Ninja Notes

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Classroom Tips

Here is Your Back to School Pep Talk

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It's back to school season and sometimes you need a good laugh to set the year off right. Come read through some of our favourite teacher stories and get your back to school pep talk.

It’s time to head back to school. There are two types of teachers in the world. There are the ones who cannot wait to get back into the classroom and spend their whole summer break planning and prepping. And they’re the ones who squeeze every last drop of summer out before heading back.

It doesn’t matter which one you are. You can even be a little of both. Loving your students and your free time doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive. You are allowed to have mixed emotions.

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How to Build Relationships With Students

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Are you struggling with classroom management? Take the time to build relationships with your students. It is is just one way to help develop your classroom management strategies. Get some easy ideas to get you started.

Taking time from teaching to get to know your students is worth every second. Although typically you want to spend the first month of school working on building relationships with students, it’s never too late. It is hard to teach students when you don’t know them. It is challenging for students to take risks when they don’t know you. When students feel connected they will give you their best.

Not sure where to start? 

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What You Should Do On Break Before Back to School

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Are you looking for some ways to enjoy your break from teaching? Try out some of these so you are refreshed and ready for back to school.

Teachers are notorious for never really taking a break. We’re super teachers! We never need sleep or downtime or family. Somehow we feel guilty if we don’t spend our whole summers getting ready for the new school year. If that sounds like you and you’re a teacher on break, then this post is for you.

It’s true-we could spend every waking moment working on our classrooms or planning amazing lessons for our students. Should we feel guilty for not spending every weekend slaving over marking or making resources?

Absolutely not. After all these years of teaching, we’ve managed to figure out that it will still work out whether we spend a thousand hours or three. Summer is a well-deserved break. It’s time to rethink the teacher on break mentality.

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Ten Ways to Procrastinate Right Now

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There’s always so much to do. Before the pandemic, I always thought that I didn’t get things done because I didn’t have enough time. Well, that turned out to be completely untrue because when you’re locked in your house for months on end with nothing to do, these things still don’t get done. I’ve been lying to myself. There are so many ways to procrastinate.

You’re probably lying to yourself too, because you’re here reading this post instead of doing whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing.

But why are you procrastinating, and how should you go about doing it?

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How to be a Great Teaching Teammate

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Sometimes co-teaching or team teaching can be a challenge. We've managed to build a friendship and great working relationship after we were asked to share a classroom. Come learn about how to be a great teaching teammate and make the most of your partnership.

Are you someone people like to work with? Or not? It’s too easy to blame others when we aren’t happy in a situation.

We’ve been in the teaching game long enough to know there are certain people we avoid getting stuck on committees with. We know it will be stressful and someone always ends up rage eating.

We will be the first to admit that we have been all the things we’re about to tell you, so take our advice with a grain of salt (on the rim of a margarita is recommended). No one is the perfect teaching teammate. It’s all about reciprocation.

What?!?

It’s about the give and take.

Like I will give you a margarita or I will take that margarita. Wouldn’t that be nice, but…

When things are too much give or too much take, everything falls apart. So, whether you mostly give or you mostly take, it’s time to balance things out to be a teaching teammate.

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How to Create Your Dream Home Office

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Do you take your teaching work home? Is your home office the dining room table or do you have a room? Here are some things for you to consider. Come read the post.

When you work from home, do you have an actual office or are you like so many teachers piling things high on the dining room table or the living couch?

That strategy works, but after a while it can take a toll. We all need a safe, reliable space to work in, but that doesn’t mean you have to break the bank.

Here are some things to consider when designing your own home office.

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