tackled
• 3:00
  the low lows.
• 3:02
  Emily: There's gonna be some highs in here too. Just hold on.
• 3:05
  So check out Episode 170 though for ways to add fun to your
• 3:10
  class without everything falling apart. And keep listening to
• 3:13
  this episode for our top five tips for teaching in December.
• 3:18
  Heidi: Let's kick things off with our first tip, which is to
• 3:20
  prepare for disruptions, and there will be disruptions. This
• 3:26
  may be one of the hardest parts of teaching during the holiday
• 3:28
  season. There's the holiday fundraiser kickoff assemblies,
• 3:32
  the high school band performance, the school sing
• 3:35
  along. And you know this is barely scratching the surface of
• 3:38
  all the interruptions that can clutter your December calendar,
• 3:41
  or can just pop up a little warning.
• 3:44
  Emily: And that's not to mention the spur of the moment
• 3:46
  interruptions of a big snowstorm or inside recess. We like to
• 3:51
  call these stretches of time with lots of interruptions Swiss
• 3:54
  cheese weeks, but December can be a whole Swiss cheese month.
• 4:00
  Heidi: So how do you handle all of these disruptions? And the
• 4:03
  key is just to expect them and be prepared.
• 4:06
  Emily: Okay, cool. So be prepared. Got it? Everyone
• 4:09
  moving on. Just kidding. The big question is, how can you be
• 4:14
  prepared for disruptions, especially ones that aren't even
• 4:17
  known in advance?
• 4:18
  You start with your schedule. Are there days that you know in
• 4:21
  advance will have disruptions? Plan a modified schedule for
• 4:25
  those days. Maybe on days with assemblies you're going to
• 4:28
  rework your schedule and skip science, or maybe you won't do
• 4:31
  centers on those days. Knowing in advance what your schedule
• 4:35
  will be will keep you from scrambling in the moment.
• 4:38
  Heidi: Now, what about the disruptions you can't plan for?
• 4:41
  One way to be prepared for whatever disruptions arise is to
• 4:45
  make a time filler activity bank. We have included a page
• 4:48
  for this in the December teacher survival kit.
• 4:51
  Emily: And this is a new addition to the survival kit.
• 4:54
  The nice thing about a digital product is that we can update it
• 4:57
  easily, but unfortunately, your copy of the file if you already
• 5:00
  have it doesn't automatically update. So if you have a version
• 5:05
  of the survival kit that doesn't have the time filler activity
• 5:07
  bank, make sure you go download again, and then you can just
• 5:10
  paste in that tab into your current file.
• 5:13
  Heidi: Easy peasy. But if you don't have the survival kit, any
• 5:16
  piece of paper will work. Or, you know, you could get a Google
• 5:18
  Doc. You just need a list of quick activities that can fill
• 5:22
  any random pockets of downtime.
• 5:25
  You want to load your time filler activity bank with a
• 5:27
  variety of ready to go activities that you can do on
• 5:31
  short notice. That list of festive books to choose from
• 5:35
  links to short holiday learning videos or a Quick Print and Go
• 5:38
  activity like the ones on our Christmas festive breaks. Those
• 5:41
  are all great. Ideally, you'll have the book set aside and
• 5:44
  ready to go, the links already bookmarked and the copies
• 5:47
  already made. So these activities you can just grab and
• 5:50
  go in a moment's notice.
• 5:52
  Emily: So let's say your class gets back from an assembly early
• 5:55
  and you have only 10 minutes before library. You don't want
• 5:58
  to dive into your lesson for such a short amount of time. So
• 6:01
  what can you do instead?
• 6:02
  Heidi: Well all you have to do is check your time filler
• 6:05
  activity bank for an activity that will take about 10 minutes
• 6:08
  and you're ready to go. Because you did the prep for those
• 6:11
  activities already, you can have the class up and running with
• 6:15
  your time filler activity in just a few minutes.
• 6:18
  Emily: Or, let's say it's school pajama day, you still needed to
• 6:20
  fit in a math lesson, but after giving it your best shot for 20
• 6:23
  minutes, you decide it's a losing battle to get the kids to
• 6:26
  focus. What do you do with the remaining 20 minutes of math
• 6:29
  time?
• 6:30
  Normally, I would say, get out old math games and play them for
• 6:33
  a while, but when kids are that hyper, the loose structure of
• 6:37
  playing games is just tossing gasoline onto the fire. Grab
• 6:41
  your time filler activity, bank and put together 20 minutes of
• 6:44
  engaging low effort, maybe low key activities to fill the time.
• 6:49
  Heidi: Right. You could show a short video, read a picture
• 6:52
  book, learn an action song, do a movement brain break, play a
• 6:56
  whole class learning game like vocabulary Pictionary or
• 7:00
  anything else that will keep the kids engaged with minimal effort
• 7:03
  on your part.
• 7:04
  Emily: Keep in mind that your emergency time fillers don't
• 7:06
  have to be holiday themed just because it's December. If that
• 7:10
  matters to you, go for it, but you can show a 10 minute video
• 7:13
  on shapes or how shoes are made, and it will still meet the goal
• 7:16
  of keeping the high energy levels in check.
• 7:19
  Heidi: Also, because you have no way of knowing if you're going
• 7:22
  to need two or maybe 20 time filler activities this December,
• 7:26
  you may want to avoid adding any activities to the list that you
• 7:29
  really want to get to.
• 7:31
  If there's a book you want to read to your class, or if
• 7:34
  there's a certain art project you want them to do, make sure
• 7:37
  to schedule those things in. Or you could use them as festive
• 7:39
  breaks so you can make sure that you get to them this month.
• 7:42
  Leave your time for their activities, for things that
• 7:45
  don't really matter.
• 7:46
  Emily: And when all else fails, take a deep breath and be
• 7:49
  flexible. If your schedule gets completely thrown off one day,
• 7:52
  it's just one day you can get back on course soon.
• 7:56
  Heidi: Back in episode 38 we shared our three keys for
• 7:59
  thriving as a teacher in December, and our first key is
• 8:02
  to have the right mindset. If you go into December with some
• 8:06
  plans in place for disruptions, but also an attitude of
• 8:09
  flexibility, this month is just going to go so much more
• 8:12
  smoothly.
• 8:14
  Emily: Our second tip for teaching in December is to keep
• 8:16
  your procedures and routines tight, or as tight as you can
• 8:21
  anyway.
• 8:22
  Heidi: When things get wild, it can be tempting just to let
• 8:25
  things slide right. You are tired. I have been there. I know
• 8:28
  how tired you are. The kids are extra amped up. You can just get
• 8:33
  everything back on track in January, right?
• 8:35
  Emily: Do your best to resist this urge. It takes more work to
• 8:40
  push through to the end of a rough day than it does to get
• 8:43
  the day back on track. So when things are getting out of hand,
• 8:46
  call a stop to what's happening and gather everyone for a
• 8:49
  redirect.
• 8:50
  Heidi: You will definitely want to revisit your procedures and
• 8:53
  routines in January, but that doesn't mean you want to let
• 8:56
  them go completely in December. You're just making your job that
• 8:59
  much harder when you let the foundation of your management
• 9:02
  fall apart.
• 9:03
  Emily: Smooth procedures and routines are what keep your
• 9:06
  class running smoothly. It's a great idea in December to take
• 9:09
  some time each day to address any procedures that are going
• 9:12
  off course. Maybe every day during morning meeting, you'll
• 9:15
  revisit one of them and make a plan for improving it.
• 9:19
  Heidi: Or you may find that simply reminding the students of
• 9:21
  your expectations is enough to keep things on track. Before you
• 9:24
  head to lunch, you can revisit your lunchroom expectations. Or
• 9:28
  before the kids head to specialty classes, you can
• 9:30
  remind them of the expectations, and then, of course, you want to
• 9:32
  follow up after to see how well they did.
• 9:35
  Emily: Yes, keeping the expectations alive will help
• 9:37
  things a lot in December.
• 9:40
  Heidi: In our December teacher survival kit, there are some
• 9:42
  pages for you to make mini posters of your behavior
• 9:46
  expectations. So if you don't already have these in your
• 9:48
  classroom, you can just print off the stack and revisit them
• 9:51
  all day long if you have to. With so much novelty in the air,
• 9:55
  we really have to put in our strongest efforts to uphold our
• 9:59
  structure.
• 10:00
  Emily: So think about that student engagement scale that we
• 10:03
  talk about. Picture an old balance scale with structure on
• 10:06
  one side and novelty on the other. When your scale leans too
• 10:10
  far to one side or the other, it is a challenge to get your
• 10:14
  students engaged. When those sides are fairly even, your
• 10:17
  students will be engaged.
• 10:19
  Heidi: Unsurprisingly, in December, the novelty side of
• 10:23
  your scale will likely be piled high most days. To keep your
• 10:27
  students engaged, you need to lean into the structure side of
• 10:30
  your scale. Try to stick to your regular schedule as much as you
• 10:34
  can. Don't let your procedures go give students predictability
• 10:38
  to calm their excited little nerves.
• 10:40
  Emily: But that's not the only thing we can do to help students
• 10:41
  Heidi: Well of course. If you've listened to our podcast before,
• 10:44
  stay engaged and on task. That's where tip three comes in, which
• 10:48
  is to embrace a classroom reward system. So can you tell us about
• 10:53
  that Heidi?
• 10:56
  it's no secret that we're not typically big fans of reward
• 10:59
  systems. The main reason is because reward systems don't
• 11:03
  actually work long term, and they are a ton of work to
• 11:07
  manage, so it's not something we recommend for regular use.
• 11:12
  Emily: But December is not a regular time. You got to do what
• 11:15
  you got to do to keep your class on track in December, and a
• 11:18
  reward system is likely to be very helpful with that.
• 11:22
  Heidi: Reward systems work well in December because you're only
• 11:24
  using them for that short term period before winter break. You
• 11:28
  can start your reward system as soon as Thanksgiving break ends,
• 11:31
  or you can save it for when your class really starts to need one
• 11:33
  in December, it's totally up to you.
• 11:36
  Emily: And there are multiple ways to approach a reward system
• 11:38
  for December. You can do a whole class reward system, like our
• 11:42
  teacher favorite Reindeer Games reward system. The class earns
• 11:46
  reindeer with their good behavior, and when all the
• 11:49
  reindeer have been earned, a surprise reward is revealed. In
• 11:52
  our holiday behavior helps bundle, we have everything you
• 11:55
  need to do this system, including a bunch of easy reward
• 11:59
  ideas that your students will love.
• 11:59
  Heidi: Another fun reward system in our holiday behavior helps is
• 12:00
  This works great for having your groups compete against each
• 12:03
  our build a character. It's so cute where you have the students
• 12:07
  earn the pieces to build a little gingerbread guy.
• 12:14
  other. You would just need a set of pieces for each group or
• 12:17
  table. If competition is motivating for your students,
• 12:20
  they will love this and that competition can push them to be
• 12:23
  even better behaved, or you can always earn the character pieces
• 12:27
  as a whole class reward system.
• 12:29
  Emily: But if competition will result in negativity in your
• 12:32
  classroom, you may want to go for an individual reward system.
• 12:35
  One that we include in the holiday behavior helps resource
• 12:38
  is the lucky chance game. So explain that one Heidi.
• 12:41
  Heidi: This is such a fun one. So you just start by printing
• 12:44
  out the lucky chance board, which has a row of symbols
• 12:47
  across the top and then letters down the side, and then there's
• 12:51
  just an empty grid.
• 12:52
  When students have good behavior, you tell them that
• 12:54
  they can go add their name to a square in the board, and they
• 12:56
  can pick any square they want. And then when it's time to
• 12:59
  choose a winner, you pull a symbol and a letter card at
• 13:02
  random, the student whose name is on that square of the board
• 13:05
  gets the prize.
• 13:07
  Emily: You can either have a set time of the day that you're
• 13:09
  going to choose a winner, or you can plan to choose a winner as
• 13:12
  soon as the board is full. If you go that route, though, be
• 13:15
  sure you don't fill up the final square until it's a convenient
• 13:18
  time to choose a winner.
• 13:20
  Heidi: You could choose one type of reward system or mix and
• 13:23
  match them to meet your needs. Just don't forget that no matter
• 13:26
  which reward system you choose, you want to introduce it with a
• 13:29
  discussion about your expectations. Now is the moment
• 13:33
  to be concrete with your students about what types of
• 13:36
  behaviors earn rewards and what types of behaviors lose rewards.
• 13:41
  Emily: Our fourth December teaching tip is to remember that
• 13:44
  you can do anything, but you can't do everything. There is no
• 13:48
  shortage of amazing activity ideas to try in December. It's
• 13:52
  going to be tempting to do a lot, but that is a recipe for
• 13:55
  disaster.
• 13:56
  Heidi: You can do any activity that you are excited about. If
• 13:59
  you want to go big on a North Pole classroom transformation,
• 14:03
  because those big surprises are your favorite part of teaching.
• 14:06
  You should absolutely go all in on that and send us the
• 14:10
  pictures, because that really does sound amazing.
• 14:12
  Emily: Yes it does. But if that sounds terrible to you, then
• 14:15
  don't feel even a moment of guilt for opting out of it.
• 14:18
  There are so many ways to be a fun teacher, which we discussed
• 14:21
  in last week's episode. You don't have to do what the other
• 14:24
  teachers are doing to be a fun teacher.
• 14:27
  Heidi: bring more joy to the activity. And in turn, to your
• 14:31
  students when you choose activities that light you up.
• 14:39
  Emily: Just be aware that with any holiday activity, whether
• 14:41
  that's in your classroom or in your home life, when you say yes
• 14:45
  to one activity, you are in turn going to have to say no to some
• 14:48
  others. So make sure that you're saving time and energy for the
• 14:51
  things you really enjoy. Focus your energy on what you're
• 14:55
  excited to do in December and let the rest go.
• 14:57
  And that brings us to our last December teaching tip, which is
• 15:01
  to make time for holiday magic.
• 15:04
  Heidi: Now, just so we're clear, holiday magic does not have to
• 15:07
  mean going all out. In fact, I think the best holiday magic are
• 15:11
  the small moments of joy that you can sprinkle into your
• 15:14
  December schedule.
• 15:15
  Emily: One bit of holiday magic that we loved to do with our
• 15:19
  second graders was a visit from Sinterklaas. So one side of our
• 15:23
  family heritage is Dutch, so we have received a visit from
• 15:26
  Sinterklaas on the night of December 5 our whole lives. And
• 15:30
  I cannot tell you the joy it gave me to share this with my
• 15:33
  students.
• 15:34
  Heidi: It was such a highlight for me when I taught second
• 15:37
  grade, I'd have all of my kids leave one shoe in the hall, and
• 15:41
  they were always so confused, and it was just very fun to be a
• 15:44
  teacher that. And then I gathered them to read the
• 15:47
  Baker's Dozen book about St Nicholas. But of course, I would
• 15:51
  read it as Sinterklaas, because I was raised right.
• 15:56
  While we read the story, one of the sweet angels in the front
• 15:59
  office would come fill their shoes with a little surprise.
• 16:03
  And when I first started doing it, I would use bags of candy,
• 16:05
  but it did feel weird to put candy and like, sweaty little
• 16:08
  shoes, so I switched to those little packs you can find in the
• 16:11
  target spot that have like a coloring book and four crayons
• 16:15
  and a few stickers for like a buck.
• 16:18
  And after we would finish the book, I would talk about Dutch
• 16:20
  traditions, and that, because I'm Dutch, I could get in touch
• 16:23
  with Sinterklaas, and then I would watch as all these little
• 16:25
  light bulbs came on. Their eyes would get big, and I would
• 16:28
  finally let them go check their shoes. It was really one of my
• 16:31
  favorite moments of the whole year.
• 16:33
  Emily: Yes, me too. Oh. Just makes me smile.
• 16:37
  Another bit of holiday magic I love is a book Advent. You can
• 16:40
  do this in the classroom by wrapping up some of your
• 16:42
  favorite holiday read alouds and unwrapping one to read each day.
• 16:46
  Or you can incorporate a reading calendar, like the adorable free
• 16:49
  Christmas reading calendars from everyday reading.
• 16:53
  Heidi: They really are cute. So every year, everyday reading on
• 16:56
  Instagram makes a free holiday themed poster with reading
• 17:00
  prompts like read a book about a snowman, and then after you do
• 17:03
  the prompt, you get to color a piece of the picture.
• 17:07
  If you wanted you could print off the poster for your class
• 17:09
  and then try to finish up the poster this year. Now you might
• 17:12
  have to double up and do a couple prompts a day, but it
• 17:15
  would be a really low key way to sprinkle in some festive fun and
• 17:18
  reading into your class.
• 17:20
  Emily: The important thing here is to remember what we said last
• 17:23
  week about sprinkling in the fun like seasoning, you don't want
• 17:26
  to go overboard with the fun and waste all your learning time, or
• 17:29
  use up all your energy or disrupt your classroom
• 17:32
  management.
• 17:33
  Heidi: Plus, fun is more special if you use it strategically.
• 17:36
  Treat it like a treat.
• 17:38
  Emily: December is one of my favorite times of the year to be
• 17:41
  a teacher. It can get hard at times, but remember our five
• 17:44
  December teaching tips. Prepare for disruptions, keep your
• 17:48
  procedures and routines tight, embrace a reward system you can
• 17:53
  do anything but not everything, and make time for holiday magic.
• 17:59
  Heidi: We would love to hear your best tips for teaching in
• 18:01
  December. Come join the conversation in our teacher
• 18:04
  approved Facebook group.
• 18:06
  Emily: Now let's talk about this week's teacher approved tip.
• 18:09
  Each week we leave you with a small, actionable tip that you
• 18:12
  can apply in your classroom today. This week's teacher
• 18:15
  approved tip is to check out our past holiday podcast episodes.
• 18:19
  Heidi: Yes, you definitely want to do that, because we have
• 18:21
  amassed quite a catalog of episodes addressing all of the
• 18:25
  ins and outs of teaching in December. But to make it easy
• 18:28
  for you to find that information, we have put them
• 18:31
  all together in one playlist.
• 18:34
  Emily: So visit the show notes and you can find a link to our
• 18:37
  December teaching podcast playlist.
• 18:42
  Heidi: To wrap up the show, we're sharing what we're giving
• 18:43
  extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra
• 18:45
  credit?
• 18:46
  Emily: I'm giving extra credit to the book that I just finished
• 18:49
  a few hours ago, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year, by
• 18:52
  Ally Carter. So enemy novel writers Maggie and Ethan receive
• 18:57
  cryptic invitations to a Christmas house party at an
• 19:00
  English estate.
• 19:01
  Heidi: I love that they're enemy novel writers.
• 19:03
  Emily: Of course they are! Which turns out to be owned by the
• 19:09
  famous mystery writer Eleanor Ashley. But that night, Eleanor
• 19:13
  disappears from inside her locked office, and Maggie and
• 19:16
  Ethan are left unraveling the clues and investigating the
• 19:19
  other house guests on their quest to find her. The rivals
• 19:23
  have to become allies and avoid killing each other to solve the
• 19:26
  mystery.
• 19:27
  Absolutely loved this book. It was such a fun read, great
• 19:30
  banter, some of my favorite tropes alive and well in here,
• 19:34
  and it has a real knives out kind of vibe.
• 19:37
  Heidi: Has it got a Christmas feel at all?
• 19:39
  Emily: Yes, it's not, I would say it's not overly Christmas,
• 19:44
  but it was Christmasy enough for me, because it takes place over,
• 19:48
  you know, the the week of Christmas.
• 19:50
  Heidi: Okay, all right, I'm gonna go download this right
• 19:52
  now, because I was just, I need a Christmas book.
• 19:54
  Emily: It's a good I feel like first read for Christmas. If
• 19:57
  you're just getting into your Christmas reading. And then you
• 20:00
  can get into the hard hitting Christmas tree farm books later
• 20:03
  in the month. What are you giving extra credit to Heidi?
• 20:07
  Heidi: Well, my extra credit also goes to a book. This is a
• 20:10
  very different type of audience. My book is, Tis the Season: a
• 20:14
  lift the flap Advent calendar full of Christmas poems. So this
• 20:19
  is published by Nosy Crow. And if you know their books, you
• 20:22
  know they have the sweetest illustrations.
• 20:25
  This was a total impulse buy. I saw it on Target, and I thought,
• 20:29
  well, I need to have this. And despite the title saying it's an
• 20:32
  Advent book, I totally missed that when I ordered it, so when
• 20:35
  it came that was just a fun surprise. So I love advent
• 20:39
  calendars, and I'm a sucker for poetry picture books. So this
• 20:42
  really knocks it out of the park on both levels.
• 20:45
  Emily: Yeah, just checks all your boxes, right?
• 20:46
  Heidi: This was made for me. There is a short poem for each
• 20:49
  day, and then you can lift a little flap and find a hidden
• 20:52
  picture. I just demonstrated with my hands how you lift the
• 20:55
  flaps in books. So just in case you need a handy guide. You can
• 21:00
  read this as a book where you like turn the pages, but it also
• 21:03
  folds out accordion style if you want to display it.
• 21:07
  Ooh, it's really pretty. I was always trying to get more poetry
• 21:10
  into my classroom, so this might be a fun thing to add to your
• 21:13
  class this year. I will say most of the poems are wintry, but a
• 21:16
  few of them are about Christmas, if that's an issue. But none of
• 21:19
  the poems are religious. So I think they would be okay in
• 21:22
  pretty much any classroom.
• 21:23
  Emily: Ooh, that sounds like a fun book.
• 21:25
  Heidi: It's gorgeous. You'll have to you have to look at my
• 21:27
  copy.
• 21:29
  That's it for today's episode. Remember our five tried and true
• 21:33
  tips for teaching in December, and don't forget our teacher
• 21:36
  proof tip to check out our holiday episode playlist.
• 21:39
  Emily: If you enjoyed this episode, we would love it if you
• 21:41
  shared with a teacher friend who might enjoy it as well. It's the
• 21:45
  best way to help our show reach new listeners, and you can help
• 21:48
  your friends get a head start on planning for December.