December 22, 2025 • 26 mins
We’re bringing back a can’t-miss Teacher Approved classic episode to help you ease back into school with intention and clarity. In this replay of our January Reset Reflection, we guide you through eight thoughtful questions designed to help you reflect on what’s working, identify what needs a refresh, and keep that fresh-start energy alive long after winter break ends! This episode is meant to be listened to slowly and casually (hot cocoa encouraged!) so the ideas can simmer until you’re ready to step back into your classroom feeling grounded, focused, and energized for the second half of the year.
Resources:
- Classroom Procedures and Routines Editable Slides
- Parent Teacher Conference Course
- Editable Classroom Seating Chart
- Spiral Review Morning Work
- Spiral Review Homework – 2nd Grade
- Rechargeable Screwdriver
- Glass Pot
- Join the Teacher Approved Club!
- Connect with us on Instagram @2ndstorywindow.
- Shop our teacher-approved resources.
- Join our Facebook group, Teacher Approved
- Leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
- Leave a comment or rating on Spotify.
Related Episodes to Enjoy:
- Episode 3, Strengthening the Brain
- Episode 18, Procedures for Success!
- Episode 45, January Classroom Jump Start
- Episode 76, Teacher Approved Tips: Make Time for Spiral Review and Use SOPs to Save Time in the Classroom
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Heidi (00:00):
This is episode 238 of Teacher Approved.
You're listening to TeacherApproved, the podcast helping
educators elevate what mattersand simplify the rest. I'm
Heidi.
Emily (00:13):
And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story
Window, where we give researchbased and teacher approved
strategies that make teachingless stressful and more
effective. You can check out theshow notes and resources from
each episode atsecondstorywindow.net.
Heidi (00:28):
We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to
the show.
Emily (00:34):
Hey there, teacher friends. Congratulations, you
have made it through concertsand class parties and sugar
highs and countdowns, and nowyou are finally blessedly on
break.
Heidi (00:46):
Hooray! You did it. You've closed your classroom
door, turned off your alarm, andwe hope you are deep in some
much deserved rest, maybe withhot cocoa, some Hallmark movies
and some comfy cozy jammies.
Emily (00:58):
Over the last few episodes, we've helped you get
ahead without overwhelm. Planfor December, keep behavior calm
and even prep for January fromyour couch.
Heidi (01:08):
And today, we are closing that loop by focusing on what
comes next, how to keep thatfresh start feeling alive once
you are actually back in theclassroom.
Emily (01:17):
But don't worry, this is not about planning or goal
setting yet. Think of it morelike a little spark for your
teacher brain.
Heidi (01:24):
Yeah, exactly. You don't need to take notes or make
decisions today. Today's episodeis a replay of one of our
favorites. It's all aboutreflecting and resetting for
January. Just listen while youwrap presents or go for a walk
and let these questions simmerin the back of your mind.
Emily (01:38):
And when the glitter has settled after the holidays and
you are ready to start thinkingabout school again, you might be
interested to know that we arebringing back our Teacher Talks
Summit Series. Our previous onewas teacher summer talks, and we
are coming back with teacherwinter talks.
Heidi (01:53):
Woo hoo.
Emily (01:54):
Not quite ready to sign up for yet, but mark it on your
calendars. In about a week,you'll be able to sign up, and
this will be happening over thelong Martin Luther King Jr
weekend in January. We have anexciting sponsor this time,
Fashion Fix that you are goingto love to hear more from. So
just wanted to get you a littleexcited about what's coming for
(02:15):
that. This summit's going tohelp you capitalize on that new
year energy that you have inJanuary and help you set up for
a strong second half of theschool year. So keep an eye on
that.
Heidi (02:28):
But for now, just enjoy the festivities, the downtime
and the satisfaction of knowingthat you made it through another
December as a teacher.
Emily (02:37):
And let's dive into our replay of episode 111, your
January reset reflection.
Heidi (02:44):
We start our episodes with a morning message, just
like we used to do at morningmeeting in our classrooms. This
week's morning message is, Whatis something you still do the
old fashioned way? Emily, kickus off.
Emily (02:56):
Well, I still write a paper to do list. These days, we
do so much of our work digitallythat it makes the most sense to
keep my to do's digitally aswell, and I actually do keep a
digital to do list, but when itcomes down to what I need to
accomplish today, my brain isjust so much happier when I
write it out on a piece ofpaper. It's the first thing I do
(03:18):
when I'm feeling overwhelmed orlike I can't focus, I grab a
piece of paper and just braindump all the things I need to
get done that day. Andseriously, is there anything
more satisfying than thatfeeling of physically crossing
off something on your list?
Heidi (03:32):
Yeah, that's why I will add things I've already done to
my list.
Emily (03:35):
And checking a box or hitting the like strike through
button on the computer is justnot as satisfying is your pen
dragging across that to do listitem. But the downside to this
is that my desk is clutteredwith old half finished to do
lists everywhere. What do youstill do the old fashioned way,
Heidi (03:53):
Well, I am the same with the to do list, probably just
Heidi?
because, like you, I likechecking things off. My calendar
is on my phone, but I have adaily to do list that's on a
notepad. But something else I dothe old fashioned way is I
cannot follow a recipe off of ascreen, not off my phone, not
off an iPad. It just drives mecrazy. I want an actual paper
recipe. So now I've got, like,this huge stack of loose recipes
(04:16):
I printed off, and then I'vejust never bothered to figure
out what to do with so that'skind of the downside of being
old fashioned on that one.
Emily (04:23):
Yeah, I guess the other thing we do old fashioned is
make paper clutter. I think I'vegot digital clutter too. I've
got all the clutter.
Heidi (04:31):
Well, someone has to keep those paper sales people in
business, right? Dunder Mifflin.
Emily (04:37):
We asked our community what they do the old fashioned
way. Suzanne said, math, andLisa said, read a real book and
read aloud to the class. Thekids love it, even in fifth
grade. And I'm like, that shouldnot even be considered old
fashioned. Tracy said,gradebook. She still uses a
paper and pencil.
Heidi (04:54):
And I'm the same on that one, Tracy, I hated doing my
grades on the computer. I soundlike a dinosaur.
Emily (05:01):
And Nancy said daily read alouds after lunch. We'd love to
have you join the conversationover in our Teacher Approved
Facebook group.
Heidi (05:09):
So when I saw that this was episode 111 I kind of
thought, hey, wait a minute,isn't this supposed to mean
something? So I looked it up,and the answer, I thought, made
a fun little kind of fortunecookie for how we might be
feeling at the start of January.
Emily (05:23):
Okay, lots of people are into numerology, but I wouldn't
say that's normally our thing.
Heidi (05:28):
I mean, not really, not horoscope girlies either, but it
can be a fun way to maybe helpus connect with the stories in
our lives. So if you hearsomething that's resonating with
you, maybe look a little deeper.Maybe it's resonating with you
for a purpose.
Emily (05:41):
Okay, so what are we getting with 111?
Heidi (05:43):
Well, according to a highly researched USA Today
article, 111 signifies the startof things, whether that's a new
journey or a new path.
Emily (05:55):
Well, that fits for January.
Heidi (05:56):
Yes, and 111 is supposed to be your green light, you are
on the right track, and the roadis clear.
Emily (06:04):
All good things to hear at the start of a new year.
Heidi (06:07):
And I like this quote from the article. The
universe—oh, I need somecrystals or something. Okay,
just imagine we have crystals.The universe is giving you the
ability to choose how yourfuture goes by providing options
along with giving you the selfconfidence to make the decisions
that feel right to you, not tomention the resilience and
passion to accept whateverpositive or negative outcomes
(06:30):
result from those decisions.Ultimately, you'll know the
right decision by trusting yourgut. If you are doubting
yourself, have faith that thisnumber coming into your life, ie
this podcast episode, means youcan stop hesitating.
Emily (06:45):
Wow, that's a lot of pressure to put on a podcast
Heidi (06:49):
That is not the spirit of 111! You gotta embrace this
episode.
opportunity.
Emily (06:55):
Okay, let me try again. Let's embrace this opportunity
of a new start by figuring outwhere we're starting from.
Heidi (07:05):
Yes, and in the words of a great philosopher, Ferris
Bueller, oh, I've heard of him,life moves pretty fast. If you
don't stop and look around oncein a while, you could miss it.
Emily (07:16):
He was such an inspired thinker.
Heidi (07:17):
Definitely ahead of his time. So let's take a minute to
look around. We have got eightreflection questions to help you
get off to a strong start thisyear. You could just think about
your responses. But if youreally want extra credit, and we
know we've got some highachievers out there, record your
answers somewhere so you canreflect on your progress later.
Emily (07:37):
Do it on paper. It's very thrilling. Let's start with our
very favorite question, what isgoing well?
Heidi (07:46):
And this is probably our favorite question, because it's
the question that Emily and Ineed the most.
Emily (07:51):
We love to jump into fix it mode. Before an event is even
done, we've already got arunning list of what we need to
do to make it better next time.
Heidi (07:59):
We had a fondue night a couple weeks ago, and Emily and
I were comparing notes on whatto improve for next year before
I had even left her house.
Emily (08:08):
Yep, guilty. And look, that can be helpful, but if we
don't pause to celebrate whatwent well, hey, the fondue
didn't seem like it was going toturn out, but it did, and we did
not even celebrate it. And ifyou do that, then you run the
risk of not ensuring thosethings happen in the future.
Heidi (08:26):
Plus only focusing on how to improve gets exhausting. Take
that from our experience. Wehave all worked really hard, so
let's give ourselves the goldstars we deserve.
Emily (08:38):
Dear teacher friends, what is going well for you?
Heidi (08:42):
Consider your classroom, but also your life in general.
Are you in a good place withmeal planning, I hope, or
getting to bed on time?
Emily (08:51):
Give us some pointers if you if you have that one in
place.
Heidi (08:55):
Maybe you made a new friend, or you joined a book
club.
Emily (08:58):
If you're in a place where it feels like nothing is
going right, this question iseven more important for you. So
listen, please, find somethingpositive to hold on to. Even if
it's as small as the carstarting this morning,
identifying the good gives usthe strength to cope with the
less than good.
Heidi (09:14):
And you know, speaking of less than good, our second
reflection question is, what areyour biggest headaches?
Emily (09:22):
These are probably easy to identify, unlike the wins.
Heidi (09:26):
Once you have pinpointed your headaches, take a minute to
really dive into what makesthose particular things a
headache to you. Maybe, if yousay teaching, exactly what part
of teaching is a headache? Ifit's because you have a
difficult class, that's going tolead you to different solutions
than if your headache comes fromunrealistic curriculum
(09:46):
expectations.
Emily (09:48):
hen you've clearly named the problem, you can start
looking for solutions. Maybe youneed to revamp your management
system. Maybe you need to splitup the workload with your team.
Heidi (09:56):
One thing that can probably help every teacher at
this point of the year is torevisit your procedures.
Emily (10:03):
Now, unless this is your first episode here with us, and
if it is, welcome, you areprobably not surprised to hear
us bringing up procedures. Weseem to find a way to do that in
every episode.
Heidi (10:14):
Because procedures make the world go round.
Emily (10:16):
It's true in your classroom.
Heidi (10:18):
And revisiting your procedures is an impactful way
to hit the reset button when youcome back to school in January.
If you can only manage onething, this is the one to do.
Because effective classroomprocedures help reduce behavior
problems and will save you somuch wasted time, it's worth
taking some intentional time nowto review the procedures that
(10:40):
aren't working as well as theycould be.
Emily (10:42):
And we have some procedure review Google slides
that are great for doing thismid year with your students.
These are brand new, and it isimportant to make revisiting
your procedures part of yourregular routine. It's really
hard to add something like thatinto the flow of your day a few
times a year, though.
Heidi (10:59):
This is exactly the sort of thing that I would always
tell myself I was going to do, Iwas going to make it happen this
year, and then totally forget todo it, not because it's hard to
do, but because it's hard to addin things that aren't part of
your regular routine.
Emily (11:13):
That's why we wanted to automate this as much as
possible. There are fourdifferent slide decks for
reviewing procedures. Each deckhas the same slides. It just
mixes up the colors to keepthings interesting.
Heidi (11:24):
You could set aside one slide deck for the end of term,
one, one for the end of termtwo, or after winter break, or
any other time that you feel areview is useful, and then all
you have to do is add the namesof your most important
procedures to the individualslides. Maybe you want to
revisit how students come in inthe morning or start their
morning work or walk quietly inthe hall, you just type those
(11:46):
procedures into the slides andproject them for the students.
Emily (11:50):
For each procedure, you ask your students to rate from
one to five how well they'remeeting your expectations, and
then make a plan for improvingor continuing to be awesome.
Heidi (11:59):
If there are any other problem areas you are
encountering in your classroomright now, take some time to
identify them and pinpoint somesolutions you could try.
Emily (12:09):
The nice thing about these slides is you can do so
much of the prep ahead of time.A nice little gift to your
future self, add your procedurenames to the slide decks now and
add a note on your calendar forwhat day you want to review them
with your students. Easy peasy.
Heidi (12:23):
You can find these rules and procedure review slides in
our shop or in our TPT store,and we will link to them in our
show notes.
Emily (12:31):
Okay, on to our third reflection question, Where have
you made progress on your backto school goals?
Heidi (12:37):
It is so easy to feel like you never make any progress
on your goals. I know I alwaysthink that I haven't even made a
dent when in reality, that isusually not true.
Emily (12:47):
Take time to think back on the goals you set at the
beginning of the school year.Chances are good that you've
come a long way on those goalssince school started.
Heidi (12:55):
Maybe this year you wanted to stay on top of your
grading or make positive contactwith parents, and you've
probably had some days when youhave been really great at that,
and also some days where youcrashed and burned. That is
life, unfortunately.
Emily (13:10):
But just because you haven't done things perfectly
doesn't mean you haven't beensuccessful. We're about
progress, not perfection.
Heidi (13:17):
At the very least, reflect on how difficult some
things were for your students atthe start of the year, and
celebrate how much better theyare now at their two digit
addition or cursive writing orhopefully following directions.
Emily (13:30):
Yeah, pat yourself on the back because you are the one who
helped them make that amazingprogress. It's easy in the day
to day of teaching to feel likenothing ever improves, so take
the time to appreciate thegrowth you and your students
have made so far this year.
Heidi (13:46):
Our fourth reflection question is, Are your goals
still serving you?
Emily (13:51):
Now that we just reminded ourselves of our goals from the
beginning of the school year,consider if those goals are
still serving you.
Heidi (13:57):
If the goals are still serving you, what can you do to
continue working toward them?Where are you still falling
short on your aims? Whatspecific actions can you take to
make progress toward your endgoal?
Emily (14:10):
For example, if you have a goal to leave as soon as
contract time ends on Fridays,but you are not consistently
meeting that goal, can youidentify what is keeping you
late on Fridays? Maybe it'srunning your copies for Monday
because the copy room is alwaysbusy during your prep time on
Fridays. If that's the case,maybe you could work a little
ahead so you can get your copiesdone earlier in the week.
Heidi (14:30):
The answer isn't always cut and dry, but chances are,
you can come up with at least afew ideas you can try to help
you meet your goals.
Emily (14:37):
If you consider your goals and decide that they are
not serving you, what new goalsdo you have instead? Sometimes a
goal you're excited about at thestart of the year turns out to
be one you don't feel isimportant anymore. It's okay to
abandon a goal that isn'tmeeting your purpose anymore.
Heidi (14:52):
If you want to abandon any goals that you no longer
feel passionate about, think ofsome new goals to replace them.
You can't hit a target you can'tsee, so it's important to have
something you're working towardsas a teacher.
Emily (15:05):
Our fifth reflection question is a big one, how well
are you taking care of yourself?
Heidi (15:10):
There's a reason that everyone seems to be talking
about teacher burnout more andmore these days. It's because,
if you've noticed this careerhas a way of taking over your
whole life if you let it. Itwill take every ounce of effort
you have available.
Emily (15:25):
It's so important to constantly be considering how
well you are taking care ofyourself as a teacher.
Heidi (15:30):
Some specific questions you can use to reflect on this
are, are you getting enoughsleep? You're probably not,
honey. You need to get somebetter sleep. Are you eating
during the school day? Do youhave enough water and sustaining
snacks available to you? Do youhave healthy boundaries between
your personal life and your worklife? Do you have adequate time
for yourself?
Emily (15:51):
Taking good care of yourself is something you will
probably always be trying to dobetter at. But remember that you
can't be the best teacher youcan be if you're not thriving as
a human being.
Heidi (16:01):
And more important than doing your job well, you should
take care of yourself, becauseyou deserve to feel good. You
are more than that job, and youdon't have to earn rest or care.
You are entitled to it becauseyou matter, no matter what.
Emily (16:15):
Remind yourself of that fact every time the critical
voice in your head tries to tellyou a different story. You are
the only one who can protectyour well being, so take care of
yourself the way you would oneof your students.
Heidi (16:26):
All right, on to our sixth reflection question. This
is a two parter, what do youwant more of and what do you
want less of?
Emily (16:35):
Maybe another way to think about this is to ask, what
are your roses and what are yourthorns? Roses are the things
that light you up. Maybe that'splanning a huge novel study for
your students, or inventing anew math game. Maybe it's rock
climbing at the gym or tryingout a new cookbook. These are
things we want more of in ourlives.
Heidi (16:53):
Now, what do you want less of? These are the thorns
that get in the way of enjoyinglife. Maybe it's having to cook
dinner every night or organizingparent teacher conferences. If
you can totally cut out a thornfrom your life, do it. But
that's probably not feasible formost thorns, unfortunately. So
what can you do to minimize theminstead? Could you spend a
(17:15):
weekend making 15 freezer mealsthat you can dump in the crock
pot? Could you get your gradingdone ahead of time so parent
teacher conferences aren't sostressful?
Emily (17:23):
And if parent conferences are a thorn for you the way they
were for me, we have put all ourtips and tricks into a mini
course to help take away some ofthe sting from that particular
Thorn. There's a link to that inthe show notes if you're
interested with that.
Heidi (17:38):
All right, Emily, what's our seventh question?
Emily (17:40):
Our seventh reflection question is, what does your
classroom need?
Heidi (17:45):
Chances are good that when you came back from break in
January, you could maybe feelthat your classroom needed to be
refreshed. What specificallydoes your space need right now?
Emily (17:54):
Maybe you need to clear clutter. That's always the first
place I start, because clearingclutter makes a big impact, and
it's so rewarding.
Heidi (18:02):
Plus, it is totally free.
Emily (18:04):
Yes. If you haven't taken down the holiday decor yet,
you'll want to get to that rightaway, too. And how are your
supplies looking? Maybe you needa restock of pencils and glue
sticks.
Heidi (18:14):
Or maybe you just need to freshen things up with something
new. You could add some newdecor, or find a new book or two
for your classroom library.
Emily (18:22):
We think new books are always the right answer.
Heidi (18:25):
They have never been wrong for me. Or you could
rearrange your room for a bigrefresh. You can do a totally
new seating arrangement. Ormaybe you want to get really
wild and move your rug andshelves too.
Emily (18:38):
Living on the edge.
Heidi (18:39):
Don't feel like you have to do something big like that,
but it might be just what youneed if your space is feeling
flat.
Emily (18:47):
We do have a digital seating arrangement tool that
lets you play around withdifferent seating options before
you commit to moving the desks.We'll link to that in the show
notes.
Heidi (18:56):
And for our eighth and final reflection question, we
have, what are you lookingforward to?
Emily (19:03):
I find it so beneficial to always have something I'm
looking forward to. You mayalready have some things you're
looking forward to, like yourspring break plans.
Heidi (19:12):
But if nothing is immediately coming to mind, it's
time to create something to lookforward to.
Emily (19:18):
You can make a bucket list of fun activities you want
to do with your students beforethe end of the year, or you can
start something new, like addingFun Friday to your schedule,
where the last 15 minutes ofevery Friday is game time, or
something new like that.
Heidi (19:31):
You can also look forward by adding in some surprise and
delight. This is a favoritestrategy of ours. Surprise and
delight is giving your studentssomething special to do
completely out of the blue, justbecause. Your students don't
have to earn it with goodbehavior. It's just something
you're giving to them becauseyou care about them. Some ideas
(19:53):
could be a spur of the momentdance party, or a spin of a
prize wheel, or maybe lettingstudents work under their desks
for a change.
Emily (20:01):
And while it's a surprise for the students, it doesn't
have to be a surprise for you.You can absolutely put this on
your calendar so you don'tforget to do it and you have
something fun to look forwardto.
Heidi (20:12):
These are the sort of things that we tell ourselves
we'll remember, but witheverything else we're trying to
keep track of, it's no wonderthat these little extras fly
right out of our heads, so writeit down, whether that's on paper
or digitally.
Emily (20:25):
Another thing you can look forward to could be more
professional development. Maybethere's a workshop you want to
take or a new teaching book youand your team are going to read
together. Or maybe you want toinvest in a new friendship with
a co worker. Having friends atschool makes it so much easier
to go to school every day.
Heidi (20:41):
But really, at the very least, give those spring break
plans some attention. We got tohave something fun to look
Emily (20:48):
To recap, here are the eight reflection questions you
forward to.
can ask yourself as you startyour 111 January journey slash
classroom reset.
Heidi (21:00):
What is going well? What are your biggest headaches?
Where have you made progress onyour back to school goals? Are
your goals still serving you?How well are you taking care of
yourself? What do you want moreof, and what do you want less
of? What does your classroomneed? And what are you looking
(21:20):
forward to?
Emily (21:21):
We'd love to hear what you're looking forward to for
the rest of this school year.Come join the conversation in
our Teacher Approved Facebookgroup.
Now let's talk about this week'steacher approved tip. Each week
we leave you with a small,actionable tip that you can
apply in your classroom today.This week's teacher approved tip
is make a plan for how you willstart doing test prep. I know
(21:42):
you don't want to think aboutthis yet, but I promise it'll be
here before you know it. So whatcan we do to get it started,
Heidi?
Heidi (21:49):
Research has found that spiral review is an incredibly
impactful way to ensure learnerscan recall information when it's
needed, like you know whenyou're taking a test. As you may
already know, we love to includespiral review in our morning
routines, but you can really doit at any time of your day or
(22:09):
even with your homework. We havespiral review morning work and
spiral review homework designedto help you easily build in that
practice every day, and we willput some handy links to those in
our show notes.
Emily (22:23):
If you haven't found a way to build review into your
day yet, make a plan for how youcan start doing it in January
with either morning work orhomework or some other way.
Heidi (22:33):
For example, maybe one of your math centers each week
reviews a topic you learned inthe fall, or maybe you want to
do a big review game eachFriday, maybe your kids prepare
videos to teach their classmatesabout tricky topics. Because we
are starting this in January, wehave time to make review
engaging and creative. There areso many fun ways that you can
(22:54):
start working this into yourschedule.
Emily (22:56):
Anything that gets kids to pull information from their
memories without the benefit ofnotes or books, helps them
retain that information in thelong term. That is called
retrieval practice, and it's soimportant that we devoted our
third podcast episode toexplaining all about it, so you
can go back and check that outif you want all the details.
Heidi (23:15):
You may also want to work on building on task stamina
between now and those end ofyour tests, working on
increasing on task time andcelebrating persistence and
frustration tolerance.
Emily (23:28):
End of your tests are just a never ending source of
joy, aren't they?
Heidi (23:32):
Yeah, joy is the word I think of.
To wrap up the show, we aresharing what we're giving extra
credit to this week. Emily, whatgets your extra credit?
Emily (23:41):
I'm giving extra credit to a cordless rechargeable
screwdriver. It's so handy tohave one of these ready to go
when you're assembling things orneed to do a bunch of small
household tasks. I know I hadone ages ago, but who knows what
happened to it. I finallysnagged a new one, it comes in a
case with all these differenttips, including like unusual
ones that you sometimes needfor, like your ring doorbell or
(24:03):
whatever.
Heidi (24:03):
Oh, that's handy.
Emily (24:04):
Such a treat to have handy whenever I need it. And
it's smaller and easier to grabfor a quick job than one of
those big drill drivers.
Heidi (24:12):
That's what I have.
Emily (24:13):
I think they're probably all created probably pretty much
the same, but I will link to theone I got in the show notes.
What are you giving extra creditto, Heidi?
Heidi (24:21):
So my extra credit is for a glass pot. I will put a link
to the one I got in the shownotes, but there's nothing
particularly special about thatone. I just got it because it
looked pretty. And you couldprobably cook in a glass pot,
but I use it specifically forstove top simmers, being extra.
(24:44):
If you don't know what a simmeris, it's where you put like
oranges and cranberries andspices in a pot, and you heat it
on low for a few hours to makeyour house smell cozy and warm,
if warm is a smell. But I'veused regular cooking pots for
these simmer pots in the past,but the glass pot makes it look
so beautiful, as well assmelling nice. It's just really
(25:06):
such a comforting little touchto add to a dreary winter day.
Emily (25:10):
And it may be extra, but my kids have informed me that we
both are extremely extra,especially at the holidays, so
we're just leaning into it.
Heidi (25:19):
What a baseless accusation.
Emily (25:21):
How dare they?
Heidi (25:25):
That's it for today's episode. Don't forget to use
these eight reflection questionsto help get your new year off to
a strong start. And remember ourteacher approved tip to start
planning your test prep now sothat you are ahead of the game.
We hope you enjoyed this episodeof Teacher Approved. I'm Heidi.
Emily (25:45):
And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow
or subscribe in your podcast appso that you never miss an
episode.
Heidi (25:52):
You can connect with us and other teachers in the
Teacher Approved Facebook group.We'll see you here next week.
Bye for now.
Emily (25:58):
Bye.
This is episode 238 of Teacher Approved.
You're listening to TeacherApproved, the podcast helping
educators elevate what mattersand simplify the rest. I'm
Heidi.
Emily (00:13):
And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story
Window, where we give researchbased and teacher approved
strategies that make teachingless stressful and more
effective. You can check out theshow notes and resources from
each episode atsecondstorywindow.net.
Heidi (00:28):
We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to
the show.
Emily (00:34):
Hey there, teacher friends. Congratulations, you
have made it through concertsand class parties and sugar
highs and countdowns, and nowyou are finally blessedly on
break.
Heidi (00:46):
Hooray! You did it. You've closed your classroom
door, turned off your alarm, andwe hope you are deep in some
much deserved rest, maybe withhot cocoa, some Hallmark movies
and some comfy cozy jammies.
Emily (00:58):
Over the last few episodes, we've helped you get
ahead without overwhelm. Planfor December, keep behavior calm
and even prep for January fromyour couch.
Heidi (01:08):
And today, we are closing that loop by focusing on what
comes next, how to keep thatfresh start feeling alive once
you are actually back in theclassroom.
Emily (01:17):
But don't worry, this is not about planning or goal
setting yet. Think of it morelike a little spark for your
teacher brain.
Heidi (01:24):
Yeah, exactly. You don't need to take notes or make
decisions today. Today's episodeis a replay of one of our
favorites. It's all aboutreflecting and resetting for
January. Just listen while youwrap presents or go for a walk
and let these questions simmerin the back of your mind.
Emily (01:38):
And when the glitter has settled after the holidays and
you are ready to start thinkingabout school again, you might be
interested to know that we arebringing back our Teacher Talks
Summit Series. Our previous onewas teacher summer talks, and we
are coming back with teacherwinter talks.
Heidi (01:53):
Woo hoo.
Emily (01:54):
Not quite ready to sign up for yet, but mark it on your
calendars. In about a week,you'll be able to sign up, and
this will be happening over thelong Martin Luther King Jr
weekend in January. We have anexciting sponsor this time,
Fashion Fix that you are goingto love to hear more from. So
just wanted to get you a littleexcited about what's coming for
(02:15):
that. This summit's going tohelp you capitalize on that new
year energy that you have inJanuary and help you set up for
a strong second half of theschool year. So keep an eye on
that.
Heidi (02:28):
But for now, just enjoy the festivities, the downtime
and the satisfaction of knowingthat you made it through another
December as a teacher.
Emily (02:37):
And let's dive into our replay of episode 111, your
January reset reflection.
Heidi (02:44):
We start our episodes with a morning message, just
like we used to do at morningmeeting in our classrooms. This
week's morning message is, Whatis something you still do the
old fashioned way? Emily, kickus off.
Emily (02:56):
Well, I still write a paper to do list. These days, we
do so much of our work digitallythat it makes the most sense to
keep my to do's digitally aswell, and I actually do keep a
digital to do list, but when itcomes down to what I need to
accomplish today, my brain isjust so much happier when I
write it out on a piece ofpaper. It's the first thing I do
(03:18):
when I'm feeling overwhelmed orlike I can't focus, I grab a
piece of paper and just braindump all the things I need to
get done that day. Andseriously, is there anything
more satisfying than thatfeeling of physically crossing
off something on your list?
Heidi (03:32):
Yeah, that's why I will add things I've already done to
my list.
Emily (03:35):
And checking a box or hitting the like strike through
button on the computer is justnot as satisfying is your pen
dragging across that to do listitem. But the downside to this
is that my desk is clutteredwith old half finished to do
lists everywhere. What do youstill do the old fashioned way,
Heidi (03:53):
Well, I am the same with the to do list, probably just
Heidi?
because, like you, I likechecking things off. My calendar
is on my phone, but I have adaily to do list that's on a
notepad. But something else I dothe old fashioned way is I
cannot follow a recipe off of ascreen, not off my phone, not
off an iPad. It just drives mecrazy. I want an actual paper
recipe. So now I've got, like,this huge stack of loose recipes
(04:16):
I printed off, and then I'vejust never bothered to figure
out what to do with so that'skind of the downside of being
old fashioned on that one.
Emily (04:23):
Yeah, I guess the other thing we do old fashioned is
make paper clutter. I think I'vegot digital clutter too. I've
got all the clutter.
Heidi (04:31):
Well, someone has to keep those paper sales people in
business, right? Dunder Mifflin.
Emily (04:37):
We asked our community what they do the old fashioned
way. Suzanne said, math, andLisa said, read a real book and
read aloud to the class. Thekids love it, even in fifth
grade. And I'm like, that shouldnot even be considered old
fashioned. Tracy said,gradebook. She still uses a
paper and pencil.
Heidi (04:54):
And I'm the same on that one, Tracy, I hated doing my
grades on the computer. I soundlike a dinosaur.
Emily (05:01):
And Nancy said daily read alouds after lunch. We'd love to
have you join the conversationover in our Teacher Approved
Facebook group.
Heidi (05:09):
So when I saw that this was episode 111 I kind of
thought, hey, wait a minute,isn't this supposed to mean
something? So I looked it up,and the answer, I thought, made
a fun little kind of fortunecookie for how we might be
feeling at the start of January.
Emily (05:23):
Okay, lots of people are into numerology, but I wouldn't
say that's normally our thing.
Heidi (05:28):
I mean, not really, not horoscope girlies either, but it
can be a fun way to maybe helpus connect with the stories in
our lives. So if you hearsomething that's resonating with
you, maybe look a little deeper.Maybe it's resonating with you
for a purpose.
Emily (05:41):
Okay, so what are we getting with 111?
Heidi (05:43):
Well, according to a highly researched USA Today
article, 111 signifies the startof things, whether that's a new
journey or a new path.
Emily (05:55):
Well, that fits for January.
Heidi (05:56):
Yes, and 111 is supposed to be your green light, you are
on the right track, and the roadis clear.
Emily (06:04):
All good things to hear at the start of a new year.
Heidi (06:07):
And I like this quote from the article. The
universe—oh, I need somecrystals or something. Okay,
just imagine we have crystals.The universe is giving you the
ability to choose how yourfuture goes by providing options
along with giving you the selfconfidence to make the decisions
that feel right to you, not tomention the resilience and
passion to accept whateverpositive or negative outcomes
(06:30):
result from those decisions.Ultimately, you'll know the
right decision by trusting yourgut. If you are doubting
yourself, have faith that thisnumber coming into your life, ie
this podcast episode, means youcan stop hesitating.
Emily (06:45):
Wow, that's a lot of pressure to put on a podcast
Heidi (06:49):
That is not the spirit of 111! You gotta embrace this
episode.
opportunity.
Emily (06:55):
Okay, let me try again. Let's embrace this opportunity
of a new start by figuring outwhere we're starting from.
Heidi (07:05):
Yes, and in the words of a great philosopher, Ferris
Bueller, oh, I've heard of him,life moves pretty fast. If you
don't stop and look around oncein a while, you could miss it.
Emily (07:16):
He was such an inspired thinker.
Heidi (07:17):
Definitely ahead of his time. So let's take a minute to
look around. We have got eightreflection questions to help you
get off to a strong start thisyear. You could just think about
your responses. But if youreally want extra credit, and we
know we've got some highachievers out there, record your
answers somewhere so you canreflect on your progress later.
Emily (07:37):
Do it on paper. It's very thrilling. Let's start with our
very favorite question, what isgoing well?
Heidi (07:46):
And this is probably our favorite question, because it's
the question that Emily and Ineed the most.
Emily (07:51):
We love to jump into fix it mode. Before an event is even
done, we've already got arunning list of what we need to
do to make it better next time.
Heidi (07:59):
We had a fondue night a couple weeks ago, and Emily and
I were comparing notes on whatto improve for next year before
I had even left her house.
Emily (08:08):
Yep, guilty. And look, that can be helpful, but if we
don't pause to celebrate whatwent well, hey, the fondue
didn't seem like it was going toturn out, but it did, and we did
not even celebrate it. And ifyou do that, then you run the
risk of not ensuring thosethings happen in the future.
Heidi (08:26):
Plus only focusing on how to improve gets exhausting. Take
that from our experience. Wehave all worked really hard, so
let's give ourselves the goldstars we deserve.
Emily (08:38):
Dear teacher friends, what is going well for you?
Heidi (08:42):
Consider your classroom, but also your life in general.
Are you in a good place withmeal planning, I hope, or
getting to bed on time?
Emily (08:51):
Give us some pointers if you if you have that one in
place.
Heidi (08:55):
Maybe you made a new friend, or you joined a book
club.
Emily (08:58):
If you're in a place where it feels like nothing is
going right, this question iseven more important for you. So
listen, please, find somethingpositive to hold on to. Even if
it's as small as the carstarting this morning,
identifying the good gives usthe strength to cope with the
less than good.
Heidi (09:14):
And you know, speaking of less than good, our second
reflection question is, what areyour biggest headaches?
Emily (09:22):
These are probably easy to identify, unlike the wins.
Heidi (09:26):
Once you have pinpointed your headaches, take a minute to
really dive into what makesthose particular things a
headache to you. Maybe, if yousay teaching, exactly what part
of teaching is a headache? Ifit's because you have a
difficult class, that's going tolead you to different solutions
than if your headache comes fromunrealistic curriculum
(09:46):
expectations.
Emily (09:48):
hen you've clearly named the problem, you can start
looking for solutions. Maybe youneed to revamp your management
system. Maybe you need to splitup the workload with your team.
Heidi (09:56):
One thing that can probably help every teacher at
this point of the year is torevisit your procedures.
Emily (10:03):
Now, unless this is your first episode here with us, and
if it is, welcome, you areprobably not surprised to hear
us bringing up procedures. Weseem to find a way to do that in
every episode.
Heidi (10:14):
Because procedures make the world go round.
Emily (10:16):
It's true in your classroom.
Heidi (10:18):
And revisiting your procedures is an impactful way
to hit the reset button when youcome back to school in January.
If you can only manage onething, this is the one to do.
Because effective classroomprocedures help reduce behavior
problems and will save you somuch wasted time, it's worth
taking some intentional time nowto review the procedures that
(10:40):
aren't working as well as theycould be.
Emily (10:42):
And we have some procedure review Google slides
that are great for doing thismid year with your students.
These are brand new, and it isimportant to make revisiting
your procedures part of yourregular routine. It's really
hard to add something like thatinto the flow of your day a few
times a year, though.
Heidi (10:59):
This is exactly the sort of thing that I would always
tell myself I was going to do, Iwas going to make it happen this
year, and then totally forget todo it, not because it's hard to
do, but because it's hard to addin things that aren't part of
your regular routine.
Emily (11:13):
That's why we wanted to automate this as much as
possible. There are fourdifferent slide decks for
reviewing procedures. Each deckhas the same slides. It just
mixes up the colors to keepthings interesting.
Heidi (11:24):
You could set aside one slide deck for the end of term,
one, one for the end of termtwo, or after winter break, or
any other time that you feel areview is useful, and then all
you have to do is add the namesof your most important
procedures to the individualslides. Maybe you want to
revisit how students come in inthe morning or start their
morning work or walk quietly inthe hall, you just type those
(11:46):
procedures into the slides andproject them for the students.
Emily (11:50):
For each procedure, you ask your students to rate from
one to five how well they'remeeting your expectations, and
then make a plan for improvingor continuing to be awesome.
Heidi (11:59):
If there are any other problem areas you are
encountering in your classroomright now, take some time to
identify them and pinpoint somesolutions you could try.
Emily (12:09):
The nice thing about these slides is you can do so
much of the prep ahead of time.A nice little gift to your
future self, add your procedurenames to the slide decks now and
add a note on your calendar forwhat day you want to review them
with your students. Easy peasy.
Heidi (12:23):
You can find these rules and procedure review slides in
our shop or in our TPT store,and we will link to them in our
show notes.
Emily (12:31):
Okay, on to our third reflection question, Where have
you made progress on your backto school goals?
Heidi (12:37):
It is so easy to feel like you never make any progress
on your goals. I know I alwaysthink that I haven't even made a
dent when in reality, that isusually not true.
Emily (12:47):
Take time to think back on the goals you set at the
beginning of the school year.Chances are good that you've
come a long way on those goalssince school started.
Heidi (12:55):
Maybe this year you wanted to stay on top of your
grading or make positive contactwith parents, and you've
probably had some days when youhave been really great at that,
and also some days where youcrashed and burned. That is
life, unfortunately.
Emily (13:10):
But just because you haven't done things perfectly
doesn't mean you haven't beensuccessful. We're about
progress, not perfection.
Heidi (13:17):
At the very least, reflect on how difficult some
things were for your students atthe start of the year, and
celebrate how much better theyare now at their two digit
addition or cursive writing orhopefully following directions.
Emily (13:30):
Yeah, pat yourself on the back because you are the one who
helped them make that amazingprogress. It's easy in the day
to day of teaching to feel likenothing ever improves, so take
the time to appreciate thegrowth you and your students
have made so far this year.
Heidi (13:46):
Our fourth reflection question is, Are your goals
still serving you?
Emily (13:51):
Now that we just reminded ourselves of our goals from the
beginning of the school year,consider if those goals are
still serving you.
Heidi (13:57):
If the goals are still serving you, what can you do to
continue working toward them?Where are you still falling
short on your aims? Whatspecific actions can you take to
make progress toward your endgoal?
Emily (14:10):
For example, if you have a goal to leave as soon as
contract time ends on Fridays,but you are not consistently
meeting that goal, can youidentify what is keeping you
late on Fridays? Maybe it'srunning your copies for Monday
because the copy room is alwaysbusy during your prep time on
Fridays. If that's the case,maybe you could work a little
ahead so you can get your copiesdone earlier in the week.
Heidi (14:30):
The answer isn't always cut and dry, but chances are,
you can come up with at least afew ideas you can try to help
you meet your goals.
Emily (14:37):
If you consider your goals and decide that they are
not serving you, what new goalsdo you have instead? Sometimes a
goal you're excited about at thestart of the year turns out to
be one you don't feel isimportant anymore. It's okay to
abandon a goal that isn'tmeeting your purpose anymore.
Heidi (14:52):
If you want to abandon any goals that you no longer
feel passionate about, think ofsome new goals to replace them.
You can't hit a target you can'tsee, so it's important to have
something you're working towardsas a teacher.
Emily (15:05):
Our fifth reflection question is a big one, how well
are you taking care of yourself?
Heidi (15:10):
There's a reason that everyone seems to be talking
about teacher burnout more andmore these days. It's because,
if you've noticed this careerhas a way of taking over your
whole life if you let it. Itwill take every ounce of effort
you have available.
Emily (15:25):
It's so important to constantly be considering how
well you are taking care ofyourself as a teacher.
Heidi (15:30):
Some specific questions you can use to reflect on this
are, are you getting enoughsleep? You're probably not,
honey. You need to get somebetter sleep. Are you eating
during the school day? Do youhave enough water and sustaining
snacks available to you? Do youhave healthy boundaries between
your personal life and your worklife? Do you have adequate time
for yourself?
Emily (15:51):
Taking good care of yourself is something you will
probably always be trying to dobetter at. But remember that you
can't be the best teacher youcan be if you're not thriving as
a human being.
Heidi (16:01):
And more important than doing your job well, you should
take care of yourself, becauseyou deserve to feel good. You
are more than that job, and youdon't have to earn rest or care.
You are entitled to it becauseyou matter, no matter what.
Emily (16:15):
Remind yourself of that fact every time the critical
voice in your head tries to tellyou a different story. You are
the only one who can protectyour well being, so take care of
yourself the way you would oneof your students.
Heidi (16:26):
All right, on to our sixth reflection question. This
is a two parter, what do youwant more of and what do you
want less of?
Emily (16:35):
Maybe another way to think about this is to ask, what
are your roses and what are yourthorns? Roses are the things
that light you up. Maybe that'splanning a huge novel study for
your students, or inventing anew math game. Maybe it's rock
climbing at the gym or tryingout a new cookbook. These are
things we want more of in ourlives.
Heidi (16:53):
Now, what do you want less of? These are the thorns
that get in the way of enjoyinglife. Maybe it's having to cook
dinner every night or organizingparent teacher conferences. If
you can totally cut out a thornfrom your life, do it. But
that's probably not feasible formost thorns, unfortunately. So
what can you do to minimize theminstead? Could you spend a
(17:15):
weekend making 15 freezer mealsthat you can dump in the crock
pot? Could you get your gradingdone ahead of time so parent
teacher conferences aren't sostressful?
Emily (17:23):
And if parent conferences are a thorn for you the way they
were for me, we have put all ourtips and tricks into a mini
course to help take away some ofthe sting from that particular
Thorn. There's a link to that inthe show notes if you're
interested with that.
Heidi (17:38):
All right, Emily, what's our seventh question?
Emily (17:40):
Our seventh reflection question is, what does your
classroom need?
Heidi (17:45):
Chances are good that when you came back from break in
January, you could maybe feelthat your classroom needed to be
refreshed. What specificallydoes your space need right now?
Emily (17:54):
Maybe you need to clear clutter. That's always the first
place I start, because clearingclutter makes a big impact, and
it's so rewarding.
Heidi (18:02):
Plus, it is totally free.
Emily (18:04):
Yes. If you haven't taken down the holiday decor yet,
you'll want to get to that rightaway, too. And how are your
supplies looking? Maybe you needa restock of pencils and glue
sticks.
Heidi (18:14):
Or maybe you just need to freshen things up with something
new. You could add some newdecor, or find a new book or two
for your classroom library.
Emily (18:22):
We think new books are always the right answer.
Heidi (18:25):
They have never been wrong for me. Or you could
rearrange your room for a bigrefresh. You can do a totally
new seating arrangement. Ormaybe you want to get really
wild and move your rug andshelves too.
Emily (18:38):
Living on the edge.
Heidi (18:39):
Don't feel like you have to do something big like that,
but it might be just what youneed if your space is feeling
flat.
Emily (18:47):
We do have a digital seating arrangement tool that
lets you play around withdifferent seating options before
you commit to moving the desks.We'll link to that in the show
notes.
Heidi (18:56):
And for our eighth and final reflection question, we
have, what are you lookingforward to?
Emily (19:03):
I find it so beneficial to always have something I'm
looking forward to. You mayalready have some things you're
looking forward to, like yourspring break plans.
Heidi (19:12):
But if nothing is immediately coming to mind, it's
time to create something to lookforward to.
Emily (19:18):
You can make a bucket list of fun activities you want
to do with your students beforethe end of the year, or you can
start something new, like addingFun Friday to your schedule,
where the last 15 minutes ofevery Friday is game time, or
something new like that.
Heidi (19:31):
You can also look forward by adding in some surprise and
delight. This is a favoritestrategy of ours. Surprise and
delight is giving your studentssomething special to do
completely out of the blue, justbecause. Your students don't
have to earn it with goodbehavior. It's just something
you're giving to them becauseyou care about them. Some ideas
(19:53):
could be a spur of the momentdance party, or a spin of a
prize wheel, or maybe lettingstudents work under their desks
for a change.
Emily (20:01):
And while it's a surprise for the students, it doesn't
have to be a surprise for you.You can absolutely put this on
your calendar so you don'tforget to do it and you have
something fun to look forwardto.
Heidi (20:12):
These are the sort of things that we tell ourselves
we'll remember, but witheverything else we're trying to
keep track of, it's no wonderthat these little extras fly
right out of our heads, so writeit down, whether that's on paper
or digitally.
Emily (20:25):
Another thing you can look forward to could be more
professional development. Maybethere's a workshop you want to
take or a new teaching book youand your team are going to read
together. Or maybe you want toinvest in a new friendship with
a co worker. Having friends atschool makes it so much easier
to go to school every day.
Heidi (20:41):
But really, at the very least, give those spring break
plans some attention. We got tohave something fun to look
Emily (20:48):
To recap, here are the eight reflection questions you
forward to.
can ask yourself as you startyour 111 January journey slash
classroom reset.
Heidi (21:00):
What is going well? What are your biggest headaches?
Where have you made progress onyour back to school goals? Are
your goals still serving you?How well are you taking care of
yourself? What do you want moreof, and what do you want less
of? What does your classroomneed? And what are you looking
(21:20):
forward to?
Emily (21:21):
We'd love to hear what you're looking forward to for
the rest of this school year.Come join the conversation in
our Teacher Approved Facebookgroup.
Now let's talk about this week'steacher approved tip. Each week
we leave you with a small,actionable tip that you can
apply in your classroom today.This week's teacher approved tip
is make a plan for how you willstart doing test prep. I know
(21:42):
you don't want to think aboutthis yet, but I promise it'll be
here before you know it. So whatcan we do to get it started,
Heidi?
Heidi (21:49):
Research has found that spiral review is an incredibly
impactful way to ensure learnerscan recall information when it's
needed, like you know whenyou're taking a test. As you may
already know, we love to includespiral review in our morning
routines, but you can really doit at any time of your day or
(22:09):
even with your homework. We havespiral review morning work and
spiral review homework designedto help you easily build in that
practice every day, and we willput some handy links to those in
our show notes.
Emily (22:23):
If you haven't found a way to build review into your
day yet, make a plan for how youcan start doing it in January
with either morning work orhomework or some other way.
Heidi (22:33):
For example, maybe one of your math centers each week
reviews a topic you learned inthe fall, or maybe you want to
do a big review game eachFriday, maybe your kids prepare
videos to teach their classmatesabout tricky topics. Because we
are starting this in January, wehave time to make review
engaging and creative. There areso many fun ways that you can
(22:54):
start working this into yourschedule.
Emily (22:56):
Anything that gets kids to pull information from their
memories without the benefit ofnotes or books, helps them
retain that information in thelong term. That is called
retrieval practice, and it's soimportant that we devoted our
third podcast episode toexplaining all about it, so you
can go back and check that outif you want all the details.
Heidi (23:15):
You may also want to work on building on task stamina
between now and those end ofyour tests, working on
increasing on task time andcelebrating persistence and
frustration tolerance.
Emily (23:28):
End of your tests are just a never ending source of
joy, aren't they?
Heidi (23:32):
Yeah, joy is the word I think of.
To wrap up the show, we aresharing what we're giving extra
credit to this week. Emily, whatgets your extra credit?
Emily (23:41):
I'm giving extra credit to a cordless rechargeable
screwdriver. It's so handy tohave one of these ready to go
when you're assembling things orneed to do a bunch of small
household tasks. I know I hadone ages ago, but who knows what
happened to it. I finallysnagged a new one, it comes in a
case with all these differenttips, including like unusual
ones that you sometimes needfor, like your ring doorbell or
(24:03):
whatever.
Heidi (24:03):
Oh, that's handy.
Emily (24:04):
Such a treat to have handy whenever I need it. And
it's smaller and easier to grabfor a quick job than one of
those big drill drivers.
Heidi (24:12):
That's what I have.
Emily (24:13):
I think they're probably all created probably pretty much
the same, but I will link to theone I got in the show notes.
What are you giving extra creditto, Heidi?
Heidi (24:21):
So my extra credit is for a glass pot. I will put a link
to the one I got in the shownotes, but there's nothing
particularly special about thatone. I just got it because it
looked pretty. And you couldprobably cook in a glass pot,
but I use it specifically forstove top simmers, being extra.
(24:44):
If you don't know what a simmeris, it's where you put like
oranges and cranberries andspices in a pot, and you heat it
on low for a few hours to makeyour house smell cozy and warm,
if warm is a smell. But I'veused regular cooking pots for
these simmer pots in the past,but the glass pot makes it look
so beautiful, as well assmelling nice. It's just really
(25:06):
such a comforting little touchto add to a dreary winter day.
Emily (25:10):
And it may be extra, but my kids have informed me that we
both are extremely extra,especially at the holidays, so
we're just leaning into it.
Heidi (25:19):
What a baseless accusation.
Emily (25:21):
How dare they?
Heidi (25:25):
That's it for today's episode. Don't forget to use
these eight reflection questionsto help get your new year off to
a strong start. And remember ourteacher approved tip to start
planning your test prep now sothat you are ahead of the game.
We hope you enjoyed this episodeof Teacher Approved. I'm Heidi.
Emily (25:45):
And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow
or subscribe in your podcast appso that you never miss an
episode.
Heidi (25:52):
You can connect with us and other teachers in the
Teacher Approved Facebook group.We'll see you here next week.
Bye for now.
Emily (25:58):
Bye.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.