Goodness, that teacher feeling before break feels full of rest, Netflix, and family, but when that alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. on the January day you go back, well, reality sets in. It is cold; it is the third quarter, and your pants don’t fit. (Well, mine don’t.). Regardless, our kids are coming back, ready or not. You may be the only person and school the only place some of our kids can’t wait to get back to because their breaks weren’t full of fun and rest. So, remember that as you attempt to button that last button on your favorite teaching jeans or yoga slacks, and get back to this life-changing work.
Here are SIX activities to do after the kids come back and you are easing back into the school routine.
Activities for After Break:
- Have students mindmap their future goals. It is an artistic expression and visual representation of their goals and future lives.
- Have students write a letter to their future selves. Have them reflect, make an end-of-year goal, a ten-year goal, a twenty-year goal. Have them sign it and take it up. You should write on each letter, and hand them back in May. I love this activity because in May it is lighthearted, and they love hearing from their past selves.
- Revisit procedures. Every student, every grade needs re-practice on how we live this school life. You could gamify it; group quiz; partner blooket, but make sure they remember how to behave in your space. It won’t take too long before they are back in their routine.
- Use Love and Logic when things start ramping up. “Oh,” smile, “we don’t talk across the room in here.” Smile again. It is awkward and fun and EFFECTIVE, and I LOVE IT.
- Have a choice board ready for the kids to pick an on-going project that they will begin working on throughout the semester. (Choice matters).
- Have them do a comic strip of their goals for the semester or a comic strip of their favorite activities. Something light.
The January and the February in every school year is always my most difficult time of the year. The 3rd quarter is rigorous and cold and the heat in my room never seems to work right, but it won’t be long until Spring Break will hit, and you will begin feeling nostalgic over the year because the fourth quarter will fly by.
Teach On, beautiful warriors! I’m rooting for you!
-Katie
(Or you could have your students make a Greek and Latin rootword forest… always a favorite of mine).
Katie Kinder 