Two Months to Go!

Here we are folks! Two months to go until the end of the school year. Whether that means kick it into overdrive or survival mode, here is the friendly reminder that

YOU CAN DO IT!!!

The question is, how are you going to make it to the end?? Maybe your students are feeling the spring fever, maybe their work is a little on the lazy side, what can YOU do to help motivate, stimulate, and ENGAGE your little rays of sun?!?!!? 

I thought I would put together a few ideas for how I am going to keep my kiddos engaged in our learning, excited, and focused to finish out the year STRONG!!

Stay Organized: Don't let the rainy weather or fact that you are almost done keep you from staying on your A game! You have made it so far to get lazy now!! I always find this is the most important time of year to keep myself organized both personally and professionally. My plan is to stay after on Fridays for about an hour. Hopefully this will give me the time to print my copies for the next week and have materials prepped! This plan will HOPEFULLY keep things running smoothly and will make a few less gray hairs happen ;)

Keep Things Fresh: Fresh & Fun! Even in the end of the year, it is important to hold your kiddos to the same high standards as you have throughout the year. That being said, make it your intention to bring FUN into their learning. The more engaging your lessons and activities are, the less likely that the SPRING FEVER will strike and take down the class!!! I am thrilled to begin our A-Z Countdown that will get us through the last 26 days of school! Besides that, I am making sure that we switch up centers more frequently and am giving my students more partner work to get them using their vocabulary and strategies that they have learned. I am so excited to see them interacting more and more with their peers and using what they have learned to explain their reasoning in both math and reading!!

Set Goals: Setting is goals is a huge way to keep yourself on track and finishing STRONG through the last two months! Not only setting goals for yourself, but helping your students set goals is a major way to keep them motivated, focused, and invested in their learning. We are working on creating our Word Worms (thank you Mr. Greg!!!) to help us really master our sight words as well as upping our A.R. goals so that we are pushing ourselves to read more and strengthening our comprehension!! When your students get to be part of the goal-setting process, they are SO much more likely to stay true to it and put in that extra effort!! While setting goals and throughout the rest of the two months, ENCOURAGE, ENCOURAGE, ENCOURAGE!! Be your kiddos #1 fan and supporter! Be the cheerleader that pushes them! I know we are all these things for them regardless of the time of year, but NOW is SO important!!!!

Don't Give Up: You are amazing. You are inspirational. You are life changing. You are a beautiful soul. It takes such a special person to dedicate their life (seriously, unless you are a teacher or are married to one, no one will ever understand the amount of time and love we put into our teaching) to helping students. And not just helping students learn math. Not just teaching reading or showing them how to walk in a straight line.  We show these wonderful little beings how to live, learn, and love. How to be a friend, how to desire to be their very best self, and how to NEVER give up. They aren't just a five or six, or however many years old child that you have for 9 months. They are SO much more than that. You defend them, you cry for them, you laugh with them, you push them. They are your children and they make a mark on your life that you will remember forever. Not only that, but YOU made a difference in their life. No matter the child, the behavior, the academic/social/emotional skill or level, you were there for them. They will NEVER forget that. Don't give up now. You are better than that. They deserve your 100% and you CAN do it. After all, teaching is a super power!! 

Can you survive the last two months? What a silly questions, OF COURSE YOU CAN. You are an educator, a motivator, an inspiration. Keep on teaching on because, GIRL, you work it.