Today is Indigenous Peoples Day!

One beautiful way to celebrate is to share the exceptional stories written by indigenous voices with your children, and then to continue to read them all year round. (These books are a great place to start)

Another way to celebrate is to acknowledge the land you’re on. (I’m on the land of the Muscogee Creek and Cherokee Peoples)

You can also take care of the land you are on, pay your respect and maybe even plant a native plant.

Make sure you also support Indigenous businesses, authors, and craftspeople (I love @eighthgeneration 🫶🏽—a good start)

Take time to visit a museum that shares about Indigenous history and culture ( @smithsoniannmai is a great online resource)

Books pictured:

Fry Bread
By Kevin Noble Maillard and illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal @noblemaillard (pictured above)

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley @angelineboulley

Kapaemahu by @sharkgoddess808

We are Water Protectors, by Carole Lindstrom

We are Still Here, We are Grateful, At Mountain Base by Traci Sorell @tracisorellauthor

You Hold me Up, My Heart is Filled with Happiness by Monique Gray Smith @moniquegraysmith

Look Grandma! Ni, Elisi! By Art Coulson @upwiththemooses

(In my louder voice-not yelling —but matter-of-fact)

When you change a teacher’s grade level this is what happens.

This now new teacher has to:

✔️ Gain new knowledge of how kids learn at the particular age range/grade level you’ve been changed to
✔️ Learn new standards to teach
✔️ Learn curriculum or new grade level curriculum
✔️ Learn a new team culture and dynamics
✔️ Room change (oh the brain power in setting up a new space 😖)
✔️ Wall learning decor change (if I move from 1st to 5th some of the learning support I have on my walls is different)
✔️ Classroom library change/new books (especially if the grade level jump is significant.)
✔️ Be honest about the many emotions that is coming up for them with that change

This is just a few. I’m sure there is more.

If you are a teacher and want a fresh and new grade level —that is awesome! I’ve been there and wanted a change! These ⬆️ are some of the things to take into account when you make the change.

If you are a leader, and are making changes, especially a bunch of changes, know that you are essentially creating new teachers and teams. Some of that change may be beyond your control. We know that.

Leaders, here are some tips for easing into these changes:

✔️ Have these conversations with compassion and be transparent about the why behind the change.

✔️Ask yourself and have the answer to this question—> What are you going to do as a leader to offer support to these new teachers and teams now created?

✔️ Let your leadership team be in the loop—your AP, your Instructional Coach, Team Leads, etc. These are some of the folks that will be helping to support these new teachers and teams.

(🎤 placed gently down on the soap box. 🤣😂)

#teachers #teacher #leader #leadership #instructionalcoach #coach #school #grades #education #teach

Y’all. That is a picture of my TEAM TOO MUCH classroom. I had happy kids that I believe learned a lot AND I wonder if their brains were on overload. I often think how much more they would have absorbed had my classroom been less cluttered, less busy, and designed for more them. I knew better, but I made the classroom the way I wanted them to engage in it rather than what they needed—what their brains needed.

I had my student teaching in a brain-based school over 20 years ago 🤯, and some of the research still stands.

Here are some tips in creating a classroom where students can thrive:

🧠 Let natural light in

🧠 Avoid clutter

🧠 Balance the wall colors

🧠 Co-created Visual aids are OK—remove them if not needed anymore

🧠 Put up student work

🧠 Add live plants 🪴 to the space

🧠 Create flow—think of ways students can flow throughout the learning environment easily

🧠 Set up a space for learning collaboration

What else would you add?

#brainbasedlearning #instructionalcoach #learning #backtoschool #classroom #classroomdecor #teaching #teach