Last week was our February break. As a teacher, February break, or any break, can be a much-needed reprieve from the hustle and bustle of the school year. It's a chance to catch up on life and even take a little bit of time for yourself. Here are a few ways you can spend any break from school. 

1. Rest and Recharge: One of the most important things to do during a break is to get some rest and recharge your batteries. Take some time to sleep in, relax, and do things that you enjoy. Whether it's reading a book, binge-watching your favorite TV show, or going for a walk outside, make sure you take some time for yourself to recharge.

This was how I spent most of my break. My kids were away on a trip and my husband was working on a house project that I couldn't really help with much, so I had a chance to really rest and take it easy. This time was so important and needed for me. 

2. Catch up on Grading and Planning: While it's important to take some time for yourself during a break, it's also a great opportunity to catch up on grading and planning while you have a little more time and space to think. Using this time to get ahead on your lesson plans, grade papers, and make sure you're prepared for the rest of the school year can help ease anxiety while school is in session. 

This is something I used to do quite regularly. It was a time to get ahead and give myself some space during the school day. It can be helpful, but also can be a slippery slope. When we have a break, it is important to really give ourselves a break. I think setting boundaries about when to work and how much is really important to protect the time we have on our breaks. 

3. Spend Time with Family and Friends: A break is a great time to spend with your family and friends. Take a trip, go out to eat, or just spend time together at home. It's important to make time for the people you care about, especially during a busy school year.

This was another thing I was able to do. I love the extra time and space to spend time with others and not feel rushed or worn down from a busy week. Meals and activities with family and friends was a highlight for my break. 

4. Try Something New: Take advantage of the extra time during a break to try something new. Maybe it's a new hobby or activity you've been wanting to try, or maybe it's a new recipe you've been wanting to cook. Trying something new can be a great way to break up the routine and give yourself a mental break.

5. Reflect on Your Teaching: Finally, use a break as a time to reflect on your teaching. Think about what's working well and what could be improved. Consider reaching out to colleagues or attending a professional development session to learn new teaching strategies or techniques.

I like using time away from school to reflect on how things are going. Often taking a walk clears my head and allows me to look at things from a different perspective. I think the space gives us room to think and reflect creatively. 

In conclusion, a break is a great opportunity for teachers to rest, recharge, catch up on work, and spend time with loved ones. Make the most of this time and come back to the classroom feeling refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the school year. I know truly turning off my teacher brain for awhile allows me to fully engage and enjoy what I'm doing. Yesterday as I sat in my room, with my students around and engaged in learning, I was reminded again how much I enjoy what I do. I think taking breaks, whether for a week or a day on the weekend or even an hour, allows me to do this.

How's it Going with My Commitments?

Before this school year began, I sat down and established some goals and commitments to myself. For years, I have been a "yes" person. I sign up for everything, I volunteer my time, effort and skills. I love to help others. This is still true, but as I have learned over time, this can take a toll on me. It can impact my sleep, my time outside of school, and it can leave me feeling stressed. 

So I set up some commitments to myself to help prevent burnout. In many of the books I've read by Brene Brown and different podcasts I've listened to, boundaries is a reoccurring theme. I love the idea of boundaries and have often stated my boundaries, but keeping boundaries is hard. Here is what I set up for myself. 

I put them right next to my computer at work to remind myself. As I reflect on the fall and early winter, I can see a lot of progress in some areas. I would say I am showing up for my students and really enjoying them. I am working to build relationships, design instruction that meets their needs, and really get to know each individual. 

I've done a lot better with not working past my contractual time, but sometimes it is a struggle. It's almost a habit that I have to continually work to break. I will say that my thoughts are not always on work when I'm not there, but there are times when I want to develop a lesson or work on a presentation or a different approach that I think things through while at home. I don't know if that will ever go away.

It was weird to have extra time initially. My goal is to be present for my family and myself. I've always been a busy person. As I intentionally have put in some extra space for myself, I wasn't sure what to do with myself. That is a work in progress. 

I feel like overall, I am growing in my ability to follow through on my personal commitments. When I have time to rest, restore myself, be present at home and with outside interests, I come to school more present and focused. I'm not overwhelmed and can appreciate the joy of teaching and connecting.  

 

Responding to Needs

One thing that can be both refreshening and simultaneously exhausting about teaching is the fact that we as teachers are constantly adjusting what we are doing to meet the needs of students. Effective teaching does this. Though we are teaching the same thing year after year, if we are at the same grade level, each year the students are different and they bring their own set of strengths and needs.  That means we make adjustments to meet the needs of our current students all of the time. It can be tweaks with a lesson or designing whole lessons to address a need.

This year, based on the reading levels of many of my students, I have been using a Close Reading format with several of my reading groups. This has been fun to really dig into texts and hear how students are responding to literature. If you are interested, check out my Close Reading for Younger Students bundle on TPT. With a close read, students go back and look closely at excerpts and then answer text-based questions. While my students have been showing comprehension verbally, when we got into written responses, I noticed they struggled to write complete sentences. I realized I needed to backtrack and explicitly teach them how to answer questions in complete sentences. This was something I did often in 3rd grade, but with 2nd graders I haven't done as much because I have been focusing on decoding and different forms of responding to text.

I put together some passages for my students to read and explicitly taught them how to answer a question using a complete sentence. Then we read a short passage together and responded with complete sentences. Today, the same group will repeat the process with a different text, but with a little more independence. I noticed one student seemed to do better with responding the 2nd day we did this. When I questioned him about what was different, he said that time he paused to think before he responded. That was the first step we talked about. Many of my students were rushing to complete the response, rather than thinking it through first.  

If you want to try this lesson with your students, check it out here. This will take me 3-4 days with my reading groups. We started with just writing complete sentences for one reading group and then the next day responded to a text. I have three different reading passages for the students to use. 

Many times, we as teachers expect students to do something that they may never have been taught how to do. Or they have been taught, but need more practice to make it a habit and really use those skills and strategies. That is the heart of teaching: finding the needs, responding, assessing how the students do with interventions and then repeating. It can be exhausting at times, but can be truly rewarding. 

Don't Get Bogged Down by Benchmarking Assessments

Benchmark assessments are an important tool for measuring student progress and evaluating the effectiveness of instructional practices, but they can also be a source of stress and anxiety for both teachers and students. Our school is in the thick of our mid-year benchmarking period and I find as a teacher I am craving our regular routine.  

In any classroom, it's important to find a balance between the benefits of benchmark assessments and the impact they can have on the learning environment. We really need to know how students are progressing and this is invaluable to our teaching. It is how we can adapt instruction to support and challenge students. It is also mandated by most schools, so it isn't going to be going away. How can teachers set our students and ourselves up for success?

1. Set realistic goals: It's essential to set achievable goals for students and communicate these goals clearly to both students and parents. By setting realistic expectations, you can reduce the stress associated with benchmark assessments. As we approached the benchmarking period, our team sent out a letter to parents letting them know we were assessing students and also we set a reward activity to celebrate the efforts, growth and acknowledge that it can be hard for students to go through benchmarking. Last Friday, we took the whole grade level outside for a sledding party to celebrate that benchmarking assessments are complete.

2. Limit the number of assessments: Try to limit the number of benchmark assessments given throughout the year and focus on the assessments that provide the most meaningful data for measuring student progress.This can be a building or district decision, so at times as teachers we feel like it is out of our hands. I think it is important as teachers to speak up if there is something that we find valuable or may be too much. I also try to limit the impact of the assessments and keep the schedule as consistent as possible during this time period. I have found my students do best within routine. 

3. Emphasize the process, not just the results: While benchmark assessments are an important measure of student progress, it's important to emphasize the process of learning and growth rather than just the results. Encourage students to focus on their effort and progress, rather than the results of the assessments. 

4. Provide support: Offer support to students who may struggle with benchmark assessments by providing additional practice opportunities, differentiated instruction, and personalized support. As we move past the benchmarks, I am using them to see where I need to provide students extra support or even clarification on skills and strategies. For example, a Math Number Sense benchmark revealed that several of my students struggle with counting across hundred with larger numbers. That is a pretty quick mini-lesson I can provide to students who need it that will fill in some gaps of understanding. If we don't use the benchmarks to provide support, I honestly feel like it is a waste of time.

5. Celebrate progress: Celebrate students' progress, both big and small, and provide opportunities for students to share their achievements with others. This helps to maintain a positive learning environment and build student confidence. Our sledding party was a big was to do this. Little celebrations along the way, like giving students feedback that they have grown as learners and giving specifics, are important. For example, after having a student complete a reading assessment with me, I may comment at how their reading rate and fluency has improved and share a few things I've noticed they have grow in. 

6. Keep it in perspective: Remember that benchmark assessments are just one measure of student progress, and that there are many other ways to evaluate student learning and growth. By keeping this perspective, you can reduce the stress and anxiety associated with benchmark assessments for students and teachers. 

Benchmark assessments are an important tool for measuring student progress and evaluating the effectiveness of instructional practices, but it's essential to find a balance between their benefits and the impact they can have on the learning environment. By setting realistic goals, limiting the number of assessments, emphasizing the process of learning, providing support, celebrating progress, and keeping things in perspective, you can help reduce stress and anxiety and maintain a positive learning environment in a classroom. I for one am excited to be back into our regular routine this week. I'm working on some new lessons based on what I've noticed my students need based on the benchmarks and I will be share more soon!

Working on a Team

Working with a team as a teacher can be both challenging and rewarding. I have been so fortunate to work on a strong team for many years. As a team, teachers can share ideas, collaborate on lesson plans, and provide support for one another. However, it's important to remember that every team member may have different teaching styles, personalities, and strengths. Learning about those differences and celebrating them can help build relationships and can enhance our own teaching style.

One key to success when working with a team is effective communication. It's important to establish clear lines of communication and to make sure that everyone is on the same page regarding goals, expectations, and responsibilities. Regular team meetings can be a great way to stay informed and to provide updates on progress. During these meetings, our team communicates what is going on, looks ahead, talks about curriculum and supports one another with things that come up in our classroom. Also, consistent communication via email and texting help to keep everyone on the same page.

One thing we started to do this school year is to eat lunch as a team. For many years, I worked through my lunch. There is always more to do with teaching. Yet, taking the time to actually eat during lunch is good for me personally and has been great for our team. We are able to talk about things more casually and have been able to get to know one another. This has been good to build trust and our relationships.

It's also important to recognize and value the unique strengths of each team member. By focusing on individual strengths, team members can be utilized in a way that best suits their skillset. This can lead to a more efficient and effective team, where everyone feels valued and appreciated for their contributions. As we build trust in one another, different team members are able to step up and take on different roles. 

Working with a team as a teacher can be a great way to improve instruction and learning, to provide support and encouragement, and to create a positive and productive learning environment for students. It really helps for me to like and trust the people I work with. With changes in the team over the past few years, we have had to shift and develop new relationships. Relationships are so important in education, not just with students, but also colleagues. Working as a team is a great way to develop those relationships.

Using both Structured Literacy and Close Reading within my Classroom

As a 2nd grade teacher, one of my main goals is to help all of my students become proficient readers. This can feel overwhelming when I look at the wide-range of skills and needs. To achieve this goal, I have been incorporating structured literacy and close reading strategies into my daily instruction.

Structured literacy is an approach to teaching reading that emphasizes the structure of language and the connections between letters, sounds, and words. By breaking down words into their individual sounds and building them back up, students are able to gain a deeper understanding of how words are formed and are better equipped to decode new words. Close reading is a method where students read a text multiple times, each time focusing on a different aspect of the text such as vocabulary, comprehension, and analysis.One of the biggest benefits of using these strategies is that they meet the diverse needs of my students. Struggling readers are able to receive the explicit, systematic instruction they need to improve their decoding skills, while more advanced readers are able to engage in deeper levels of comprehension and analysis.

I have seen firsthand the positive impact that these strategies have had on my students. They are able to read with greater fluency and comprehension, and they are more confident in their abilities as readers. In addition, by using close reading, I am able to differentiate instruction and meet the unique needs of each student in my class. It has been exciting to support my higher level readers to approach a text with the goal of higher levels of understanding. Using close reads, I am seeing more independence and comprehension. I am able to support my students to build critical thinking skills and take risks in reading. 

Incorporating structured literacy and close reading into my instruction has been a game changer for my 2nd grade students and I recommend giving these strategies a try in your classroom! 

If you want some resources to get started with close reading for younger students, such as grade 2 or 3, check out this resource I have on TPT.

Introduction to Genres

 Genre can be a hard concept for students, yet I find when we explicitly teach students how to look for certain aspects, such as genre and text structure, they do very well. I designed an intro to genres for some of my reading groups and used it last week. 

I kept it pretty basic and introduced what genre means and then talked about Fiction and Non-Fiction. We discussed Realistic Fiction and Fantasy. This can be tricky for students as they often will think Realistic Fiction is Non-Fiction because of the term real. We also talked a little about Poetry and Informational Text. I wanted to give my students these terms so as we really get into close reads, they understand how genre can impact how we read a text. 

After our discussion, we looked at 4 different text examples to identify the genre. Here is a video of one of my groups exploring the text. It was so fun to let them really look at each text and make some comparisons. The conversation was great.

I used this with 2 of my groups. One group, we discussed and they read on their own. The other group we discussed and I read aloud. If you are interested in using this with your students, check out the lesson on TPT.