10 Resources for Teachers to Manage Stress

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Damien Riley

I wonder if most people think about teachers as being stressed. I lose sight of it too often. As a result, I often don’t take the necessary steps to keep myself healthy thinking that I have a “mellow” job, so I shouldn’t worry about the health effects of stress? This could not be further from the truth. As teachers, we deal with big stress levels each day. These levels are proven to cause physical problems like high blood pressure and a slew of other problems touched on in the pages below. As a teacher, I owe it to my family and my students to take my health and stress levels seriously. Prioritizing that can prevent a lot of life complications. These links below are all ones I have read and recommend to you:

Identify Stress – Buffalo Counseling offers this excellent resource for teachers or any other person trying to manage stress.

Empathy and Action for Stress Management – The NEA has put together this “empathetic” and educational page with information and resources about stress management for teachers.

Top 8 Fun Stress Relievers – These stress relievers may be easier to practice – because they’re fun.

Retired Teacher Shares Stress Management Tips – You’d think a retired teacher would know a lot about this topic and you’d be right!

Using Acronyms for Stress Management – An article I wrote a couple years back on personal development but it also works for reducing my stress at work.

Pressure Management for Teachers – An interesting page that focuses on the cause of pressure that is causing stress.

An excellent 8 minute video on this topic:

Time Management for Teachers: Your 7 Minute Guide to Mastering T – The most popular videos are here

Managing Stress to Avoid High Blood Pressure Etc. – This blog page talks about all the many symptoms of stress that teachers are prone to due to the stress of the job. Then it gives tips to deal with it.

Resource Blog for Teachers Dealing with Stress – This well written, close to home, blog gives real life example of stress and offers real solutions.

Recording Dealing with Stress Management in Teaching – This is a telecourse that was recorded and is available as an archive.

Now, go be less-stressed!

3 Simple Tips to Make a Week’s Worth of Lesson Plans on Your PC Without Losing Your Mind

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Damien Riley

Heading into another work week as a teacher brings many challenges. The more you face them, and the better you do it, will determine the success you have in educating your class. If you are like most teachers, you feel overwhelmed at all the material you have to cover in a week. Whether your schoolhouse has rustic decor or the most modern of looks, the needs are the same. If you get behind it can be harder mentally because you need to keep the kids on track with your district lesson plan. I have paper materials as well as pdf and doc curriculum I can use to teach throughout the week. Some of it I collect from the web and some I buy at various teaching curriculum stores. An important fact is that I always keep it organized in an easy to access place. This is either on my computer (which I can transfer to work via FTP or memory stick) or on a dedicated shelf in my classroom or in my home. I currently store paper materials at work and at home in dedicated spots. But enough of what you should have, I don’t mean to overwhelm you further. Not everyone can carry the weight of a classroom and the children whose families you serve. As a teacher, you owe it to them and to yourself to organize, create, and innovate lessons that will show value added growth you your students’ education. Here are three steps you can do in getting ready over the weekend:

1) Create a new folder on your desktop and give it an eponymous title showing the week. ie; “weekly plans 4-15-12.” Create a notepad file and use it to delineate the lessons and curriculum you are doing per day. Once done, you might find it useful to paste in each day’s plans in Google Calendar. I’ve written in how I use this in conjunction with my district’s Outlook.

2) Look at the pacing guide and make a note on your notepad schedule of the standards you are supposed to cover that week. Adjust professionally as fitting. Drag materials from the computer that correspond. Make notes in the notepad of paper materials you can use under your document camera and/or make copies of. NOTE: I am always looking to avoid copies, they are usually not as helpful as paperless teaching options. Create or find any materials you don’t have for certain standards. There are amazing resources out there for free lesson plans. (ppt, doc, pdf and Youtube has some excellent free youtube video teaching resources as well.)

3) Once you have your “backbone” schedule created as a notepad and all your materials dragged into the folder, zip the folder and email it to yourself at work. Note: Some districts have limitations on size and filters on from what emails they’ll accept attachment. If you cannot verify from home that the email is in your work inbox, use a zip drive or usb stick to transport.

Making plans is such a touch thing to do but if you take the time to do it thoroughly, your class will benefit measurably. Furthermore your week will be so much more gratifying. I know from personal experience. Can you offer any tips for planning a school teaching week? I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Have a great week.

Tax Prep as a Second Profession for Teachers

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Damien Riley

If you are seeking a full or part time career in tax preparation, I have an excellent lead for you. As is true with teaching, education is required. Like I tell my kids all the time, if you have an education or a trade in something specialized, you are recession proof. Fast Forward Academy can get you licensed in tax preparation. Many are making good money at this as a sideline to teaching. Other people are getting their enrolled agent continuing education requirements. What’s more, the pay is so good you might even consider it as a primary source of income. One of the best parts about it is that you CAN do it as a side job alongside teaching because you set your own hours and the amount of clients you want to serve.

People use this educational service to become licensed with the IRS for many reasons. The first is that it is easy to use. It has a user-friendly system and it explains things in an intuitive, understandable way. They allow you to “try before you buy” and if you do decide to buy the program, they give you free PDF’s to get your business going. In addition to licensing and education newbies to the profession, hey have another area of specialty as providing ea cpe requirements. The courses are written by actual CPA’s and other professionals in the trade. I think you’ll find that your autonomous ability to check your own progress in the program will really be the selling point. If you visit their site, you will see it all laid out. It is an impeccable offer they give to their customers. In a very short time you will recoup the small expense of this training program.

Independent Report Gives Mixed Scores to City Schools’ Letter Grades – SchoolBook

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Damien Riley

The A to F letter grade system that New York City’s Education Department uses to rate each of its schools is an improvement over simply measuring schools based on standardized test scores, according to a report released on Thursday by the Independent Budget Office.But the report also validated some parents’ and principals’ long-standing concern that the letter grades often reflect the economic and racial background of students, despite efforts to neutralize the differences. The Times’ reporting supports this finding, and an article that ran two years ago revealed that among city high schools, those with the lowest scores on the annual progress reports had the highest percentages of poor, black and Hispanic students.According to the Independent Budget Office report, this trend also extends to schools with high percentages of special education students, who often post low scores on the state exams and are less likely to earn a Regents diploma — a seeming correlation that was mapped on SchoolBook in February.

via Independent Report Gives Mixed Scores to City Schools' Letter Grades – SchoolBook. Visit their link to read the full article.

SEO Consultant for your EDU Website

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Damien Riley

I have been talking with more and more educators who either have a website or blog they are seeking to profit from. The ideas are amazing but we all know that doesn’t bring buyers to the front door. Sometimes, SEO consulting services are the best way to get them there. Personally, I believe in the open source approach aka the freebie but even that can’t help if no one gets to your site. Most people have come to see how offering something free can gain you multiple readers and one day customers. Besides, the more you have clicking around your site, the more advertising dollars you generate. Others still want to keep their product under tight wraps until people purchase it. I call this the “secret ingredient” approach. The trouble with this is that people in this internet savvy time usually figure out the secret ingredient and your product collects dust on the shelf in your garage.

Though a perfect approach to making money online may not exist yet, everyone agrees that SEO consulting services can help immensely. If you can get readers to your site, you have a chance at getting them to buy in to your brand and product. If they never see your product, no such chance exists. SEO consulting services are highly recommended in this economy. Teachers out there working to sell a product should check out the SEO consultant linked in this post. It’s an excellent resource and a good way to start learning how SEO can take your product to the next level.

The Organic Teacher vs The Robot

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Damien Riley

For the past 15 years, the California Teaching Standards have run the show in education. I’m not complaining. For 13 of these years, my job success has relied on them. I have embraced them, made them my own, taught them, and internalized them in the 6 hours a day I am with students in the classroom. In the other daily hours, I strive to come up with ways to make them relevant and memorable. I have tried very hard to not be a robot, simply speaking out standards without any importance or buy-in. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the teachers in the country. I hear news stories about teachers who really have no interest in getting the standards across. They make a facade to the public audience that produces only the bare minimum of learning results. It is enough to get them through to the next contract but fails to raise students to the high level of performance they need to compete in the world.

Those robotic teachers use the standards to negative ends. I feel that teaching to a test can never produce the kind of student that will thrive in the modern world. I am hopeful about what’s coming. I think of it as an “organic teacher.” That means someone who gets earthy and relevant with the standards. The organic teacher is not afraid to be controversial if it meets students needs. The organic teacher paves a path followed by those who want the same measurable success. It can take many forms but it will involve technology such as the best laptop computers. It is not, however, limited by technology. I have often imagined that a simple pencil on paper can be named technology, so don’t let the term steer you off. The organic teacher will kill the robot’s facade. She/he will bring students to a higher level through making the standards real and tangible. Success for students in these classroom will be “caught” more than taught. These teachers will thrive on what they do and the success with students they make. I see these teachers coming on the horizon whether they be teachers like me already in the classrooms or new ones. The shared element is a passion for bring kids up. My hope is the “common core” standards will encourage this sort of teacher. Instead of stifling innovation, my hope is that administrations will foster and encourage it no matter how different it may appear. Youth culture has changed more in the past 15 years than I think it did in the 20 years prior. We need to speak a new language and take on a new job to save our schools and save our kids from irrelevant robot teaching.

Teaching on Youtube: The Future?

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Damien Riley

I have discovered there is a lot of helpful lesson modeling on Youtube. While old modeled companies are guarding their teaching products and keeping them off Youtube, the smarter and younger thinkers are making their methods available through blogs and Youtube. I try to do that. I share everything I learn with others and I do it freely. Youtube is filled with teachers like me. By sharing what they have found that works, they are increasing the value of education in this country, instead of just their own pocketbooks. If you’ve been on Youtube awhile, you can put adsense ads on your teaching vids. As long as you get the releases from the students’ parents, you can just set up a tripod and film yourself doing your best lessons.

When you put it on Youtube it can help catch up students who’ve been absent or who may just need a review. I personally do not have any videos of my lessons up yet but I hope to. A tripod and a decent camera is all one needs to start their own archive of lesson examples. The flat screen video media should never replace the traditional teacher, in my opinion, but it is a good thing for education in America I think. The possibilities are worth considering. I have heard educated people say this may be the future of education in fact so why not start thinking about it and getting some ideas. If you are curious about it, try doing a Youtube search on the standards of your next lesson. You may find yourself greatly helped.

Strategies for Writing (Book Review)

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Damien Riley

Check out the "Strategies for Writing" website!

I’ve just been through 7 days of personal training/coaching in my classroom by educator and author Shelle A. It was a delight. Our district is using her program Strategies for Writing. I find it highly engaging through its visual templates and musical chants and there is a lot more to it still. As my friends know I am passionate about writing and teaching writing. I am an “edu blogger,” I have my Master’s Degree in English with an emphasis in Language, Writing, and Rhetoric from California State University, Fullerton, I have taught community College Writing, worked in a college writing center and have taught public school K-12 for nearly 14 years. I have seen quite a few writing programs come down the pike and I can tell you this one is worth its salt.

In my class this year (4th Grade), there are a few GATE learners, EL kids, and a handful of more intensive learners who often need things repeated and modeled. Strategies for Writing met all their needs. Shelle walked me through the program by teaching my class as I observed and took copious notes. I watched my students produce Introductory paragraphs and create outlines and focused essays with great big smiles on their faces.

There was so much good I could share about the training but I don’t want to get too wordy (I can hear my high school writing teacher’s voice). The high point for me was watching my kids do the chants and then transfer them onto writing templates which would later become well-crafted essays on lined paper. She took my kids from the concrete to the abstract. From there I saw very quiet kids come out of their shells and more vocal kids challenged. Shelle’s program drew them out and they produced impressive essays. It was a great start. I look forward to getting back from Spring break and fostering yet higher levels of writing from my kids through using this book. There is virtually an endless amount of teaching material in there. But don’t just take my word for it, you can read and view video testimonials of teachers and administrators on the Strategies for Writing website.

To close: Strategies for Writing is an explicit and direct writing program developed by Shelle A. that is fostering growth in all students who are exposed to it, most impressively English Learners who all teachers know sometimes struggle with writing in a second language. If you as an individual teacher, school lead, or district representative would like to know more about this highly innovative and effective program, check out the website and contact Shelle personally about getting her at your school to train teachers in Strategies for Writing. Having her in my classroom for 7 days I found her to be a fountain of endless energy. She cares about kids writing and has worked tirelessly to create the tools they need to excel at it. If you have any questions about the coaching and training I experienced, the book, or teaching writing in general, feel free to email me or leave a comment.

Small Growth is Still Growth

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Damien Riley

Many of my students just got their reports cards and they included large growth in grades. A few on the other hand, had to see what they have been seeing for years up to now: flat growth or decline in scores. There is only one way to take this: they need to improve. I don’t tell parents of my kids that their children have to be the highest in the class. I just want them to improve. If there was a 2 in one area last trimester, we are looking for a 3 and so on.

The challenge to the high kids is to maintain their high grades. Having said that, the children with lower grades have nowhere to go but up. Small, incremental growth is still growth. When I ran in high school we called it “running your own race” and making a “personal best.”

Less Paper Lesson Planning

Posted on March 17, 2012 by Damien Riley

I had a rough day recently where I realized paper was not a good foundation for a week of lessons. Our copy machine is hit and miss. Some days it will work perfectly, other day it will be the primary discourager of teachers on campus, myself included. I am always looking to make my teaching “foolproof” so I sat down with a huge chart tablet and started creating what I called “Less Paper Lesson Planning.” The embarrassing truth it that I only used it one day. However, the concept is still with me and I think about it as I plan the lessons for my classroom. I was told once that a goal will always put you in a good direction, whether you achieve it or not. The greatest ideas seem to come only after many failed ones are attempted. I guess that day I set a very deep-set goal that hasn’t gone away. We have a lot of materials at our disposal every day that can be used in place of copies. Projectors, ELMOs, PPT, white boards, smart boards, pair sharing and verbal response, computers, tablets, ipads … more are coming our way all the time. I am finding that when I put my emphasis on “less paper” more innovative ideas come.