Teaching Thoughts for Week 8

 Teaching Thoughts – Halloween edition

 

Is it me, or has it taken six months just to get through the first two months of the school year? But since we switched to a new A/B schedule with Wednesdays as a flex day, life has improved greatly! I really love having Wednesday to have time not just to give immediate feedback on essays but also reach out and contact individual students. And that isn’t even taking into consideration the time we have to learn from each other in terms of best practices. I am taking full advantage of the new schedule for however long we are blessed to have it!

 

I’d love to hear any interesting activities or practices you are using. I can use all the help you can give me.

 

Inside this week’s Teaching Thoughts - 

 

Images – I found a great image about the things you can’t control vs. the things you can control. Don’t waste time on things out of your control. Life is just too short.

 

The World is a Fine Place – I love the lead some businesses are taking on recycling and trying to reduce their carbon footprint. I found a particular interesting story on IKEA and how they are buying back furniture, and I found another example of how Patagonia is doing the same thing to try to prolong the lifespan of their clothing lines. How wonderful is this? Instead of consume and then throw and then consume new products, we have companies seeking to optimize that vicious cycle.

 

Book of the Week – The Fisherman by John Langan. In honor of Halloween, I take a break from my usual nonfiction and PD books to offer this horror classic. The Fisherman won the 2016 Stoker Award for best horror novel. I have read it once and have listened to it at least three times, and it gets better each time.

 

Teaching Thoughts – I break down a powerful article from one of my favorite bloggers and podcasters, Tim Elmore, on a very relevant topic: destructive parenting habits that we need to replace.

 

Video of the Week – I highlight one of my favorite movie scenes. It’s a clip of Invictus. It’s a subtle scene that highlights the importance of leadership.

 

Give This a Try in Your Classroom – Padlet. I just discovered that Padlet has an app that you can download to your computer now! I don’t use Padlet quite as much as I used to, but if you haven’t give it a try, Padlet is an absolute game changer for generating examples, brainstorming, getting feedback, and having students share ideas.

 

We have made it two months! Just looking at the COVID numbers that keep going up and seeing how many of the schools around us have had to shift to distance learning, I would offer this – enjoy the time you have with your students while you have it. Things can change so quickly. And, unfortunately, they probably will change quickly. So enjoy the time you have with the students you do have in your classes. I sure have! Have a great week!