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Bringing Real Life to the Classroom

As teachers, we have the honor and privilege of helping our students develop critical thinking skills as well as other skills that will help prepare them for their futures. We can create meaningful and lasting impacts on our students by being intentional about what we teach. The 7 Cs of Education provide teachers with seven important areas to teach to help our students be good thinkers, good students, and good humans. We’ve covered six of the seven so far: Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, Computer Literacy, and Cross-Cultural Understanding. The final “C” is kind of a culmination of the previous six, and encompasses a lot of aspects of each previous “C”. The seventh and final “C” of education is Career and Life Skills.

So much of what we do and teach in the classroom can be classified as a career and/or life skill. Thinking critically, learning to collaborate, and learning to effectively communicate are all great skills for students to learn, as they are skills they will use as they become adults and enter the workforce. Becoming computer literate is also an essential skill to have in today’s digital world. While these skills are often easy to naturally integrate into our curriculum as we teach other information, others must be a bit more intentionally taught. Skills like how to write a resume, create a budget, and how to sew on a button typically aren’t seamlessly blended in with group projects or essays. 

Learning life skills can be something new and fun for students. It’s out of the norm, and is a fun change of pace. It’s easy to see real world application of these kinds of skills, which makes them more motivating to learn. Below are some fun ways to incorporate life and career skills into our teaching:

  • Have students fill out a job application.
  • Students can learn and practice the basics of resume writing.
  • Let students design their “ideal” life– house, car, job, etc. Then have them research how much money their job would bring in, and have them calculate if it would be enough to support the lifestyle they want. Be sure they include the cost of utilities, cell phone, groceries, and any other “extras”. This is an eye opening activity, especially for high schoolers. 
  • If you’re a sewing teacher, teach students the basics of sewing on a button, mending a tear, or hemming pants.
  • Have students do mock interviews– ask other teachers and school employees to come conduct the interviews.
  • Let students practice making a phone call to make an appointment. This is something that scares a lot of people, but is a great skill to practice!
  • Ensure students know how to properly address an envelope.
  • Help students plan and make simple meals or snacks.
  • Assign students some questions to ask to another classmate. No texting, no emailing. Just good old face to face communication. You’d be surprised at how difficult this is for some kids who are used to doing all communication through their devices.
  • Help students learn how to place an online order.
  • In science class, teach students what chemicals can and cannot go together– some chemicals are very toxic when mixed.

When students can see real life application for what they are learning, they become so much more invested in their education. It’s important that we help our students become the best learners they can be. To do this, we must expose them to a variety of subjects, skills, ideas, and processes. The 7 Cs of Education provide a great outline of skills to teach to our students– skills that will not only help them succeed in school, but in the “real world” as well.

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Are Specialty Classes Really Worth It?

Learning to play the recorder in 4th grade was one of the highlights of my elementary school years (though I’m sure my parents weren’t quite as enthusiastic as I was). I remember proudly bringing home my instrument and music book, and squeaking out “Hot Cross Buns” every night as my family covered their ears and pretended to be impressed. I was sure I was going to be the best recorder player there ever was. Turns out I was definitely not the best recorder player, nor was I anywhere close to being so! But even though my recorder playing skills have greatly diminished, and I no longer have the need to play the instrument, the time I spent learning and practicing wasn’t wasted time. Rather, it was time spent learning a new skill, understanding basic music theory, and learning to devote time to practice every day. 

Every now and then, there will be a push to end all “specialty” classes in schools– classes like music and art. Usually the reasoning is lack of funding, lack of resources, or a shortage of qualified teachers. All of those are valid reasons to cut programs, but one must consider the impact of eliminating programs like these. Is it worth the fallout that comes when students don’t have access to these classes? Is the money that would be saved really significant enough that it’s worth putting these programs on the chopping block? I would guess that the majority of teachers would say that it’s not worth it, and that these specialty programs should stay. 

There are so many benefits to providing art and music education. Both areas have been proven time and time again to stimulate parts of the brain that simply are not reached as deeply by typical academic subjects. Music and art encourage creativity. They provide opportunities for students to express themselves. For many students, music and/or art becomes therapeutic. It becomes a way for them to express their feelings and emotions. Music and art are powerful tools. 

Many students don’t have access to formal art or music education outside of school. Extra curricular classes like these can get expensive, making it impossible for many families to provide those opportunities for their children. When these programs are available at school, however, it gives everyone an equal chance to learn in these areas, and that’s simply something that cannot be ignored. 

Art and music education also benefit students by crossing over into other content areas. Students who understand rhythm and beat might have an easier time learning poetry. Art education can stimulate the creative process, helping students think deeper and more critically. Art can also lean into history as students study different artists and styles of art. Various artistic techniques can be used when creating dioramas, presentations, posters, and models. Music can be incredibly useful as students memorize material for other classes by creating songs with the information they need to know. 

So yes, these extra programs do cost money. But the benefits far outweigh the costs. How can you put a price on something that does so much good? I don’t think you can. I don’t think you can accurately predict the lasting impact that these kinds of specialty programs can have on kids. They are invaluable, and absolutely should remain in schools. I cannot even imagine a world without art and music– both bring so much beauty to life!

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Summer Learning

Learning doesn’t have to (and shouldn’t!) stop over the summer. It’s always a great idea to keep kids’ minds attentive and active. Doing so gives kids a chance to review the skills they already know, learn new skills, and to take a break from screens. It doesn’t take much, and it doesn’t need to take a long time, but a little practice a few times a week can go a long way. 

Summer learning doesn’t need to be fancy to be effective. Reading practice can be as simple as reading a story together then talking about it afterward. Science practice can be done by stepping outside at different times during the day to observe the different positions of shadows as the sun moves. Math practice can be as easy as taking a walk around the neighborhood and counting and tallying how many trees, birds, bikes, etc. you see while you walk. 

I’ve created two resources you can use for math practice. The first is an Independence Day Count, Tally, and Graph, and the second is a Neighborhood Count, Tally, & Graph. These worksheets are easy to print out and use. Take them on a car ride with you, do them at home, or even sit under a tree in your yard while you do them. 

However you choose to do it, make sure to find time this summer to provide learning opportunities for the kids in your life. Learning time is never wasted time!

*** These resources are free to download, but are for classroom or personal use only. They cannot be sold, reposted, or claimed as your own. ***

Count, Tally, & Graph Independence DayDownload
Neighborhood Count & TallyDownload
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Encouraging Cultural Understanding

Imagine attending school in a place that is foreign to you, or hearing kids in the halls say cruel or incorrect things about your family’s culture. Imagine knowing that your people played an important role in a historical event, only to have their impact brushed over or even completely ignored by your history teacher. Situations like this happen all too often, but as teachers, we can make a change by including instruction about diverse cultures into our curriculum. By using the sixth “C” of the 7 Cs of education, cross-cultural understanding, we can help our students understand different cultures and people. 

Cross-cultural understanding can be taught in many ways. The goal of creating understanding about other cultures is to help students see that everyone has value, and that everyone’s story is important. Including cross-cultural instruction may look different to each content area and from grade to grade, but is equally important across the board. Cross-cultural education might look like any of the following:

  • Culturally Responsible Teaching: use current events to connect events from the past to things that are happening today. This helps students to see that we can all benefit from and learn from the past. It helps events from the past feel less distant and foreign.
  • Integrating cultural understanding into curriculum: teach your students about different cultures and people. Highlight their unique traditions and customs. Include all parties when teaching about historical events. 
  • Invite students to teach: When appropriate, invite students to “show and tell” about their family’s culture or history. If you have a student with Italian ancestry, invite them to teach the class about some of their family’s traditions. Perhaps you have a student who has family ties to Ghana, Japan, or Brazil. Give them an opportunity to share about their culture.
  • Model good listening: when others are sharing about their culture or another culture, show your students what good listening looks like. This will help them to respect others’ values, beliefs, and traditions.
  • Read books that have characters from all sorts of various backgrounds. This helps students to realize that situations, feelings, and life events are universal to all people and cultures.
  • Invite students to choose a country to learn more about. Have them share their findings with the class, and encourage them to involve the class in some aspect of what they’ve learned– learn a dance, try food from that place, or even learn some words from the language spoken by the people of that country.
  • Invite guest speakers to come into your classroom. Perhaps you have a Native American student whose father does hoop dancing that would be willing to come show students some dances. When teaching about ancient Egypt, invite a historian to come in and show artifacts. If you are learning about different kinds of art from around the world, invite an artist to come in and demonstrate one of the types of art you’ve learned about.
  • If you have a student who is from another country, take time to help the rest of the class understand more about that student’s country. Invite the student to share more about their culture.

However you choose to integrate it, culturally diverse instruction benefits all students. Cross cultural understanding can help to bring people together and can help students see that much of the human experience is universal. Perhaps the most important lesson of cross-cultural education is that all people matter, all cultures are important, all stories need to be shared, and all voices deserve to be heard.

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Summer Reading Challenge

Getting kids to read over the summer can be a challenge. When the sun is shining and friends are out playing, reading is often the last thing on their list of things to do. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from being a teacher and a mom, it’s that it is always worth the effort to get kids to read. I don’t think I’ve ever said to myself, “Man, I wish I wouldn’t have had my kids read today!” Reading is always a good idea, and will always help to boost reading skills. 

Trying to find a way to encourage kids to read when it’s not for a grade can be tricky, especially for reluctant readers, but since many kids are externally motivated when it comes to “extra” learning opportunities, sometimes it helps to make it a fun experience. Offer a reward for every 5 books they read. Let them pick a book or two at the library. Let them read in a place they normally wouldn’t read. Make it fun and engaging so that it draws them in and creates an excitement for reading time. 

To help you with this, I’ve created a reading challenge you can print off and send home with your students, or print off and use with your own children. The “Summer Reading Race” is geared toward elementary aged kiddos, and the “Tic-Tac-Toe” is geared toward secondary aged kiddos, though both could be adapted for any age. 

These free resources are for classroom or personal use only. They cannot be sold, reposted, or claimed as your own.

Summer Reading Race- ElementaryDownload
Summer Reading Race- SecondaryDownload
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Once Upon A Time…

Story time might be the best time! Hear me out: your teacher calls you over to the rug, you sit criss-cross applesauce on your assigned circle, and you cozy in, ready to hear a story. As your teacher reads, she does different voices for each character, and suddenly the story has come alive, and you feel like you’re right there with the characters. It’s magical, and a core part of childhood. 

Happiness isn’t the only benefit that comes from being read to, though it certainly is a great one! Reading out loud to kids can help them in so many ways. These include:

  • Boosted brain development
  • Stronger vocabulary
  • Stronger social and emotional skills
  • Improved listening skills and focus
  • Stronger bonds between the reader and the audience
  • Reduced stress

Boosted Brain Development

When kids are read to, different parts of the brain are activated than are when they are reading independently and silently. Listening and making sense of what is being heard creates unique neural pathways, and causes the brain to really focus on what is being said.

Stronger Vocabulary

Reading in and of itself is a great vocabulary builder, but when students are read to, it gives them a chance to hear a new word, then immediately ask for a definition. They recognize that they don’t know the word, then take initiative to figure out what it means. This new word then gets added to their “words they know” list for them to practice using as they become stronger readers.

Stronger Social and Emotional Skills

When students can relate to characters in the stories that are read to them, their social and emotional skills are strengthened. They begin to gain empathy, and can learn that there are other people who feel the same feelings they feel. Students can see different social skills in action in stories– how to be kind, how to include others, good manners, etc., and can use the stories to recognize similar situations in their own lives. True text-to-self connections are made!

Improved Listening Skills and Focus

Listening and focusing are two separate skills that must both be engaged in order for students to get the most benefit from being read to. The brain will make connections as both skills are activated, thus helping students to make sense of what they are hearing. 

Stronger Bonds Between Reader and Audience

When a reader makes the story come alive by using different voices, inflections, and body language, it changes the whole atmosphere in the room. The audience is drawn into the story and becomes entranced by the magic of it. When the listeners become involved with the story, they start to form a trust and bond with the reader. Think about when you were a small child, and your favorite adult would pull you onto their lap, and you would snuggle in and listen to a story– there is a certain bond that comes through this. While teachers cannot pull all students onto their laps, they can still use literature to connect with their classes.

Reduced Stress

For some students, reading out loud to others can create feelings of stress and anxiety. They worry about messing up and saying words wrong, or if they are reading too slow or too fast. When they are read to, however, those stressors disappear. They can simply sit and listen to the story without fear of misspeaking. Even if a student isn’t bothered by reading out loud themselves, having the chance to be read to is such a calming, relaxing activity. Perhaps this is why so many adults enjoy listening to audio books!

I’m certain that there are other benefits that come from being read to, and I’m sure we could explore the above listed benefits even deeper. But the truth remains the same: reading is powerful and is incredibly beneficial to readers of all ages!

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Living in a Digital World

Today’s kids are growing up in a time of rapid technology growth and development. That growth is only going to continue, so it’s important that we ensure our students have the tools they need to safely and properly access digital media. We’ve spent the past few weeks talking about the 7 Cs of education, and up until now, we’ve only covered areas that could be implemented and taught without any sort of technology use. Our next “C” however, is completely reliant on technology: Computer Literacy. 

Computer literacy is a skill that must be taught and promoted in our classrooms today. With the ever increasing presence of technology in their lives, students need to be aware and educated on how to properly and effectively use technology. Being computer literate encompasses so much more than just being able to use a computer and navigate through the various programs and apps, though that is definitely part of it. People who are computer literate know how to gather, use, analyze, and create information using digital technologies. They know how to fact check information, and how to recognize a phony website. They are aware of the dangers of the internet, and know how to do their best to stay away from those dangers. Computer literate people know how to safely and responsibly communicate within the digital world. They are good digital citizens, and understand the power of technology. 

So, how then, do we encourage and promote computer literacy within our classrooms? We cannot simply place our students in front of a computer and expect them to know what to do and how to behave. They must be shown, and they must be taught. Below are some ideas you might consider using to foster computer literacy in your classroom:

  • Encourage students to use shared digital files to share information when doing a group assignment.
  • Role play or practice how to respond to a cyber bully.
  • Have students use critical thinking skills to evaluate an online source for accurate information. Show them what red flags might look like when they evaluate a source.
  • Teach social media safety by having students practice with mock social media scenarios. 
  • Emphasize the importance of keeping personal information private– full name, location, descriptions of physical appearance, passwords, financial information, and so on. 
  • Teach them that once it’s on the internet, it’s there to stay. Think twice before you hit “send” or “publish”.
  • For upper grades, teach students how to properly cite online sources.
  • Encourage students to create a digital presentation, complete with links, pictures, and appropriate citations.
  • Stress the importance of copyright. 
  • Teach them that it’s okay to gather and learn from information from other people’s writing, but it is never okay to explicitly copy someone else’s work. Plagiarism is never acceptable. To help them avoid this problem, teach them how to properly quote a source within their own writing.
  • Ensure that they know what to do if they encounter an online predator, and ensure they know the repercussions of being an online predator, and that is never okay.
  • Help them see the positive side of the digital world, too. There really is so much good that can come from technology; we just need to arm them with the tools they need to safely navigate the digital world.

Since technology is going to forever be a part of our lives, it just makes sense to ensure that we know the good, the bad, and the ugly of it. And because we are teachers, we have a duty to help our students understand how to be good, upstanding digital citizens.