We all know that children belong outdoors, but when they become our students, the tendency is to keep them behind four walls tied to electronic devices, PowerPoint lectures, and computers. Well, I am here to tell you that you can go outside with students and see productive results. Moving your class outside engages a world of fresh stimuli for the senses that have the amazing ability to open up students to new insights and real-life application of the concepts they are learning.

As some students head into the summer months, it means a long break from school. This isn’t necessarily a good thing for students because their skills can weaken over the summer. Inevitably, as students return in the fall, there are a few weeks spent catching up on dull or forgotten skills.

One way to counteract this is to give the students something to do over the summer break. Writing skills are some of the easiest to lose if we don’t use them on a regular basis. Students will typically read a little bit here or there, but they won’t necessarily pick up a pencil all summer.

Summer is just around the corner, and now is the perfect time to plan your reading list. Whether you’re looking to explore new teaching methods, work on your personal well-being, or take a break with a beach read, here are our top picks for this summer.

We know what it’s like to attend a one-day professional development event and never have any follow-up training. It is just as frustrating to listen to a trainer and not be able to practice what you learned because the equipment is not readily available. Additionally, many of us have struggled through a training never being able to touch a piece of technology equipment.

One of the best parts of the Google platform is that it is constantly improving and changing. I guess that is probably an opinion statement, as sometimes these changes can be frustrating—for example, when buttons move or formatting options come and go. This can be a headache, but overall, I feel the Google Suite options are much more robust than they were when I first started using them six year ago.  

For me, the really amazing part is that Google actually takes feedback, listens to it, and acts on it to improve the product. Not that novel of an idea, I know, but the speed at which they can move in doing so sets them apart from others in the tech world. I’m not a Google salesperson—it does have its limitations and faults—but as a lifelong learner, I love the challenge of always having to keep up to date on the latest format.

When I started teaching—and before I had my own children—I often referred to my students as “my kids” or “my kiddos.” I truly felt connected with them, and did my best to guide them onto their successes during the school year. When I became a mother for the first time, my equilibrium shifted. No longer were my students the sole focus of my day, and I slowly learned to prioritize my tasks. I needed to use my time more efficiently and with greater intention in order to arrive home and be completely present with my own children.

If keyboarding is an important skill for students to learn and master—and many would say that it is—what are some good tools to help students learn this skill? Like many online options, there are free versions that can work for different circumstances. Sometimes free versions have limits, and paying a little bit for one of the programs is well worth the money. But other times, especially when students are first learning keyboarding, free versions are just fine.

The door to the future is through education. We have a shared dream to create a better future for our students, providing them with the best education now so they will have the best opportunities to succeed in college and their subsequent careers when they are older.

Teacher appreciation week rolls around at a perfect time every school year. May is typically full of fun and craziness, so teachers deserve appreciation this month more than any other time of the year—although they really need to be appreciated year round!

It can be hard to find something that tells a teacher how much they mean to you. By the end of the school year, strong bonds and relationships have been formed in the classroom, so it is important to show gratitude. And another apple for the teacher’s desk just doesn’t cut it!

Teaching is a hard job. Even if you aren’t a teacher—heck, even if you don’t have kids—you would probably agree that teaching is tough. Teachers are on their feet most of the day, delivering lessons while blocking out eye rolls, yawns, nose-picking, kids leaning back in their chairs, excessive talking, students playing on “hidden” devices, bodily noises, and more. Why do we do it? It’s certainly not for the money or accolades. Yet, nothing quite compares to the feeling of a good day of teaching when things go right, kids respond, and you feel like you’ve gotten through to your students.