People, did I not even share on the blog that I wrote a new book in 3.5 weeks?! Hopefully you’ve caught wind of this by hanging with me on the socials.
It is The Together Work-From-Home Teacher, and it is 125 pages of awesome artifacts, photos, anecdotes and checklists to help you stay organized during this challenging time. All of this for just $9! And if I do say so myself, it would make an excellent resource for summer and fall teacher development. And of course, you can always sign up for my live courses here!
As you “plan” for the uncertainty of summer and fall, here are a few ideas to help teachers adapt. We suggest you start by purchasing a digital copy for each teacher (made easy by uploading each email address on Amazon). The book is designed for teachers to read in one sitting on the free Kindle app on their phones or tablets. You can also order hard copies, but of course, there are delays these days – and the photos look amazing on a screen!
Three Ways to Utilize The Together Work-From-Home Teacher:
1. Before and After Teacher Workspace. This idea originated from my friend Beth over in Chicago. Ask each teacher to take a picture of their current Work-From-Home and Teach-From-Home spaces. Then have them read the second chapter of the book, and create an After picture. Put all the pictures into a virtual presentation and highlight the upgrades during an end-of-school meeting or back-to-school professional development session. You could make this really fun by annotating the pictures, pointing out easy fixes to workspaces, and maybe even giving a small budget for each teacher to add something to their space!
2. Ideal (Pandemic) Weeks. Now that teaching-living-working-parenting-from-home is our reality, tell each teacher to download the reader materials to schedule an Ideal (Pandemic) Week. This is a great way to start blank slate and envision what your life both wants and needs to look like when juggling live teaching, your own children, office hours, social-emotional needs of self and others, household tasks, and more. Invite your teachers to share these virtually with their grade level or department teams. Each team member can also reflect on 1 – 2 things they realized they needed to add to their week to feel successful and soothed. This exercise builds time management skills and empathy between staff members.
3. Self-Care Menu. You may find it useful to download this template from this guest blog written by my long-time editor. Put the menu up on a shared screen or Google Doc during a staff meeting. Ask each teacher to list what self-care practices they hold dear, how these are helpful, and one tip to help keep the habit alive.
Let me know if actual lesson plans on any of these ideas would be helpful, and I’m happy to create them for you!