Apple Blossom Teachers

Summary:

As teachers, it feels like we are always strapped for time! There's a mile long list of things to get through, beyond just our standard curriculum, and it feels like there is never enough time! Today I want to highlight 3 things that help me really squeeze the most out of those educational minutes, and really make an impact in my students' learning: hit the ground running, overlap the big ideas and with little strategies, and take advantage of small windows of unexpected opportunity.

Key Points:

• It is so tempting to spend so much time at the start of the year teaching HOW to use various strategies, and we keep working at them until we feel like our kids have a solid handle on them and can use them independently. But spending long, laborious lessons teaching students HOW to use a certain type of outline or graphic organizer or HOW to annotate a text really takes away from the time that THEY can apply it. And that's where the real magic happens!
• My next piece of advice for really maximizing your time while maintaining powerful instruction is to really be thoughtful in how you weave together your content. Use your big idea as your driving force, then think of ways you can organically incorporate little mini lessons on skills, strategies, topics. This gets you more bang for your buck out of whatever text or big idea you're focusing on, and the mini tidbits of information or practice feel more natural and relevant to your students
• My next tip is to stay alert to little windows of unexpected opportunity for a mini-lesson! As teachers, we are such planners and are so used to having our daily checklist of what we have lined up, but I challenge you to keep an open mind and be ready to spare a minute or two to teach something off the plans when a topic comes up naturally in your day. The more you get in the habit of catching little moments of opportunity, the more natural the conversations will feel, and the more you will build your toolbox of shared knowledge as a class that you can use to really amplify your more formal lessons later.

Links and resources:

• Join our conversations in the Apple Blossom Teachers Facebook group
• Follow me on Instagram: @appleblossomteachers
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss an episode!

And, if you're enjoying the show, please leave me a rating and a review. Thanks!

Summary:

Today I'll be sharing a bit about how we can use student feedback effectively, why we should, and some ideas on how you can start building a collaborative culture with your own class.

Key Points:

• When we think about getting feedback on our lessons, we typically think of observational feedback from a supervisor, another colleague, or even personal reflections we move through ourselves. And all of these have a place in helping us stretch our practices and grow as educators. But some of the most valuable feedback you can gain is from those who are directly impacted by your pedagogy choices - your students!
• Collaborating with students to reflect on my teaching practices always helps us build a valuable learning space, but this spring, asking for and reviewing student feedback proved to be more worthwhile than ever!
• Asking for regular feedback can help you ensure your practices make sense to your students, and can help you find small ways to adapt or simplify the delivery.
• Click HERE to make a copy of my sample back-to-school feedback form. This is Google Classroom compatible and ready for you to edit or assign.

Links and resources:

• Join our conversations in the Apple Blossom Teachers Facebook group
• Follow me on Instagram: @appleblossomteachers
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss an episode!

And, if you're enjoying the show, please leave me a rating and a review. Thanks!

Summary:

Listen in for a variety of strategies to boost student engagement in a virtual setting. This was a big challenge for so many in the spring: students, teachers, and families alike. Now we have more than a weekend to prepare ourselves for the road ahead, though, so let's jump in!

Key Points:

• I share 5 core pillars to help you keep your students engaged, and activities or examples under each pillar.
• Student Relationships: By building and maintaining strong student relationships, you are in tune with what your students and families need. This can help you adapt your activities and lessons to feel more meaningful and relatable to your specific learners.
• Providing Feedback: Students (and families) need to know that their efforts are on track, or what they need to adjust specifically, so they can continue feeling successful. This can make a huge difference in work completion and academic growth.
• Student Ownership: Helping students feel as though their learning is relevant RIGHT NOW, and not just something they should learn now to possibly use at some point in the future, is so powerful for boosting motivation and desire to learn and participate.
• Interaction and Excitement: In addition to using feedback to help your students stay engaged, we also need to acknowledge and respect the fact that they miss the human connection that comes with being in a brick and mortar classroom. If your students know your live sessions will include ways they can connect to you and their classmates, unrelated to academics, they will look forward to coming and joining the sessions.
• User Experience: When kids and families can't easily navigate what you're putting out there, it will very quickly become frustrating and lead to disengagement. It's important to acknowledge that visually appealing and well-organized resources will have greater engagement from your audience, in this case, students and families.

Links and resources:

• This episode includes Instagram shout outs to the following educators or organizations:
• • @therouttymathteacher
  • @isteconnects
  • @panickedteacher
  • @teachinginroom6
• Join our conversations in the Apple Blossom Teachers Facebook group
• Follow me on Instagram: @appleblossomteachers
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss an episode!

And, if you're enjoying the show, please leave me a rating and a review. Thanks!

Summary:

Teachers must never stop learning! In today's episode, we'll chat about why continuous learning is SO important as an educator, for both you and your students.

You'll leave today with some great advice on how to get the most out of professional development for you and your students.

Key Points:

• As great as our undergrad and teacher prep programs may have been, they ended when we graduated. The world keeps changing though, and in order to be the best teachers possible, we have a responsibility to keep up!
• Beyond just keeping up with the changes, how about leading the changes? Continually learning about the latest research in best practices or curriculum shifts on the horizon can help you grow into an educational leader and serve as a role model to others.
• Look to professional books, education conferences, curriculum workshops, and yes, even teacher social media and podcasts! But learn how to look critically - how to check author or presenter biases, and dig a little deeper into the evidence for ideas and practices which are shared.
• Lean into voices of those with different experiences than you, and be open to looking at your own missteps in your teaching. We all have them, and it's only when we embrace them and actively seek ways to do better that we become the best teachers possible for our students!
• Don't be afraid to question outdated PD within your school or district, if the practices now have evidence against them. Stay tuned for a future episode where I interview one of my very favorite education leaders for some advice on how to feel confident in pushing for educational change, even as a new teacher!
• Lean on others for support. Find an accountability buddy that will keep you motivated to keep learning and growing. Find ways to help each other reflect on your practices, incorporate what you're learning, and continue blooming into the best teachers you can be, at any point in your career. And of course, lean on us here in the Apple Blossom community for ideas, advice, support, and that little push to keep on growing!

Links and resources:

• Join our conversations in the Apple Blossom Teachers Facebook group
• Follow me on Instagram: @appleblossomteachers
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss an episode!

And, if you're enjoying the show, please leave me a rating and a review. Thanks!

Summary:

In the last episode, I shared a process for planning your educational priorities, even when you're not sure what your classroom will be like, so you can easily plan the specifics once the time comes.

Today I'll be sharing my own process as a 5th grade teacher looking at an unknown back-to-school season amidst a pandemic. This can apply any year though, because so often we don't know what school we'll be at, or which grade level we'll be teaching.

Focusing on your priorities and brainstorming some creative ways to incorporate them can ensure you keep your core teaching values at the center of every pedagogical decision you make.

Key Points:

• I've decided to focus on 3 priorities:
• • Student relationships - building trust with me and with each other
  • Student confidence - providing tools to help students feel confident in sharing ideas with their peers or the world
  • Learning for life - I want my students to think of learning as a lifelong journey, and understand their learning as it fits into the grand scheme of their lives and the world around them
• Identify 3 drastically different classroom settings
• What challenges are there in reaching your priorities or your vision for starting the year off strongly in each of these settings?
• Also, what advantages are there to each of the models?
• Approaching different situations as opportunities to see new ways of doing things instead of something you HAVE to do, opens you up to stretching your creativity in your teaching.
• If you've narrowed down your main educational priorities - what you want EVERY SINGLE ONE of your students to walk away from your class knowing or feeling or being, when you get down to actually planning activities and lessons, this lens will help guide your decisions and narrow your focus.
• Keep these foundations in mind as you plan your year, and I bet you'll be surprised at how much more creative and quick-thinking you'll be!

Links and resources:

• Join our conversations in the Apple Blossom Teachers Facebook group
• Follow me on Instagram: @appleblossomteachers
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss an episode!

And, if you're enjoying the show, please leave me a rating and a review. Thanks!

Summary:

Every teacher in the world has had to rethink their teaching practices and find new ways to do things as we navigated school during a pandemic. And we all have zero idea just how our upcoming school year will look!

We are all rethinking what our classrooms and year ahead will look like, and I want to help make that process feel more manageable. In this episode, I want to focus on how we can quell that frustration that comes with wanting to plan but having no clue what exactly you are planning for!

Key Points:

• Even when you don't know the specifics of what type of classroom or school setting you'll be in come fall, you can still start brainstorming ideas so you have a clear road map when the specifics are in place.
• Start by narrowing down your educational priorities - click here for the free planning guide to help you focus on the pillars of your teaching philosophy.
• Next, envision how your priorities might be met in a variety of settings, as drastically different from one another as possible. This will help you stretch your creativity and make it easier to keep your foundations at the core of every lesson and activity you plan later.
• Come join the community and jump in the conversation over in the Facebook group. I'd love to hear what you're focusing on and how you've brainstormed different ways to implement your core teaching values!
• Join me in the next episode as I model this process for my own classroom.

Links and resources:

• Join our conversations in the Apple Blossom Teachers Facebook group
• Follow me on Instagram: @appleblossomteachers
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss an episode!

And, if you're enjoying the show, please leave me a rating and a review. Thanks!

Welcome to the Apple Blossom Teachers Podcast - a space for blooming teachers to learn, reflect, grow, and connect! Listen here for a quick glimpse at what you can expect from this show!

This is not your average teaching podcast. There are so many wonderful places where you can find ideas or lessons to try, but my goal is to go beyond that. I want to be your personal teaching mentor, without all the busy work! I'm here to help you navigate challenges of teaching, reflect on practices you're doing well and areas in which you might improve.

The skills you learn here at Apple Blossom Teachers will help you continuously grow into the amazing educator you were meant to be. After all, we are all blooming teachers in this ever changing world of education, so let's keep learning and reflecting for the sake of our students!

Links and resources:

• Join our conversations in the Apple Blossom Teachers Facebook group
• Follow me on Instagram: @appleblossomteachers
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss an episode!