Skip to main content

Lighten Up Your Load

A few weeks ago, I decided to cut down on the amount of work I was bringing home. A heavy bag that never got opened once I'd get home, wasn't making me happy.

I would leave school every day thinking that when I got home I could put in a few hours of work before going to bed. I never seemed to remember, while in school, that at home there would be other tasks that needed my attention. Some of them had an educational focus but were not school-related; my doctoral work alone occupies a huge space when I get home. And, of course, there's my family that needs me as much as I need them.

So, I decided to conduct an experiment. I would only bring home one or two items that I knew I needed for planning purposes, such as my calendar, my teacher journal (sometimes I'd be able to write before I left school), and a professional book and/or teacher guide.

I am happy to report that his experiment has been very successful! I don't miss all the papers and books I used to carry back and forth from school to home and back to school again. I can't even remember what I had in my teacher bag!

There is one notebook however that, from time to time, I wish I'd remembered to bring to school; I will add it to my bag starting next week. In this notebook I write down important ideas about teaching and learning that I want to remember. These turn up randomly and I've regretted not having this notebook handy to jot them down.

So, I highly recommend paring down the contents of your teacher bag, if you haven't already done so. It will lighten up your load, literally and figuratively.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Partner Reading and Content, Too Routine (PRC2)

I'm a hoarder. There, I've said it. I try to deny that I'm a hoarder but it comes back to haunt me every time I move houses, or pack up my classroom at the end of the school year. I have old articles, lesson plans, handouts, folders brimming with teaching ideas, past issues of profesional journals. I hardly throw anything out though I've learned to be more selective over the years. My one rule of thumb, and I really try to stick to this, is that if I haven't used or referred to something in a year, then it's time to toss it into the recycle bin. One exception to this rule (you knew this was coming, didn't you?) is past issues of journals from professional organizations. However, with the ability to locate articles online through my professional memberships, even this exception is becoming less and less useful, which brings me to the topic of this blog post. I am currently reading a copy of The Reading Teacher from 2010. I've clipped a cou...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Reading Strategies Book - Chapter 12, Supporting Students’ Conversations – Speaking, Listening, and Deepening Comprehension

The strategy lessons highlighted in Chapter 12, Supporting Students’ Conversations – Speaking, Listening, and Deepening Comprehension, in The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo are critical to students’ engagement and comprehension, as well as their ability to write literary essays, or even book reviews, summaries and reflective pieces about books. If students aren’t able to talk about books in a way that is invigorating and joyful, they will be less likely to develop an interest in growing ideas for writing about books. In her introduction to this chapter, Jennifer Serravallo, reminds us that when conversations go well, children are inspired by what they read and are motivated to keep reading. However, when conversations fall flat, then kids get bored and tune out. How do we avoid this situation and teach kids to  have  focused conversations about books?  The answer is easy: teach kids  strategies to help them develop effective conversa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Are we listening?

A child sits alone with a ripped worksheet packet on his desk. He appears to be singing or subvocalizing something though no one hears him. Or, perhaps they're ignoring him. The teacher stands at the front of the room teaching on the SmartBoard. The children follow along in their worksheets. Except the child sitting alone. He is in his own world. No one engages him and he engages no one. My heart aches for this child. He is physically and emotionally removed from the class. I ask him why his paper is ripped. (It's not an accidental rip.) He says he did that on a different day. When he had been frustrated about the work. He tells me that he sometimes sits by himself because the work is too hard for him. He later tells me that he sits by himself because the teacher thinks he talks too much during the lesson.  He says he does that because he wants to find out about the "lives of the other children". My first impulse is to rescue him from the wrongheade...
10 comments
Read more