#beginning of the year

[beyondbasicteaching]

Back to School is Upon Us

School starts in a few weeks, and instagram has been reminding me of some things that I feel the need to share, in no particular order:

1. How you decorate and design your classroom can affect how well (or poorly) students can focus. Neon rainbow everything with every square inch of wall covered in 14,000 “cute” but illegible fonts will likely be overstimulating for your students and will definitely be more of a distraction than a help.

2. Rewards, points systems, prizes, and other extrinsic motivators are bandaid methods of managing behavior. They are not classroom management. They will not last. They will undermine your students’ motivation to do the right thing because it’s the right thing. And when one system stops working, it becomes an endless cycle of trying to find the next shiny thing that will keep some semblance of order and productivity in the room.

3. BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT IS NOT CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT. Behavior management is not classroom management. Behavior management is. not. classroom. management.

But classroom management IS behavior management.

Classroom management means having a plan for ordering the classroom and how students will accomplish various procedures throughout the day. Classroom management means knowing how you want things done: how do you want students to enter the room in the morning? Where do they put their things? Where do they sit? What will they do when they get there? How will they get materials? How will they turn in work? What are the expectations for behavior in the room? What happens when expectations are not met?

The more structured and clear your expectations and procedures are, the more consistently you teach and practice and follow through on them, the easier they are for students to accomplish. Students NEED structure. Anything you want students to do must be explicitly taught.

Points and rewards and punishments undermine student ownership and motivation. Rewards are fun every once in a while, but let’s be honest, do you really want to have to manage all of that every day?

The best classroom and behavior management is to a) know what you want students to do and how you want them to do it; b) explicitly TEACH them what and how, and then practice until it’s automatic; and c) be consistent.

Consistent, clear expectations and follow-through will trump every other behavior management involving prizes and bribes and punishments.

4. Just because something is on Instagram, Pinterest, or TikTok, just because something looks cute or fun, doesn’t mean it’s effective, good for kids, or best practice. There are evidence-based practices that are both effective AND engaging. Be judicious.

[guiiay]

yeah... yeah

[chloesimaginationthings]

The bitterness kills Michael Afton in FNAF..

[reineydraws]

pov ur kids just caught u making out with superman

there's this shot in dunmeshi's living armor episode where the party is peeking between slightly open doors into a room, and it pans from tall man laios all the way down to half-foot chilchuck. i thought it'd be fun to do it with the batkids, and then recreate the panning by making u scroll all the way to damian. :')

[cronchy-baguette]

Is fate something you can earn?

[notlemoncello]

[anbaisai]

how it felt to wake up today

[rorynni]

I’m rereading all of the VBS stories right now and Toya must have looked so out of place singing on Vivid Street before he met Akito and started getting his outfits picked out and styled by him.

[dinosaurchurch]

I think with the way that 2024 has started I'd call it another turning point. Having the ball rolling a little faster on my long term plans than I expected is not necessarily a bad thing. A year ago I was sat down contemplating the whole ordeal with saying goodbye to my father, feeling that emotional turbulence and riding that wave was it's own kind of hell. I think I cried more than I cared to admit but it was what it was.

January started with me not really having anything panned out for the short term, I think this was the first year I didn't really have any stress from anything hanging over my head. No depressive thoughts, no anxieties about anything, hell not even other people had been on my mind - not a worry in sight. Absolutely strange.

It's weird to say I'll be moving to a completely different area that I've never really spent any time in. It's going to be nice not to have to take public transport to get anywhere since everything is so close to home now. It'll be different having to go to a different gym, a complete departure from the place where I started my lifting journey. So many things I have to upend only to nail them back down again but instead of being filled with worry over it I'm strangely enough excited. Sometimes a change of scenery isn't a bad thing.

So far a lot is happening faster than I originally had panned out but I'm fine with that. I feel like I'm ready to tackle my insecurities of clinging to familiar comforts. Taking the leap into what it's potentially the unknown is something that scared me for a while but somehow I've become more accepting of it as the older I get. I've gotten used to feeling okay with the ground shaking under my feet and weathering the storm that when life finally heads where I planned to go it's almost surprising, I've expected too many times for shit to hit the fan or for things to fall flat that this is a welcoming thought.

Feeling like everything has come full circle and I'm finally back on track without a worry under my belt has been refreshing. Never thought I'd get here but apparently I can and I will. I'm out of the turbulence that was my late twenties to find that thirty has been more than kind. I still don't know what the rest of this decade will bring for me but I'm willing to face what's there come hell or high water.

All of this just seems surreal but I'm glad to be heading towards my goals. Another chapter closes as another one opens...

[s3rrrpentine]

gop kis (˵˘ ³˘˵) ᯓᡣ𐭩

thank you so much for supporting me 🥲🫶💖💖

[livingfandomly]

Walker? Sir? Mr. Actor?

Jokes aside. That look? That anger? Percy finally having enough and being pissed off with a God who doesn’t care about his children, insulted his friends, ruined their quest and wants to start an unnecessary war where he has nothing to lose? But most importantly… Percy literally QUAKING with unchecked rage for a God who came in the way of him saving his mom?

[stillgotscars]

given 2025 starts on a wednesday, that means we all get a fresh chance to begin again ❤️

[chloesimaginationthings]

Happy 10th anniversary to FNAF!!

[ohmznom]

“Despite everything, it’s still you”

[teds-awesome-doodles]

uhhhh,,, *drops this in front of u*

ok i hope u like it *scurries away back to my hole in the wall like a mouse*

[kartsie]

It’s bring your kid to work day and Dick wanted to match