The Master Teacher Blog

The workshop model of lesson construction is designed to focus student attention and activities on building understanding, developing ownership, and fostering independence. It also offers the advantage of application across disciplines and subject areas and has been proven to be successful when put into practice.

While there are variations in the ways workshop activities are labeled and described, they share core elements that help to accelerate, solidify, and extend learning. The following are six learning and teaching components common to widely accepted workshop approaches, and a description of how each component accelerates the learning process.

Component #1: Prepare students with engaging opening activities. We might start with a compelling narrative that reveals the relevance and importance of what students will be learning. The activity might reveal and reinforce connections to prior learning. It could be a challenge activity that invites students to solve a problem or find an answer that will be revealed in the upcoming lesson. This activity also might be a pre-assessment task that reveals what students need to review or may still need to learn.

Accelerator: Preparation activities activate thinking and help students get ready to learn.

Component #2: Present brief, focused, relevant mini lessons. Lessons that generate the greatest amount of learning are not long. In fact, maximum attention and information absorption typically extend only for about 10-20 minutes depending on the age and maturity of students, the complexity of the content, and the compelling nature of what students will learn. While we might be tempted to extend our explanation, provide greater detail, or delve into specifics, research shows that students’ attention will begin to wane when the information we share extends beyond this relatively short time span. The key is to discern what is most important for students to learn next, organize the content in the most understandable and manageable format, and present the information with energy, commitment, and authenticity. Mini lessons do not have to be provided through direct instruction. Flexible strategies and variations can be employed to expose students to new learning content.

Accelerator: Short, targeted instruction taps into students’ energy and attention while they are at their peak.

Component #3: Provide opportunities for reflection. When the lesson is finished, students need time to absorb and make sense of what they have heard, seen, and experienced. Often called “brain breaks,” these are important opportunities for students to place what they are learning in working memory where it is sorted and prioritized for storage in long-term memory. We might have students physically move, engage in a mindfulness activity, or another activity that does not require significant mental energy. As little as 3-5 minutes can be adequate to accomplish this goal.

Accelerator: Students’ brains immediately begin to organize and store new information in working memory.

Component #4: Design opportunities for students to interact with what they are learning. Activities such as peer teaching, think-pair-share, and drawing pictural representations and mind maps help students to process new information, strengthen their grasp of information, and articulate their understanding of what they are learning. Students may work alone, in pairs, small groups, or large groups, depending on the content and activity.

Accelerator: Students practice sorting new information, clearing up areas of confusion or misunderstanding, and readying new learning for long-term memory.

Component #5: Arrange for application of new information or skills. Using new skills and applying new understanding to relevant, purposeful, and challenging activities further solidifies learning and builds confidence in using new knowledge. Practice activities also provide additional opportunities to clear up remaining confusion and dispel any misconceptions.

Accelerator: The shift to application and practice completes the transition from learning dependence to independence.

Component #6: Debrief for clarity and understanding. As a concluding activity, debriefing provides an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning. Reviewing strategies, noting areas of struggle, and owning progress and new understanding helps to complete the learning process and move new information toward long-term memory. This can also be an opportunity to identify areas or elements of learning that still need support and review in the future.

Accelerator: Debriefing helps students to understand their learning journey, develop ownership of what they have learned, and provide us with feedback to use as we plan future instruction.

The workshop approach also offers the flexibility to be compressed or expanded depending on the content, amount of time available, and student readiness. Some components might be introduced one day and followed by remaining components the next day. Or, if time allows, the entire process can be accomplished in a single session.

Think about how you already employ elements of the workshop model. Are there areas or aspects you might strengthen or add? How might you adjust your approach depending on the content you teach, the age and maturity of your students, and schedule constraints you face?

Some of the most important tasks to accomplish during the first weeks of school are to learn what students know and can recall, where they may need to review and refresh their learning, and what will need to be retaught before moving forward with new content. Of course, it is best if we can engage students in activities that generate the information we need, while also reinforcing what students already know and building their confidence. A bonus is to have the process be interesting, engaging, and enjoyable. 

There are many potential approaches and strategies for gaining the information we seek. Here are five activities to consider.

Have students build “This I know” walls. For this activity, briefly refer to or describe a concept or skill that students have learned previously. Then ask students to write what they remember on sticky notes and place them on a wall poster you have labeled with the target concept or skill. You may have to offer some gentle probing and nudging to assist students to inventory their memories but resist reteaching at this point. Once students have finished placing their sticky notes, ask students to help you group the notes into subtopics or connected ideas. Follow with a discussion and debrief about what students know and where there are gaps that will require further attention. This activity can be a catalyst to ignite curiosity and motivation for students to fill in their understanding and be ready to move their learning forward.  

Provide student teams with blank or partially completed graphic organizers, timelines, or outlines to complete. Identify a previously learned multi-component concept, multi-part skill, sequence of events, multi-step process, or other content that is comprised of multiple parts, steps, or components. Have teams fill in the blanks with what they know about the components or relationships. The activity might involve a scientific process, a series of historical events, or a mathematical concept, or other content important to future learning. Depending on the age and maturity of your students and the concepts and skills involved, you might fill in some key blanks and gaps in advance to give students hints and guidance. It also might be advantageous to allow students to access resources that can assist them with the task but not immediately provide the answers.   

Design an information scavenger hunt. Create a list of questions that tap into learning from the past year that can help to set the stage for learning that lies ahead. Short answer and fill in the blank questions may work best for the purpose of this activity. Divide students into teams of two or three. In the first phase of the activity, students will respond to the questions they already know the answers to, without accessing resources other than their team members. When they are finished have them designate the answers they generated and with which all team members agreed. Responses to which there is not agreement should be deferred to the second phase. When students are ready, designate resources they can utilize to answer the remaining questions. You might limit the options to the textbook, tangible resources in the classroom, other teams, or you may open the options for students to search online. When the teams are finished, spend some time debriefing the activity, including what they already knew, what they learned, and where they remain uncertain. This activity can be a good stimulator for recall of past learning while also providing you with information about what may need to be reviewed and retaught before moving forward.

Give low stakes quizzes with a twist. Rather than only collecting question responses related to past learning, provide space next to each question for students to indicate whether they are certain their answer is correct, sort of sure, not sure at all. By collecting this next level of information, you can discern where students are solid and confident with past learning, where they have some recollection but may need review, and areas where more extensive review or reteaching will be necessary. Armed with this information, you can plan what needs to be reviewed and retaught, form flexible groups for instruction, and decide when students are ready to move forward with new learning.

Create retrospective anchor charts. Identify key concepts and skills that students typically struggle to recall or likely will need refreshing before they are ready to move forward. Capturing this information in a few anchor charts and posting them as you introduce new content will make it convenient to provide students with real time reminders and support you to offer quick reviews for students. They can also provide subtle reminders for students to access if they need reminders to fill in some gaps but do not need reteaching.

Armed with the information we have collected, we can plan the next steps in instruction and decide how best to group students in the initial weeks of school. Of course, any of these activities might be employed or repeated later in the year when we are ready to introduce new content or skills and need to know what students already know and can do. 

It is no secret that overplanning and overpreparing for the next school year can produce some stress, to put that mildly. It can also be a colossal waste of time. In most circumstances, we have yet to meet our incoming group of students and are not aware of their individual personalities and learning needs. Trying to assume and anticipate the details and specifics of what lies ahead can be fraught with errors and misconceptions. However, this observation does not mean that we should not spend time thinking and doing some general preparation.

The key is to focus on issues and activities that are not heavily dependent on the specific makeup of the students with whom we will be working. Having some tasks out of the way can reduce our stress and allow us to focus our attention elsewhere. Improving resource and material organization, thinking through key processes, and previewing areas of potential challenge can often help us to identify actions and activities that can smooth out the start and protect momentum during the year. Here are five activities to consider this summer that can position us and our students for a good year:

• Declutter, organize, and store. Summer can be a great time to take a fresh look at our teaching and learning space—physical and virtual—and make some changes. Over time, we can become accustomed to living with disorganized bookshelves, extra furniture, and disordered equipment areas and not realize the extra work and inefficiency they create. Summer break can be a great time to cull and organize. Letting go of some things and securing new storage space can reduce the clutter and distractions while freeing up space for other uses. In our digital world, we can sort, organize, and abandon resources, old lesson designs, and other files. Our inboxes might use some cleaning out. Deleting emails we no longer need and organizing what remains can free up space and make locating past correspondence easier. Similarly, Google Drive and other tools and storage spaces might benefit from organization. A few hours spent this summer can reduce stress and make the start of the new school year much smoother and more efficient.
• Make some new content and skill connections. Think about concepts and skills in the curriculum where students struggle to make connections or find it difficult to see a compelling purpose. Brainstorming potential uses can generate creative applications and compelling reasons for learning. Think about local businesses, organizations, and other activities where a connection might be made. Of course, a few well-crafted AI inquiries might generate some interesting and useful applications and arguments to share with students. When we share good reasons and compelling purposes for new learning, we can reduce resistance and even stimulate interest and enthusiasm for the learning that lies ahead.
• Create some micro-lesson videos. Now can be a good time to review concepts and skills where students often struggle and create some proactive resources to address the most common challenges. Consider making some brief (four- to six-minute) videos that can help students find their way through these common rough spots. The videos might include examples, step-by-step processes, and useful tips and explanations to clear up common confusion. Choose a recording device with which you are comfortable, relax, add some fun graphics, and have fun!
• Go tech tool shopping. Finding and becoming comfortable with the right tech tools can be a challenge during the school year. Summer can be a great time to research and try some options. Check with colleagues about their favorite tools and consult online reviews and expert opinions. Securing and practicing with a new tool (or tools) now can build our confidence and save time as we put them to work in the next school year.
• Collect and position key resources. Finding and securing resources to support new content and skills can be a challenge and stress-producer in the middle of a busy school year. Now can be a good time to review and make a list of the most significant resource needs and pressures we are likely to face in the coming year. Starting now to locate and pre-position key curricular and other resources can lower our stress and smooth out the process of getting ready for new units and key projects.

Of course, there may be other anticipatory, preparatory, and inventory activities that you find helpful to complete during summer. If so, be sure to share them with a colleague and help them to have a great start to the next school year, too.

A key secret to the success of magicians is their ability to gain, maintain, and manage our attention. They frequently direct our attention to one activity while they perform another one that we fail to notice. They often engage in elaborate stories to provide a context as they set up a trick. They surprise us, shock us, and may even leave us to question our senses.

Obviously, we are not and should not necessarily aspire to be magicians in our classrooms. After all, there is much more to the job of an educator than simply maintaining student engagement. Yet, there are lessons we can learn and strategies we can copy from magicians to set up the learning experiences we plan and better capture and retain the attention of our students. Teaching is neither magic trick nor magic show; we do not have to replicate the performance of—or go to the same performative lengths as—magicians in order to benefit from what they know and use to engage and amaze their audiences. Here are six lessons from magicians and examples of how we might apply them to gain and maintain the attention of our students.

Start with a story. People love stories, especially when they have a compelling narrative, build anticipation, ignite curiosity, or tap emotions. We might tell a story about an experience we had, draw on an interesting narrative from history, share something that happened with a former student (while maintaining their anonymity), or create a story that relates to what students will be learning or doing. We might even choose to leave out a key element or some revealing information that we hold until later in the lesson.

Invite involvement. Asking for volunteers can be a great place to start. Magicians almost always seem to have someone from the audience participate—often unwittingly—in what is about to happen. We might ask students to take a small action such as guessing an outcome or predicting what is going to happen. We could have students participate by creating an image in their mind or painting a mental picture related to the lesson. Students audiences, like audiences for magicians, are more likely to pay attention and remain engaged when they feel that they are part of the activity and contribute to the narrative.

Manufacture a mystery. Mysteries are close relatives to stories, but they invite attention by leaving a question unanswered, stirring up questions and speculation, injecting an element of unpredictability, or building anticipation for a pending solution. Mysteries build tension that is released when the mystery is solved or an answer is revealed. The magic of mysteries to hook and hold attention is that they are filled with wonder, awe, and amazement.

Inject some humor. Humor can be a powerful attention grabber and memory creator. We might relate a humorous example that demonstrates an aspect of what students are going to learn. We can share an entertaining and relevant vignette. We might choose an exaggerated illustration to which students can relate. Or we might recount a self-deprecating experience that students find entertaining and relatable. However, we need to be careful not to embarrass or otherwise leave students feeling uncomfortable.

Stage a surprise. Like mysteries, the power of surprises is often found in the anticipation that precedes the unveiling. We might preview that something is coming, hint that something unusual is about to happen, or warn students that something “unplanned” may lie ahead. The best surprises often reveal a counterintuitive outcome, unveil an unanticipated element, or disclose something shocking and memorable.

Set the scene. We might use sound, lighting, and props to create an environment that invites anticipation and promotes attention. Dramatic or themed music can create interest. Dimmed or focused lights can suggest mystery or direct attention. Posters, puppets, pictures, or other props we employ can create variety and interest in what is about to happen.  

Some of these strategies require thought and perhaps even a moderate amount of preparation and practice. However, the benefits we see in the attention and engagement of our students can be more than worth the effort.

As we begin the second half of the school year, we can all use some renewed energy and attitude refreshment. We might want to leave behind some of what happened in the first several months of the year, and a shift in routine and some new perspectives can lift our spirits. While we may not be able to fully restart, there are steps we can take to reset our attitude, change up our routines, adopt new approaches, and discover useful tools.

Of course, there remains much from the first semester that we nurtured and coached with students that we want to maintain. However, students, too, will want to have new experiences and try fresh approaches to what lies ahead. Consider these six reset-and-refresh ideas to help your students—and you—get off to an energized start for the second half of the year.

Reorganize and refresh the classroom. Physically reorient the classroom. Maybe the “front” of the room can face a new direction. You might reconfigure student seating to support more collaboration or reduce distractions. New posters, quotes, and displays of student work are options, too (but be careful not to over-decorate). Studies have shown that changing the space where we work, learn, and live can reset our thinking patterns and shift our work habits. Not unlike occupying a new space, making changes in the space where we spend our days can be refreshing.

Get reacquainted with students. Rather than just welcoming students back with all the experiences and judgments accumulated during the first half of the year, commit to taking a fresh look. Be intentional about finding something new and interesting about each student. Let go of anything that might hold back or impede your relationship with them. You might go as far as reintroducing yourself and having students do the same. Letting go of history and connecting with students where they are now can open productive doors to learning and growth for us and them.

Revisit classroom rules and routines. Shifting routines can add novelty and variety as students return. Consider revisiting existing rules with students, reminding students why rules are important, and exploring with students any changes they think might be useful and warranted. Your flexibility and understanding can be a good opening message as students return. As an added challenge, see if you and your students can state all rules in language that explains what students can and should do rather than what they cannot do. For example, rather than having a rule that says, “Don’t run in the halls,” the rule might be stated as “Walk when traveling in the hallway.”

Set classroom goals. Consider teaching and coaching students to set goals. If goal setting was not part of students’ experience during the first portion of the year, setting some now can be an energizing and focus-building activity. The goals might be shared by the entire class or set individually. If the goals are group-based, it is usually best to focus the goals on behavior, relationships, or other non-academic elements to avoid placing undue stress and pressure on students who face learning challenges. Individually set goals might address these same elements and include academics, but having students focus on improvement rather than performance gives every student something for which they can strive.

Adopt a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can save you time and make your life easier. One of the promises of newly developed AI tools is that they can perform routine tasks that teachers previously had to do themselves. As examples, AI tools can draft correspondence, assist with lesson planning, and suggest real-life applications for what we are teaching. Take some time to explore, then decide what tool (or tools) might be most helpful and try them out.

Try a new instructional strategy. Start by reflecting on the types of concepts, categories of skills, or areas of content where students typically struggle. Talk with colleagues, check with professional development staff, consult instructional coaches, do an internet search, or tap other resources to see what might work for you. You might identify several options and possibilities. However, start by trying just one that seems to be the best match with your need. If that approach doesn’t accomplish what you want, having other options positions you to keep trying until you find what works for you. The key is to choose something that meets a need and will help you to be more successful.

Treating the return to school as simply resuming the work begun in the first part of the year may be the easiest option, but injecting some novelty and creating some variety can give us and our students a welcome lift. Also, treating this time as an opportunity for a new start can give everyone permission and encouragement to let go of what is not helpful and adopt what may hold more potential.

Somedays, when that last dismissal bell rings, we might struggle to determine if that day was a successful one. It may have been filled with interruptions, disruptions, and distractions. We may have struggled with a lesson plan that did not go as envisioned. Technology might have injected itself in unwelcome ways as students engaged in learning tasks. Some students may have been unprepared, while others had difficulty engaging in planned activities. Of course, the list could go on.  

However, having a day unfold exactly as planned does not necessarily mean that it was a success, either. “Winning” the day has more to do with the experiences, connections, and insights students gained than how smoothly it went. We can become distracted with order and predictability and miss the crucial elements that help students to become better learners and people—and the role we play in making this magic happen.  

A great way to measure the success of any day is to reflect on the elements that really matter. Despite all that may not have gone as planned, we may have made a crucial difference and moved learning and our relationship with students forward in important ways. The next time you are uncertain about whether the day mattered, ask yourself these five questions. 

Today, did I reinforce my confidence in the inevitability of my students’ success? Our confidence sends a strong message to students, especially for students who may be struggling or lack confidence in themselves. Our belief in the potential of our students gives us permission to hold high expectations and nudge students to do their best work. Our expectations can grow the confidence students feel, build their willingness to try, and help them to persist when they are challenged. Students want to hear, “You can do it, and I am here to help.”  

Today, did I listen deeply to a student? Listening can be a very empowering action. Our attention matters. Students want to know that we notice them and care about what they have to say. Deep listening also can reveal important information and insights about our students. The time we spend focusing, gaining an understanding, and responding can be among the most impactful minutes of our day. Interestingly, as few as 20-30 seconds can be enough to have an impact.   

Today, did I ensure that a student felt they were supported and belonged? Maybe I used a student’s name in a positive example. I may have shared an insightful observation from a student who does not receive much attention. I may have made time for students to share something about themselves and noted how important it is to know and support each other. Feeling connected, respected, valued, and belonging are among the most powerful conditions to support learners and learning. 

Today, did I reinforce the purpose and usefulness of what my students are learning? We understand the value of the information we are sharing with our students and the skills we are teaching them, but the connection may not be present for or clear to them. Students do better when they see the utility of what they are asked to learn. On that note, learning must have benefits beyond doing well on a test or receiving a good grade. Consistently making this connection for students can build learning momentum and keep students engaged when the work is challenging and learning does not come easily.  

Today, did the lesson I designed include a discovery? Maybe we revealed a new insight, created an “a-ha” moment, or built in an interesting question that uncovered new understanding. The moment may have featured a connection between new learning and something students already knew, helped them to grasp the purpose of a process, or provided proof that helped students to see their progress. 

Committing to focus on what matters most can help us to build momentum in learning and our relationships with students despite distractions and disruptions. Obviously, this list is not exhaustive. Other behaviors and connections matter, too. What would you add to the list and why?  

People commonly assume that those who possess special talents will naturally be more successful than those who do not. Similarly, some students often assume that their classmates possess talent that will make their learning and success easy and inevitable. Consequently, the perceived absence of obvious talent on their own part can lead some students to lower their expectations for their success and diminish their level and consistency of effort.  

Such perceptions, though, are not necessarily supported by experience and research. While innate talent certainly offers some advantages, it is only part of the formula that leads to success in learning and life. In fact, talent and effort play near equal roles in achieving success. Talent may make some aspects of learning easier, but effort creates the conditions necessary for talent to flourish. Consider how this truth is revealed in the words of Albert Einstein: “It is not that I am so smart. But I stay with questions much longer.” 

As we begin a new school year, it is important for our students to understand and tap the value of dedicating consistent effort to develop the talents they possess and overcome challenges in the areas where their talents may be less obvious. Here are five insights we can share with students to help them understand and manage this crucial relationship.  

Innate talent can make initial learning easier. Talent, the seemingly natural inclination toward a particular skill, topic, or discipline, can mean that initial learning requires less effort. However, talent takes many forms, and it may be obvious, latent, or developable. Some people display their talent(s) in clear and natural ways. Others possess talent but rarely display it due to circumstance, lack of confidence, or other factors. Still others may not currently demonstrate a particular talent, but with exploration and effort might develop exceptional skills and capabilities. 

Effort can accelerate and deepen learning. Effort has the potential to overcome multiple barriers, including the lack of background knowledge and experience or an absence of opportunities and support to develop a talent. When given consistently, effort can fill experience gaps, reveal hidden potential, and help an individual develop skills and tools that overcome the absence of obvious natural talent.  

Curiosity and interest are crucial contributors to the development of talent and consistency of effort. Exploration and discovery can be the fuel that drives the development of talent and the investment of effort. Feeding interest, providing opportunities to explore, and allowing students to discover can be powerful ways to reveal potential talent and inspire students to invest their energy to learn and develop skills. Meanwhile, we can tap interest that occurs naturally or help students build it through creating experiences, building relationships, and nurturing a sense of value or purpose.  

Talent that is not supported by consistent effort never fully develops. Having obvious or potential talent carries little long-term value unless it is supported and developed through consistent effort. In fact, talent that is not developed offers few benefits and often leads to frustration and regret. Curiosity, experience, and opportunity can lead to the discovery of potential talent, but its development requires commitment and effort.  

Focused, consistent effort can overcome a lack of natural talent. Some students may not possess obvious talent, but they have the power to decide whether and where to invest their effort. Talent supported by effort can be a potent combination, or effort can compensate for the absence of specific talent. In fact, over time, effort can mimic and even substitute for much of what talent can offer.  

The bottom line: Talent may be naturally bestowed, but effort lies within the control of each student. The progress they make and the success they achieve will be determined as much by the effort they give as by the talent they possess.  

Grades play a complex, multifaceted role in most classrooms. While they are intended to communicate what students know and have learned, grades are often used to influence behavior and communicate information well beyond their stated intent. Consequently, grades become a highly attended to, but often confusing vehicle for communication.

Reminding students and others who pay attention to and depend on grades that they are to reflect learning—not the purpose of learning—can be an important first step in dispelling confusion. However, our grading practices also need to reflect this intention.

Unfortunately, many commonly accepted grading practices are not consistent with a commitment to have grades solely reflect what is learned. Nor do many grading practices reflect the realities of learning challenges in the lives of students. Here are five common, but often overlooked, grading practices that are worthy of reflection and adjustment.

Mistake #1: Giving equal weight to early learning efforts and late-stage performance. Students come to learning challenges with a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and levels of readiness. Initially, those students who possess limited background knowledge and experience related to what they are asked to learn may not perform as well as those with greater background and related knowledge. Consequently, early assessment information is likely to be more of a reflection of prior knowledge than current learning. On the other hand, later assessment information is likely to be more reflective of learning and thus deserves more weight in grade calculations.

Fix: Give extra weight to student performance demonstrated later in the teaching and learning cycle, thus capturing true learning rather than rewarding background knowledge.

Mistake #2: Refusing to change grades once assigned. We want grades to reflect what students know and have learned. Yet, an initial assessment can reflect partial understanding, existing confusion, or the presence of distractions. Subsequently, learning may continue, confusion may be cleared up, and distractions may be removed. What a student ultimately knows may not be reflected in an initial grade.

Fix: Provide flexibility for grades to be modified as students demonstrate additional learning. Our flexibility can encourage students to continue to reflect, learn, and be recognized for additional progress.

Mistake #3: Giving significant grade weight to work intended to be completed out of school. Traditional homework is deeply embedded in the perceptions many people hold regarding a rigorous education. However, expectations for learning intended to be completed outside of school raises significant concerns. Some students may not have access to the tools necessary to complete the work, such as access to technology devices or internet. They may not have the appropriate space or environment to complete the work. Or they may have responsibilities that compete with homework completion. Further, research on the effectiveness of homework to support learning is mixed at best.

Fix: Give students options for completing assigned work within the class period or school day or provide options for completing the work that are not dependent on access to technology, family support, and other resources.

Mistake #4: Grading almost everything. Of course, we want the grades we assign to be representative of what students have learned and be based on an adequate amount of information. However, choosing to grade too much can work against this goal. Some work students complete may represent early practice, informal progress checks, or formative assessments. While these pieces of work product can inform further learning efforts and provide guidance for our instruction, they may not necessarily qualify for a formal grade.

Fix: Carefully choose assessments, projects, and other work products that offer credible evidence of learning. While having multiple data points on which to base a grade is important, mixing practice and informal assessment information can compromise the extent to which grades accurately reflect what students know and have learned.  

Mistake #5: Using grades to force compliance, motivate, or punish students. Multiple research studies document the lack of consistent power of grades to motivate learners. In fact, over-reliance on grades can lead students to look for shortcuts to high grades while skipping the work necessary for learning. Grades should reflect learning, not be a tool to drive compliance. When grades include teacher-pleasing behaviors, socially adept students tend to benefit while traditionally marginalized students tend to be disadvantaged.

Fix: Avoid using grades for any purpose other than to communicate learning attainment and progress. Encourage students to focus on accomplishing learning goals and meeting learning expectations. Never threaten to hold a grade hostage to non-learning-related behavior.

Grading can be a daunting challenge. However, when we commit to having grades reflect learning and avoid other uses and influences, the challenge becomes more manageable, and grades also become clearer and fairer to students.

Summer is quickly passing and before we know it, we will be starting a new school year. The list of tasks we need to complete before students arrive is important. However, physical preparations are only one part of the process of readying for the new year—we also need to give attention to our mental and emotional readiness.

Hopefully, we have been able to take advantage of the summer to decompress, refocus our attention, and refresh our spirits. As the beginning of the fall semester approaches, we might spend some time reacquainting ourselves with the ideas, insights, and experiences we want to bring with us. We also might revisit and reevaluate key routines and rituals on which we have relied and adjust them to increase our efficiency, comfort, and effectiveness. Further, we might consider relationships we want to nurture and renew for companionship, support, and guidance in the coming months.

Fortunately, investing as little as one hour to engage in some reflection, personal renewal, and relationship management can give us a jumpstart. Consider the following three areas of focus using a 5-4-3-2-1 approach to guide your thinking and preparation. A detailed plan or to-do list may not be necessary, but you might want to jot a few notes as you reflect to revisit later.

Reflection

Reflect on your learning priorities by identifying:

• 5 things you tried with students that worked well.
• 4 strategies you want to try.
• 3 things you want to fix.
• 2 things you still want to learn.
• 1 misstep you want to avoid.

Renewal

Plan your mental and emotional health strategy by identifying:

• 5 daily routines that serve you well.
• 4 affirmations that will keep you grounded and focused.
• 3 commitments you need to make to remain well-balanced and healthy.
• 2 habits you want to develop.
• 1 habit you want to break.

Relationships

Consider who feeds your spirit and gives you energy by identifying:

• 5 people with whom you want to continue to connect.
• 4 people with whom you want to form a stronger relationship.
• 3 people with whom you want to explore a relationship.
• 2 people with whom you have a relationship that needs renewal or repair.
• 1 person you need to avoid.

We can easily become preoccupied by the long list of physical preparations associated with beginning a new school year. However, we also need to make mental and emotional preparations a priority if we hope to launch and enjoy a satisfying and successful year.