The Classroom Commute

We may be ending the school year unlike any other school year - virtually - but that doesn't mean you have to cancel all the fun!  In this episode I'm sharing some simple and fun ways that you can end your school year during this time of distance learning.

For complete show notes, visit classroomnook.com/podcast/18

Looking for some inspiration to spice up your daily or weekly online class meetings? 

Check out these 10 fun teacher-tested, student approved activities that you can incorporate into your distance learning instruction on Zoom or Google Meet!

For full episode details, links, and resources, check out the show notes at classroomnook.com/podcast/17

As we think about where we are now in our school year with distance learning, there are many things that we CAN'T do.

We can’t physically be with our students in our classrooms and therefore there are many activities, projects, and lessons that we just simply can't do.

Things definitely look and feel a little (or a lot) different, and the way that we are teaching our students has most definitely changed. 

You might be feeling disappointed that this is the way you will be ending your school year, and perhaps even grieving that loss – and that’s OK. 

As stressful as this time has been for us, our students also have been thrown into this new normal, and it could feel overwhelming for them as well. So it’s important for us to provide as many normal experiences as possible. 

Despite all the things we CAN’T Do, in this week's episode, I want to highlight 5 things that you need to KEEP doing for the sake of keeping things as normal as possible for your students.

For complete show notes, visit classroomnook.com/podcast/16

There's a new kid in class.

And his name is “Distance Learning.”

And we’re all not so sure how we feel about him.  He’s been a little disruptive.  He came to us with almost no notice or warning, and well, he doesn’t seem to be moving on any time soon.

In fact, it looks as though many of us will be working with “Distance Learning” for the remainder of the school.

You know what I’m talking about.

Teachers all over the world are now in a new state of teaching.  Something most of us have never done before.  Suddenly words like “Zoom” have become part of our every day vocabulary as we try to carry on our instruction virtually.

I know that in my conversations with teachers, they are trying new modes of teaching.  Some teachers who have never used platforms like Google Classroom are now becoming Google pros overnight.

Not surprisingly, teachers are doing amazing.  We were built for this.  We know how to go with the flow, make quick changes, modify and keep going.

But, we’d be lying if we said it hasn’t been a challenge. Exhausting, really.

We don’t know when this will all end, but in this week’s BONUS episode, I’m hoping to give some helpful tips for making distance learning simple and straight forward.  For complete show notes AND to see all of the helpful video tutorials, head to classroomnook.com/podcast/distancelearning

Simply stated:  Kindness needs to be a priority in your classroom.

You can't do math or literacy centers if your students don't know how to work nicely in groups.  You can't go on field trips if your students are constantly arguing on the bus on the way there.  You can't have fun parties and events in your classroom if your students don't appreciate ANYTHING you do.  It's super hard.

Here's the reality-It's very hard to teach a room of students ANYTHING until you teach them to be kind. 

If you spend your entire day playing "referee," constantly putting out fires between your students, there's no time for teaching.

Here's what you can do about it - Teach kindness first.

This is not a one-and-done lesson.  This is an every day, all day kind of lesson.  We have to incorporate kindness practice into absolutely EVERYTHING we do.  We have to put kindness reminders EVERYWHERE.  And - we have to reinforce it ALL THE TIME.

In this week's episode, I'm sharing 9 tips and ideas for teaching your students to be kind.

For complete show notes, head over to classroomnook.com/podcast/14

I loved teaching poetry, and for the most part, my students always loved our poetry unit.  And -although I'm sharing this post with you in April (National Poetry Month), I want to encourage you to teach poetry all year long.  You don't have to wait until Spring each year to bust out your poetry books - in fact - you shouldn't! 

Poetry is the perfect genre for teaching reading, writing, and speaking skills and strategies in a short period of time. Since poems are short, incorporating them into your lessons lends itself to a quick bite-sized lesson on skills like fluency, literature analysis, reading comprehension strategies, and more.

For complete details, links, and resources, visit classroomnook.com/podcast/13

How many times do you waste minutes, hours, or even days searching for the perfect activity or lesson for students that you know you already have saved somewhere on your computer? 

You know the story…you’re about to teach a new unit and you remember a super fun lesson that you know would work perfectly. However, you just can’t seem to remember where you stored it on your computer. You search your desktop and computer files…endlessly. Then, when you finally find just what you’re looking for, you swear to get organized…as soon as you have a free moment.

Well, might I suggest, that that “free moment” is now. On today's podcast episode, I’m sharing 3 steps for organizing your computer files so that the next time you’re on the hunt for that specific activity, it’s at your fingertips in an instant.

See complete show notes at www.classroomnook.com/podcast/12

Wow - we are coming to a close on this mini-series all about author studies!  If you've been following along from the beginning, get ready to hit the ground running with your own author study. 

In this final installment of the series, I want to get specific about the types of learning activities and reading responses that work well with an author study and will help enhance your students' author study experience.

This episode is loaded with ideas and activities that work with just about any author study, at any level.  We'll talk about activities that will help your students connect with the author, activities that will help students make connections between several books, activities for teaching reading skills and strategies using the books from your author study, and culminating activities to end your author study unit with.

I even have some bonus tips for how to set up your classroom to get it ready for your author's study.

Find all the show notes and helpful links at classroomnook.com/podcast/11

The beauty of an author study is the ability to mold it and craft the instruction to your current classroom set-up and teaching style.

Author studies work great with:

• whole-class instruction
• guided reading or small groups
• literature circles
• departmentalized classrooms
• picture book authors
• chapter book authors
• YOUR STUDENTS!

The good news is there is no one right way to conduct an author study in your classroom.  You can have a successful author study in your classroom no matter the set up or make up of the students in your classroom.

In this episode we'll discuss some of the ways to format your author study to best meet the needs of your students whether that's whole-class instruction, small-group instruction -- or both!  We'll talk about the pros and cons of both so that you can make the best decision for your students!

Get the full show notes at www.classroomnook.com/podcast/10 

Author studies are a powerful way to help students fall in love with reading.  After you've made the careful decision on what author you and your students will focus on, selecting great books is the next step!  Great author studies include GREAT books that showcase the author's best work.  And - we can use these books to not only hook our readers, but to teach reading (and even writing!) skills along the way!

In this episode we dive deep into how to make the perfect curation of books that your students will read (and love!) throughout your author study.  We'll talk about the 3-step process for selecting books and how to organize the book titles in a way that makes sense for your author study. 

I'll even give you a backstage pass to how I selected and organized books for my own author study on Eve Bunting.

See full show notes at classroomnook.com/podcast/9