Ninja Notes

Let us help you teach like a ninja!

Classroom Tips

Are You Feeling Like a Failing Teacher?

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Do you feel like you are failing your students? Are you struggling to keep up? Come let us help you get through the rough days.

This is the time of year when we question whether or not we can continue teaching. Reflection is important. It’s how we grow, but maybe you’re feeling like a failing teacher.

It doesn’t matter that we have years of experience behind us and the school year is finished, but there’s just something about this time of year that puts us in a funk. Add a pandemic into the mix and there’s even more confusion.

Even more, new teachers really start to question whether or not they can cut it as a teacher. This is the time of year when we tend to field questions from our new-to-school teachers and over and over we hear the same issues.

Maybe some of these sound like you, so before you throw in the towel and quit everything you’ve worked so hard to achieve, please keep reading.

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How to Reduce Paper Clutter in Your Classroom

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The classroom seems to be a vortex of paper that piles up and makes organizing it even more complicated. Come learn some of the ways you can tame the paper clutter in your classroom.

Is your classroom drowning in paper? It can happen so easily. Between student work, office memos, plans, reminders and reports, your classroom can easily become a fire hazard or, at the very least, a tree massacre.

Here are some of our best ways to reduce the amount of paper that keeps creeping into your classroom.

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Books You’ll Love With LGBTQ+ Characters

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There are so many great characters in so many books these days and some of them feature characters from the LGBTQ+ community. Come see if your favourite book made the list.

We teach grades four and five, which is a time in a student’s life when they are just figuring out who they are and how they want the world to see them. It’s a special time for students and we like to have books in our classroom that represent everyone regardless of culture, colour, religion, gender, identity or orientation. LGTBQ+ characters are included in the books, lessons and discussions our students see in our classroom.

Students need to see people of all backgrounds.

One way we do this is through books. Our classroom and school libraries are filled with books that feature characters from all backgrounds including members of the LGBTQ+ community.

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The Secrets of Social Emotional Learning for Kids

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Do your students have difficulty regulating their emotions? Do you need strategies to help teach students about feelings and how to calm down? This is the post for you. Come read the whole post and get practical strategies you can implement today.

We believe firmly in social-emotional learning (or SEL), self-regulation and teaching students about feelings. Students today struggle with identifying feelings, managing their emotions and staying focused.

Let’s not get into all the causes of why some students are unable to describe and manage their feelings, but more and more instructional time becomes wasted unless we intentionally teach students about to self-regulate.

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Five Types of Teachers and How To Deal With Them

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One of the most difficult things about teaching is how it can be isolating from one moment to exasperating the next. Dealing with coworkers can be a real challenge. Come read about the different types of teachers and how to deal with them.

Disclaimer: This article is meant for fun. We are not actually criticising anyone or their work ethic, but let’s be honest, we all know these types of teachers. Keep reading for our advice on how to handle it.  

Think about the last staff meeting you attended. It’s time to pass around the volunteer sign-up because it’s going to be a busy month. That’s always the intention, but by the end of the month there are usually a lot of hard feelings and regret over glitter, balloons, and most of all missed class time (because everyone needs to sit around and listen to first graders read their research reports on goats for 45 minutes. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?)

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Quick and Colourful Activities for Holi the Festival of Colours

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Are you looking for upper elementary classroom activities you can use to learn more about the Holi Festival of Colours? We've gathered resources and books that are perfect for your classroom. Come take a look.

Learning about different traditions allows students to explore people and their cultures around the world. And it’s a cheap way to travel! We collected activities for Holi so you can travel with your students.

Holi is an ancient Hindu festival that originates and is widely celebrated in India. Although different regions of India have their own traditions and variations, they all share one thing, it’s so much fun! As people have moved around the world, settling in other countries such as Canada they have brought this celebration with them.

Many non-Hindu people around the world also celebrate Holi. In fact, this tradition has inspired all kinds of different events. It is often used to support all kinds of good causes, like children with chronic or life-threatening conditions and is incorporated into many different types of fundraisers.

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