This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winner, Barb Mackey! This month, we’re giving away three products to help teachers maximize their efficiency, achieve work-life balance, and stay focused and energized:
- Teaching Smarter: An Unconventional Guide to Boosting Student Success
- The Balanced Teacher Path: How to Teach, Live, and Be Happy
- Tips to Avoid Teacher Burnout In a Jar®: Helping You Stay Focused, Fresh & Happy at Work
To Enter: Leave a comment below describing how you teach smarter. This giveaway is now closed.
For additional entries, leave a separate comment below for each of the following tasks that you complete:
Each comment counts as a separate entry—that’s four chances to win! Entries must be received by midnight, February 23, 2018.
The winner will be contacted via email on or around February 26, 2018, and will need to respond within 72 hours to claim his or her prize or another winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way affiliated with, administered, or endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. Winner must be a US resident, 18 years of age or older.
We welcome your comments and suggestions. Share your comments, stories, and ideas below, or contact us. All comments will be approved before posting, and are subject to our comment and privacy policies.
© 2018 by Free Spirit Publishing. All rights reserved.
I teach smarter by being flexible and adapting to the children.
Followed on Twitter!
Collaboration and student leadership! Students identify the way want to learn within our course standards. I work with other educators to build resources and tools to help all learners toward success.
I focus on each of the child’s specific talents and strengths as well as incorporate their interests in my daily schedule. Noticing when they are pulling away from certain activities I pull out new ones that they are excited about.
Liked on Facebook.
Following on Pinterest.
I teach smarter by asking my students’ input on classroom activities and choosing assessments. I also ask for student feedback on new strategies and assignments to make sure I’m not wasting our time with things that don’t help them.
Teaching Smarter is about being empathetic to the students in your class. We have to listen to their needs, appreciate their uniqueness, and continuously reflect on what works for each individual. I teach smarter when I keep my students first in what I do.
Teaching Smarter is also about collaborating with my colleagues. No teacher should be an island or feel as though they need to go at this profession alone. I teach smarter when I am able to bounce ideas off of my peers. As a team of educators, we teach smarter together.
Teaching Smarter is a continuous process. I teach smarter because I truly want to continuously provide the best for my students.
I teach smarter by having the students in charge of their learning for most of the class. They help and guide each other as I circulate around the room. I also teach smarter by utilizing the students for a lot of the day to day homeroom tasks.
I teach smarter by continuing my own learning, both at workshops and online.
I teach smarter by reflecting on my practice.
How I teach smarter?
I research, plan, and prepare weeks in advance so I don’t have to stress over time. I also practice mindfullnes to help with burnout.
I teach smarter by being open it change.
I teach smarter by utilizing many different resources and working with other teachers to find what is best for my students.
I teach using different resources from books to interactive notebooks, to manipulatives and videos if available. I also teach with lots of praise and achievement awards!
I teach smarter by supporting teachers and modeling a mindful attitude at work with all staff and students. A mindful presence can create a classroom that accepts all learners and is safe for expression of all emotions so that students are ready to learn. We have to reach students emotionally first so they can learn academically. 🙂
I teach smarter by putting students in charge of tasks. They teach classes to other students in the library during lunch, run our school recycling program, help keep the library running by shelving books and even running the circulation desk. They have opportunities to be leaders, and it makes the school a better place!
I teach smarter by getting the students engaged in their learning. Getting the students to connect to the subject matter makes it more relevant for them.
I teach smarter by inspiring my daughter to teach children also!
I teach smarter by trying to have fun. If I am having fun, the children are having fun usually.
I try to teach smarter by understanding that I am not perfect and modeling how to handle mistakes.
I teach smarter in the way that they can express thamselves with their own words and find the answer to achieve the goal and never give up
I’m not sure if I teach smarter, but after many years, I have my planning and researching schedule down to a specific time on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I come in after I go to the gym in the morning and am refreshed and energized to work with ever changing children.
I teach smarter by giving children the opportunity to come up with their own answers (whether reflecting on behavior, phonetic spelling, cause-effect, etc) instead of always just giving them the information. I also try to find creative ways or connections to things they like to help them remember or understand new info.
Liked you on Facebook
I am teaching smarter by utilizing my resources and working as a team with other teachers
I teach preschool and the way I teach smarter is by being open-minded (not being afraid to try something new), staying positive, and making the most out of every minute.
I teach smarter by having horizontal and vertical conversations when planning units. This way skills are reinforced across the content areas and spiral throughout the grades.
I teach smarter by collaborating with co-teachers so we can synergize. Many hands make the work light.
Following on Twitter
Following on Pinterest
I teach smarter by trying to carve out things that I enjoy like reading for pleasure. Otherwise, I will put it off and do school work instead! I am happier when I do things that I enjoy!
Following on Pinterest.
I make a calendar of what I need to plan, copy, and do for the next week
, so I plan a different subject each day. That way I know I am prepared and organized and planning takes less time.
I teach smarter by following the children’s lead by allowing them to take part in daily planning, to create classroom expectations, and for them to conduct small and large group activities. I also collaborate with parents and community representatives with skills that supports children development, and utilize the outdoors to incorporate indoor activities to enhance children’s creativity.
We teach smarter as a school by practicing reflection as a team and as individuals. We discuss situations and then brainstorm ways to improve our craft by using talents whenever possible. We also use the growth mindset and it isn’t about doing the best so much as it is about growing as students and staff each day.
I teach smarter by staying up to date with all the new Publications and taking time to balance my life
I teach smarter by remembering there are many learning styles and I try to include as many as possible while teaching. Making it interesting and fun are the goals I set for myself.
I teach smarter by remembering children need more than academics, they need time to move and play!
I teach smarter by letting my students find and correct their own mistakes. If I tell them what’s wrong, they learn to fix and move on. Having to figure out where something went wrong actually “teaches” them research skills, problem solving, attention to detail and more learning opportunities than me telling them where the problem went wrong, and they just fix it.
Like and follow across social media platforms.
I am always looking to formal education for ideas and tips to encourage staff who work in nonformal education. While our program doesn’t have the daily classroom management and lesson plans, staff do still experience potential for burnout for a variety of reasons.
I teach smarter by having everything ready and in order. There is nothing worse than coming in the classroom and not knowing what to do.
I teach smarter by being flexible, creative and
Sensitive to my students’ needs
I teach smarter by allowing peer to peer teaching and learning. We are all teachers and learners and this plays out in the classroom well.
I teach smarter by making sure I am up to date on all the newest research in early childhood special education
I teach smarter by being prepared, but flexible.
Establishing rules and routines that incorporate students in “running” the classroom definitely is a help in teaching smarter!
I teach smarter by networking with my colleagues.
I teach smarter by having resources readily available for students and teaching them how to use them. Things like extra materials, pencils, paper, worked they’ve missed, etc. are all in a convenient place in the classroom where students can get it themselves and do not need to ask me. It saves a lot of time and teaches them self-sufficiency.
I followed you on Pinterest. 🙂
I liked you on Facebook! 🙂
I give my students the opportunity to generate their own assessment questions and tasks.
Yes!!!
I teach smarter by creating a schedule and routines for kids to follow on daily basis. They thrive when they know what to expect next and how to do what we’re doing next (walking down hallway, circle time routine).
I allow students to create their own assessment questions and tasks!
I teach smarter by collaborating with my colleagues and my students!
Followed on Pinterest and Facebook
I teach smarter by making my lesson plans versatile so they are tailored to the class as a whole and not one specific group. I realize that every students learns at a different pace and by using different tools.
I teach smarter by organizing my time wisely. I travel between 2 schools daily so this is important in order for me to maximize the time I have with each student/class.
I teach smarter by equating what students do in the classroom with what they will be exposed to in the real world.
I teach smarter by providing my teachers, students, parents and community members with the resources needed to succeed.
I teach smarter by getting to know students as individuals with unique needs and goals.
I teach smarter by working with my colleagues and brainstorming ideas together; I take notes on what I’ve taught and how things go each year and try to use those to guide my next year’s plans. I also call upon my FB groups and Twitter PLT members for help if I’m stuck on an idea.
I teach smarter by first realizing that busy does not equal productive and try to maximize my time so I can focus more on working with students and their needs.
I teach smarter by remembering to have the same expectations for myself as I do for my students. I don’t have a class–I have individual students with individual needs, learning styles, home lives, and personalities. Each student, however, is expected to succeed with my help.
I teach smarter by differentiating my instruction to meet my students’ needs.