Maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be difficult in general, let alone in a profession that requires you to take a lot of your work home with you. As a teacher, you are trying to engage and inspire your students during school hours and stay on top of grading and creating lesson plans outside of school hours. There is a lot of time and energy that goes into being a successful and dedicated teacher, but you don’t need to give up your personal life to reach that point. With the start of the new year, it is a perfect time to revamp your daily routine to better take care of yourself, which will ultimately benefit your students as well.

Be Conscious of your Health

First and foremost, you need to be aware of your health. Your self-care practices can have an effect on your mood, energy level, focus and patience, all of which contribute heavily to your success as a teacher. Therefore, you should be mindful of your diet, take part in a regular exercise routine, take vitamins to make up for any deficiencies and get plenty of sleep outside of work. During the workweek, you can also take short walks or take the stairs to avoid adopting a sedentary lifestyle and consider buying blue light glasses for work, which block the blue light that is transmitted from the digital devices you use to teach and plan lessons from damaging your retina.

Balance your Time

Being a teacher requires you to be involved with and dedicated to students. This means staying after school hours if a student needs extra help, working late grading papers, working weekends to create lesson plans, staying in constant contact with students, parents and faculty if anyone has questions, chaperoning field trips and attending conferences to better yourself and stay up to date on best practices. These outside responsibilities are a lot to take on and keep track of, so you need to manage your work commitments and personal commitments in a calendar or organizer. It may seem like a simple suggestion but in order to make sure there is enough of you to go around, while also practicing self-care, it’s necessary.

Take Breaks from Electronics

As I mentioned before, being a teacher requires you to stay in constant contact with students, parents and faculty just in case anyone has any questions, concerns or updates. This is a responsibility teachers take on willingly as they are devoted to their students’ success. However, it’s important that you set aside specific times to respond to those students, parents and co-workers. Being available at all times may seem ideal as you want to be a good teacher, however, you need downtime as well. Instead, set aside an hour or so at the end of each day to respond to any emails or inquiries they may have.

Don’t Take too Much on

Volunteering and taking on extra tasks, like the aforementioned field trip chaperoning and attending conferences, is very important, but there is a limit. You need to make sure you are involved and there for your students, but it shouldn’t become your whole life. Learn to say no to some commitments; it may be difficult at times, but if you’re putting in a good amount of time, then you shouldn’t feel bad about turning a few events down here and there.

Let the Little Things Go

From an upsetting encounter with a parent to a student struggling to understand a lesson, there are plenty of ups and downs when it comes to being a teacher. As rewarding as a career in helping students grow and learn can be, it can also be difficult. In times like these, it’s important to remember that you are affecting your students in a positive way as long as you remain positive and determined to help. Through everything, just remember that you’re making an impact and setting an example every day.

At the end of the day, you are influencing every student you encounter. In order to make the effect you have on them a positive one, it’s important that you take care of yourself first. Creating the perfect work-life balance can be difficult, and there will be times where it becomes challenging to maintain it, but the healthier and more balanced your life is, the better teacher you will be.

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Teaching in the 21st Century provides some difficulties along with some amazing opportunities. We sometimes struggle getting our technology obsessed students away from their phones, but we also need to realize they have never lived in a world without it. How can we use this to our advantage? Using technology in the classroom is an amazing way to engage students of all ages. Utilizing technology in the classroom is an effective way to connect with students of all learning levels. It also gives students the opportunity to enhance the interaction with their peers and teachers.

Technology Challenges in the Classroom

Using technology can pose some challenges you need to keep in the back of your mind, so you can adjust to make them work for you and your students. When planning to use technology, always walk your way through the resource yourself, before having your students log in to prepare for any difficulties and how to troubleshoot any issues.

TeacherTube.com is a free website for teacher made video content. You can search for a specific topic orbrowse by category, quickly finding relevant videos. For example, searching for “middle school algebra” will load a results page containing study guides, specific lessons and exam reviews. This easy way to use technology in the classroom adds a multimedia element to your lessons, which can effectively resonate with visual learners. Why not use YouTube? There are ads and suggested videos that may not be student appropriate and there isn’t any way to know if they will pop up. I suggest avoiding the use of YouTube in any classroom setting.

Robotics Teaching Resources – Including Lego and NASA!

Teaching robotics isn’t something that requires a captive audience. Instead, it’s a subject that lends itself to well to the inquiring minds of students. Find plenty of ideas and plans below to help you get started.

LEGO EV3 Online Courses – Free online courses that are specifically for the LEGO EV3 system.

Robotics Lesson Plans – Lesson plans courtesy of NASA!

STEM Robotics Repository for Educational Materials – Educational faculty members can apply for a free account to access all the educational materials this resource has to offer.

Robot BASIC – Retired college professors authored this free robotics resource.

How to Teach Robotics – This informative article from The Guardian offers several teaching ideas and links to robotics resources for different grade levels.

Student and Teacher Online Learning Communities

www.quizlet.com Quizlet is one of the world’s largest student and teacher online learning communities. Anyone can use Quizlet to study and learn content created by others or created on your own. With most teachers having planning periods to work together, you can share sets with other teachers on your team. There is an option to search sets already made by other users. To create your own content, you will need to make an account. To take it up another notch, your students can use their phone to use Quizlet because there is an app, free on iOS and Android.

https://docs.google.com/ Google Docs was an amazing resource when a group project was in the lesson plan. The perks to this option is that every student can access the assignment from school and home.

teacherspayteachers.com Teachers Pay Teachers is an online marketplace where teachers buy and sell original educational materials. There is something for every grade level and subjects, including holidays. This is a great resource to use for lesson planning because it is created by teachers who are in the classroom every day and have been successfully developed to be beneficial. It empowers teachers to be able to focus on actually teaching the content, instead of coming up with the classwork. There is a way to access free content, but most of the resources cost money.

www.playfactile.com Factile is a free learning platform that allows teachers to create engaging jeopardy- style quiz games for the classroom. Using ‘fun’ while reviewing for exams helps the students stay active in their learning.

mobymax.com This online resource can be accessed by students from home and the teacher can measure performance and provide in depth reports showing progression or regression, identifying learning gaps. There are different options Moby Max provides including: learning, assessments, and interactive activities.

www.readinga-z.com is a literacy focused Pre K-6 resources for every learning level.

jr.brainpop.com (K-3), brainpop.com (upper elementary and middle school) and ell.brainpop.com(English language learner focused) is a playful, educator-focused online resource focused on games, animated movies, and activities covering all subjects and universal topics.

www.getepic.com is a digital library for kids 12 years and under. There is a parent log in option for students’ use at home.

www.abcya.com is an interactive, game-style resource, with ELA, Math and Science for grades K-6. You can search by standard or by game, based on grade level.

www.nearpod.com Nearpod was created for teachers, so that they could focus on the instruction. There are eight different options for students to interact with their learning. ‘Draw It’ is an interactive whiteboard where students can draw, highlight, type, and add pictures. ‘Open-Ended Question’ gives your students a chance to freely demonstrate their understanding of a topic. ‘Quiz’ Assesses students’ understanding through multiple choice questions and receives instant results. ‘Poll’ highlights student opinions, checks for understanding, or provokes a discussion. ‘Collaborate’ creates collaborative learning opportunities where students can share ideas in real-time.

‘VR Field Trip’ takes your students on a virtual reality adventure without leaving your classroom. ‘Fill in the blank’ is a fun “drag & drop” activity that allows students to populate blanks with words. ‘Matching Pairs’ is a classic match game. It allows students to test their knowledge by matching pictures and/or text. All of these give teachers immediate feedback on student performance.

Online Bulletin Board

www.padlet.com Padlet is an application to create an online bulletin board, which allows you to display information for any topic. Easily create an account and build a new board. You can add images, links, videos, and more. You can return to add more later.

www.symbaloo.com Make your online life easier by keeping all your favorite websites organized in a visually-appealing, personalized environment. You can save your links in tiles that you can customize with different colors, icons or images.

Online Math Resources for Teachers

www.prodigygame.com Prodigy has math content from all major topics and will seamlessly cover Grades 1-8 to help ensure your students are ready for standardized testing. Prodigy addresses every child’s individual needs with a diagnostic test to place students in the correct grade, embedded assessments, and automatic differentiation. Prodigy ensures that each student succeeds at their own pace.

There are so many different ways to use technology in the classroom and there is no way to list them all. Keep in mind, with any technology based resource, you will come across several that are not free and require a membership. Talk with your curriculum coordinator or department chair at your school to see if any of the resources can benefit multiple people. Schools have funding for curriculum and it never hurts to ask.

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When I was in school I had a handful of amazing teachers. I went to a private school, a public school and homeschool. I got a little bit of a taste of everything and each one has it’s benefits. However, my teachers at Liberty Christian School, which at the time was in Denton, TX, were some of my best. My sixth grade teacher Mr. Terrell was the most creative at keeping us engaged and entertained and seemed to know when we just needed a break, and my 12th grade geometry teacher Mrs. Grey was excellent at teaching a subject that I didn’t think I was capable of learning – and I made an A in her class. To me, being a good teacher isn’t just teaching the students that learn easily, but teaching all students despite their abilities. This is challenging work. With a classroom of varying IQs, genders, ages and backgrounds it can be quite a juggling act to not bore the more advanced students while not leaving behind the slower learning students.

Keep Students Engaged

One way a teacher can keep students engaged in learning is through using classroom clickers and testing students quickly and easily on the information that they just learned. If you live in a school district that works with a company like ALL In Learning you may have the option to quickly scan bubble sheet tests or to use a clicker for a student to respond to newly learned material. This allows teachers to see who is keeping up and who is lagging behind. Let’s face it, we all check out from time to time even as adults. Students are just as busy as adults with schoolwork, sports, social media, dating, etc. Sometimes their lives are much more complicated and keeping them engaged in Geography or Algebra can be difficult if they’d rather be scrolling through Instagram.

“It Makes My Students More Successful”

Check out these videos from ALL In Learning to learn more about how their program works to help you keep students engaged in the classroom.

Welcome to ALL In Learning Teachers from ALL In Learning on Vimeo.

Other Ways to Engage Students in the Classroom

Make it Personal

When I hear a speaker give a great talk I always think it is better when they make it personal. When we have real-world data to tie in the information being shared it makes it more real. Personal details give layer and dimension to a story or subject. If you are teaching math you may share how fractions can help you calculate the cost of tipping at a restaurant or calculating a mortgage. When teaching on geography a teacher may include personal details of a trip and how it impacted their view of the world. Mr. Terrell made our classroom very personal by bringing his fiancé to class and introducing her to us. He told us about the engagement and included us in details of his life. He was less like a teacher and more like a cool uncle. He taught 6th grade and we were in our own portable building so it seemed like we were in our own little world. That classroom was where I spent a large part of my life transitioning into young adulthood. The way Mr. Terrell treated me helped shaped my view of the world and even how I viewed myself. He made me feel valuable and special by being authentic and sharing part of who he was with all of us.

Use Music

As I mentioned before, one of my best teachers, Mr. Terrell, was a master at student engagement. He would play music for us during our tests, usually it was classical, but he would tell us a story about the music before he would play it. Even if it wasn’t our preferred type of music, knowing something about the composer was really interesting. He also brought in a special set of speakers and one of the first CD players. I had never even heard of a CD player in the 80’s, but he showed up with it and a great set of speakers and it was great. It made me feel special that our teacher would bring something expensive into the classroom and share it with us.

Let Your Students Teach

A great way to keep students engaged is to allow them to become the teacher. This is a win/win. It gives the teacher a break and also allows the students to learn from one of their peers. When a student has to give a presentation or teach on a specific topic it forces them to engage by preparing materials. Allowing students to teach will boost their communication skills. During the presentation don’t interrupt, but instead hold your feedback and comments until the end. Focus on the positive aspects of their teaching and encourage them in ways that allows the to continue to grow.

When I was younger my mom worked with students who wanted to sing. She wasn’t a professional voice coach, but a youth pastor’s wife. There were students who believed they weren’t good singers, but with a lot of patience and encouragement, she helped one young man not only succeed at singing from the stage but he went on to sing and record a gospel album. Teachers have that ability – they can take a piece of coal and turn it into a diamond. Some students only need someone to believe in them.

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Technology, Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

Technology in education is a new concept that honestly is changing the direction of education. But now the debate is more present than ever as schools and classrooms incorporate more and more technology.  On one hand, technology allows you to engage students using a variety of tools and resources. On the other hand, some argue technology in the classroom is a distraction, not useful, a crutch, a method for cheating. Technology is everywhere in education and by far the biggest debate in regards to having vs. not having it.

What does technology use in the classroom look like?

Now days, students have technology at every disposal. They have grown up with it and do not understand life without it. Life with technology and technology in the classroom can sometimes look a bit different. Classroom technology can help facilitate learning objectives based on data generated by an online quiz your students just took. It can be engaging and fun all at the same time. However some may see it as a distraction and an unnecessary tool to be used in the classroom. I mean come on, give a middle schooler a phone to complete an assignment and expect them not to be enticed to check their social media accounts or send a quick text message. The desire to some, to do more than just the assignment, is overwhelming.

The Upside to Technology in the Classroom

Technology in the classroom allows you to explore and engage in different ways.

Technology allows for almost instant results. You are able to poll or quiz your students and get instant feedback. Technology can help teachers find which students aren’t “getting it” and course correct before moving on leaving a student behind. A great resource for data collection and clickers is ALL In Learning which helps schools gather data quickly and easily which then allows for collaboration across the campus.

It also allows your students to open up a wide range of information by researching using different search websites, or even websites geared toward specific content.  Technology allows them to broaden their knowledge because of the vast amount of information they are able to access.

Technology in the classroom is geared towards 100% engagement.

Using technology allows students to feel comfortable in the classroom. You can send in a quick answer vs. raising your hand and answering in front of the entire classroom. It takes the pressure off if you are wrong. It also allows teachers to better gauge where their students are in regards to specific content. You can poll your students before the lesson and see their level of understanding and help build your lessons off of that information. You can also do the same thing at the end of class to see the percentage of students who understood that days lesson or concept, then build your next lessons based off of that information.

Technology can help manage administration tasks.

As a teacher you have 1000 things to accomplish on a daily basis. Having technology available and to utilize its benefits allows you to take off some of those annoying tasks and complete them in one fail swoop or automatically vs. having to input all of the information one by one. Being able to communicate with your students about upcoming assignments using an app called REMIND ME, which can send a text to all of your students by just having them sign up using an email. You can also have your parents sign up and eliminate a constant flow of emails. Communication is key and technology in the classroom can definitely help successfully achieve good communication.

The Down-side to Technology in the Classroom

Technology can be a distraction

The fact of having your phone sitting out or your computer to take notes allows for a constant temptation to possible do other things than the assignment at hand. Structures and procedures as to how technology is going to be used on specific assignments or in the classroom in general need to be addressed almost for every assignment. Being specific in what you expect of your students and having rules in place for technology can help, but does not completely eliminate the problem of distraction. You will always have some that just can’t turn down the temptation to wander.

Technology takes away the ability to have to think

When using technology students have access to so much information that by just typing in a simple key word, all of the research is done for them. Using technology takes away their reasoning for critical thinking. When things are easy, you do not have to try or apply yourself as much. Technology can sometimes be a crutch for the students. Technology is great when used correctly to achieve certain goals for your classroom. It is the teacher’s job to understand what he/she wants the class to accomplish and use technology but also remember there is also learning that can occur using other resources as well. We live in a day that people are addicted to their screens and have lost social skills and abilities to communicate. Foster a learning environment that embraces technology and other skills together.

 Technology is not available for everyone

Depending on where you teach you may or may not have access to certain types of technology. Some schools have classroom sets of ipads or computers, while other schools have 2 sets for the entire campus. This is important to think about when planning your lessons utilizing technology. There are also technical issues that could arise and make accomplishing your lessons much more difficult. Flexibility is key when dealing with technology in the classroom. Most students will have a phone, but you will encounter a large number of those that don’t. This presents challenges in the classroom, when having students share their personal technology.

Technology, Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

To close to call! As a teacher you must design your lessons to be engaging and flexible that creates a learning environment conducive to all students. Technology is an added bonus to the lesson you have already created that will provide additional support. It should not replace you as the teacher and the benefits of teaching your classroom. The success of technology in the classroom is based off of the foundation to the reason it is being used in the first place. Do not lose sight of your lesson objectives; technology is an instrument that when used right can create and open up a world of engagement and knowledge.

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