Unparallelled Self-Care On Your Spring Break

As spring break approaches, what are your goals?





Are you planning to go on vacation?
Spend it on the couch?
Catch up on work around the house?
Catch up on schoolwork?

I would argue that spring break should be a time to focus on your goals, and on taking care of you. By self-care I don’t massages and pedicures, I mean work on some ways to take better care of yourself, and make yourself feel better! You can do it, but it takes work! Use your time to do the work, and come out of spring break feeling much better!

Self-Care is Not an Indulgence, it's a Discipline
Self-Care for Teachers
Teacher Self-Care

What I do mean is take care of yourself. Do things that will make you healthier, stronger, calmer and feel better!

• How to do that??
• Move your body - walk? Dance? Exercise? Try to establish a pattern that you can keep up, even if it's only ten minutes a day of yoga. Look on YouTube for some short simple videos to follow if that would help. Go for a walk! Even if it’s cold, bundle up! If you are looking for accountability or encouragement, join some fitness groups on Facebook. There are many! Ask me for suggestions if you are stuck. I’m in a couple. 
• Eat good food - healthy is even better! Try a new vegetable and find a different way to cook it! 
• Do things that bring you joy - read a good book? Do an art or craft project? Go for a hike? What lights you up? Find time for that. 
• Do something that makes you laugh. We all need more laughter in our days! 

Come up with plans to continue this trend once school begins.

This comes with a change in mindset. It means prioritizing yourself and taking control of your day. If that’s where you are struggling, let me share a few of my favorites:






Chalk Full of Life Podcast

And many more.  If none of those fit for you, let me know and I can recommend others.

How to Immediately Implement Dynamic Learning? #shakeuplearning

To Implement Dynamic Learning it is important to keep the characteristics in mind.




Here are a few examples, and many more example lessons are available on https://shakeuplearningbook.com/ and the free quick start guide available here https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/shake-learning-free-quickstart-guide/

Characteristic 

Beyond the bell
Beyond the grade level and subject

Strategies 

Students help set learning goals
Vision board
Tracking goals 

Design thinking process

Genius Hour
Maker project

In my mind, this is similar to Backwards Design or planning with the end in mind. Think about the learning objectives, the characteristics, and the 4 C’s mentioned earlier (and discussed here).

Start small, and reflect. Make gradual changes! Small steps add up, and we can think about ways to take our learning objectives and include more Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, or Critical Thinking, or to take learning Beyond the traditional boundaries.

There are some fantastic examples here of how to do this with the G Suite.

Here is another excellent resource that helps to pull these pieces together.