Emily
Hey, there, thanks for joining us today. In today's episode, we're sharing three keys to surviving and hopefully thriving in December. And we have a teacher approved tip for something you could do now. Yes, now to get ready for back to school.
Heidi
We start our episodes with a morning message just like we used to do at morning meeting in our classrooms. This week's morning message is what December traditions does your school have? Emily, you want to kick us off?
Emily
Well, I didn't have anything super noteworthy happening at my school and in terms of a school wide tradition. But when you and I taught preschool, we had the preschoolers decorate those brown paper lunch sacks for Meals on Wheels.
Emily
Which is a really fun way to have your students doing a little something nice for others. That's pretty easy to manage. So if you have a Meals on Wheels near you, you can reach out to them and see how to do that. That was always a fun part of our December's in preschool.
Heidi
That was so fun. And like the kids just drew the cutest things. Sometimes I'd have to write the translation of what they put on there, but.
Emily
I always imagine that the receivers got a smile when they got their meals.
Heidi
I would hope is pretty cute. And we try not to do like Christmas stuff because there's no telling when the bags went out. But we did have to use certain bags from Meals on Wheels because they use certain back so contact them but they were so excited. They were so nice about it. So definitely worth checking out. And that was a fun tradition. I missed that.
Emily
And what did you do at your school in your teaching second?
Heidi
Well, we always did a food drive in December. I think that's probably pretty common. But at one point, we switched to Penny wars, which I'm not sure how widespread that is.
Heidi
But basically instead of collecting food you collect change. And for each class pennies count for your total. But silver coins count against you. So you know if someone drops a nickel in your jar, you need five pennies to make up for that. And the kids could dump their silver coins and other classes jars to sabotage them.
Heidi
I will say it did raise a ton of money for the food bank. But it was absolute chaos. Like I couldn't imagine the bombing of the other jars. And then of course all the coins had to be counted everyday. Oh, so we only did that for a year.
Emily
I bet the kids have fond memories.
Heidi
Oh, I'm sure they were, oh it was kid heaven. But and we did a lot of good but it came at a cost.
Emily
We got some fun December ideas for your school from our community. Casey says her school does a Polar Express day filled so fun. Angela school has gingerbread and jammies. She says the last day of school before break, we all meet in the cafeteria and make gingerbread graham crackers on a milk carton houses so much fun. Oh, that would be fun. Yeah.
Emily
April says that her school has a school sing along the day before Christmas break starts. Each grade picks a song a few weeks ahead and then they practice as a grade. Usually they make hats or choose a color for everyone to wear and each grade performs in turn. That's so cute.
Emily
My kids school does something similar except the grade level song is the same from year to year. So as they get older they know all the younger songs which I think is a sweet little touch.
Emily
Lea school has 12 Days of Christmas spirit for the staff who might love that she says it's mostly dress up stuff. We have days to shine bright like a Christmas light where we wear lights and tinsel or days to wear bells for Do you hear what I hear? For baby It's cold outside day we wear hats and scarves and our principal sets up a hot cocoa. That's a lot of fun.
Heidi
They must have a fun staff if they're all willing to buy into that.
Emily
And Clint school has everybody's favorite tradition, which is we've got a tradition of not seeing kids for a few weeks. It's a good one. That is a good tradition.
Emily
Does your school have a fun December tradition? We'd love to have you join the conversation over in our teacher approved Facebook group.
Heidi
I feel like we need to start this episode with a quote from Home Alone. This is it. Don't get scared now.
Emily
And just like Kevin, we've got some well drawn plans to help you to survive this December. But unlike Kevin, we won't be swinging paint cans at anyone.
Heidi
Yes, do not swing a paint can anyone even if you're tempted.
Emily
Hopefully the tips we will share today are so helpful that you won't even consider paint cans or even letting a tarantula loose in your classroom in the hopes that they'll have to cancel class.
Heidi
You've thought a lot about this, haven't you Emily?
Emily
I don't know what you're talking about.
Heidi
Well, tarantulas aside, we have three keys that can help you not only survive teaching this month, but also make it a productive positive time with your students.
Emily
There really is a lot we can do to thrive this time of year, and the three keys that will help you do that are one have the right mindset, two use the right tools, and three make the right plans. Heidi, why don't you tell us about the first key
Heidi
I would love to. So having the right mindset is really the only way we can make it through the next few weeks. Let's be honest, it's not going to be your most productive month of school, you might have to hold your plans more lightly than you're used to, and pivot more often than you'd like. Teaching in December requires a significant amount of flexibility.
Emily
You might need to practice some deep breathing when the principal forgets to tell you that the high school choir is scheduled for an assembly at two and now you have to stop in the middle of your science lesson to rush down to the gym.
Heidi
Or maybe it's the first snowfall of the year. And there's no way. No way your kids are going to get anything out of your lesson on adverbs today.
Emily
Oh, first snowfall they just lose their minds. Seems like every day in December, you reach a point where you have to decide if it's worth white knuckling your way through your scheduled plan, or pulling an Elsa and deciding to let it go.
Heidi
Unfortunately, we can't give up a whole month of teaching. But we also don't want to skip the magic of this time of year.
Emily
Obviously, don't throw your curriculum map out the window. But also, don't be afraid to break from your regular plans to make a memory. It's likely that kids won't look back at being in your class and remember the writing lesson you taught on Tuesday, but they will likely remember getting to hang paper snowflakes around the room.
Heidi
We only get one December with this group of kids. So I think a part of having a positive mindset is understanding that taking the time to enjoy being a teacher of these particular students is also a way of being productive.
Emily
So for the next few weeks, we're going to breathe deeply. And we're going to have a flexible mindset.
Heidi
And one way we can keep a positive flexible mindset is to use our second key for surviving December, which is use the right tools. Mostly this comes down to just not making things harder than they need to be.
Emily
You definitely don't want to be the reason things get out of control. It's easy to think that because it's a festive time of year, you should lighten your expectations. But that choice will really backfire on you. It
Heidi
It all comes back to that balance between novelty and structure. When those two forces are imbalanced, our students are engaged. Our classroom is humming along and things are running as they should. We have problems however, if we tip too far to either side.
Emily
Because the novelty is so astronomically high this time of year, it's important to do what you can to maintain your regular classroom schedule. That means following your normal routines as much as possible.
Heidi
At the very least try to stick to your tempo activities. Those are the activities that create the shape of your day.
Emily
In my class the tentpole activities were our morning routine, which included morning work, and morning meeting and our end of the day routine, I rely on those routines to support everything else we do. So even if it meant doing abbreviated versions of those steps, I still got them in every single day no matter what.
Heidi
Besides sticking to your regular routine, you can also boost the structure in your classroom by keeping your behavior expectations reasonable but high. If in January, you would not accept that your students scattered their papers around the inbox instead of putting them inside, don't accept it in December, you deserve better.
Emily
Yes. You will likely have to adjust to some extra chattiness this month. But don't open the door to accepting less than your students are capable of doing or that will become the new norm.
Heidi
You know, we love that quote from Fred Jones. The standard of behavior in any class is what the students can get away with.
Emily
So don't let them get away with a lot or it'll be like turning a tarantula loose in your room.
Heidi
But in this case, they're not going to cancel school for that.
Emily
One way you can help keep structure high is to review your behavior expectations before an event. If you've got posters or slides from the beginning of the year, make sure they're easy to grab for December. Before you go to lunch take a minute to review your list of rules and expectations and ask students to choose one to really work hard at doing well today.
Heidi
This is also really important to do before events that are less routine than your lunch procedure is. If you've got an assembly this month, or you're rotating classrooms to learn about holidays around the world. Pull up your list of expectations or maybe read a list for the first time if you didn't do it in September. Discuss what you want to see happening and what the consequence is for not meeting those expectations.
Emily
Reviewing your behavior expectations before a big event is vital to keeping kids on track. It keeps things fresh in kids minds, and it makes it easier to give a consequence if someone misbehaves.
Heidi
Besides managing special events, you also want to keep the structure high with your regular classroom management. There are times when novelty is so high that you need to add a boost to how you normally manage your class. This is when something like a reward system comes in handy.
Emily
And if you feel like you've heard us talk about that recently, it's because we talked all about reward systems in episodes 103 and 104. So go back and check those out if you need a refresher. But basically, reward systems only work short term, so we only want to use them short term.
Heidi
You don't necessarily need to start off the month by introducing your reward system, you can save it for when things in your class start to get a little rough.
Emily
Although for some classes, that point might be December 1.
Heidi
Yes, very true. Each class is different. But you will know when it's time because it will feel like you are holding back an avalanche single handedly.
Emily
That's when it's nice to have something prepped ahead of time so you can bust it out when it's needed. We have a new bundle of holiday behavior helps that you can prepare now for that point in a week or two when you're pulling out your hair. There are six sets in the bundle two whole class reward systems, two competitive reward systems and two individual student reward systems.
Heidi
You don't want to use them all at once. That would be that would be chaos. But it may be helpful to use different combinations. Maybe you want to do a table competition where each table is trying to move their piece across a game board to earn a reward. And then maybe also you want an individual reward system like the lucky chance board, where individual students have the chance to earn a bigger prize.
Emily
You may also want to try one thing for a week or two and then switch toward the end of the month. Adding to your regular management system is an easy way to keep that structure high.
Heidi
Right now we only have the Christmas holiday behavior helps. But if you can't use Christmas materials at your school, I am trying to get the winter set then quickly. Make sure you're in our Facebook group, because we will share any updates there.
Emily
Okay, so you've got the right mindset, you're using the right tools. Now it's time for our third key of December survival, you've got to make the right plans.
Heidi
This can be tricky, because as we've mentioned earlier, you also have to stay flexible in December. So how can you make the right plans? The first thing is to make sure you don't over plan.
Emily
And this goes for both academics and fun. You don't want to cram too much new academic content into a month when your students aren't really focused on schoolwork. But you also don't want to fall into the trap of planning so much fun that you send kids spiraling out of control.
Heidi
There's no real guideline of how much teaching or how much fun is too much. You got to just play it by ear.
Emily
Good thing we're being flexible, remember, yeah, that worked out.
Heidi
And I would definitely suggest teaching your new content early in the month. Even though it's December, your curriculum map still needs attention. And you don't want your January self mad at your December shelf for getting her so far behind. So make a plan for teaching the content you need to cover this month.
Emily
But you also want to make a plan for when you'll stop teaching new content. There's a point in December, where it becomes absolutely futile to introduce anything new. Part of that is because the kids are too hyper focused. And part of it is because we're headed into a break and kids will forget or be out of town, or they'll be sick. Oh yeah, I have two sick kids at my house today.
Heidi
So make a plan for when you'll shift from teaching your new units. Add that date to the calendar, so it's easy to reference.
Emily
Even if you're someone who plans digitally, you might need a paper calendar this month that you can keep front and center. There's so much going on every day, it's easy to forget something if it's not right in front of your eyes.
Heidi
Once you've decided when you'll stop introducing new content, you need the right plans for how to fill the remaining school days. You want to keep the structure high as we already mentioned. So you want to keep your schedule as regular as possible.
Emily
Just because you're not teaching new math lessons doesn't mean you can't do math at that time. Maybe you want to use math time for review or assessments. You can get out the math games you've used this semester and do math centers during lesson time.
Heidi
Or maybe instead of your regular writing block, you switch to a seasonal writing activity. That way you're still fitting writing in, but you're not putting energy into a mini lesson that the kids are going to just forget by January. There are lots of meaningful ways to fill the time before the break without having to introduce new content.
Emily
A fun way to add some controlled seasonal fun to your school day is to incorporate festive breaks. The idea is that you take little breaks during your day for simple seasonal activities. We just listed our Christmas festive breaks and I'm working hard to get the winter ones done quickly. We do make all own graphics though, so that slows us down, but we are working hard on it.
Heidi
However you decide to fill this month make it easy for yourself. This isn't a moment to invent elaborate units. You've got too much going on outside of school to take that on. Planning for December might be a situation where putting some money towards a solution is a better choice than spending time and energy making something yourself.
Emily
You've got enough to do don't feel like you have to reinvent the wheel.
Heidi
We are wishing you the smoothest, calmest happiest December any teacher ever had. If we could we come take your class for a bit so you could get a break. But since that's not going to work, make sure you have the right mindset, use the right tools and make the right plans. You've got this.
Emily
Yeah, you do. If you've got a great suggestion for how to thrive in December, or just need to commiserate with people who get it, come join the conversation in our teacher approved Facebook group.
Emily
Now let's talk about this week's teacher approved tip. Each week we leave you with a small actionable tip that you can apply in your classroom today. This week's teacher approved tip is plan now for a new school year. Now, tell us about this, Heidi.
Heidi
Well since we have been talking about December traditions, I was reminded of something that Joanne at head over heels for teaching does on the first day of school. She hands out party blowers and New Year's hats and headbands to her kids at the end of the first day, then they do a countdown and celebrate the start of their new year.
Heidi
It is such a fun idea. I wish I had known of this when I was teaching second grade. But you have really got to plan ahead for this.
Emily
Yeah, it's going to be pretty tricky to find some New Year's party supplies in August. So if you want to do this next year, make sure you plan for it now.
Heidi
Right put it on your calendar, maybe send yourself an email, do what you have to do to remember to grab discounted New Year stuff on January 2.
Emily
Or if you're like me and hate having to check multiple stores to find a class set of supplies. You could just pay full price and buy it all now.
Heidi
Yeah, I really hate having to visit multiple stores. Maybe it's something that's genetic, Emily. But one way that might simplify things is to order online. You can find party supplies on Amazon.
Heidi
And if you want to extend the New Year theme a bit Oriental Trading has lots of fun new year craft kits that would work well for starting school. I was just checking their website. So they have new year wish ornaments where you have a little bottle, you put confetti and a Wish in and they seal it up. And it's super cute.
Heidi
Or you could do a new year wand. That would definitely be fun to make. I can't remember if their kits go on sale after the holiday, so I'm not sure if he'd saved money waiting till January. But you definitely want to wait to order until you get a free shipping coupon. And I will put a link to those crafts in the show notes.
Emily
Good thing you're an Oriental Trading pro.
Heidi
Yeah, all those years are preschool man.
Emily
Just make sure you know where you've stashed everything between January and September. You don't want to go to this effort only to forget where it is nine months from now.
Heidi
Yeah, definitely don't do that.
Heidi
To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we're giving extra credit to this week. Emily what gets your extra credit?
Emily
I'm giving extra credit to a reading light that my kids and I have been loving. So it goes around your neck. And it's very comfortable to wear. you can adjust the brightness and the angle of each side of the light. So you can kind of point each one in the direction you want it to go.
Emily
I initially got mine for extra light when I was cross stitching in the evening. That is my old lady confession there and needed some more light to see my cross stitching. But it's perfect as a book light. And after my son was always swiping mine, so he could read in bed. I had to get him his own and he uses it every night.
Emily
So if you are doing any task where you could use some extra light, I highly recommend this LED neck reading light.
Heidi
That does sound handy.
Emily
Yeah, especially if you want to be like laying down or on your side. You can point it wherever you need to so good. Where are you giving extra credit to?
Heidi
Well, my extra credit goes to clear zipper pouches, which is not very thrilling unless you also like organizing. I have been trying to sort through and organize all of my years of teaching stuff. You know how that piles up.
Heidi
And I have a bunch of little plastic bins that I have switched over to clear zipper pouches and it has freed up so much space. The bags are lighter, they're easier to store and they hold more than the plastic bins do and I'm talking about like little bins not like the great big.
Heidi
There are a lot of different size pouches available. And I think for a pretty reasonable price. I bought some of the bigger zipper pouches that can fit a peg puzzle which is so handy for storage because I've got a ton of puzzles thanks to preschool.
Heidi
But I put a link in the show notes to a set of makeup bags. They're about seven by five inches, and they really hold a good amount of materials. If you're looking for something to maybe organize your math manipulatives or your center supplies. I would definitely consider the zipper pouch option, way sturdier than a ziploc bag and you know, securely close.
Heidi
That's it for today's episode. Remember the keys to thriving this December are to have the right mindset, use the right tools, and make the right plans. And don't forget our teacher approved tip to stock up on New Year's supplies now so you're all set for the first day of school.