Keeping It All Together (Part 2) by Dorit Sasson

1. Look at each day as an opportunity to try new teaching ideas and activities. Not only will your students appreciate the change, but it can help prevent discipline problems as students begin to lose focus and concentration.
2. Now’s a good time to plan your vacation and your personal development for the summer. Register for those workshops you’ve been eyeing but didn’t have the time during the school year. This will energize you!
3. Think outside of the box. When planning interesting and motivating lessons, ask yourself: what resources are available to you? You may wish to use the computer room to supplement a reading lesson.  If you don’t have a computer room available at your disposal, plan games as part of authentic instruction. (Don’t overdo them, either!)
4. Praise, praise and praise! Use a lot of positive reinforcement to suit the ages of the students you teach. A little bit of praise will go a long long way.
5. Have a Plan to Prevent Your Rules From Coming Apart.
6. Keep a Reflective Teaching Journal. Writing about your teaching experiences helps you acquire objectivity and clarity especially on those difficult and unpredictable days. Five minutes is sometimes all you need!
7. Have fun and interesting review sessions. Have practice and review sessions of the material you’ve taught. There are so many many ways in which to do this but choose those activities that speak to your teaching style. For example, you could have a game or mini-competition. Show a film to reinforce important themes or concepts followed by a worksheet. Use songs to review grammar structures and vocabulary. Have a textbook treasure hunt. The list is endless.
8. Use the last few months of the school year to support a struggling student, reach out to another teacher or make a difference with a difficult class. We all want to feel we’ve made a difference in our teaching and end the school year on a good note.
9. Read a few stories from Erin Gruwell’s Teaching Hope. This book is chock full of teachers who faced adversity and strived to overcome them./ Not only will this renew your faith in your teaching and you will be that you have the POWER to make a heartfelt difference!
10. Overcome the teaching “blahs” by reading a few teaching blogs as well as the online version of Scholastic’s Instructor. Hundreds if not thousands of teachers are dealing with the same problems like you and can offer a new fresh way of coping with the last few months of the school year.

© Dorit Sasson | These classroom tested tips were brought to you by Dorit Sasson, creator and director of the Giving Voice to Your Story.

Dorit Sasson is a freelance writer,  and educator.

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