teacher inspiration
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10 Tips for Building Relationships with Families
When I started “Family February” I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to write that many posts about one topic – I should’ve known better. Not only are families a huge piece of the work that we do – because children’s lives are so highly influenced by the experiences of their families – but I also love love love family engagement. I know it’s technically March, but I want to wrap up my Family February with a little bit of a summary. So here are 10 tips for building those relationships with families: Be available – If a family member needs to talk to you find a…
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Lesson Planning Supplies
Raise your hand if your new years resolution had something to do with making sure your lesson plans get done sooner – this was always me. I felt like I knew what I wanted to do the upcoming week, but actually sitting down and planning it all out was the one task that got pushed off all week. Then, when I did get time to put my lesson plans together I would find that I really didn’t have enough ideas, or all of my ideas needed a ton of prep work – prep work that I didn’t have time for. I’m here to give you a couple of suggestions so…
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Resource Review – The Wonder Weeks
I know that back to school season is in full swing, but I thought I’d do something a little different this year. Instead of sharing tips, tricks, and classroom ideas (because I’ve shared plenty of those already) I thought that I would share some of my favorite resource books. Everyday this week I’ll do a review of a different book that I have read, loved, and use regularly. These will be books that are part of my own personal resource library and have helped me in some way – whether they’ve made planning easier, changed my teaching philosophy fundamentally, or helped me understand my students better. I hope that you will take…
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Preschool Resource Review – Encouraging Curiosity
I know that back to school season is in full swing, but I thought I’d do something a little different this year. Instead of sharing tips, tricks, and classroom ideas (because I’ve shared plenty of those already) I thought that I would share some of my favorite resource books. Everyday this week I’ll do a review of a different book that I have read, loved, and use regularly. These will be books that are part of my own personal resource library and have helped me in some way – whether they’ve made planning easier, changed my teaching philosophy fundamentally, or helped me understand my students better. I hope that you will take…
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Preschool Resource Review – Young Investigators
I know that back to school season is in full swing, but I thought I’d do something a little different this year. Instead of sharing tips, tricks, and classroom ideas (because I’ve shared plenty of those already) I thought that I would share some of my favorite resource books. Everyday this week I’ll do a review of a different book that I have read, loved, and use regularly. These will be books that are part of my own personal resource library and have helped me in some way – whether they’ve made planning easier, changed my teaching philosophy fundamentally, or helped me understand my students better. I hope that you will take…
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Preschool Resource Review – Wonderplay Too
I know that back to school season is in full swing, but I thought I’d do something a little different this year. Instead of sharing tips, tricks, and classroom ideas (because I’ve shared plenty of those already) I thought that I would share some of my favorite resource books. Everyday this week I’ll do a review of a different book that I have read, loved, and use regularly. These will be books that are part of my own personal resource library and have helped me in some way – whether they’ve made planning easier, changed my teaching philosophy fundamentally, or helped me understand my students better. I hope that you…
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Creating a Parent Donation List that gets noticed!
Whether I need specific materials for a class project or there are items that I always need for the classroom (Kleenex anyone?!) Parents and families are always the first people that I ask for help. Over the years I’ve come up with some tips for putting together donation lists that get results. First and foremost you need parents to notice that you are asking for something. Let them know where they can look for these kinds of messages, and make sure that you always put them in the same spot so that family members don’t have to search for them. Use bright colors and graphics that will grab their attention.…
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Preschool on Instagram
I follow a ton of great preschool teachers on Instagram, and their photos are a huge source of inspiration for me, so I thought I would take some time to share my favorites with you! playtolearnps: Jamie is always sharing photos from her classroom and all of the activities that she does are simple and easy to re-create. pocketofpreschool: Jackie has the best dramatic play centers, I Love her ideas and the way she includes the children in the work. teachingpreschoolers: Tami’s instagram is the perfect mix of classroom ideas and personal photos, I love when I get to see what my favorite teachers do outside of school teachpreschool: If…
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Fall Fashion for Teachers
I’m not a fashion blogger by any means, but I enjoy sharing these posts every now and then. Autumn is weird in Ohio, for example most of this week it was in the 80’s and then yesterday it was 65 degrees. It’s hard enough to dress professionally when I know that there is a good chance I’m going to leave work with a new marker or food coloring stain on my clothes, throw in crazy temperature fluctuations and I really just want to stay in my pajamas! There are a few things articles of clothing that I have been turning to regularly over the last few weeks – these are…
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Sanity Savers
This time of year is stressful, so I wanted to take a minute to share a tip that has saved my sanity time after time. It’s really simple, I keep a list on my phone of all of the things that I love to do when I need some “me time.” Things are all things that help me unwind and relax a little. I pull out the list on tough days and pick one of those activities to help myself unwind. The key to this particular list is that I’m very specific about including activities that help me unwind that my budget can handle. I also make sure to include…
