Ms. M's Tales of a Teacher: My Personal Teacher Blog

After every presentation or podcast I do I always like to pause and reflect on how I did and how I can improve for next time. Two examples come to mind when I think of this. Firstly, my presentation in March on Demystifying Teaching Reading, and secondly, my most recent podcast discussion for the New Teacher Talk podcast in which I spoke about family communication.  Right after I presented for the pre-serve and early educators for my chapter of KDP on reading, I asked two of my colleagues for feedback (since they too wanted to attend!) I was grateful to have a meaningful conversation with my co-teacher on my presentation. True to character, he made a "great let's repeat" and "let's change it up" list for me, which I value when reflecting on how I can be better. It wasn't until this past week however, when I watched an outstanding webinar by Dr. Terrie Noland titled " How to Stop the 'I'm Just a Teacher' Mantra That Fuels Burnout."

 Has anyone else been noticing lately that as the spring settles in it's been more difficult to focus on work? I know I am definitely "hitting my wall" and so are my students. March is a long stretch without breaks, and as the time passed on through the month, I noticed their focusing levels were decreasing. I know this time every year it's even more important to include "brain breaks" throughout the day.  As teachers, we rarely sit- let's face it, I don't think we ever do! But for students, most of their day consists of sitting, even if they are on the carpet for a read aloud or working in small groups. I always feel the days where they have related arts such as music, they need more breaks because even that class asks them to sit for a lesson. Physical Ed. is the only class students get to move around besides their short recess periods.  What makes a good brain break? I like to think first of movement- anything that gets them out of their seats and