3 Proven techniques to conquer challenging times of the school year.
There are only two Mondays left in the school year, and I am dragging...
I feel like I need an IV of coffee. Sunday felt like a slow and special kind of torture where the light at the end of the tunnel was actually a train. And my patience feels like it starts at a 2 on the 10 scale.
At this point in the school year going to work feels a lot like working out. You dread the idea of going, you try to find every possible angle you can to try to get out of it, you finally convince yourself to buck it up and go, and once you're there you're glad you went and realize it wasn't that bad.
My tricks to get through the end of the school year for myself are:
Don’t forget to connect
One of the most important elements of making sure that students are still engaged in learning even when the learning feels really hard is to make sure they feel connected to each other and to you. One of the best ways to do this is classbuilding activities at least 1x per week! These can be quick brain breaks that take a few minutes or activities that can take 5 minutes or even a full class period when you need it to! Want ideas for what to do! You can buy my classbuilding lessons library resource here!
2. Pick your battles.
Another thing that makes certain times of year more challenging to make it through than others is that the times around breaks are often filled with so many things to do and not enough time to get it all done. Not only is this emotionally and physically exhausting, but it is also mentally draining to feel like you are constantly failing. So choose 1 reasonable thing to accomplish. Instead of grading all of your assignments during your plan, pick 1 thing in each student's work to highlight and give feedback that they did or didn’t do it yet. Want more? Check out this blog about ways to change how you grade!
3. Work smarter not harder
Find ways you can streamline the process of the things you have to do. Need to give feedback on 150+ student projects? Can you use a rubric and check off the items rather than write feedback to each kid. Can you do small group feedback to students who struggle/excel at similar things and give feedback verbally all at once. Create an email template that you can copy and paste information into/out of to send updates for important information, or better yet a template that students fill out and send to their own people! Want a better way to organizer your classroom for a better work life balance? Consider checking out this online course that is the ultimate engagement tool box! A full set of systems, strategies and tools that allow you to be effective as an educator without having to constantly spend your nights and weekends planning, grading and creating!
