You know that feeling when you are racing through your curriculum, you're checking
off the standards and you're making sure you've covered everything and then
suddenly you realize your children can't remember what they learned last month.
Today I wanna talk about something that's, uh, been transforming
how I think about teaching the difference between covering material.
And creating learning traditions because what if the most powerful
thing that you can do isn't adding more content, but building repeated
practices that actually stick?
Here's what I see happening, and I've been guilty of this too.
We treat learning like a checklist.
We've got scope and sequence documents.
You've got pacing guides, you've got standards to hit, and so
you move through that content like you're on a conveyor belt.
But think about what actually happens.
You teach fractions in February and by April they've forgotten how to do them.
You cover the industrial revolution, but when it comes up again the
following year, it's like these children are hearing it for the first time.
We are covering the ground, but we're not building anything that lasts.
And meanwhile, there are these other things that aren't even in your lesson
plans that kids remember forever.
The way you always start a math lesson, for example, that one activity that you
perhaps do every Friday, the special routine when someone shares their
writing, those repeated practices.
They're doing something that our curriculum isn't.
So what is a tradition?
It's a practice that you return to again and again and
again, and it creates meaning.
Let me give you some examples.
Let's say you've got Tuesday Book Club.
You spend 15 minutes every Tuesday having children share what they're reading,
same time, same format every week.
Month after month and after a month, they start preparing what they're gonna say.
After three months, they're coming recommending books to each other.
And after a year you have real literary conversations.
You don't need to teach a unit on book discussions.
You've already created a tradition.
Something else.
Maybe you've got a family read aloud night and as a family, you read
together every night after dinner.
It's not a curriculum, it's just 20 minutes, same time, same spot on the
couch, and by the time these children get to high school, they still show up.
Those thousands of hours together.
Built more than reading skills.
They built connection and a love of stories.
In my own classroom, I had investigation time every Thursday and Friday morning.
Children looked forward to those days because on those days they
worked on their personal projects.
And this is how I built inquiry and project-based learning into my lessons.
Children looked forward to it, they came to expect it, and over
time they knew exactly what to do.
This is what stayed with these children even years later.
And notice what all these have in common.
They repeated.
They're predictable and they build something over time, it's something
that a one off lesson never could.
There's a real science behind this, but let me explain simply.
First, repetition builds mastery.
When you do something once a week for a year, that's 40 repetitions.
You're not just teaching the skill once and hoping it sticks.
You're practicing it until it becomes automatic.
Think about how you learn to read, not just from one grade lesson,
but from doing it over and over.
Second rituals, like routines create safety.
Kids learn better when they know what to expect.
When you have a tradition, there's no anxiety about what are we gonna do today?
They can focus all the energy on the learning itself, not on figuring out
the format or what they have to do.
Thirdly.
Traditions build identity.
When you're part of something that repeats, it becomes part of who you are.
You're not just a child who wrote a story once.
You're part of Friday Writer Circle.
That identity carries weight, and here's the part that matters for families.
Traditions create connection.
When you have these shared practices, you're building memories and
relationships alongside the learning.
20 years from now, your children will not remember the worksheet on page
47, they will remember the tradition.
Okay, so how do you actually build these into your teaching?
Start with one thing.
Don't overall everything.
Don't make it complicated.
Just pick one small practice that you can commit to repeating.
Maybe it's how to start off each day or one activity every
Friday or monthly tradition.
Make it simple, not complicated, 'cause then you won't stick to it.
The best traditions are simple enough to do even on your worst days.
Name it.
Give it a name.
Monday morning meeting, or Wonder Wednesday.
Names make things feel official and and it helps stick in
everybody's mind and protect it.
This is the hard part.
'cause when you're behind in your curriculum, you'll be tempted
just to skip the tradition.
Don't.
The tradition is doing deeper work than that extra worksheet ever will.
Let me give you a practical example.
Say you want to build stronger writing skills, instead of adding
another writing curriculum,
what if you created Friday Free Writes.
Every Friday, 15 minutes, everyone writes, you write too.
Sometimes you share, sometimes you don't.
But it happens every single Friday after a month, children are gonna
stop complaining about writing.
After three months, they're going to ask to share their pieces.
After a year, they've written 50 pieces and they can actually
see themselves as writers.
You didn't add content, you created a tradition.
And here's what I want you to take away today.
The most powerful learning often comes from what we do
repeatedly, not what we cover once.
Your curriculum will change.
Standards will shift, but, but the traditions you build, those repeated
practices that create safety, skill and connection, those will shape your children
long after they've forgotten the content.
Trust me.
So this week I want you to think about one tradition.
You could start just one, make it small, make it doable, and commit to it because
you're not just teaching lessons.
You're building a culture of learning, and that happens through the things
you return to again and again.
Listen, I've started a private Facebook group where you can share your
stories, find support with like-minded folks and get the help you need.
I would love you to join us.
I'll leave a link for you in the show notes.
Join and tell us what traditions you are going to start or what
traditions you have already started.
I look forward to reading your responses.
Thanks again for showing up.
Thanks again for listening.
Until next time.
Stay blooming, curious, and keep those traditions alive.
I'll see you next week.
Take
care.