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"How do you do it all?"

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...
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4 Simple Ways to Celebrate Diversity in your Classroom TODAY

Happy Black History Month!  

There are lots of really great resources out there to teach black history and celebrate with your students (check out a website I've started at the end of this post that you can share with your students).  Here is a list of 4 simple things you can change in your classroom today to celebrate.

1.Play music as students arrive to class or during a break.  Bonus if you can get up and sing along with your students!  My personal suggestions include: 
Stevie Wonder
The Temptations  
Smokey Robinson 
Diana Ross
Ben E. King
The Jackson 5 
Ray Charles

2. Look around your classroom walls.  Do your posters represent students from different cultures?  If not, replace a few.  I found these posters of Amanda Gorman on IG (and I wish I could remember who shared them so I could give credit, but my search is coming up empty).


3. Replace some of your read alouds. There are many good picture books and novels that include characters of different cultures.  Choose one of those instead of your usual read.  Students need to see themselves and others in books.  Two of my favorites are below.  Those Shoes always makes me teary because of the act of selflessness by the main character.  It's also great for teaching theme.  The Parker Inheritance is an exciting modern-day mystery that takes the reader through the Civil Rights Movement. 




4. Introduce a Black History Month fact of the day.  Check out this list.

It's important that teachers connect with their students and show they care about them.  We all know students learn best in an atmosphere of mutual respect and safety with the foundation of solid relationships.  I strongly suggest incorporating this list and other ways to celebrate diversity beyond the month of February.  I'd love to hear your ideas!  Please share them below in the comments.

As promised, here is the website I've been working on to allow students to learn independently about famous African Americans.  I could also see using this in reading as a comprehension piece, or in social studies.  




Happy teaching!

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"How do you do it all?"

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...
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