This is episode 238 of Teacher Approved.

You're listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping

educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm

Heidi.

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.

We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to

the show.

Hey there, teacher friends. Congratulations, you

have made it through concerts and class parties and sugar

highs and countdowns, and now you are finally blessedly on

break.

Hooray! You did it. You've closed your classroom

door, turned off your alarm, and we hope you are deep in some

much deserved rest, maybe with hot cocoa, some Hallmark movies

and some comfy cozy jammies.

Over the last few episodes, we've helped you get

ahead without overwhelm. Plan for December, keep behavior calm

and even prep for January from your couch.

And today, we are closing that loop by focusing on what

comes next, how to keep that fresh start feeling alive once

you are actually back in the classroom.

But don't worry, this is not about planning or goal

setting yet. Think of it more like a little spark for your

teacher brain.

Yeah, exactly. You don't need to take notes or make

decisions today. Today's episode is a replay of one of our

favorites. It's all about reflecting and resetting for

January. Just listen while you wrap presents or go for a walk

and let these questions simmer in the back of your mind.

And when the glitter has settled after the holidays and

you are ready to start thinking about school again, you might be

interested to know that we are bringing back our Teacher Talks

Summit Series. Our previous one was teacher summer talks, and we

are coming back with teacher winter talks.

Woo hoo.

Not quite ready to sign up for yet, but mark it on your

calendars. In about a week, you'll be able to sign up, and

this will be happening over the long Martin Luther King Jr

weekend in January. We have an exciting sponsor this time,

Fashion Fix that you are going to love to hear more from. So

just wanted to get you a little excited about what's coming for

that. This summit's going to help you capitalize on that new

year energy that you have in January and help you set up for

a strong second half of the school year. So keep an eye on

that.

But for now, just enjoy the festivities, the downtime

and the satisfaction of knowing that you made it through another

December as a teacher.

And let's dive into our replay of episode 111, your

January reset reflection.

We start our episodes with a morning message, just

like we used to do at morning meeting in our classrooms. This

week's morning message is, What is something you still do the

old fashioned way? Emily, kick us off.

Well, I still write a paper to do list. These days, we

do so much of our work digitally that it makes the most sense to

keep my to do's digitally as well, and I actually do keep a

digital to do list, but when it comes down to what I need to

accomplish today, my brain is just so much happier when I

write it out on a piece of paper. It's the first thing I do

when I'm feeling overwhelmed or like I can't focus, I grab a

piece of paper and just brain dump all the things I need to

get done that day. And seriously, is there anything

more satisfying than that feeling of physically crossing

off something on your list?

Yeah, that's why I will add things I've already done to

my list.

And checking a box or hitting the like strike through

button on the computer is just not as satisfying is your pen

dragging across that to do list item. But the downside to this

is that my desk is cluttered with old half finished to do

lists everywhere. What do you still do the old fashioned way,

Well, I am the same with the to do list, probably just

Heidi?

because, like you, I like checking things off. My calendar

is on my phone, but I have a daily to do list that's on a

notepad. But something else I do the old fashioned way is I

cannot follow a recipe off of a screen, not off my phone, not

off an iPad. It just drives me crazy. I want an actual paper

recipe. So now I've got, like, this huge stack of loose recipes

I printed off, and then I've just never bothered to figure

out what to do with so that's kind of the downside of being

old fashioned on that one.

Yeah, I guess the other thing we do old fashioned is

make paper clutter. I think I've got digital clutter too. I've

got all the clutter.

Well, someone has to keep those paper sales people in

business, right? Dunder Mifflin.

We asked our community what they do the old fashioned

way. Suzanne said, math, and Lisa said, read a real book and

read aloud to the class. The kids love it, even in fifth

grade. And I'm like, that should not even be considered old

fashioned. Tracy said, gradebook. She still uses a

paper and pencil.

And I'm the same on that one, Tracy, I hated doing my

grades on the computer. I sound like a dinosaur.

And Nancy said daily read alouds after lunch. We'd love to

have you join the conversation over in our Teacher Approved

Facebook group.

So when I saw that this was episode 111 I kind of

thought, hey, wait a minute, isn't this supposed to mean

something? So I looked it up, and the answer, I thought, made

a fun little kind of fortune cookie for how we might be

feeling at the start of January.

Okay, lots of people are into numerology, but I wouldn't

say that's normally our thing.

I mean, not really, not horoscope girlies either, but it

can be a fun way to maybe help us connect with the stories in

our lives. So if you hear something that's resonating with

you, maybe look a little deeper. Maybe it's resonating with you

for a purpose.

Okay, so what are we getting with 111?

Well, according to a highly researched USA Today

article, 111 signifies the start of things, whether that's a new

journey or a new path.

Well, that fits for January.

Yes, and 111 is supposed to be your green light, you are

on the right track, and the road is clear.

All good things to hear at the start of a new year.

And I like this quote from the article. The

universe—oh, I need some crystals or something. Okay,

just imagine we have crystals. The universe is giving you the

ability to choose how your future goes by providing options

along with giving you the self confidence to make the decisions

that feel right to you, not to mention the resilience and

passion to accept whatever positive or negative outcomes

result from those decisions. Ultimately, you'll know the

right decision by trusting your gut. If you are doubting

yourself, have faith that this number coming into your life, ie

this podcast episode, means you can stop hesitating.

Wow, that's a lot of pressure to put on a podcast

That is not the spirit of 111! You gotta embrace this

episode.

opportunity.

Okay, let me try again. Let's embrace this opportunity

of a new start by figuring out where we're starting from.

Yes, and in the words of a great philosopher, Ferris

Bueller, oh, I've heard of him, life moves pretty fast. If you

don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

He was such an inspired thinker.

Definitely ahead of his time. So let's take a minute to

look around. We have got eight reflection questions to help you

get off to a strong start this year. You could just think about

your responses. But if you really want extra credit, and we

know we've got some high achievers out there, record your

answers somewhere so you can reflect on your progress later.

Do it on paper. It's very thrilling. Let's start with our

very favorite question, what is going well?

And this is probably our favorite question, because it's

the question that Emily and I need the most.

We love to jump into fix it mode. Before an event is even

done, we've already got a running list of what we need to

do to make it better next time.

We had a fondue night a couple weeks ago, and Emily and

I were comparing notes on what to improve for next year before

I had even left her house.

Yep, guilty. And look, that can be helpful, but if we

don't pause to celebrate what went well, hey, the fondue

didn't seem like it was going to turn out, but it did, and we did

not even celebrate it. And if you do that, then you run the

risk of not ensuring those things happen in the future.

Plus only focusing on how to improve gets exhausting. Take

that from our experience. We have all worked really hard, so

let's give ourselves the gold stars we deserve.

Dear teacher friends, what is going well for you?

Consider your classroom, but also your life in general.

Are you in a good place with meal planning, I hope, or

getting to bed on time?

Give us some pointers if you if you have that one in

place.

Maybe you made a new friend, or you joined a book

club.

If you're in a place where it feels like nothing is

going right, this question is even more important for you. So

listen, please, find something positive to hold on to. Even if

it's as small as the car starting this morning,

identifying the good gives us the strength to cope with the

less than good.

And you know, speaking of less than good, our second

reflection question is, what are your biggest headaches?

These are probably easy to identify, unlike the wins.

Once you have pinpointed your headaches, take a minute to

really dive into what makes those particular things a

headache to you. Maybe, if you say teaching, exactly what part

of teaching is a headache? If it's because you have a

difficult class, that's going to lead you to different solutions

than if your headache comes from unrealistic curriculum

expectations.

hen you've clearly named the problem, you can start

looking for solutions. Maybe you need to revamp your management

system. Maybe you need to split up the workload with your team.

One thing that can probably help every teacher at

this point of the year is to revisit your procedures.

Now, unless this is your first episode here with us, and

if it is, welcome, you are probably not surprised to hear

us bringing up procedures. We seem to find a way to do that in

every episode.

Because procedures make the world go round.

It's true in your classroom.

And revisiting your procedures is an impactful way

to hit the reset button when you come back to school in January.

If you can only manage one thing, this is the one to do.

Because effective classroom procedures help reduce behavior

problems and will save you so much wasted time, it's worth

taking some intentional time now to review the procedures that

aren't working as well as they could be.

And we have some procedure review Google slides

that are great for doing this mid year with your students.

These are brand new, and it is important to make revisiting

your procedures part of your regular routine. It's really

hard to add something like that into the flow of your day a few

times a year, though.

This is exactly the sort of thing that I would always

tell myself I was going to do, I was going to make it happen this

year, and then totally forget to do it, not because it's hard to

do, but because it's hard to add in things that aren't part of

your regular routine.

That's why we wanted to automate this as much as

possible. There are four different slide decks for

reviewing procedures. Each deck has the same slides. It just

mixes up the colors to keep things interesting.

You could set aside one slide deck for the end of term,

one, one for the end of term two, or after winter break, or

any other time that you feel a review is useful, and then all

you have to do is add the names of your most important

procedures to the individual slides. Maybe you want to

revisit how students come in in the morning or start their

morning work or walk quietly in the hall, you just type those

procedures into the slides and project them for the students.

For each procedure, you ask your students to rate from

one to five how well they're meeting your expectations, and

then make a plan for improving or continuing to be awesome.

If there are any other problem areas you are

encountering in your classroom right now, take some time to

identify them and pinpoint some solutions you could try.

The nice thing about these slides is you can do so

much of the prep ahead of time. A nice little gift to your

future self, add your procedure names to the slide decks now and

add a note on your calendar for what day you want to review them

with your students. Easy peasy.

You can find these rules and procedure review slides in

our shop or in our TPT store, and we will link to them in our

show notes.

Okay, on to our third reflection question, Where have

you made progress on your back to school goals?

It is so easy to feel like you never make any progress

on your goals. I know I always think that I haven't even made a

dent when in reality, that is usually not true.

Take time to think back on the goals you set at the

beginning of the school year. Chances are good that you've

come a long way on those goals since school started.

Maybe this year you wanted to stay on top of your

grading or make positive contact with parents, and you've

probably had some days when you have been really great at that,

and also some days where you crashed and burned. That is

life, unfortunately.

But just because you haven't done things perfectly

doesn't mean you haven't been successful. We're about

progress, not perfection.

At the very least, reflect on how difficult some

things were for your students at the start of the year, and

celebrate how much better they are now at their two digit

addition or cursive writing or hopefully following directions.

Yeah, pat yourself on the back because you are the one who

helped them make that amazing progress. It's easy in the day

to day of teaching to feel like nothing ever improves, so take

the time to appreciate the growth you and your students

have made so far this year.

Our fourth reflection question is, Are your goals

still serving you?

Now that we just reminded ourselves of our goals from the

beginning of the school year, consider if those goals are

still serving you.

If the goals are still serving you, what can you do to

continue working toward them? Where are you still falling

short on your aims? What specific actions can you take to

make progress toward your end goal?

For example, if you have a goal to leave as soon as

contract time ends on Fridays, but you are not consistently

meeting that goal, can you identify what is keeping you

late on Fridays? Maybe it's running your copies for Monday

because the copy room is always busy during your prep time on

Fridays. If that's the case, maybe you could work a little

ahead so you can get your copies done earlier in the week.

The answer isn't always cut and dry, but chances are,

you can come up with at least a few ideas you can try to help

you meet your goals.

If you consider your goals and decide that they are

not serving you, what new goals do you have instead? Sometimes a

goal you're excited about at the start of the year turns out to

be one you don't feel is important anymore. It's okay to

abandon a goal that isn't meeting your purpose anymore.

If you want to abandon any goals that you no longer

feel passionate about, think of some new goals to replace them.

You can't hit a target you can't see, so it's important to have

something you're working towards as a teacher.

Our fifth reflection question is a big one, how well

are you taking care of yourself?

There's a reason that everyone seems to be talking

about teacher burnout more and more these days. It's because,

if you've noticed this career has a way of taking over your

whole life if you let it. It will take every ounce of effort

you have available.

It's so important to constantly be considering how

well you are taking care of yourself as a teacher.

Some specific questions you can use to reflect on this

are, are you getting enough sleep? You're probably not,

honey. You need to get some better sleep. Are you eating

during the school day? Do you have enough water and sustaining

snacks available to you? Do you have healthy boundaries between

your personal life and your work life? Do you have adequate time

for yourself?

Taking good care of yourself is something you will

probably always be trying to do better at. But remember that you

can't be the best teacher you can be if you're not thriving as

a human being.

And more important than doing your job well, you should

take care of yourself, because you deserve to feel good. You

are more than that job, and you don't have to earn rest or care.

You are entitled to it because you matter, no matter what.

Remind yourself of that fact every time the critical

voice in your head tries to tell you a different story. You are

the only one who can protect your well being, so take care of

yourself the way you would one of your students.

All right, on to our sixth reflection question. This

is a two parter, what do you want more of and what do you

want less of?

Maybe another way to think about this is to ask, what

are your roses and what are your thorns? Roses are the things

that light you up. Maybe that's planning a huge novel study for

your students, or inventing a new math game. Maybe it's rock

climbing at the gym or trying out a new cookbook. These are

things we want more of in our lives.

Now, what do you want less of? These are the thorns

that get in the way of enjoying life. Maybe it's having to cook

dinner every night or organizing parent teacher conferences. If

you can totally cut out a thorn from your life, do it. But

that's probably not feasible for most thorns, unfortunately. So

what can you do to minimize them instead? Could you spend a

weekend making 15 freezer meals that you can dump in the crock

pot? Could you get your grading done ahead of time so parent

teacher conferences aren't so stressful?

And if parent conferences are a thorn for you the way they

were for me, we have put all our tips and tricks into a mini

course to help take away some of the sting from that particular

Thorn. There's a link to that in the show notes if you're

interested with that.

All right, Emily, what's our seventh question?

Our seventh reflection question is, what does your

classroom need?

Chances are good that when you came back from break in

January, you could maybe feel that your classroom needed to be

refreshed. What specifically does your space need right now?

Maybe you need to clear clutter. That's always the first

place I start, because clearing clutter makes a big impact, and

it's so rewarding.

Plus, it is totally free.

Yes. If you haven't taken down the holiday decor yet,

you'll want to get to that right away, too. And how are your

supplies looking? Maybe you need a restock of pencils and glue

sticks.

Or maybe you just need to freshen things up with something

new. You could add some new decor, or find a new book or two

for your classroom library.

We think new books are always the right answer.

They have never been wrong for me. Or you could

rearrange your room for a big refresh. You can do a totally

new seating arrangement. Or maybe you want to get really

wild and move your rug and shelves too.

Living on the edge.

Don't feel like you have to do something big like that,

but it might be just what you need if your space is feeling

flat.

We do have a digital seating arrangement tool that

lets you play around with different seating options before

you commit to moving the desks. We'll link to that in the show

notes.

And for our eighth and final reflection question, we

have, what are you looking forward to?

I find it so beneficial to always have something I'm

looking forward to. You may already have some things you're

looking forward to, like your spring break plans.

But if nothing is immediately coming to mind, it's

time to create something to look forward to.

You can make a bucket list of fun activities you want

to do with your students before the end of the year, or you can

start something new, like adding Fun Friday to your schedule,

where the last 15 minutes of every Friday is game time, or

something new like that.

You can also look forward by adding in some surprise and

delight. This is a favorite strategy of ours. Surprise and

delight is giving your students something special to do

completely out of the blue, just because. Your students don't

have to earn it with good behavior. It's just something

you're giving to them because you care about them. Some ideas

could be a spur of the moment dance party, or a spin of a

prize wheel, or maybe letting students work under their desks

for a change.

And while it's a surprise for the students, it doesn't

have to be a surprise for you. You can absolutely put this on

your calendar so you don't forget to do it and you have

something fun to look forward to.

These are the sort of things that we tell ourselves

we'll remember, but with everything else we're trying to

keep track of, it's no wonder that these little extras fly

right out of our heads, so write it down, whether that's on paper

or digitally.

Another thing you can look forward to could be more

professional development. Maybe there's a workshop you want to

take or a new teaching book you and your team are going to read

together. Or maybe you want to invest in a new friendship with

a co worker. Having friends at school makes it so much easier

to go to school every day.

But really, at the very least, give those spring break

plans some attention. We got to have something fun to look

To recap, here are the eight reflection questions you

forward to.

can ask yourself as you start your 111 January journey slash

classroom reset.

What is going well? What are your biggest headaches?

Where have you made progress on your back to school goals? Are

your goals still serving you? How well are you taking care of

yourself? What do you want more of, and what do you want less

of? What does your classroom need? And what are you looking

forward to?

We'd love to hear what you're looking forward to for

the rest of this school year. Come join the conversation in

our Teacher Approved Facebook group.

Now let's talk about this week's teacher approved tip. Each week

we leave you with a small, actionable tip that you can

apply in your classroom today. This week's teacher approved tip

is make a plan for how you will start doing test prep. I know

you don't want to think about this yet, but I promise it'll be

here before you know it. So what can we do to get it started,

Heidi?

Research has found that spiral review is an incredibly

impactful way to ensure learners can recall information when it's

needed, like you know when you're taking a test. As you may

already know, we love to include spiral review in our morning

routines, but you can really do it at any time of your day or

even with your homework. We have spiral review morning work and

spiral review homework designed to help you easily build in that

practice every day, and we will put some handy links to those in

our show notes.

If you haven't found a way to build review into your

day yet, make a plan for how you can start doing it in January

with either morning work or homework or some other way.

For example, maybe one of your math centers each week

reviews a topic you learned in the fall, or maybe you want to

do a big review game each Friday, maybe your kids prepare

videos to teach their classmates about tricky topics. Because we

are starting this in January, we have time to make review

engaging and creative. There are so many fun ways that you can

start working this into your schedule.

Anything that gets kids to pull information from their

memories without the benefit of notes or books, helps them

retain that information in the long term. That is called

retrieval practice, and it's so important that we devoted our

third podcast episode to explaining all about it, so you

can go back and check that out if you want all the details.

You may also want to work on building on task stamina

between now and those end of your tests, working on

increasing on task time and celebrating persistence and

frustration tolerance.

End of your tests are just a never ending source of

joy, aren't they?

Yeah, joy is the word I think of.

To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we're giving extra

credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

I'm giving extra credit to a cordless rechargeable

screwdriver. It's so handy to have one of these ready to go

when you're assembling things or need to do a bunch of small

household tasks. I know I had one ages ago, but who knows what

happened to it. I finally snagged a new one, it comes in a

case with all these different tips, including like unusual

ones that you sometimes need for, like your ring doorbell or

whatever.

Oh, that's handy.

Such a treat to have handy whenever I need it. And

it's smaller and easier to grab for a quick job than one of

those big drill drivers.

That's what I have.

I think they're probably all created probably pretty much

the same, but I will link to the one I got in the show notes.

What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

So my extra credit is for a glass pot. I will put a link

to the one I got in the show notes, but there's nothing

particularly special about that one. I just got it because it

looked pretty. And you could probably cook in a glass pot,

but I use it specifically for stove top simmers, being extra.

If you don't know what a simmer is, it's where you put like

oranges and cranberries and spices in a pot, and you heat it

on low for a few hours to make your house smell cozy and warm,

if warm is a smell. But I've used regular cooking pots for

these simmer pots in the past, but the glass pot makes it look

so beautiful, as well as smelling nice. It's just really

such a comforting little touch to add to a dreary winter day.

And it may be extra, but my kids have informed me that we

both are extremely extra, especially at the holidays, so

we're just leaning into it.

What a baseless accusation.

How dare they?

That's it for today's episode. Don't forget to use

these eight reflection questions to help get your new year off to

a strong start. And remember our teacher approved tip to start

planning your test prep now so that you are ahead of the game.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm Heidi.

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.

You can connect with us and other teachers in the

Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.

Bye for now.

Bye.