English & Language Arts Teacher BlogThis blog is for secondary English, ELA, and language arts teachers filled with lesson plans, humor, product recommendations, teaching ideas, tips, and tricks and much more! Another day, another chance for improvement! Helpful Stuff Let’s continue our focus on strategies to build relationships with students which will in turn, help them learn and help us teach. The next powerful strategy I want to share with you is: Develop an Interest in What Interests Them Is it a new rock band? Is it a positive influencer on the ‘Gram (Instagram)? Is it a sub-genre of manga or a specific writer? This is beneficial for everyone involved! It helps you as a teacher by:
It helps students by:
I can’t tell you how much I have learned about skateboarding, Mike Tyson, Bob Dylan, Manga, Anime, underground hip-hop, folk metal bands, TikTok trends, rare animal facts, and much more. It’s been incredible to now only learn more about my kids but about the everything in general! Try it out and let us know how it goes! Don’t forget to tag us in your posts on Instagram as @shining_scholar_education and Facebook as Shining Scholar Education! Because through helping others, we all win! Recommendations Comedian & former teacher Gerry Dee, the star of the TV Series Mr D, has his full stand-up special “Let’s Be Honest” for free on YouTube. His personal observations as an ex-bad-teacher and other musings will crack you up! A Little Inspiration To laugh often and much: To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded. -Ralph Waldo Emerson As always, please forward this to any teacher that could benefit from this message and help spread the love!
The goal of these messages is to help ourselves improve—for our students, for our loved ones, and for ourselves. Leave a comment with Facebook below or can always message us on Facebook here. Keep changing the world, Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S. Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here! We’re back with more helpful tips to help all of us become better teachers! But First, A Chuckle! Devin Siebold “When admin sends those training emails” 🤣 Helpful Stuff To continue our discussion from previous emails on strategies to engage students in our classrooms, here are some great ideas to help foster connections and build relationships with students! This makes it more likely and easier for them to engage in your class instruction because they feel understood and valued by you as their teacher, regardless of the subject matter! There’s A LOT of great stuff to cover on this topic so I’m breaking it up into more digestible chunks over a few emails. 🤓 1. Spend one-on-one time with each student Spending one-on-one time with students, especially those who have behavioral problems, is something very powerful. I’ve noticed that in large classrooms, students frequently feel lost and just a part of the crowd and not like an individual. A student receives the teacher's undivided attention during one-on-one time. They are more likely to be honest because they don't feel pressured to impress other students, since they don’t have an audience. One-on-one meetings should be set up so that they are relaxed and conversational rather than punitive. I usually ask about a student's family, current circumstances, and feelings regarding the material we are covering in class. You can get invaluable information about what they’re struggling with and know how to better help them learn! Students are almost always less likely to misbehave in class after these meetings because we've made a stronger connection! 2. Search for Something to Comment On! I put only one restriction on this one: don’t talk about behavior nor school —keep it fun and student-centered! This worked remarkably well with my kids! A relationship can start with something as small as making a comment about a student's T-shirt/jacket/hat/shoes/anything. Students frequently represent their favorite things, people, and activities through the clothing & accessories they wear; commenting on their interests can start a wonderful conversation that connects the two of you on a deeply human level. Tell them about that cool trip you took to see that band on their shirt or how you used to record their music on cassette tapes before CDs and digital music! You can establish trusting bonds with your students by paying attention to even the smallest details. I recently saw a student cracking up laughing with headphones on and I said, “I wanna laugh!” Turns out the student is a huge fan of stand-up comedy (like me) and before we knew it, we had bonded over our favorite comedians and their best bits! Now of course a lot of stand-up comedy is not appropriate for school, but both the student and I have enough common sense & mutual respect for each other to only speak about the appropriate, but still hilarious, parts. If there is ever any doubt on the appropriateness of the subject or conversation, use your best teacher judgment and shift accordingly. You guys are pros at this, I know! :) Now we both look forward to catching up and laughing together on the latest comedy specials. There’s even been times, although rare, when I can connect the class instruction to a comedy bit or a specific stand-up comic! Talk about teachable moments! To help all of you amazing teachers out even more, here is our own FREE student interest questionnaire that I personally use to foster better relationships with all of my kiddos in my classroom. Try it out and let us know how it goes! Don’t forget to tag us in your posts on Instagram as @shining_scholar_education and Facebook as Shining Scholar Education! Because through helping others, we all win!  Recommendations Since last week we spoke about Teacher hydration, this week I wanted to recommend these awesome replacement lids for your tumblers! These handy little replacement lids breathed new life into our 16, 20, & 30 oz. tumblers that have been sitting in my cupboards going unused. It saved us money by not having to replace the entire tumbler —just the lids! Between the 2 sizes of lids (30 & 20 oz.) there wasn’t a lidless tumbler in our cabinets that didn’t fit well with these lids. Click here for the 30 oz. Tumbler replacement lids and here for the 20 oz. Tumbler replacement lids. (Amazon affiliate links :)) A Little Inspiration If we threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back. -Regina Brett This quote comes from a fantastic podcast episode entitled “50 Life Lessons from Regina Brett” from a podcast called “Let It be Easy with Susie Moore” (linked here with Spotify).
As always, please forward this to any teacher that could benefit from this message and help spread the love! The goal of these messages is to help ourselves improve—for our students, for our loved ones, and for ourselves. Leave a comment with Facebook below or can always message us on Facebook here. Keep changing the world, Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S. Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here! Let’s get is started…AGAIN! But First, A Chuckle! Helpful Stuff & Recommendations This week we’re all about teacher hydration! Because when your cup is empty (literally) you cannot fill anyone else’s cup! Self-care is something that teachers (everyone, really) need to do better, myself included. I was treated for mild dehydration over this summer and learned a lot! Of course this is not medical advice and in intended only for educational purposes. You should always seek treatment/advice from a qualified medical professional. I learned (re-learned, really) that water is not enough! Electrolytes are just as important as water itself. Some of my favorites that won’t break the bank are (these are Amazon affiliate links, in which we get a bit of commission but does not affect your price :)): Available in regular (sugar) ready-to-drink bottles in different flavors with a sugar-free version! Click here for the convenient regular variety powder form and here for the variety sugar-free powder option! NUUN Electrolyte Tablets These tablets are even more convenient than Gatorlyte because there is no mixing involved at all! You just drop in the tablet and it’s ready in just a few minutes.
They taste great and I always have some at my school desk and in my backpack. It can be confusing with the many varieties available so I hope the options below help clarify! Click here for the daily hydration caffeinated tablets, here for the daily hydration non-caffeinated tablets, here for their sport hydration tablet (with more sugar & electrolytes when exercising), and here for their sport hydration caffeinated tablets! I have been using at least one of these two brands of electrolyte supplements every day and it has really helped with my dehydration headaches and energy levels! It is my hope that it helps all of you teachers be even more powerful! Try it out and let us know how it goes! Don’t forget to tag us in your posts on Instagram as @shining_scholar_education and Facebook as Shining Scholar Education! Because through helping others, we all win! A Little Inspiration This episode from our podcast shares some inspirational stories (fables & zen koans) for teachers, including my personal favorite of Buddha demonstrating the power of creating instead of destroying. Have a listen and stay inspired, teacher superheroes! As always, please forward this to any teacher that could benefit from this message and help spread the love! The goal of these messages is to help ourselves improve—for our students, for our loved ones, and for ourselves. Leave a comment with Facebook below or can always message us on Facebook here. Keep changing the world, Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S. Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here! Here’s to another great week! Helpful Stuff (Combine with Recommendations below to save time if needed!) A lot of you have said that you would like our future emails to include resources for increasing student engagement. Ask and you shall receive! Check out the video below to see how awesome teacher YouTube Trevor Muir’s teacher use of unconventional methods got him interested in reading and eventually, teaching. Here are some other quick ideas for providing novelty & engaging materials & activities for your secondary ELA/English students!
A Little Inspiration “If you have to put someone on a pedestal, put teachers. They are society's heroes.” - Guy Kawasaki What we are doing matters. Even though your students might not be able/willing/comfortable to articulate it, what we do has a positive impact on their lives, not just academically but also the social-emotional modeling we use implement in our classrooms. I’ve heard from countless friends and colleagues how *ONE* teacher changed the trajectory of their life for the better. It could’ve been a kind gesture, some encouraging words at a pivotal moment, empathy, or even just a “Good morning” on a morning they really needed to hear it. I wonder how many of us could be and are that *ONE* teacher for that one student or several students. So keep working your magic! As always, please forward this to any teacher that could benefit from this message and help spread the love! The goal of these messages is to help ourselves improve—for our students, for our loved ones, and for ourselves. Leave a comment with Facebook below or can always message us on Facebook here. Keep changing the world, Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S. Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here! |
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