Someone asked me, "How do you do all of this and have a young family?" I am used to hearing people say, "Do you ever sleep?" Yes, I sleep. In fact, I need at least 8 hours of sleep each night. Rest is important for me to function at full speed as well as for my recovering brain. It's a fair question. When I was a beginning teacher, I would arrive at school early in the morning and stay there until past dinner. Then, most nights I was doing work at home before bed. It would've been really difficult for me to be an excellent teacher if I were just now starting with littles at home (not to say that others who are just starting and have littles at home can't be excellent teachers, just that it would've been hard for ME). But due to that hard (and likely unhealthy) work back then, I have a lot of strategies in my teacher tool kit and many resources to pull from. I also spend an hour each day in the summer working on resources that will help me durin
100% virtual. That's how this school year started for me and we are still there. The foundation of the magic that happens here in room 25 is a strong relationship with my students. I've struggled with how to create that in a totally distant classroom. In a way, this virtual setting has helped me to improve my craft (silver lining!). Here are 5 things I've done to engage, build relationships, and keep the fun in 4th grade. 1. Yard signs and headbands. Before school started, I visited every student's home to introduce myself. I took my rubber mallet and hammered in yard signs and gave each child a Meucci's Crew headband. Then I asked each child 4 questions. What is your favorite food? What is your favorite movie or tv show? How are you feeling about school starting? What do you like to do for fun? While these four questions seem rather surface level, they allowed me a window into each child's personality.