Reclaim Your Weekend

Are you still allowing school work to permeate your entire home life? Read this scholastic article on ways to cut down the workload and regain some of your weekend time.

The End of The School Year

Not sure I could have written this better myself - so I decided not to bother, instead I'm just sharing. Many thanks to Cool Cat Teacher for her words of wisdom, I know there are many teachers out there who are struggling with the chaos of the end of the school year. Remember, you are not alone!

Teachable Moments

Once, very early in my teaching career, I was deep in a math lesson when one of my first grade students shouted out, "Look! A bird!" Sure enough, a robin was building a nest right outside our window. I said something like, "How about that?" and tried to continue teaching. Needless to say, the entire class was no longer interested in math; they only wanted to watch the bird. I finally laid down my lesson plans and started a discussion of what the bird was doing, the materials being used, why the bird was building a nest, etc. It turned out to be one of the best lessons I ever taught, even to this day. Occasionally, an opportunity will come along that you haven't planned. We call times like this "teachable moments". Know that it is OK to lay your lesson plans aside and take advantage of them!

Who really runs the school?

Just like when you were in high school, it takes time for other teachers to accept you and include you in their teacher cliques. Be nice to the custodians, administrative professionals and the cafeteria employees! Often times, they've been there the longest, they've seen it all and they know things that no one else will tell you.

The Single Most Important Thing

Recently I asked a group of educators this question:
What do you think is the single most important thing you learned in the classroom, that you weren't taught in college?

Here's my favorite answer:
Kids are so much fun. If you get to know them - really - you make much more progress teaching.

Summer Cash

While you may get those two months to recover, rest, reflect and begin planning for next school year; what you don't get is 12 months of pay. Many school systems offer a program where 10 month employees can sign up to have money deducted from each of their 10 checks so that their pay can be stretched over 12 months. That's great, especially for the beginning teacher that is barely earning enough to live on and definitely hasn't learned how to budget yet.
However, what many teachers don't realize is that local banks and credit unions offer "Summer Cash" programs. You must be an educator to qualify but the bank will deduct your requested amount on a monthly basis and transfer that money into a high interest savings account. You can't access the money during the 10 months of the school year but when the summer comes, the money is then transferred into your regular account as if you earned two additional paychecks, plus the interest earned over the 10 months! It's a great way to earn an extra few hundred dollars over the course of the year.