Heidi: This is episode 224 of Teacher Approved.
You're listening to teacher approved, the podcast helping
educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm
Heidi.
Emily: And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story
Window, where we give research based and teacher approved
strategies that make teaching less stressful and more
effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from
each episode at secondstorywindow.net.
Heidi: We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to
the show.
Emily: Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today's
episode, we're talking about how to help your students build
their learning stamina, plus we've got a teacher approved tip
for elevating your sub plans.
Heidi: But first, our try it tomorrow. Emily, what is our
quick win for this week?
Emily: Okay, so tomorrow, when kids are working, try narrating
positive things that you see, but make it about the effort,
not the outcome. So instead of, 'you're doing great,' try
saying, 'I see someone trying two different ways to figure out
that problem to make sure they got the same answer.' This takes
two seconds, but it shows everyone what you value, and
encourages them to keep working hard.
Heidi: This seems so minor, but it's a really powerful shift.
Kids need to know what good work actually looks like.
Emily: If you like this idea or anything else we share here on
the podcast, would you take a second and give us a five star
rating and review in your podcast listening app?
Heidi: All right, imagine it's the second week of school.
You've planned a beautiful, independent writing lesson,
you've explained the directions clearly, modeled what good work
looks like, and confidently sent your students off to write. And
I bet you can guess what happens next.
Emily: Well, let me think, probably about three minutes in,
half the class is at the pencil sharpener, two kids are done
with work already that should have taken them 20 minutes, and
someone's having a sudden shoe emergency that apparently cannot
wait.
Heidi: Exactly. If you have ever asked your students to work
independently for 15 minutes in those first days of school, you
know exactly what we're talking about, the wandering eyes, the
bathroom requests, and suddenly everyone's water bottle is
desperately empty.
Emily: Yes, and it's not that your students don't want to
focus. It's just that many of them are still in summer brain
mode. So their attention spans are shorter. They're adjusting
to new routines and expectations, and they're just
not used to sustained focus anymore.
Heidi: And that is assuming that they ever had the skills to
focus to begin with. But rather than pushing through hoping it
will get better, what if we took a more proactive approach? What
if we treated stamina not as something kids either have or
don't have, but as a skill we can teach and grow, just like
reading or math.
Emily: We don't expect kids to multiply two digit numbers
without teaching them how, right? So why do we sometimes
expect them to focus for extended periods without
explicitly building that capacity? And that's exactly
what we're going to talk about today. And Heidi, kick us off.
You've got a good example of this, right?
Heidi: I do. Well I hope everyone is comfy, because we
are starting with a story time, and I so wish right now that I
could do a Sofia Petrillo impression, but you're just
gonna have to imagine me with gray curls and a wicker purse.
Emily: Picture it. And if you're too young to get that reference,
first of all, how dare you. And we probably seem so old to you
right now that you do think we have gray hair and wicker
purses.
Heidi: So rude.
Emily: I mean, the gray hair may be accurate. It's not fully gray
though, we are taking care of that, but I do not have a wicker
purse, thank you very much.
Heidi: Although, is it bad if I say I saw one the other day
Emily: Oh, shoot, let's just give up. Let's move to Florida.
online, and I thought, Oh, that's cute.
Heidi: All the cheesecake we can handle. Well, picture it.
Sicily. I mean, my second grade classroom. It's the first week
of school. We have made it to day three, and I have been
working through my attaboy back to school goals. One of my
biggest teaching goals in the first week is to get students
used to the learning routines that we will be using all year
long, like how to spend silent reading time actually reading.
Emily: Yeah, the eternal challenge.
Heidi: Oh, no joke. But I did find a secret weapon in the
daily five book. There are suggestions in that book that I
do disagree with, but the stuff that is good is so good that it
completely changed my teaching, and the author system for
launching reading time is really some of their best stuff. So
here's what I would do. I gathered my new little second
graders back at the carpet for a chat. We would talk about the
value of focus, and then I would give each student a stack of
books and place them in their reading spots. Now eventually, I
would let them choose their own books and spots, but that came
later. Once everyone was settled, I went back to my
table, because that's where I would normally be during reading
time, and I pretended to be busy with paperwork, but really I had
my stopwatch running and I was covertly scanning for the first
sign that someone was off task.
Emily: Oh, and those kids think they're being so sneaky while
they're secretly wasting time, but you're on to them.
Heidi: Every time, they can't get it past me. Those kids are
about as subtle as a stampede. As soon as I spotted someone
looking around the room or building a tent out of books, I
stopped my timer and I called the class back to the carpet. No
matter how long they managed to read, even if it was just one
minute and 48 seconds, I was super pumped, because it is all
uphill from here. I told the kids all of the awesome things I
noticed them doing. Next we talked about the ways to get our
minds back on track if we lose focus. And then came the big
question, were they ready for round two? We set a goal for how
long they thought they could focus, and because they're
overachievers, they would immediately jump to 10 minutes.
Emily: Why did they do that? They think, they always think
they're ready to take on this, like, enormous challenge. I was
like, Guys, you couldn't even do two minutes.
Heidi: That's why second graders are the best. They just have no
grip on reality.
Emily: That's what makes them so lovable.
Heidi: Yes, definitely. So I would suggest something a little
more doable. Like, okay, we made it one minute and 48 seconds. Do
you think we can try for two minutes, and if we can keep
going, maybe we'll get to ten. So armed with their new resolve,
the kids went back to their reading spots, and I went back
to my table. The timer started again, and I got my paperwork
out again, and then as soon as I spotted someone off task, the
timer stopped. I had the kids put away their books and then
come back to the carpet.
This was the end of reading time for the day, and they were eager
to hear how well they had done. And even if they only beat their
previous time by a few seconds, it was still a celebration. We
wrapped things up by reflecting on what they had done to keep
their minds on their books, and we marked the day's progress on
a bar graph. That visual really made a huge difference. Suddenly
they could see, oh, today we made it two minutes. I bet we
get to three minutes tomorrow. It turns stamina into a class
challenge, almost like leveling up in a video game.
Emily: I love that, especially because they're all working
together for the goal. Now, this wasn't something you did all
year, though, right?
Heidi: Oh, no. I think we all would have gotten real sick of
that real fast, but I repeated that process every day until
they could focus for about 10 minutes straight. After that, I
would keep slowly building their on task stamina, but we didn't
stop in the middle and discuss it anymore. So that was my grand
experiment with reading stamina, basically just me trying to
trick a bunch of eight year olds into believing that sitting
still and reading silently was the coolest new sport in town.
But you know what? It worked. It worked every year. By October,
that same class that could barely manage two minutes at the
start was reading independently for 20 or 30 minutes. I
sometimes had classes that could read for 40 minutes. But it
didn't happen all at once. We built it day by day, celebrating
every small victory along the way until they got where they
needed to be.
Emily: Oh, I love it so much. And this is a great story on its
own, but the best part is that these same principles that got
your kids reading longer can apply to any part of the school
day. That could be math practice, writing time, we know
how writing stamina can be so low, centers, even making sure
your mornings are efficient and effective.
So let's break down five reasons why this approach to reading
stamina worked, and more importantly, how you can apply
these same ideas to any time of day.
Heidi: I think the first big takeaway here is that kids need
the language to talk about stamina. If we just say, try
harder, or pay attention, that really doesn't mean anything.
But when I started talking about it like training a muscle, it
clicked. I could tell them, alright, we're building our
reading muscles today. Every time you practice, you go a
little bit longer and you get a little bit stronger, and
suddenly they weren't just, you know, doing reading time they
were training. And who doesn't want to feel like they're
leveling up?
Emily: Yeah, and the key to making this stick is to use kid
friendly language. Defining stamina as the ability to stick
with something, even when it takes time or feels hard, is
something they can understand. We want kids to see that stamina
is a skill they can develop, just like learning to read or
ride a bike, and that same principle can apply to any
subject.
Heidi: It's important to make struggle visible and normal in
your classroom by openly addressing it with your
students. You can start by having a conversation. Help them
understand that struggle is the time whenearning is happening.
You can ask students to share times when they've had to work
hard to learn something, and then work together to create an
anchor chart that defines what to do when you're stuck.
Students might suggest things like try a different way, ask a
friend, look for examples, or take a break and come back.
Emily: It's also helpful to include what not to do, things
like running away to the bathroom, asking to get water
when your bottle is already full, or just sitting there
doing nothing.
Heidi: Yeah, and for some reason, students are often
surprised that we have picked up on these patterns.
Emily: What? How did she know?
Heidi: Yeah, they think they're so sneaky. But naming those
little tricks helps everyone be more aware. The goal is to
normalize struggle and give students concrete strategies for
working through difficult moments.
Emily: The second lesson from Heidi's story is to start small
and make progress visible. And this might be the most important
principle of all. It's easy to think that kids should be able
to do something by this age, but as we all know, that doesn't
mean they can.
Heidi: We have to meet them exactly where they are, which,
you know, in my case, was one minute and 48 seconds, and then
we can build from there. Starting small lets students
feel successful early, which is incredibly motivating. It's also
important to know when to stop pushing for the day. As soon as
my students were done with their second attempt, we were done
with reading time for the day. I didn't want it to become a
chore, so I ended things on a high note, even if it was only
four minutes long, and we celebrated any progress and
added it to our graph.
Emily: The clear visual of the graph makes this process so
motivating for students. As each day's bar gets colored in, they
have clear proof of their improvement, and it motivates
them to want to keep trying.
Heidi: Unfortunately, success probably isn't going to be a
straight line. Some days we'll have setbacks, and that's
totally okay. We want students to know that we can learn from
mistakes too. So when this happens, have your students talk
about what went wrong and ask them to make a plan for what
they can try tomorrow.
Emily: Starting small and visually tracking progress
really does work for any subject. You can use the same
process to build writing stamina, math persistence and
getting kids focused during morning work time. The key is
making the increment small enough that success feels
achievable. Don't jump from two minutes to 10 minutes.
Heidi: Even if they think they can make that jump.
Emily: Yes, don't let them do it. Each small victory builds
confidence for the next challenge, so you want to make
it easy for them to have those victories.
Heidi: And then make sure you're celebrating. Did your class make
it four whole minutes today? Add it to the chart and do a little
happy dance. Those moments help stamina feel like a group
achievement instead of a chore.
Emily: And didn't you have a Facebook memory pop up the other
day that was like, my students read for three whole minutes
today, and we're celebrating, right?
Heidi: We take our wins where we can get them.
Emily: The third takeaway for building learning stamina is to
use breaks strategically. Every time Heidi called the class back
together after a timed round of reading, she gave their brains a
chance to reset. They had just spent a few minutes
concentrating really hard, and that quick pause and movement
let them hit the reset button on their attention.
Heidi: Plus taking strategic breaks teaches students that
focus isn't just about gritting your teeth and pushing through.
Sometimes the best way to maintain stamina is to pause,
breathe, and then jump back in. And that is such a valuable
lesson for kids to learn, and probably for some grown ups to
learn too.
Emily: And it's actually easy to build these focus resets into
any subject. If students are working on a long writing piece,
plan strategic pauses where they can share a sentence with a
partner, or do a quick stretch, or have them twist and turn in
their seats between math problems.
Heidi: And luckily, there are a lot of creative ways to add
movement and breaks to your day.
Emily: Yeah, a great desk break is having students gently press
their palms together in front of their chests and holding it for
three seconds. It's simple, but an effective reset.
Heidi: You can even do something like desk cycling. Ask students
to hold onto the sides of their chairs and then pedal their legs
as if they're riding a bike. Or you can use an imaginary paddle
to paddle a canoe, just make sure that students switch sides,
or their imaginary canoe is just going to go in imaginary
circles.
Emily: I know, we need to teach them proper canoeing skills if
we're going to bother at all. There really are endless ways to
build in movement without losing control. You could do wall push
ups, chair yoga, silent disco.
Heidi: What's a silent disco?
Emily: Oh, it's where you say silent disco, and then kids
dance like they're hearing music, but it's totally quiet.
Be hilarious, and get the wiggles and the giggles out
without too much chaos.
Heidi: I bet they love that. And if you want an easy way to
incorporate strategic breaks into your daily routine, we've
got dozens of brain breaks that you can use.
Emily: Probably hundreds, actually.
Heidi: There's so many. We split them into three categories.
Breaks for when kids need to calm down, breaks for when kids
need to focus, and breaks for when kids need some energy. So
you can find exactly the right activity for your class.
Emily: The nice thing about our brain breaks is that they can be
done without technology, so you can use them anytime and
anywhere they're needed. You just print off the cards you
want and keep them where they're easy to grab any time of day. I
like to just put like a metal ring in the corner for each
deck, and you can check out our brain breaks at the link in the
show notes.
Heidi: No matter what kind of break you do, a good idea is to
wrap things up with a clear transition back to focus mode.
Try having students stretch and breathe for a few seconds, or
have them do an energy check in, ask them to pay attention to how
they feel at the end of the break. Now you don't have to
discuss this. It can just be a moment of silent reflection
before getting back to work.
Emily: Okay, the fourth lesson from Heidi's reading launch is
to give students tools to manage their focus. We often equate
focus with willpower, but really it's more about having
strategies. Helping students recognize when their focus is
drifting is a powerful gift.
Heidi: And one tool that even adults can use to help reset
their focus is to take a breathing break. If it feels
like your mind has a mind of its own, pause for a second for a
few calming breaths, and notice how your attention resets.
Emily: Another idea is to extend the discussions about stamina to
discussions about focus. Put it in kid friendly terms, maybe
create an anchor chart about what it feels like and looks
like when your mind wanders. Include examples like, you
realize you've been looking at the same page for a while, or
you catch yourself thinking about lunch instead of your
story.
Heidi: There are also lots of practical supports that teachers
can give. A visual timer makes work time feel more concrete
because kids can tell exactly how long they have left for
their math assignment. Or you can try teaching students some
reminders that they can repeat to themselves, like, good
writers keep trying. This gives kids encouragement to push
through a tough moment.
Emily: The key is teaching students that when they feel
their focus slipping, they're not helpless. They have a
toolbox of strategies to try. This helps them see
concentration as a muscle that they can strengthen one choice
at a time.
Heidi: The final lesson we want to talk about today is including
reflection and goal setting in your stamina building process.
Until my students were up to about the 10 minute mark, we
would debrief together at the end of reading time, and I would
ask them questions like, what went well today? What was tricky
for you? How did you handle it when your mind started to
wander? And what should we try differently tomorrow?
Emily: And I think that discussion piece is key. It's
easy to skip over because we feel the pressure to move on
with the day. You can keep things quick, though even a
couple of minutes will do the trick. But it is so important to
help students notice what works for them and what doesn't, and
it builds that sense of we're all working on this together.
Heidi: After kids share their insights, you can wrap up the
lesson by graphing their progress and then deciding
together what to aim for tomorrow. If you had a rough
day, you might need to keep the same goal, or if progress is
slow, maybe just add 30 seconds. We want students to be proud of
how they're improving, even if it's just a little at a time.
Emily: This reflection piece is so easy to build into any
subject. Wrap up math by asking what was one part that stretched
your brain today? Or after group work, what helped you stay
focused on your team's task? Those conversations are where
the real learning happens.
Heidi: As you're working on stamina building with your own
students, an important thing to keep in mind is that your
neurodivergent learners might need specific accommodations in
order to be successful. Breaking tasks down into smaller chunks,
providing movement breaks more often, or offering alternative
seating options can be essential supports.
Emily: But the good news is that these stamina building
strategies we've been talking about are exactly the kinds of
support that all kids need, including your neurodivergent
learners. Teaching focus as a skill, making progress visible,
providing tools and strategies, this benefits everyone.
Heidi: And not only does it work for all of your kids, it works
for all of your subjects. Use these same principles to build
writing stamina, math stamina, listening stamina, just adjust
the specifics to match your different goals.
Emily: So to recap, our five key principles for building learning
stamina. First, give students the language to understand
stamina as a skill that they can develop. We're building our
reading muscles. Second, start ridiculously small and make
progress visible through tracking and celebration. Third,
use breaks strategically to help students reset their attention.
Fourth, give students concrete tools to manage their focus when
it starts to drift. And fifth, build in reflection and goal
setting so students become aware of their own learning patterns.
Heidi: Your students are capable of so much more than they
realize. With your guidance and the systematic approaches, they
can grow their stamina day by day until they're tackling big
projects, sustained reading, and challenging work like pros, and
we promise it will happen, even if they can only handle one
minute and 48 seconds right now.
Emily: And we would love to hear how you help your students build
learning stamina. Come join the conversation in our Teacher
Approved Facebook group.
Now, it's time for this week's Teacher Approved Tip of the
Week, where we share an actionable tip to help you
elevate what matters and simplify the rest. This week's
teacher approved tip is to leave a happy surprise for your sub.
Tell us more about it, Heidi.
Heidi: Well, now that everyone has been back in germ central
for a few weeks now, you might be coming down with your first
cold, and our apologies if that is the case, hopefully your sub
binder is ready to go and the copies are easy to make. But if
you have vending machines at your school, one thing you might
want to do is leave behind some quarters so your sub can get a
little treat. For me in my sub binder, I had a little zipper
pouch with a sticky note that said something like, Thanks for
your help today, grab a soda on me, and then I just had four
quarters in there. Now, of course, this assumes you can
still get a soda for four quarters. I haven't been to a
vending machine in a while.
Emily: Who knows, maybe you need eight quarters these days. And
obviously this is totally optional, but everyone
appreciates a thoughtful gesture, and if it happens to
motivate the sub to follow your plans with a little more
attention than before, then that would be a win for everyone.
Heidi: To wrap up the show we are sharing what we're giving
Emily: I'm giving extra credit to my cell phone carrier, which
extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra
credit?
is called Visible. About 18 months ago, I decided to switch
carriers because I was just so sick of how much money I was
paying for my Verizon plan. After doing some research, I
discovered there were lots of low cost options, but Visible
jumped out to me because it is a affordable carrier that's owned
by Verizon and uses their same network. So it was basically a
no brainer to switch, and I have loved it. I haven't noticed any
difference in my service. I was nervous to switch to a totally
different company that I didn't know how the coverage would be
in my area, but switching from Verizon to Visible was no
different.
So that was really nice, and I think I was paying like at least
$70 before, and now I'm paying $30 a month for unlimited
minutes and data, just like I was getting before. So I will
put a link in the show notes, and I think you get a $20
discount if you use that code, and I believe you can combine it
with whatever their special introductory offer is too, which
is nice, because they always have great sign up offers. So
this is not sponsored. I just was thinking today how nice it
is to be paying so much less for my cell phone carrier these
days.
Heidi: Okay, I have to get on that. Every time I pay my bill,
I think, Okay, I've gotta, I gotta figure out that switch. So
this is motivating me.
Emily: Yep, I'll send you the referral link, and then you can
join my circle. I think even though we're not on the same
plan, that's another thing they have where you can save,
everybody on the in the circle saves $5 a month.
Oh, that's cool.
If you have like other people who are Visible. I think that's
how it works. Don't quote me on it if, if that's not how it
works. But I just, I just read about it today when I was
looking for the link. So anyway, check it out. I'll put the link
in the show notes. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?
Heidi: Well, my extra credit goes to my Kindle page turner
remote. I think mom gave it to me for Christmas.
Emily: Yeah, that's why I have one. So I'm assuming yes.
Heidi: And, I mean, of course, it's always nice to get a
present. But I was a little skeptical at first, because
turning a page on an e reader is literally just tapping the
screen. I'm lazy, but I'm not that lazy. But I am hooked on
this thing now for two reasons. First, now I don't have to hold
the Kindle up. I can just, like, prop it up or use a stand, and
that's nice, because I do have arthritis in my thumbs, and
holding things can actually create a lot of pain.
Emily: Hey, we were just telling them we're not old. We don't
want to admit that we both have arthritis. Don't tell people
that, it's our secret.
Heidi: Should I tell them I was diagnosed with arthritis in my
hands in my 20s?
Emily: No, shush.
Heidi: But the second reason I like that remote, it's not
because of old, but it's because I can get all snuggly while I
read.
Emily: I know I love it.
Heidi: You don't have to have one hand out in that chilling
room temperature air. You can just pull a blanket all the way
up and keep reading. So if you're also a little snuggly
reader, there is a link to a remote in the show notes. I
don't think it's the same model we have, but there's a bunch on
Amazon.
Emily: I think they all pretty much function the same. But I
co-sign this extra credit. It is very handy to have if you are a
Kindle reader who likes to read in bed, especially.
Heidi: That is it for today's episode. Remember, building
stamina is a marathon, not a sprint. So start small, stay
consistent, and celebrate every bit of growth.
Emily: Come share your stamina building wins in our Teacher
Approved Facebook group. We love hearing what's working in your
classroom.
Heidi: And don't forget our Teacher Approved tip to bribe
your sub with some quarters.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm Heidi.
Emily: And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow
or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an
episode.
Heidi: You can connect with us and other teachers in the
Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.
Bye for now.
Emily: Bye.