Brain Ninjas

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Classroom Tips

More Advanced Tech Skills You Should Teach Your Students

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Once your upper elementary students are using technology in the classroom or for distance learning regularly, you might need to teach them some more advanced tech skills to help them be more productive. Come check out this list of skills your students will need to use technology efficiently and effectively.

With more and more students having to complete their schoolwork online, there are some advanced tech skills you should teach your students to help make both your life and their lives easier. Technology often comes quite naturally to the generation that can usually set up a device or figure out a new video game within minutes, but the technology we use in the classroom is often more related to productivity tools and isn’t as intuitive.

What skills do you find you have to teach over and over again? We made a list with our students and then made list for you.

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Are You an Overachieving Teacher? Read This Now

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Is your need to be an overachieving teacher hurting you overall mental health and productivity? Is being busy more important than your own happiness? It's hard for us people pleasers to balance our need to please with healthy boundaries, but come see some of the ways we've learned to let it go and live happier.

Even writing this post, I recognize that my overachieving personality is going to make sure it’s perfect and it will never be as perfect as it needs to because I am an overachieving teacher.

It’s just who I am and I know this, so I actively try to not be me (and sometimes I even overachieve at that). Some people call it being uptight. Others think I’m a perfectionist. I just feel like I like things done right. And to be honest, it hasn’t served me well.

If this resonates with you at all, then read on.

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When to Quit Your Teaching Job and Why It’s Ok

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There are lots of reasons to quit a teaching job and none of them have to do with the teaching part. It's ok to change your teaching job. Come read this list of reasons to quit and how you can start the process (spoiler alert-none of them mean walking away from teaching completely).

If you’re anything like me, you were playing school with your dolls, neighbours or siblings as soon as you could walk. Teaching is just part of my soul, but there might come a time in your life when you should quit your teaching job and that’s ok.

If you are looking for a post that will tell you it’s ok to quit your teaching job to run away with the circus, this isn’t really that kind of post. This isn’t what you can do instead of teaching.

Instead, this post is about knowing when it’s time to change the teaching job you are currently doing. That could be a change of subject matter, grade level, locations, training or type of school position. Change is a good thing. It can breathe life back into your calling.

Read on to find out when you should quit.

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Black History Books You Should Use All Year

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While Black History Month happens each February there should be books about Black characters, Black history and by Black authors in your classroom all year round. Come check out our list of books that are in our classroom library and would be the perfect addition your school, too.

Black history is Canadian history. This history of all people that have made up this country should be included-both the heroic tales and the ones that are not told as often. We have always tried to include many stories of the different First Nations, Metis and Inuit People, but we discovered that our school and classroom library didn’t have enough books written by Black authors, featuring Black protagonists and telling the history from the perspective of Black Canadians.

The books we curated and collected shouldn’t be saved for one month of the year. These stories should be available to students all year round. They should be included in your language arts examples and in your history lessons. Come check out our list and see which books you might want to add to your collection.

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Chill Out With These Sanity Saving Indoor Recess Activities

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Sometimes the winter weather prevents us from going outside for recess. If you're stuck inside for indoor recess, we've collected a whole list of indoor recess activities that will work even if your students have to socially distance. Come read the blog and grab a few activities for your classroom.

Every year, teachers in Canada are faced with several days in a row where the weather outside is not safe for students to go outside and play. These indoor recesses can be a nightmare at the best of times because no student wants to stay inside every recess in a row during a cold snap. We’ve collected these must-try activities for indoor recess to ease that job.

We try to let our students have a less structured recess break where they choose their own activities and aren’t micromanaged. This might not be possible depending on the situation at your school, but keep in mind that recess should be a break instead of another scheduled block of time. Come see which of these activities will work for your students.

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Cozy Up With Great Winter Books

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Come check out this list of winter books that we use in our upper elementary classroom. We use picture books to teach all kinds of English Language Arts skills, but our students also love them. We've even included some ways to inspire your students to dig into winter books.

When it’s cold outside, a good winter book is a great way to cozy up and spend the cold months. We love to read picture books to our students in Grade Four and Five. Older students love picture books and they love to be read to just as much as younger students.

Picture books are a great way to teach specific comprehension skills, show examples of different types of writing, teach poetic devices and show how grammar is used in real-world situations.

Having a great book is just part of the equation. Next, we’ll talk about some of the ways we get kids to read.

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How to Communicate with Parents in a Fast-Paced World

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Are you looking to improve communication between home and school? It is more difficult than ever to reach parents to talk about students. Come learn some of the strategies that help us build strong lines of communication with the families of our students right from the start.

Communicating with parents right from the beginning of the year is critical to smooth sailing for the rest of the year. As they say, “information is power.” When parents are properly informed there will be better parent-teacher communication.

There are many ways to communicate with parents, but before you get started it is helpful to figure out what parents have access to and what form of communication with parents works for them.

You will probably have to use more than one method of parent communication to make sure you reach every family. That does seem daunting, but let us help.

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How to Celebrate Halloween In the Classroom

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A boy is dressed up as a doctor. Are you looking for ways to celebrate Halloween in your upper elementary classroom? We gathered up some of our students' favourite activities for you to try. Come take a look!

Halloween is such a special time for many students. In past years, we’ve had parades and assemblies and handed out candy. There was a time when bobbing for apples was a good idea. Now, since the pandemic, the thought of countless students scrambling to bite into an apple floating around in a tub full of mouth germs…ugg.

Our classroom is usually bustling with parent volunteers who help out at different Halloween-themed stations. Still, some years, there might not be as many parent volunteers available as you need, so it’s nice to have easy alternatives in your back pocket.

If your school and students are celebrating Halloween, here are some generally easy ways to have a little fun.

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How to Reconnect From Your Teaching Island

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Is teaching making you feel isolated and disconnected? Come read through some of the strategies that may help you through the tough times. Your mental health is much more important than your teaching job, so let us help.

Teaching has always been an isolating profession. We spend all day in a classroom with little people who get our jokes. The adult conversations we get happen during recess or staff meetings or in the bathroom line waiting for a toilet. It can leave anyone feeling disconnected.

My husband has a joke about teachers, they can seek each other out anywhere in the world. It never fails that when we travel to another country and meet another couple, one of them will be a teacher. He calls it teacher radar.

And it’s true. When two teachers meet in the wild, they talk about teaching. Because it’s another human in the world who actually gets it.

I mean, Mr. Ninja tries to be supportive, but unless you’re in the trenches, you don’t really get it.

How do you connect with other teachers? Come read about our struggles and some of the solutions.

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Your Must-Do Back to School Survival Checklist

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This year is different than any other back to school seasons, so what are some of the things you can do to get yourself prepared regardless of whether you're teaching in person or online. Come take care of your own mental health before your students return!

We created a back to school checklist to think about what might happen this year. It’s not possible to predict exactly what will happen. Things tend to be getting back to normal, but it the past few years have tuaght us anything, don’t get complacent. You might be teaching in person, online or some sort of combination of these things.

You might be teaching a new subject or a new grade level. You might not know anything about what you’ll be doing.

None of it is within your control. So, let’s talk about the things you can control and get ready before you have to go back to school no matter how it looks.

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How to Get Your Classroom Set Up in One Day

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Are you stuck in a time crunch with one day to set up your classroom? Yes, it can be done. Get down to the basics and leave everything else for later. Come read about how we've set up our classroom in one day.

It was the first day we were allowed to reenter the school after a major renovation. It was a disaster. Before the end of the previous year, we packed up everything and carefully labeled it. Nothing was returned to the classrooms. Students would be arriving in ONE day! Yup! You heard that right.

What a nightmare! Fortunately, we worked with the most amazing staff on the planet. We planned out a solution to bring everyone’s anxiety level down to a manageable level. We hosted a walking set-up bus.

What is a walking set-up bus? Keep reading to find out.

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5 Things To Get Organized Before the School Year Starts

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Are you looking for things you can do to get your school year off to a good start? These are all things you can do that don't involve making lesson plans or decorating your classroom. These are things you can do to make your life easier during the school start up.

We firmly believe that teachers should enjoy the time off they have and shouldn’t be forced to work. It’s the time we all need to replenish and prepare, but if you’re a little like us, you thrive when you are well-planned and prepared. It’s time to get organized for the year ahead.

That’s why we wrote this post. These are the things we try to get done over the summer months so we don’t have to worry about them in the first days of school. Having a simple plan makes answering the bombardment of questions from students so much easier.

Are you getting ready to start a new school year? Well, keep reading because these common sense things are the things you should be thinking about. We’re sharing them because these are all things we messed up in the past and want to pass down our wisdom.

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