Many people believe that teaching is indeed a great
job because of the holidays!
However we teachers know that yes, teaching is rewarding
and it does allow you to have holidays with your own children.
Teaching, however is the job that is never done.
It's never a nine to three thirty job and holidays are there to
save us from imminent burnout.
Teaching is one of those jobs that has a lot of invisible work that happens
when we're not in front of students.
Things like your planning and your lesson prep.
Designing and preparing lessons to meet all those individual student needs of
anywhere between 20 and 32 students.
We're filling in individual education plans for children,
and of course we know that those are increasing every year.
We're marking and giving feedback, setting up classrooms and provocations
that will spark children's curiosity.
Hopefully.
We're writing reports, the bane of every teacher's life.
We're uploading data to various administrative platforms.
We're completing professional development.
And of course, helping out or running extra curricular activities.
And when do we do all these things?
Well before and after school hours.
And of course on weekends and holidays.
And here's the thing.
More and more teachers are leaving the profession because of burnout.
And of course, for many, it's a decline in student behavior.
Education needs a change.
And we all know that.
And teaching, I believe needs a really good shakeup.
And this shake up, it needs is a discussion for another day.
So today let's just focus on what we can do these holidays to ensure that
we are physically and emotionally prepared for the term and or year ahead.
If you are in the Northern hemisphere, you indeed have three whole
months to rest and recuperate and prepare for the new academic year.
And if you're in the Southern hemisphere, well, you only have two or
three short weeks to rest up and get yourself ready to face another term.
And for those of us, south of the equator, we need to take at the very
least the first week, just to decompress.
Now, turn off those computers and stick them into a dark cupboard
if you have to.
Take this time to spend with friends and family.
And if you can take a trip somewhere, even if it's only for a day.
Make a plan to get into nature people.
This is great for the whole family and gets you out of the house, which at this
time of the year, when it's cold and or wet outside is a recipe for cabin fever.
Play board games.
Watch Netflix.
Cook wholesome meals.
It's winter, so stews and soups are all on the menu.
And all in all, just take time to chill, but here's the thing.
Do things that are good for you.
So don't spend all the time in front of a screen watching movies.
And if you've got kids in the house, remember they're watching.
Get outside where your mind and body can relax.
That's probably the best thing you can do for your own self care.
Now in the last few days before going back to school, you should probably
start thinking it's what all teachers do, about your plans for the term ahead.
And one of the best things you can do is to collaborate with a colleague.
Invite your colleague or your partner teacher over and have a brainstorm
session of how you can teach your various subject areas in a holistic way.
My favorite way is always a mind map.
You might have some of your own ways.
And find out and look, where are the links?
How can you integrate English and social studies or English and science?
And where can you link mathematics and art into other subject areas?
So that students can see the link.
After all, everything we do in life is linked.
Our lives aren't compartamentalized,
so why should our subjects be.
If you're learning about money in mathematics, for example.
Why not take kids shopping for some vegetables and they can then add up
the amounts and learn to give change.
Which really is learning about the difference in maths isn't it.
Or bring vegetables into class with price tags on them.
If you can't go shopping.
You see, there's always a way around things we like to say, well,
I can do this and I can do that.
We spoke about that in episode 33 of this podcast so go back and listen to that
in my interview with April, from April's Teaching Tree, where she gave lots of
examples of exactly how we can overcome all the obstacles that are in our way.
But don't just stop there at the shopping.
Think of other areas in the curriculum you can link.
What about using those same vegetables and creating a still life to paint.
And once you've done that, get out those peelers and get kids to peel and then chop
the vegetables that you can make a soup.
Which the kids can then eat.
Link this to science by looking at the seeds inside of vegetables.
When then of course you're learning about the fact that when they have seeds
and not actually vegetables, but fruit.
What about classifying the vegetables into different groups and
learning about the different types?
For example, root veg like carrots or tubers, like potatoes and fruit, like
pumpkins, and then you can even have a go at growing your own veggies, things like
sweet potatoes, or cut off the tops of carrots, and have a go at growing them.
And you can also use vegetables and integrate measurement.
Measure them, weigh them, and even learn about circumference with round
ones like gem squash and pumpkins.
And don't forget to find good books that you can use in your literacy
plans that link to all of this.
So, for example, if we keep to the vegetable theme, why not integrate
Stone Soup by Ann McGovern or Wombat Stew by Marsha Vaughn.
And then there's a whole heap of books around soup.
Books like Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper.
Or read soup recipes and perhaps this is a great time to teach instructional or
procedural texts, and then students can write the instructions for making soup.
Introducing those sequence words, like first, next, then, and after.
And of course before they can write instructional or procedural
texts, they should really be able to give instructions orally first.
So perhaps they need picture cards to prompt them.
So think and plan to take photographs as you go about making the soup and
turning those into picture prompt cards.
I love teaching writing, using Pie Corbett's Talk for Writing and a great
book for teaching procedural texts by the way, is Pie Corbett's Talk
for Writing Across the Curriculum.
I link it in the show notes for you.
And by the way, I'm saying soup because it's freezing here in Australia right now.
Well, I say freezing.
It's nothing like Europe, but our homes are not really equipped for cold weather.
So.
It's probably more cold inside my own home than it is outside right now.
But you could do the exact same thing in America
when you go back after the holidays instead, make a vegetable or fruit salad.
What I'm trying to illustrate here.
Is that when you collaborate with a colleague.
You can cook up more ideas, pardon the pun, and it makes the whole
planning process so much easier.
And of course, more fun because you can do it over a cup of tea or coffee
or wine even if that's your thing.
And while you're brainstorming and making notes, one of you can then
plan the English lessons for the term and the other one can plan the
science or the social studies lessons.
And this way you don't have to plan all the subject areas yourself.
Lighten the load, work smarter, not harder.
And if you're in the Northern hemisphere, I've just come back
from an epic European trip,
and the one negative thing about the three month holiday is that it's too long.
Kids forget what they've learned.
And of course it's a problem for working parents, having such a long holiday and
not knowing what to do with the kids.
I noticed many groups of children on summer camps having
days out while I was there.
And I have a great little activity sheet with 24 fun things to do with kids to
get them off screens and you can get it by going to bloomingcurious.com/
24 fun learning activitiesforkids.
I link that in the show notes too
so you can get that, and it's a great thing if you're running a holiday
program or even if you have kids at home, you could just tick off the
activities together as you do them.
Now once you've had a bit of a break.
And you've taken the time to rest and recuperate, perhaps then is the
time to think about how you could go about kickstarting your new term or
year ahead by integrating inquiry and inquiry questions into your existing
lessons or into your new lessons.
Making changes to the usual way you do things is a great way to reignite
your passion and get kids interested.
Having a go at something new is also great way to model to students at
learning new things can be tricky at first, but also rewarding.
So why not start the new term off by really focusing on integrating
inquiry across different subject areas.
And just having some fun with students this term, instead of
always killing yourself with all that paperwork and marking.
Isn't it time to get real with learning and put some spark
back into those kids' eyes.
I have a whole bunch of ready-made resources for you to help you on your way.
So go to resources.bloomingcurious.com and check out what's available
there for you, I'll link it in the show notes to make it
easy for you just to click.
I wish you all a very relaxing break.
Remember to get out into nature.
Personally, I love walking and listening to all my favorite inspirational podcasts,
only one ear bud in of course, because I like to still be aware of the sounds
around me because I'm old school.
I'd like to thank you all for listening to blooming curious,
especially since you have the choice of listening to any of a thousand other
podcasts, but you've chosen this one.
So thank you.
If you like this podcast, can you please do me a really big favor?
Please share it with a friend or colleague, and please leave a review.
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This will really help the show grow.
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Subscribe at resources.bloomingcurious.com/getcurious.
I'll leave the link in the show notes for you.
And with that I'll love and leave you until next week.
Remember to chill.
Remember to take some time for yourself.
And when you're ready, go and click on the links I've left you.
And until then, and until next week, remember to stay blooming curious.