Before the end of the school year sneaks up on you and wallops you upside the back of the head, stop right now and think about some of the lessons you’ve learned this year. If you haven’t noted the people you want to thank, the compliments you’ve wanted to give, or the ideas you’ve had…
Vacation
Slow Down, 2012
Is it just me, or did someone set the 2012 calendar to “Stun”? Really? It’s the middle of the second week of May already? Where did this come from? I’m stunned. If you’re feeling the same way, then I think it’s a good idea if I get a few items of looming summer business out…
Inducing Anxiety
You could probably wield even your most rudimentary Psychology 101 skills to write a 400-page case study of me when I tell you that the last six weeks of the school year filled me with dread and anxiety. A Teacher’s Plan Book stuffed full of notes, remarks, reminders, failures, and successes took center stage on…
Yes, Virginia, There Is a Winter Break
Late December. Winter break is looming. The students are restless. The teacher is equally so. Your colleague in the classroom next door is playing “The Polar Express” just a little too loud and your students know other people—their friends—are enjoying a movie while they’re concentrating on multiplying and dividing decimals. You have to wonder what’s…
That August Mentality
How did I get ready to head back into my classroom as the new school year loomed? By tackling the pile of papers and artifacts left over from the day I brought everything home in June, of course. I was a pro teacher, after all. It was never a huge pile, and nothing had been…
Ideas for Summer Math Reinforcement
At 9 am, a train leaves a seaside resort, heading inland, at 50 miles per hour. Seven hundred miles away, at 9:45 am, in the mountains near a wide blue lake, another train leaves an alpine resort, headed toward the ocean, at 45 miles per hour. The first train makes three stops, each lasting ten…
Ah, you’re done. Time to get started.
We wear many faces, don many hats, and invoke many influences throughout the course of a single day. As individuals, we are like that. And as a company, The Mailbox is like that. See, here at The Mailbox, we’re already talking about back-to-school even as we know most of you are wrapping up last school…
The Best-Laid Plans of Teachers on Vacation
A teacher friend of mine recently saw her summer plans implode like a tinfoil submarine at 20,000 leagues. I ran into her after she’d spent three solid days on the phone in a near panic. The look on her face made me think she had just completed her first triathlon by walking on her hands…
202 Ways to End the School Year
When big-name Hollywood entertainers talk about the ends of their careers, they often talk about “going out on top.” Of course, some movie stars see their careers terminated by foolish personal transgressions, and some television stars see their winning careers turn into losing propositions in the time it takes to appear on a third-rate radio…
Four Ways to Encourage Summer Skill-Building
I mentioned in my last post that my wife and I were deep in the throes of making sure our kids stay busy this summer. From a two-week summer road trip to a Saturday afternoon at the natural history museum, we want them to have a memorable summer. At the same time, we want our…