1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:04,160 Welcome to the Teachers Need Teachers Podcasts, the podcast for teachers who don't want 2 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:08,160 to just survive teaching but actually thrive. So I am going back to school 3 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:12,320 tomorrow, as in the third week of July tomorrow, and that's because they 4 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:17,760 work at a year round school. But that's a conversation for Instagram or TikTok. 5 00:00:17,839 --> 00:00:20,879 If you're a newer teacher with your first job lined up, or maybe 6 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:25,000 you're a veteran teacher who's just kind of burnt out and over it and not 7 00:00:25,079 --> 00:00:28,640 really looking forward to the school year, there's a good chance of the way 8 00:00:28,679 --> 00:00:33,079 that you're planning for back to school could actually hinder rather than help you. 9 00:00:33,359 --> 00:00:38,719 So in this episode, I'm covering five typical but outdated back to school activities 10 00:00:38,799 --> 00:00:42,359 that you need to ditch or just not even start if you want to set 11 00:00:42,399 --> 00:00:47,320 the right tone and kickoff an amazing school year. So the first outdated activity 12 00:00:47,439 --> 00:00:52,799 that pretty much everyone and their mom does our icebreaker games. You know, 13 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:57,359 these are the ones that are like scavenger hunts, find someone whose name begins 14 00:00:57,399 --> 00:01:00,799 with a bee, find someone who's visited outside the US, things like that, 15 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:07,359 And especially if you teach secondary there's probably at least five or six other 16 00:01:07,439 --> 00:01:11,680 teachers that are doing a very similar game. And I know that you want 17 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:15,359 to do this to lighten the moon, because you know that students are nervous, 18 00:01:15,519 --> 00:01:19,359 especially in the first couple days of school. But fewer things are more 19 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:23,640 painful than watching your socially awkward students try to navigate this. A lot of 20 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:30,319 times they're just hanging back and they're mortified because maybe they don't know anyone in 21 00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:34,879 the class. Maybe they came from another school district or another state so they 22 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:38,640 don't know anyone in the school at all, and maybe talking to strangers gives 23 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:42,040 them anxiety, things like that. And so if you've done this before, 24 00:01:42,159 --> 00:01:47,359 I'm sure you've seen this dynamic play out where you have your more gregarious and 25 00:01:47,439 --> 00:01:51,640 outgoing students that just go after it because they just want to talk to whomever. 26 00:01:51,959 --> 00:01:55,879 And then you have your really shy, awkward students who just have their 27 00:01:55,920 --> 00:02:00,560 head down, walking in circles or hanging back around a group of students that 28 00:02:00,599 --> 00:02:05,239 are frantically filling out pieces of paper. And for me, I can totally 29 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:07,240 relate to this. My heart goes out to them, and it's just really 30 00:02:07,319 --> 00:02:13,879 uncomfortable to watch. Also, only the truly motivated actually finished that sheet. 31 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:19,319 After about five maybe seven minutes. A lot of students are over it and 32 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:23,319 they're just kind of dragging their feet, walking up to someone saying something like 33 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:27,960 do any of these apply to you? Things like that, So it doesn't 34 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:31,800 necessarily have the effect in terms of breaking the ice that you thought it would. 35 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:36,520 I really hate doing these activities as an adult as well, you know 36 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:39,560 what I mean. They make us do that maybe at conferences or at back 37 00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:44,400 to school when the teachers have to get together for the first time and there 38 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:46,719 are new teachers, or if they just want to get everyone up and talking, 39 00:02:46,879 --> 00:02:52,199 anything that's forced like that. It's just really awkward in general for a 40 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:57,319 lot of people. So what can you do instead? Activities like breakout rooms 41 00:02:57,439 --> 00:03:02,039 are awesome because there is a sense of purpose and people will naturally work together 42 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:07,520 in a way that is comfortable with their personality. You could also do typical 43 00:03:07,639 --> 00:03:12,560 team building activities, and again, the people who are more likely to participate 44 00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:15,000 will and the ones who are just kind of like awkward and don't want to 45 00:03:15,039 --> 00:03:19,000 jump into the fray, they will hang back. But it also gives you 46 00:03:19,039 --> 00:03:23,039 an opportunity to take a look at how they interact with other people. And 47 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:25,919 what's great is that you're not forcing them to do something that they're not comfortable 48 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:30,159 with. So this could be anything like trying to stack cups with rubber bands. 49 00:03:30,199 --> 00:03:34,759 I don't know if you've seen an activity like that before, or build 50 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:39,120 something together and then they have to maybe compete against other teams. The activity 51 00:03:39,199 --> 00:03:44,719 that I personally do is have them solve a puzzle. It's called the luncher 52 00:03:44,759 --> 00:03:47,719 a murder, and I know that's a little dark, but students have to 53 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:52,759 work with their neighbors to try to figure out what happened and also talk about 54 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:55,840 the reasoning behind that. And it's just something that's not your typical first day 55 00:03:55,840 --> 00:04:00,000 of school activity, but it does get them talking and for the kids who 56 00:04:00,039 --> 00:04:04,080 are just typically quiet, at least they're thinking about something and they're not just 57 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:09,120 sitting there being afraid that someone's going to make them talk out loud. The 58 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:14,879 next overuse and overrated activity is going over your classroom rules and procedures. Now. 59 00:04:15,039 --> 00:04:18,920 I know this is a little controversial because so many beginning teacher programs and 60 00:04:18,959 --> 00:04:24,160 classroom management books tell you that you need to set the tone from day one 61 00:04:24,319 --> 00:04:28,839 and go over your rules and procedures, but that's not actually going to set 62 00:04:28,879 --> 00:04:31,319 the right kind of tone. And a lot of times there's just so many 63 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:36,120 things for students to remember that it can be overwhelming and make your classroom feel 64 00:04:36,399 --> 00:04:42,759 negative and make you seem negative. I remember one year with a particular principle. 65 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:46,800 They came in breeding us as usual, but then they started talking about 66 00:04:46,839 --> 00:04:49,560 the things that went wrong the previous year that they thought that we should fix 67 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:54,720 for the coming school year. That just really set a negative tone and just 68 00:04:54,759 --> 00:04:58,040 really left a bad taste in our mouth as a staff, because we were 69 00:04:58,079 --> 00:05:01,399 already talking about bad things that had happened before. And so if you set 70 00:05:01,399 --> 00:05:05,639 the tone, we're talking about things that students can't do, or things that 71 00:05:05,759 --> 00:05:10,839 students did that you thought was unacceptable in the past, and how you don't 72 00:05:10,879 --> 00:05:14,600 want that to happen this year. Not only are you telling them about possible 73 00:05:14,639 --> 00:05:17,560 shenanigans it can get up to, then you're also making it seem like you're 74 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:20,800 assuming that they're going to do bad things. And so even if you have 75 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:26,920 rules that are worded in a positive way instead of saying things that they shouldn't 76 00:05:26,959 --> 00:05:30,800 do, it's still best to sprinkle them throughout the week, and it especially 77 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:34,879 helps to go over a particular rule or procedure as something is happening. So, 78 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:39,360 for example, one of the first rules that you can go over is 79 00:05:39,439 --> 00:05:42,920 how to raise your hand when you want to talk or answer, and also 80 00:05:43,199 --> 00:05:45,920 what you need to do when you go to the bathroom, because that's something 81 00:05:45,959 --> 00:05:48,879 that happens fairly quickly. But then some other procedures, like how to turn 82 00:05:48,959 --> 00:05:53,959 in work or things like that, you can actually go over that as it's 83 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:57,680 happening. So maybe after your first assignment that you give to them, then 84 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:00,199 you can go over how they're going to turn it in, which bin is 85 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:03,920 there is if it's a paper assignment or if they're doing an online assignment, 86 00:06:03,959 --> 00:06:08,439 then you go over how they're going to turn that in during the first assignment. 87 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:12,680 But I wouldn't spend your first couple days of school going over all of 88 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:15,439 that because they're also not going to remember any of it. If you do 89 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:17,920 want to set some expectations right off the bat, then you can discuss the 90 00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:24,639 basic principles of a welcoming classroom that's a good learning environment, such as respect, 91 00:06:24,839 --> 00:06:29,519 responsibility, and empathy, and then you can frame behaviors based on whether 92 00:06:29,639 --> 00:06:32,759 or not it's showing respect, whether or not it shows a student being responsible 93 00:06:32,879 --> 00:06:36,800 or having empathy for others. Something that I like to do is to have 94 00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:43,639 students model and then discuss if it does fall within respect, responsibility, and 95 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:46,759 empathy. So, for example, I would ask for a volunteer, and 96 00:06:46,879 --> 00:06:49,279 a lot of times you're going to get a volunteer who wants some model a 97 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:54,360 behavior, and I would whisper into the student's ear something like I want you 98 00:06:54,399 --> 00:06:57,680 to walk across the room to throw something away, but I want you to 99 00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:00,319 be disruptive. And so then the student will do that, and the class 100 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:05,279 will have a discussion about whether or not that student was showing respect, being 101 00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:10,560 responsible, and having empathy for others and their learning. And then that makes 102 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:15,639 it a little more sticky for the students in terms of remembering the classroom rules. 103 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:17,720 But it doesn't feel like a rule. A lot of times when we 104 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:21,759 frame things as rules, it feels like something that some students are attempted to 105 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:28,879 break. Similarly, the third activity that is definitely overused and overrated is spending 106 00:07:28,879 --> 00:07:32,120 time going over your syllabus. Now, a lot of teachers they just love 107 00:07:32,319 --> 00:07:36,480 their syllabus. They spend a lot of time putting all of their policies, 108 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:42,560 especially grading policies, and they might make it pretty. I know that I 109 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:46,240 have spent time trying to make my syllabus look visually appealing in hopes that students 110 00:07:46,319 --> 00:07:50,399 will actually want to read it or hold onto it. But nobody cares. 111 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:57,639 Nobody cares about your syllabus. Nobody. And when you go over it in 112 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:03,000 class, it's so boring. It's so boring to go over a syllabus. 113 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:09,519 And just imagine again, especially if you teach secondary. However, many classes 114 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:13,560 the kids have, let's say they have six classes, there are six teachers, 115 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:18,439 each of them going over their syllabus. Can you imagine what school feels 116 00:08:18,480 --> 00:08:22,319 like that first week for students in your school in the beginning of the year, 117 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:26,959 there are teacher preparation days, and we have these mandatory trainings and its 118 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:31,759 trainings like health and safety and mandated reporter trainings, and they're so boring it. 119 00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:37,159 Dread them every year and they just make us want to cry because we're 120 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:41,440 literally bored to tears. You guys, that's you reading your syllabus to your 121 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:46,440 students. That's how they feel. I mean, think about it. In 122 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:50,840 the beginning of the year, your students in that time, they don't care. 123 00:08:50,039 --> 00:08:54,000 The parents might read it, they might or skim it, but they're 124 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:56,720 not going to commit anything to memory. So, especially when we come back 125 00:08:56,840 --> 00:09:01,720 later on in the school year when a parent is demanding extra time on an 126 00:09:01,759 --> 00:09:05,519 assignment, or a parent is demanding a redo on an assignment and you don't 127 00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:09,679 allow revisions or anything like that, and you bust out the whole it was 128 00:09:09,759 --> 00:09:13,919 on my syllabus, you just need to know that they're probably not reading it, 129 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:18,120 and yes, it's their fault for not reading it, but they're probably 130 00:09:18,159 --> 00:09:20,759 also not going to remember it if they did. And sometimes we just have 131 00:09:20,799 --> 00:09:26,440 to be flexible the first time because nobody really cares about it. What's more 132 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:31,120 effective is just giving them the syllabus, telling them to store it somewhere in 133 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:33,960 their binder or folder, show it to their parents, just have it as 134 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:37,919 a reference. But whatever is in your syllabus, you need to go over 135 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:41,720 it when it comes up in class. So, for example, when it's 136 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:46,279 time to turn in that first assignment, that's when you go over your late 137 00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:50,360 policy, or when it's a first big assignment that's worth a lot of points, 138 00:09:50,559 --> 00:09:54,240 that's when you go over your policy. For revisions or after the first 139 00:09:54,279 --> 00:09:58,240 test. That's when you go over your policy for retakes. But going over 140 00:09:58,279 --> 00:10:01,240 your syllabus in the beginning of the that's just going to set your students off 141 00:10:01,279 --> 00:10:07,960 on the wrong foot. The next outdated and overt activity is over and under 142 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:11,799 planning. I am so guilty of this. So in the beginning of the 143 00:10:11,879 --> 00:10:16,159 year, multiple years, I've actually underplanned in terms of enough activities, and 144 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:20,879 there's been that dreaded ten to fifteen minutes at the end of class when I 145 00:10:20,919 --> 00:10:26,120 don't have anything for the students to do. I've had to pivot by coming 146 00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:30,080 up with an activity or having students talk to each other about what they did 147 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:33,360 over the summer, which isn't always a great activity to do, because there 148 00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:37,000 are students who did nothing and they feel kind of shameful that they didn't get 149 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:41,960 to travel, or they didn't get to visit relatives or do something really cool. 150 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:46,159 But there's definitely been years when I just haven't planned enough for that first 151 00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:50,759 week of school. Maybe the students finished my dreaded scavenger hunt activity early, 152 00:10:52,200 --> 00:10:54,960 or I saw that they were getting out of hand, so I had to 153 00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:58,399 end it early. Also, I have gone over the syllabus before and I 154 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:03,000 actually hardy through it because the kids looked absolutely bored. So again that left 155 00:11:03,039 --> 00:11:07,879 me with a bunch of time with nothing planned to do. So the key 156 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:11,960 to planning for that first week of school is to have a balance of activities 157 00:11:13,039 --> 00:11:16,759 that the students are doing together, but also some that they're doing on their 158 00:11:16,799 --> 00:11:18,960 own. So, for example, if you teach math, you can have 159 00:11:20,159 --> 00:11:24,039 them do some kind of puzzle or solve something together, but then also have 160 00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:28,120 a fun activity, maybe something that you found on teachers, pay teachers or 161 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:33,080 online that involves math that they should know at your grade level, and they 162 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:37,039 can do that by themselves. So some activities that students find really fun, 163 00:11:37,159 --> 00:11:41,919 or things like coloring or gami or just something that not only are they doing 164 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:45,639 with other people but also by themselves, and it gives you an opportunity to 165 00:11:45,639 --> 00:11:48,159 see how they work. Now in terms of overplanning, in the past, 166 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:52,759 I've planned too many things for that first month of school and I didn't have 167 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:58,799 any flexibility or I didn't plan for unknowns. So what I would do is 168 00:11:58,799 --> 00:12:03,039 I would make these files of copies of different activities that I just knew we 169 00:12:03,039 --> 00:12:07,799 were going to get to. But I did plan for the fact that maybe 170 00:12:07,879 --> 00:12:11,600 students they died background information to complete that activity, or I didn't plan for 171 00:12:11,639 --> 00:12:16,320 the fact that maybe the school had some kind of assembly or something in the 172 00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:20,559 calendar that I didn't bother to look at, and so then we were out 173 00:12:20,600 --> 00:12:24,279 of time to do an activity, or maybe students took too long on one 174 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:28,399 activity, so I had to decide where we going to finish this project that 175 00:12:28,519 --> 00:12:31,279 you were supposed to present and then put on the wall and then get behind 176 00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:37,480 on our actual academic material. Or were we just going to stop where they 177 00:12:37,519 --> 00:12:39,720 were at so that I could stay on pace. So have a plan, 178 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:43,919 but also have a plan that you can be flexible with. Have a stopping 179 00:12:43,919 --> 00:12:46,679 point if you plan to have them do a project, so that they do 180 00:12:46,759 --> 00:12:50,600 have to end it before they're finished, that you can stay on track. 181 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:54,360 It's going to be okay. Don't tell students that they're going to present these 182 00:12:54,519 --> 00:12:58,039 if maybe you're going to run out of time to present them. And finally, 183 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:03,240 the last outdated activity that I've talked about several times on this channel is 184 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:07,320 really focusing too much on classroom decorations. I get it, especially if you're 185 00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:11,759 a new teacher. You just want your classroom to look amazing. You want 186 00:13:11,799 --> 00:13:16,559 all of the posters and the calendar and maybe a word wall or all the 187 00:13:16,679 --> 00:13:22,519 reference posters and everything that you want up there that you've seen maybe on Instagram 188 00:13:22,639 --> 00:13:24,799 or on Pinterest or in other classrooms. You want it all, and you 189 00:13:24,799 --> 00:13:28,399 want it all on there now. But sometimes you're just spending all this time 190 00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:35,120 and energy and especially money on things that aren't actually going to make your classroom 191 00:13:35,159 --> 00:13:37,759 a better learning environment. First of all, and I've said this many times, 192 00:13:37,799 --> 00:13:41,399 if you're a new teacher, I don't think that you should be spending 193 00:13:41,399 --> 00:13:45,320 a lot of money decorating your classroom right off the bat. Spending all that 194 00:13:45,399 --> 00:13:48,480 money when you don't really know what your students need because you're just starting out, 195 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:52,960 just really is a mistake. You also want to strike a balance between 196 00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:58,000 practicality and esthetics. So sometimes you like to put things on our walls that 197 00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:01,120 we think students are going to mean but they don't. Or maybe we want 198 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:05,360 certain parts of our walls to look really pretty, or we don't like it 199 00:14:05,399 --> 00:14:07,879 when a wall looks too blank, and so we just add stuff to fill 200 00:14:07,879 --> 00:14:11,960 in the space. But the thing is is that if you have students with 201 00:14:11,039 --> 00:14:16,879 IEPs which you probably will a lot of times. It can be really distracting 202 00:14:16,919 --> 00:14:20,039 for them, and you'll see them looking around because they can't focus on you 203 00:14:20,120 --> 00:14:24,639 because you have too many things on your walls and maybe even hanging from your 204 00:14:24,639 --> 00:14:28,519 ceiling. Also, maybe later on you decide that you need to put something 205 00:14:28,559 --> 00:14:31,679 on your wall that is going to help them, but you don't have space 206 00:14:31,759 --> 00:14:33,919 for it, and there isn't really a good thing that you can take down 207 00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:37,000 because you've filled everything up. You're like, oh, it's going to mess 208 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:43,759 up the theme of this particular corner. So just leaving room for also flexibility 209 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:46,320 is really going to help as you go through your year and you get to 210 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:50,440 know your students, just remember that if you have too many things on the 211 00:14:50,480 --> 00:14:56,240 walls that are distracting, students won't know what the important things are to look 212 00:14:56,279 --> 00:14:58,399 at. So, for example, I used to have all kinds of things 213 00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:03,000 for English that talked about parts of speech and genres, and I had a 214 00:15:03,039 --> 00:15:07,919 poster with synonyms for simple words that kids use. I just had all kinds 215 00:15:07,919 --> 00:15:11,759 of resources, but nobody looked at them. I asked my students, I 216 00:15:11,799 --> 00:15:16,320 did a poll, and no one ever referred to them. The only poster 217 00:15:16,519 --> 00:15:22,200 that anyone really looked at aside from the calendar, was a poster on commas 218 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:26,320 comma usage. That's what the students wanted to know about. Maybe for you 219 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:30,720 and you teach math, than a poster with basic formulas that they need to 220 00:15:30,799 --> 00:15:35,679 memorize. Or for science, maybe you know the periodic table, things like 221 00:15:35,759 --> 00:15:39,519 that. Think about things that your students would actually use, not what you 222 00:15:39,679 --> 00:15:43,360 hope they would use. Something that I really like to do is to go 223 00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:48,879 into other teachers classrooms and see what they have in their walls to get ideas, 224 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,879 and then I'm going to ask myself, Okay, is this going to 225 00:15:50,919 --> 00:15:54,120 help my students? Do I think that they're actually going to look at it? 226 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:58,840 If you have a poster with really small writing, very few students are 227 00:15:58,879 --> 00:16:00,960 going to refer to it. I have never had a student walk up to 228 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,559 a poster to look at what's on there when it has really small and right 229 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:07,879 ever, they might look at it as they're lined up ready to go, 230 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:11,919 but they just never refer to it and it's just taking up space. So 231 00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:15,360 I know that some of these are controversial. I'm not telling you to not 232 00:16:15,559 --> 00:16:19,480 do these things. I'm just asking you to rethink your approach to it, 233 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:25,840 especially if you've gotten ideas from other people and you've never taught before, ask 234 00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:30,559 yourself, put yourself in that situation if there was an adult version, a 235 00:16:30,559 --> 00:16:36,120 teacher version of that activity happening with the staff. Would you enjoy doing that? 236 00:16:36,399 --> 00:16:40,960 Would you enjoy having someone read over slides to you at a teacher meeting, 237 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:45,679 at a faculty meeting? Would you enjoy someone going over rules of procedures 238 00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:49,200 with you? Maybe not. Are you someone who would enjoy icebreaker activities or 239 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:52,960 you dread them because you're more introverted like I am. And as much as 240 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:56,200 you want in your classroom to be something that you feel comfortable in and that 241 00:16:56,240 --> 00:17:00,279 you're proud of, remember that this is the learning environment for your students, 242 00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:06,119 so what's best for them. If you're a new teacher, I definitely suggest 243 00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:11,039 going back to episode one twenty seven because that's going to help you figure out 244 00:17:11,039 --> 00:17:15,920 six essential questions that you need to ask when you're starting at a new school. 245 00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:19,000 So this is really important because a lot of time we don't even know 246 00:17:19,039 --> 00:17:22,960 where to start in terms of finding out information, and we start to school 247 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:26,000 here with a lot of gaps in our knowledge. So I really suggest that 248 00:17:26,079 --> 00:17:30,160 you guys check out that episode. Thanks for hanging out with me today and 249 00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:30,400 I will see you next time.