How long does it take you to plan for an entire school year's worth of curriculum? If your answer is longer than 1-hour, then I have a simple, strategic system for you! Using plan books, journals, file folders, and lesson plan templates can be energy vampires and hard to adjust on the fly. What if I told you that you can plan highly engaging, really meaningful classroom content using 2 tools? In this week's episode of This Teacher Life I explain my exact plan on how I have created...

What is the vibe in your classroom right now? Do you find it is different on various days of the week! If you want to bring TGIF energy and enthusiasm to your classroom everyday, I've got an idea for you. Our students LOVE YouTube and short form video, so why not leverage that for learning? In this week's episode of the This Teacher Life podcast I dive into a lesson I recently did on a Friday for "Friday Fun Times for Families Who Earned It" This activity was easy to implement because I...

Have you ever tried something in your classroom and thought, "That was really silly, but it TOTALLY worked!" I find myself saying that the most when I am using toys to teach. Because the reality is that toys can actually be really powerful tools in education! In this week's episode of the This Teacher Life podcast we tackle how one, really unexpected throwback toy, transformed a lesson. This activity got all kids participating, all kids laughing, all kids sharing, and was SO much...

As an educator, how do you feel by the middle of the week? Are you emotional drained, out of great ideas, and feeling teacher tired? Sometimes by hump day, we are needing some creativity to add to your curriculum. In this week's episode of the This Teacher Life podcast I explain a strategy that is a really fun remix of something that kids already know and love. The secret sauce to this strategy is the structure and space that we create to make it dynamic. I LOVE using this idea on...

Music is a highly underutilized tool in education! We use books all the time to help kids learn and grow, but songs are just books without pages. So how can you use music to motivate students and get them all engaged in heartfelt, meaningful conversation? That is exactly what we are going to unpack in this week's episode of the This Teacher Life podcast. Super simple, strategic teacher tips will be shared on how we can take songs and transform them into opportunities for debate, data,...

Do your students every walk into class with tired eyes and total disengagement? Do you ever ask your students questions and the only thing you hear are crickets? Do you ever start a lesson and it totally flops, but you keep rolling with it because you don't have a back-up plan? If you said YES to any (or all) of those statements you are not alone. Sometimes it feels like we are competing with kids for attention, but our number one goal is to help them prepare for college, career, and real...

Spring fever is a real thing! But spring celebration is a real thing too. As a teacher do you want to have an AWESOME April or an AWFUL April? I know it seems like a silly, obvious question, but sometimes if we want something to be awesome, we have to put something new in place. And in this week's episode of the This Teacher Life podcast there are 3 super simple ideas that you can try immediately. These ideas take no plan and no prep because all you need is a pencil and some...

What if I told you there are 5 super simple things that can change EVERYTHING about education. These 5 things can help you: LOVE your job CONNECT with kids CREATE amazing lessons DECREASE stesss INCREASE success in the profession In this week's episode of the This Teacher Life podcast we talk about each of those and dive into how "holding off" and "holding on" are secrets ingredients to success in schools. You don't want to miss this one! Episode Notes:  Join the Crushing It For Kids...

Are this point in the school you are you surviving, thriving or in neutral? The reality is that all honest answers are great answers! This is the point in the year where the wheels start to come off for a lot of us. This point in the year is where there is light at the end of the tunnel for a lot of us. This point in the year is where we feel numb for a lot of us. But what if I told you there is still time to end the school year on a good note. And all you have to do to make that happen...

You are a unique teacher that is bringing awesome ideas to your classroom that help you crush it for kids. The big question is, do you believe that? Do you truly believe that your unique interests, skills, and strengths are making a positive impact on people? In this week's episode of the This Teacher Life podcast I'm diving into ways to make your classroom full of laughing, learning, and leveraging YOUR uniqueness to unlock new levels of awesome for kids. I also explain a classroom game...

Building relationships with students can be difficult these days. Our students have changed, their communication has changed, their engagement has changed, and it feels like many of our students have walls. But what if I told you we could bust down those walls with a brilliantly simple structure. In this week's episode of the This Teacher life podcast we talk about how brackets can create conversations, connections, and good classroom chaos. If it feels like "March Madness" in your...

Classrooms need more clapping than critiquing. Do you agree? Sometimes if we want to crush it for kids we need to simply celebrate education and celebrate our students more often. But, how can we do that when we barely have enough minutes to get through our curriculum and all the other disruptions? In this week's episode of the This Teacher Life podcast I share how I use 2 things to boost the climate and culture of the classroom and connect with kids. These silly, but easy ideas could...

Have you ever sat through school PD and thought, "This is not what I need right now!" Have you ever been at a teacher workshop and said, "These ideas are even practical or realistic." Have you ever been to a back-to-school event and thought, "This was a waste of time." If you said YES to any of those situations, you are not alone. Teacher professional development is essential, but what we need and want are: Fun, effective, engaging, meaningful, awesome ideas that can actually be used in...

Have you ever tried to make a decision in your classroom or with your students and started to question everything? Should I say this? Should I try that? Should I go this route? Should I implement this idea? Sometimes, as educators, we can start to question things and don't feel empowered to make best practice decisions. But you may have noticed that your "teacher gut" has changed over time. Parents, principals, and displeased school boards can change the way we approach our passion and...

Is calling home one of your least favorite things because it creates stress, anxiety, and frustration? If you said YES, you are not alone and this episode is going to help so much. Is calling home one of your most favorite things because it creates connection, problem-solving, and solutions? If you said YES, you are not alone and this episode is going to bring your next calls to new levels. Calling home can be difficult, but sometimes all we need are a few simple, strategic sentences to...

Teachers is it time to completely ditch the directions? Giving students support and help is essential to growth, but have we crossed the education line in how we do that? There is a big difference between guiding kids into learning and giving kids the step-by-step directions on how to do or solve things. What does that look like  in your classroom? In this week's episode of the This Teacher Life podcast I give specific examples of major mistakes I've made to get students to give "good...

Sometimes the silliest ideas end up being the most strategic ideas! So let me ask you, how is classroom management going in your teacher life right now? Are students getting disorganized? Are students struggling to keep their hands to themselves? Are students simply not turning in work? If you are looking for a solution to solve common teacher problems you are in the right place. On this week's episode of the This Teacher Life podcast we dive into one of the dumbest things I've ever...

Have you ever heard or observed a student interaction and asked, "Why did you say that?" or "Why did you do that?" Then the student looks at you like you are crazy and they respond, "They are my friend." or "I was just joking." Peer interactions aren't always as positive as we would like them to be. But, what if I told you there is a strategy called "plunkin'" that could get kids celebrating each other and recognizing all the awesome that happens in your classroom. In this week's episode...

Teachers love innovative, fun, engaging ideas. But sometimes really dumb ideas work really well too! Simple, strategic classroom changes can make a big impact and that is exactly what we are diving into in this episode. What if I told you kids would show up to class on time, turn assignments  in that are fully finished, AND self-manage their work, all by implementing this one idea. In this week's episode of This Teacher Life all you need is one notecard and a little bit of silly to create...

Do you want to get all of your students participating in class? The answer is probably YES! The question is, how do we actually do that? We have all been teaching and then hit pause to say, "does anybody have any questions" and ZERO hands go up. Then, only moments later, kids are saying things like "I don't get it" "Can you help me?" "This doesn't make sense." So were kids actually engaged? In this week's episode of the This Teacher Life podcast we talk about the pro-active pause that...

There is SO much hype around goal settings, resolutions, and dreaming big at the start of the new year. Have you ever felt pressure to make a resolution and found yourself giving up only a few days into Jan? Are you in the exact same place, mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, that you were at this time last year? Do you ever get frustrated with progress (or lack of it) because you are so focused on perfection? If you said YES to any of those things, you are not alone and this...

Paper assignments vs. computer assignments. Which is better for kids? Stern consequences or flexible behavior options. Which is better for kids? To allow AI vs. not allow AI. Which is better for kids. Educators can debate and disagree on SO many education topics. But, at the end of the day we have to ask ourselves, which is better for kids and their future? In this special episode of the This Teacher Life podcast, guest Jack Berckemeyer and I discuss all of the philosophies of...

Oprah and Reese Witherspoon are known for their incredible book clubs. Each year millions of people read titles from their award-winning lists. "Teacher Books" rarely make the cut. But what if I told you that there is actually SO much to be learned from New York Times Best sellers that we could use in your classrooms on a daily basis. In this week's episode of This Teacher Life I unpack 3 books that have "nothing to do with teaching" and prove how much we can learn from them. The ideas,...

Have you ever tried to say one thing in your classroom and it came out completely different? That comment may have cause your whole class to laugh. caused you to be embarrassed, or maybe both. Teacher mistakes are a real thing and when they happen, we have to remember they don't make us bad teachers, they make us humans. But sometimes those mistakes end up being super hilarious! In this episode you will hear about 3 real, raw, really "funny" things that have happened that caused some...