Holiday tips for a festively-decorated, smoothly-functioning classroom
The holidays can be a stressful time for teachers, between planning festive activities and decorations to simply keeping your students focused as the countdown to winter break draws closer and closer.
To help you keep students engaged and learning and to help you keep your sanity as we enter December, we’ve put together some tips and resources for current teachers or those pursuing an education degree.
This month is full of holidays: Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and others, and gathering ideas to teach students about these special days or simply coming up with fun, festive activities for them can seem overwhelming.
However, new teachers can rest assured, as teachers who have “been there” pass along ideas and resources through Pinterest, Education World, Scholastic and other helpful sharing sites.
More specific than the month of December, the week winding down to winter break can be a hectic time. Here are a few tips to help your last week run smoothly:
- Stand your ground. Resist the urge to ease up on the behavioral standards you’ve set for the class. Students will already be wound up as they sense the break coming around the corner, becoming lackadaisical will only add to the chaos.
- Keep the last day low-key. The last day is not the time to start elaborate projects or squeeze in last minute lessons plans. Use this time to give meaningful work assignments that will keep students entertained and enjoy this last day together.
- Help out “future-you”. Use the day before break to take down any seasonal decorations, change the calendar and have lesson plan and materials ready for your first day back. It will be a new year when you return — make it a stress-free one.
Students pursuing their bachelors degree in education can further develop some of these skills through William Woods University course EDU453: Classroom Management, where they will learn different educational and behavioral intervention techniques to apply in a classroom setting.