On this Valentine’s Day

Teach Your Students to Love Themselves

In a perfect world, we would all love and respect each other, and ourselves. Teaching would be easy, because a student who feels loved and respected will have intrinsic motivation to better themselves.

Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Here are some ideas that might help you light that fire for your students to love and respect themselves enough to put the work in to better themselves.

Words Matter

Rather than think of yourselves as separate units, think of yourselves as a team. If you use words like “we” and “us” it will become clear to the students that you are all working together toward a common goal. It is less scary for students to try new things when they have a whole team that will work with them.

Praise

We don’t often think of words as a reward. But students do. When you compliment a student’s work, you are showing them that you respect them. They will in turn, learn to respect themselves. Showcasing their work on the walls is a form of praise and reward as well. Praise is a wonderful positive motivator.

Know Your Students

Getting to know your students matters in many ways. It can seem overwhelming. But with some time and extra attention, it should pay off. Have a designated time when students can share something that matters to them. It doesn’t have to be an old-fashioned time in front of the class show-and-tell. It can be as little as going around in a circle and letting students each say a few sentences about what is impacting their lives at that time.

Use Your Knowledge to Help Tailor Material

Once you know your students, you can tailor material toward them. For example, for reading comprehension you could have a group that is reading about sports, a group reading about dinosaurs, and a group reading about pop culture. Students will try much harder to read material that they are interested in.

Keep it a Safe Space

When the focus is on expanding a knowledge base, rather than being perfect, students are given room to grow. If they feel safe enough to fail, they will be more motivated to try. Be sure to admit your mistakes as a way of showing them that everyone messes up sometimes and that it isn’t the end of the world. Showing them how you have grown by learning from your mistakes will inspire motivation and self-respect.

Give Students a Sense of Control

Have a special time when students get to choose what they want to learn. Remedia has products to help you give your students fun learning choices. Whether it is reading comprehension units about online shopping, sports legends, or amazing animals, we’ve got you covered!

  REM436 - Practical Practice Reading: Online Shopping

REM476 - Celebrity Readers: Famous Male Sports Stars

REM732 - High-Interest Reading: Fascinating Creatures

Making the Transition Back to In-class Learning

It is no secret how hard the last year or so has been. Teachers and students suffered and struggled. Everyone did their best in uncharted waters. The pandemic changed how we lived, taught, and learned. Now it is time to regain some sense of normalcy, which everyone is excited about. But how?

Researchers have figured out that holding students back a grade doesn’t solve any gaps in learning. Rather, it fosters apathy and boredom. Wrangling bored students to care about concepts they feel they have already learned is every teacher’s worst nightmare.

Assess Through Tasks

Use real world tasks to assess deep learning. For example, have them plan something that has a budget to see where they stand with basic math skills. You could have them work together in teams to see where their social skills need work. Reading parts in a play out loud is an easy way to see how their reading skills are progressing.

Refresh Before Test

Tests don’t always reflect what students know. They may have learned something, but need a refresher. Quickly go over what they should already know before testing them. Give them a chance to get in the swing of things before throwing a standardized test at them that may not reflect their actual knowledge.

Focus on Gains

Students may be behind in math and science this year. But what have they learned? Some students will be much better at time management and self-direction. Some learned better technology skills. When students had the ability to learn at their own pace, many were more self-motivated. The most beautiful gain? The majority of students said that they missed going to school. Socializing is such an important part of what is taught at school. Try to incorporate social aspects of learning to celebrate the fact that students are back together in the classroom.

Mind the Gaps

Try to identify the necessary prerequisite concepts that need to be taught before moving on. When there is disparity between levels, set up learning groups to reflect what they need to focus on. That way students can concentrate on learning the building blocks that they need to progress. Incorporate spiral learning into your teaching method, reintroducing important concepts throughout the school year.

Utilize Your Community

One teacher just can’t teach to the level of every child. Look into community programs that will help children before or after school. See if your school is willing to offer after school tutoring or summer school courses. Work with local colleges to help families find affordable tutors. Ask parents to volunteer their time to work with students during class time. Facilitate students getting extra credit to tutor students who need a little extra help.

It Takes a Village    

We all want to see our teachers and children succeed. Remember that you aren’t alone. Emotional and mental health of students has been in the forefront lately because we understand it is key for their ability to learn. Your health is necessary in your ability to teach. Reach out for help from fellow teachers, friends, family and therapists. Your community needs you and we have your back!

BASIC SKILLS SUGGESTIONS:

https://www.remediadigital.com/beginning-basic-skills-recognizing-coins-ebook

https://www.rempub.com/easy-sentence-writing

https://www.rempub.com/high-interest-reading-3-book-set

https://www.rempub.com/skill-booster-series

https://www.rempub.com/the-funbook-of-math-word-problems

Seven Ways to Bring Fun Back Into Your Classroom

From Dull To Delightful:

7 Ways To Bring Fun Back Into Your Classroom

January 9, 2022

Neurologists have proven that everyone learns and retains more when they are having fun. One of the most difficult tasks teachers face is how to keep students engaged in learning throughout the day. Here are a few ideas to keep learning fun and exciting.

Healthy Debate

Encourage students to discuss issues they are passionate about. An easy way to do this is to switch up a daily lecture with a more conversational format. Or you could go even further and set up informal debate teams. Teach them how to voice their opinion and back it up with statements of fact. Show them how to speak and listen respectfully. Explain how everyone has a voice and deserves to be heard and listened to. Learning about other viewpoints and that there are no easy answers helps students grow.

Give Students Choices

If there is room in the lesson plan for some leeway between topics, let students choose the next activity. Giving them a small amount of control in subject matter helps encourage attention and interaction in the classroom.

Let the Student Be the Teacher

Students may be more interested in learning when they know they will get a turn to be the teacher. Make sure they take it seriously by helping them devise their own lesson plan. Give them a short amount of time to teach about a subject they are interested in.

Seek Out the Mysterious

Students find learning more fun when they are discovering along the way. Ask questions that even you might not know the answer to. Think of ways to investigate a mystery that will pull the students in as they learn along the way.

Directly Correlate Lessons With Life

Find out what your students are thinking about in their out-of-school hours. Incorporate their concerns into your lesson plans. If they are interested in earning money, change your math lesson to include ideas about work ethic and tips for saving.

Take It Outside

Go on small field trips. Just a walk in the field behind the school might bring plenty of scientific discoveries. From testing water and soil quality to identifying birds and insects, a trip outside is always a learning experience.

Use Technology

It’s no secret, it’s a technological world. Being able to use computers is part of the current education experience. Using Google Slides or Boom Cards will enhance computer literacy as well as the learning experience in your classroom. With topics ranging from recipes to “this day in history” slides, to math, reading comprehension and science, no subject is left out. Colorful slides and fun features like fill-in-the-blank and drag-and-drop keep students engaged. 

To find out more, check out the following suggestions:

Google Classroom Suggestions: