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Back to SchoolGood TeachingSocial-Emotional Learning

Five Mental Health Practices to Embrace This School Year

by Macee Hall Greer
written by Macee Hall Greer

As the first bell rings in August, teachers across the country step into classrooms filled with fresh faces and boundless potential. But with all the new names and faces, it’s easy to let self-care slip down the priority list.

Prioritizing your mental health isn’t a luxury—it’s foundational for your teaching success and your students’ well-being. Here are five essential mental health practices to adopt as you welcome a new school year!

1. Set Boundaries and Protect Your Time

At the start of the year, decide when your workday ends and stick to it (harder said than done, I know…). Carve out protected time for non-work activities. If possible, mute work notifications after hours and resist the urge to grade papers late into the night. Boundaries aren’t barriers. They’re tools to help us achieve balance.

2. Build a Personalized Self-Care Toolkit

Self-care doesn’t require a trip to the spa or a weeklong retreat. Choose two or three activities that recharge you—perhaps a morning walk, ten minutes of daily journaling, or a quiet coffee on the porch— and make these non-negotiable parts of your routine. Remember: an empty cup can’t fill others. Prioritizing small daily acts of self-care helps ensure you show up as your best self in the classroom.

3. Seek Out and Lean On Your Support Network

No teacher is an island, even if it feels that way sometimes. Early in the year, re-connect with supportive colleagues and cultivate a few relationships outside of school. Don’t hesitate to reach out to mentors or friends when stress peaks. Join a professional group in the TCEA Community! And, if you ever feel overwhelmed, professional help from a certified counselor is always an option.

4. Practice Mindfulness and Stay Present

Incorporate mindfulness strategies into your daily rhythm. This might mean pausing for three deep breaths before each class, trying a guided meditation app after lunch, or even keeping a gratitude journal by your desk. Mindfulness isn’t about emptying your mind; it’s about noticing the present moment and responding with intention. Even five minutes of mindful activity can buffer against stress and help you find calm amidst the chaos.

5. Organize Your Space and Systems

Clutter and chaos increase anxiety (especially during the hectic first weeks of a new school year). Take an afternoon to set up your workspace, organize lesson materials, and establish simple systems for tasks like grading or communication. Consider using digital tools or checklists to keep yourself on track. When your environment is in order, you can focus more energy on what matters: teaching and connecting with students.

Happy back-to-school season from TCEA!

Starting the year with intentional mental health practices isn’t selfish—it’s essential for thriving in a demanding, rewarding profession. As you greet a new group of learners, remember: your well-being is the foundation for all the difference you make. On behalf of all of us here at TCEA, I wish you a joyful, balanced, and successful school year!

Looking for a more in-depth way to cultivate calm in your life and classroom? Check out our Cultivating Calm course, specially designed for educators like you!

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Back to SchoolGood TeachingPlanning and Preparation

Back-to-School Tech Reset: 10 Things to Do Before August

by Simba Martin
written by Simba Martin

Summer is typically a season dedicated to relaxation and reflection but for educators it’s an
ideal time to refresh digital spaces, reassess their habits, and set the stage for a strong start to
the new academic year.

A mid-summer tech reset encourages you to purge clutter, opening more doors for efficiency and
making it easier to transition into the new year. Whether you’re a classroom teacher planning
for new students, an instructional support staff member preparing to become a digital learning
specialist, a digital reset might be just the thing you need to start the coming fall term on the
right foot.

10 Tech Reset Steps for Educators

The following is a TCEA-recommended checklist to help maximize the summer. Kick off the
school year by using it to portray clarity and confidence.

1. Declutter Your Digital Desktop

A messy desktop will sap your energy and also slow you down. Create a clean folder structure
by subject, semester, or tool, and archive last year’s documents. Also, delete any duplicates. A
tidy workspace clears your mind and enhances focus. You will appreciate this in August. When
the digital environment is cluttered, it fatigues the decision-making process.
“A cluttered digital environment leads to decision fatigue. Clearing it isn’t just about space—it’s
about headspace.” — Inspired by Digital Minimalism.

2. Update Passwords and Enable MFA

The first step in cybersecurity is building strong credentials. Change your passwords on your
most frequented websites and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) to provide an additional
layer of security online. In addition to protecting your information, it also sets a good example for
your students and colleagues.

“Cybersecurity is not a product, but a process.” — Bruce Schneier.

3. Clean and Prep Classroom Devices

Teachers must take an inventory and clean all of their devices. Also, they should note down
anything that needs repair. IT teams check updates, renew licenses, and test performance, so
devices are ready on day one.

4. Reset Your LMS or Learning Platform

Archive old courses now, then update your welcome message. Revise all links, as well as
prepare some new content, regardless of whether you use Google Classroom, Canvas, or
Schoology. Begin again with both clarity and structure.

5. Review Your Ed Tech Toolkit

Which tools made a difference last year? How did they fare? Take the time to streamline your digital toolbox by removing tools that are no longer useful to you and exploring new options that align with your instructional goals to enhance your performance.

Looking for some ideas? Join a discussion in the TCEA Community!

6. Sync Calendars and Notifications

You can simply sync your LMS with Google or Outlook calendars. By integrating tools like this
into your daily routine, you can stay well organized by syncing calendars and make sure that
you do not miss any critical deadlines or meetings. It simplifies planning and saves time, making
it easy to schedule both professional and personal commitments. Having reminders for events
like grading periods, school activities, and individual objectives can be achieved using tools like
Asana or Trello. Automation can easily be your second brain, holding down the fort when the
mental load is overwhelming, and you need more assistance and less hands-on work.

7. Refresh Your Digital Citizenship Plan

Your policies should keep pace with the evolution of the digital environment. Policies that have
been effective in the past could become outdated or work against you. Getting them refreshed
and revised periodically keeps you on top of them and effective at serving your purposes.
Taking this proactive measure encourages flexibility and continuous improvement in your online
practice. Consider how you could integrate AI literacy, data privacy, cyber well-being, and
ethical technology use into your classroom practice.

8. Reconnect with Your Professional Learning Network

A summer collaborative learning platform could be what you need to strengthen your
professional learning community. Consider joining a community of educators to exchange ideas,
share resources, and collaborate on innovative teaching strategies. A professional development
network can keep you up to date on the latest educational technology trends and advance your professional growth.

9. Plan Your Learning and Professional Development

What do you aim to achieve this year? Will you need coaching, AI integration, or certification
services? Take a moment to reflect on teaching goals and how embedding technology can
enhance learning activities. Set specific, measurable objectives that relate to your vision of
student academic success. From fostering digital literacy to improving collaboration, a clear plan
will guide your efforts and maximize your impact in the classroom. TCEA offers on-demand PD
and self-paced courses to support your goals in your own time.

10. Create Space for Innovation

Leave room to try something new. Pilot a gamified unit, explore classroom AI, or launch a
student-led tech project. Low-stakes experimentation now builds momentum for future creative
teaching.

“Technology will not replace great teachers, but technology in the hands of great teachers can
be transformational.” — George Couros

Final Thoughts

You don’t need a complete overhaul to feel prepared. Even a few intentional actions now can
transform your transition into August. Use this tech reset to enter the new year more focused,
organized, and ready for whatever comes your way.

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A teacher stands at a crossroads between a chaotic digital world filled with AI robots, businesspeople, and social media icons on one side, and a warm, sunlit classroom where children are calmly engaged in their studies on the other.
Artificial IntelligenceEducational TrendsGood Teaching

Stop Chasing Every New AI Tool: A Teacher’s Guide to Sustainable Technology

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

The Exhausting Sprint That Goes Nowhere

Picture this: You arrive at school Monday morning and find three emails about new AI tools “every teacher should be using.” Your colleague mentions a ChatGPT lesson plan hack in the hallway. During lunch, you scroll through education Twitter and see teachers celebrating their latest classroom innovation. By the time you head home, you feel simultaneously behind and overwhelmed.

Welcome to the Red Queen Race in education.

A playing card styled as the Queen of Diamonds, featuring a red border and diamond symbols. In the center, a quote in red text reads: "It takes all the running you can do, to stay in the same place." At the bottom, black text attributes the quote to The Red Queen from "Through the Looking-Glass."

This concept, borrowed from Lewis Carroll’s whimsical tale, has found new relevance in our AI-accelerated world. The original metaphor described how Alice and the Red Queen had to run as fast as they could just to stay in the same place—and this perfectly captures what’s happening across industries today – including education. Before you even check your morning messages, headlines about new AI breakthroughs have already moved the goalposts. A late-night announcement about an educational AI tool becomes breakfast conversation, and by lunch, not knowing about it feels like falling behind. Just like Alice and the Red Queen, many teachers find themselves sprinting to keep up with technological advances while feeling they’re falling further behind, caught in a cycle where yesterday’s innovation becomes today’s baseline expectation.

But here’s the thing: you don’t have to run this race.

To be clear, this isn’t about rejecting AI or technology entirely. It’s about finding sustainable technology and utilizing it in smart ways.

When AI tools genuinely improve efficiency, boost productivity, or provide valuable insights into student learning, they’re worth adopting. The problem isn’t with technology itself—it’s with the frantic pressure to adopt every new tool simply because it’s the newest thing on the block. Strategic integration based on actual classroom needs is very different from trend-chasing driven by fear of falling behind.

Recognizing When You’re Caught in the Race

A stressed man sits at his cluttered desk late at night, overwhelmed by swirling digital notifications, while imagining the Queen of Hearts from "Alice in Wonderland" standing sternly in his thought bubble.

The educational Red Queen Race has some telltale signs:

Sunday Night Anxiety: That sinking feeling that you’re not tech-savvy enough for the week ahead. You’ve bookmarked seventeen articles about AI in education but haven’t had time to read any of them.

Tool Fatigue: Your digital toolkit has become a graveyard of half-learned platforms. You signed up for the webinar, downloaded the app, but never quite mastered any of them before the next “game-changing” tool appeared.

Comparison Overwhelm: Watching colleagues effortlessly integrate the latest technology while you’re still figuring out last month’s innovation. Their highlight reels make your behind-the-scenes struggles feel inadequate.

Diminishing Returns: You’re spending more time learning about educational technology than actually benefiting from it. The tools promise to save time, but the learning curve keeps eating into your evenings and weekends.

Why Teachers Should Step Off the Treadmill

Your Core Skills Matter More Than Your App Collection

The best teachers throughout history shared certain qualities: they built relationships, inspired curiosity, and helped students think critically. None of these essential skills require the latest AI platform. While technology can enhance these abilities, it cannot replace them.

Here’s a fundamental truth: if you ever have to choose between good pedagogy and eye-catching technology, choose good pedagogy every time. The technology will change—and change again, and again. But solid teaching principles endure because they’re rooted in how students actually learn and grow.

Students remember teachers who saw them, challenged them, and believed in them—not teachers who used the newest software.

Sustainable Innovation Beats Frantic Adoption

Research consistently shows that successful technology integration happens slowly and thoughtfully. Schools that mandate rapid adoption often see higher teacher burnout and lower student engagement. The most effective educational technology implementations involve careful planning, adequate training, and gradual rollout.

Quality trumps quantity every time.

Your Wellbeing Affects Your Effectiveness

Teacher burnout is at historic highs, and the pressure to constantly upskill contributes significantly to this crisis. When you’re exhausted from chasing the latest trends, you have less energy for the human connections that make teaching magical.

Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish—it’s essential for taking care of your students.

Practical Strategies for Avoiding the Race

1. Embrace the “Minimum Effective Dose”

Instead of trying to master every educational technology tool, identify the smallest set of versatile tools that give you the biggest impact. This might be:

  • One AI writing assistant
  • One presentation tool you know well
  • One collaborative platform your students actually use
  • One assessment tool that truly saves you time

Master these deeply rather than dabbling in dozens.

2. Create Technology-Free Zones

Deliberately design lessons and activities that don’t require any technology. This serves multiple purposes:

  • Protects proven teaching methods that work
  • Gives you and your students a break from screen fatigue
  • Reminds everyone that learning happened for centuries without WiFi
  • Builds your confidence in your core teaching abilities

3. Implement Collaborative Filtering

Form a small “tech team” with trusted colleagues. This could even be incorporated into existing PLC meetings when you’re intentionally focusing on tech tools that support your content, engage students, and/or provide quality assessment strategies and data. Divide and conquer:

  • Each person investigates one or two new tools per month
  • Share honest reviews (including failures) at monthly meetings
  • Create a shared document of actually useful tools
  • Agree to ignore the tools that don’t make the cut

This way, you benefit from collective intelligence without individual overwhelm.

4. Practice Selective Ignorance

Give yourself permission to consciously ignore certain trends. This isn’t about being closed-minded; it’s about being strategic with your limited time and energy.

  • Set boundaries on education technology news consumption
  • Unsubscribe from newsletters that create more anxiety than value
  • Choose which conferences and webinars align with your actual goals
  • Remember that not every innovation is relevant to your classroom

5. Focus on Timeless Teaching Principles

Invest your professional development time in skills that transcend technological trends:

  • Questioning techniques that promote deeper thinking
  • Classroom management strategies that build community
  • Assessment methods that truly measure learning
  • Communication skills that strengthen parent partnerships

These abilities will serve you regardless of which apps come and go.

A Framework for Thoughtful Technology Decisions

A blue silhouette of a person in a thinking pose with a thought bubble above their head containing a yellow question mark, flanked by a glowing yellow X on the left and a glowing yellow check mark on the right.

So how do you distinguish between genuinely useful tools and shiny distractions? The key is developing criteria that help you evaluate technology based on substance rather than hype. Instead of asking “Is this new?” or “Is everyone else using it?”, focus on questions that reveal whether a tool truly serves your teaching goals.

Before adopting any new educational technology, ask yourself:

The Problem Test: What specific problem does this solve in my classroom? If you can’t articulate a clear problem, you probably don’t need the solution.

The Time Test: Is the learning curve justified by the benefits? Be realistic about implementation time versus long-term value.

The Sustainability Test: Will I still find this useful in six months? Can I realistically maintain this alongside my other responsibilities?

The Student Test: Does this genuinely improve learning outcomes, or just make lessons look more impressive?

The Alignment Test: Does this fit with my teaching philosophy and classroom culture?

If a tool doesn’t pass these tests, it’s okay to say no.

Redefining “Keeping Up” with Modern Tech

The Red Queen Race tricks us into believing that “keeping up” means constant motion. But what if we redefined it?

This framing is one of the most insidious aspects of our current educational culture. We’ve internalized the idea that professional growth equals technological acquisition—that a teacher who isn’t implementing the latest AI tool is somehow stagnant or falling behind. But this conflates activity with progress, motion with meaning. True professional growth has never been about surface-level tool switching. Think about the teachers who most influenced you as a student. Were they memorable because they used cutting-edge technology? Or because they saw you as an individual, challenged your thinking, and created an environment where learning felt possible?

The most profound “keeping up” might actually involve slowing down. It could mean deepening your understanding of how students learn, refining your ability to ask questions that spark curiosity, or developing the patience to let difficult concepts marinate rather than rushing to the next digital demonstration. Consider this: while everyone else is racing to master the latest educational app, you could be developing expertise that no algorithm can replicate—the ability to read a classroom’s energy, to know when a student needs encouragement versus challenge, to adapt your teaching in real-time based on subtle cues that no AI has learned to detect. The irony is that by stepping off the technology treadmill, you might actually become more current with what truly matters in education: understanding your students, mastering your craft, and maintaining the enthusiasm that drew you to teaching in the first place.

Real keeping up might mean:

  • Staying current with your students’ needs and interests
  • Maintaining your passion for teaching and learning
  • Building deeper expertise in your content area
  • Developing stronger relationships with students and families
  • Refining your ability to help students think critically

False keeping up looks like:

  • Adopting every new tool because it exists
  • Feeling pressure to be the influencer with the latest tools
  • Feeling guilty about not using the latest platform
  • Measuring your worth by your digital sophistication

Your Permission Slip

Consider this your official permission slip to step off the educational technology treadmill. You have permission to:

  • Use the same reliable and sustainable technology tools you mastered last year
  • Attend educational technology conferences (like TCEA) to go deeper in tools you know
  • Focus on perfecting your core teaching practices
  • Say “not right now” to well-meaning colleagues sharing new apps unless you feel comfortable integrating new ones that meet specific needs
  • Prioritize your mental health
  • Trust your professional judgment about what your students need

Moving Forward Mindfully with Sustainable Technology

Avoiding the Red Queen Race doesn’t mean avoiding all innovation. It means being intentional about which races you choose to run. When you do decide to learn something new, approach it with curiosity rather than anxiety, taking time to truly understand its value before moving to the next thing. After all, sustainable technology use is personal and will look different for every educator. Poke around and discover what works for you.

Remember: in Carroll’s story, Alice eventually realizes that the frantic running leads nowhere. The real progress happens when she steps off the racing ground and chooses her own path forward.

Your students need you present, passionate, and sustainable—not perpetually exhausted from chasing the latest trend. The greatest gift you can give them is a teacher who has chosen wisdom over overwhelm, depth over breadth, and humanity over hype.

The race will continue around you, but you don’t have to run it. Your classroom, your students, and your wellbeing will all be better for it.

Have you mastered sustainable technology usage? Or are you still working on leaving the race? Drop your top tips and proudest moments in the comments below!

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A cheerful cartoon woman wearing glasses holds an iced drink with a "RELAX" note and a tablet, surrounded by tropical leaves, a smiling sun, and logos for Canva, Wakelet, Book Creator, MagicSchool AI, and a color palette icon, evoking a relaxed summer learning vibe.
Good Teaching

Mix Fun with Forward Thinking This Summer

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

This summer can be both fun and forward-thinking. Whether you’re a classroom teacher looking for fresh tech ideas or an administrator planning for next year, use this summer to not only recharge but to also reignite. Let’s look at how you can blend rest and relaxation while sparking inspiration for next year.

Recharge Your Batteries (You Deserve It!)

First and foremost, give yourself permission to pause. Take that beach trip, finish that book, binge watch that show guilt-free, and have fun. A mental reset is essential to your long-term health. Take a look at this reset checklist for a list of additional ideas.

Small Steps, Big Ideas

This summer, think of growth in micro-doses. There is no need to overhaul your entire curriculum. You could try a couple of these things:

  • Explore one new tool that you can test on your own time.
  • Subscribe to one inspiring education podcast.
  • Attend one virtual session or webinar. Try to find ones that will allow you to watch replays.
  • Write down one big idea you want to try in August.

Sometimes it’s that one thing that makes all the difference come fall.

A smiling woman relaxes in a teal armchair, holding a book in one hand and an iced coffee in the other, with a laptop and sunglasses on the desk beside her.
Image by Author

Summer Friendly Digital Tools to Explore

Summer is the perfect time to explore some user-friendly digital tools. These tools are perfect for light exploration:

  • Book Creator – Try making a short summer reflection journal.
  • Canva – Create a slide deck for back-to-school.
  • Edpuzzle – Test creating short video lessons with questions to flip your classroom in the fall.
  • Loom – Practice recording quick video intros or welcome messages for next school year.
  • Wakelet – Curate summer learning ideas or articles.

Each of these tools has a low entry point and high engagement payoff.

Get Inspired by Playful Planning

This summer, inspiration doesn’t have to look like work. There isn’t any pressure. It’s about planting seeds for next year. Consider:

  • Creating a Bitmoji classroom just for fun or for real use.
  • Hosting a “tech playdate” with teacher friends. Include coffee and/or snacks.
  • Making a vision board using Canva for your classroom goals.
  • Trying AI tools like MagicSchool.ai or Brisk for time-saving lesson planning ideas.
A cheerful illustration split into two panels: the left shows a cartoon teacher in a Bitmoji-style classroom holding a tablet and having fun, and the right displays a colorful vision board with motivational images and phrases like "Stay Positive" and "GOALS."
Image by Author

Relax and Plan

You don’t have to choose between relaxing and planning. With a little intention, you can do both. Have a summer of joy, relaxation, and just enough prep to make you excited about back-to-school season.

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The teacher is looking thoughtfully at a bulletin board filled with student work, books, and inspirational quotes. The classroom has soft natural lighting, wooden desks, and educational posters. The teacher wears casual professional attire and has a calm, reflective expression.
Good Teaching

Finding Your Ikigai as a Teacher

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

When was the last time you paused to consider why you teach? Between lesson planning, managing classrooms, grading, meetings, and the ever-changing demands of the profession, it’s easy to fall into the rhythm of doing without reflecting. In addition, it’s easy to lose sight of the deeper “why” behind what we do. This is where the Japanese concept of Ikigai can offer a guiding light.

What Is Ikigai?

Ikigai (pronounced ee-key-guy) is a Japanese concept that means “a reason for being.” It represents the intersection of four key elements:

  • What you love
  • What you’re good at
  • What the world needs
  • What you can be paid for

In the center, where these four areas overlap, lies your ikigai. It is a unique personal and professional sweet spot that brings meaning to your days.

A visual of four overlapping circles labeled: “What you love,” “What you’re good at,” “What the world needs,” and “What you can be paid for,” with “Ikigai” at the center.
AI Generated Image by Author

For teachers, this idea may feel both familiar and elusive. You probably chose this profession because it touched on all four of these areas. But somewhere along the way, fatigue, routine, or systemic challenges may have dulled the clarity of that purpose.

Why It Matters

Teaching is inherently meaningful work. But it’s also emotionally demanding and often undervalued. Over time, even the most passionate educators can experience burnout or feel disconnected from their “why.”

Reconnecting with your Ikigai isn’t about adding more to your plate. It’s about realigning with what matters most. It’s about finding small moments of joy, rediscovering your strengths, noticing your needs, and giving yourself permission to pursue a life that feels purposeful.

Steps to Discovering Your Ikigai

Here are some reflective prompts to help you begin:

1. What Do You Love?

Think about the moments in your teaching day that make you lose track of time. Is it the spark in a student’s eye when they finally “get it”? The creative process of designing a new lesson? The friendships with colleagues?

2. What Are You Good At?

Reflect on your strengths as an educator. Are you a natural storyteller? A patient listener? Do you excel at building relationships, organizing chaos, or inspiring curiosity?

3. What Does the World Need?

Consider the needs you see in your students, your school, or your community. Where do your passions and skills align with these needs? Perhaps you’re the teacher who creates a safe space for students who feel unseen, or the one who brings innovation to your team.

4. What Can You Be Paid For?

While teaching is rarely about the paycheck, it’s important to recognize the professional value you bring. How can you continue to grow and be recognized for your contributions?

Putting It All Together

Try creating a simple Ikigai diagram or journal entry, mapping out your answers to these questions. Notice where the circles overlap. What themes emerge? What small steps can you take to spend more time in your “Ikigai zone” each day?

Bringing Ikigai into the Next School Year

Finding your Ikigai doesn’t require a major life change. Often, it starts with a shift in awareness. What if you carved out just 15 minutes a week to do something that taps into your purpose. For example, mentoring a colleague, redesigning a lesson you love, or exploring a topic that fascinates you? These small shifts can add up to a deeper sense of alignment and fulfillment during the next school year.

Don’t let this reflection be just an end-of-year exercise. Let be a way for you to remember to seek joy and purpose every day, even in the small stuff. Teaching is more than a job. It’s a calling. By embracing the spirit of ikigai, we can stay connected to what matters most and bring more meaning, intention, and joy into our lives and classrooms.

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Good TeachingSocial-Emotional LearningSummer Ideas

Avoid Teacher Burnout Before Summer Break

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

It’s 2:30 PM on a Wednesday in May and teacher burnout is a very real, very near threat. Your desk disappears under a mountain of projects waiting to be graded. Three parent emails about graduation requirements demand immediate attention. The end-of-year inventory forms sit untouched in your inbox, and your department head just announced an extra staff meeting tomorrow. Meanwhile, your students bounce between wild energy and complete apathy as summer looms. Sound familiar?

Teachers often describe May as “March Madness with grading instead of basketball,” and there is good reason. Field trips, final exams, end-of-year celebrations, and looming deadlines collide just as everyone’s energy dips. While the chaos feels unavoidable, you are not powerless. With a few intentional shifts, you can lower stress, safeguard your mental health, and finish strong while avoiding the dreaded teacher burnout.

Recognize the Pressure Pot

An open notebook on a rustic wooden desk displaying a handwritten to-do list beside a steaming cup of coffee in a clear glass mug, with a pen, leather cover, and soft window light completing the cozy scene.

First, name what is happening. Stress climbs when your brain juggles unspoken worries, so spend five quiet minutes listing everything weighing on you—late work to grade, parent e-mails to answer, the classroom inventory nobody has started. Seeing the load on paper turns vague anxiety into a concrete plan. It also helps you notice physical signals of burnout and overload such as headaches, shallow breathing, or irritability. By spotting early warning signs, you can act before tension spills into your teaching or your life at home.

“I keep a ‘Sunday brain dump’ ritual where I write absolutely everything down that’s swirling in my head,” shares Miranda, a middle school science teacher. “Just getting it all out of my thoughts and onto paper immediately cuts my stress in half.”

For tech-savvy educators, consider doing what I sometimes do – an AI-assisted brain dump: Use voice mode with an AI assistant like ChatGPT to simply talk through everything on your mind. You can have a natural conversation about all your tasks, concerns, and ideas. When you’re finished, ask the AI to conclude by providing a prioritized list of action items based on your conversation. This approach combines the stress relief of verbally processing with the organizational benefit of leaving with a structured plan—perfect for educators who prefer talking to writing.

Plan Smart, Not Hard

Once the list exists, sort each task into three buckets: must finish, can delegate, and can drop. Here’s how to decide:

  • Must finish: Directly impacts student learning outcomes, is legally required, or affects student transitions to next year
  • Can delegate: Routine tasks others could help with (filing, organizing, data entry)
  • Can drop: Won’t significantly impact student learning or school operations, or can wait until next year

Tackle the first bucket with time-blocking: reserve small, focused blocks for grading bursts or packing materials instead of letting those chores stretch across the day. For the delegate bucket, enlist student helpers, peer tutors, or parent volunteers—many love shredding outdated handouts or labeling supply bins. Anything in the third bucket that will not truly affect students’ learning or campus compliance gets a polite farewell. Lightening the load this way frees mental space and preserves energy for what matters most.

Build Mini Breaks into Each Day

During a sprint to the finish line, teachers often skip the very habits that keep stress in check. Schedule three micro-breaks of two to five minutes and treat them like appointments. Stand at the window and focus on five things you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste. Stretch your shoulders while the copier warms up or take a brisk lap around the hallway instead of scrolling emails between periods. These tiny resets calm the nervous system, lower cortisol, and improve focus when you return to students.

Set Boundaries and Protect Life Outside School

A hand gently holding a glowing, translucent sphere with a smiling face inside, set against a dreamy lavender background filled with soft bokeh light effects.

After hours, give yourself a daily “hard stop.” Decide in advance that work ends at 5:30 p.m. or after one last parent call—whichever comes first. Creating a clear closing ritual (shut the laptop, turn off classroom lights, or play a favorite playlist during the drive home) signals your brain that the professional day is done. Guard weekends by choosing one block of time—perhaps Saturday morning—for any lingering tasks, then leave the rest free for hobbies, family, and rest. Healthy boundaries keep teacher burnout from sneaking into summer vacation.

Lean on Your Team

A vibrant, abstract painting of six hands from different directions overlapping in unity, each painted in a unique color palette representing the spectrum of the rainbow.

Teaching seldom rewards lone-wolf heroes; it thrives on community. Share lesson materials, divide end-of-year paperwork, and celebrate small victories together, such as a tricky student finally mastering long division. If your district has an Employee Assistance Program, remind colleagues it exists and model using it yourself. Informal check-ins over coffee or a quick meme exchange in the faculty chat can lift moods more than you might expect. Collective care builds resilience that individual grit cannot match.

“Last May, four of us fifth-grade teachers divided the report card comments—each taking a subject area for all students,” explains Jerome, a veteran elementary teacher. “We cut our workload by 75% and actually wrote more thoughtful feedback because we weren’t rushing through dozens of comments per child.”

Celebrate Progress, Not Perfection

It is tempting to focus on unfinished curriculum units or that one bulletin board still missing student work. Instead, pause to acknowledge growth you witnessed: reluctant readers finishing their first novel, lab groups handling equipment safely, seniors crafting genuine thank-you letters. Display a “Wins Wall” where students and staff post moments of pride, or include a slideshow of highlights during the final class meeting. Celebration reframes the narrative from exhaustion to accomplishment and feeds motivation for the year ahead, turning teacher burnout in to teacher brainpower!

Know When to Ask for Help

Hands holding and interacting with a smartphone, with the word "HELP" in bold red letters emerging from the screen in a motion blur effect.

Persistent sadness, difficulty sleeping, or panic that will not ease are signals to reach beyond familiar supports. Contact a counselor, your primary-care doctor, or a trusted mentor. Apps such as Headspace and Insight Timer offer guided breathing and meditation tailored to busy schedules, and national hotlines like 9-8-8 connect you to immediate help any time of day. Seeking assistance is an act of professionalism and self-respect, not weakness, and it models healthy coping for students who are watching.

Adapting Strategies to Your Teaching Context

For elementary teachers: Enlist your students’ help with year-end tasks by turning cleanup into stations. One group sorts classroom library books while another organizes art supplies—making the work both educational and efficient.

For secondary teachers: Consider batch processing similar tasks (all essay grading, then all final exams) rather than completing everything for one class before moving to the next.

For teachers with limited resources: If parent volunteers or teaching assistants aren’t available, prioritize ruthlessly and consider swapping tasks with a colleague—your strength in organizing data might balance their talent for creating review materials.

The end of the year will always feel full, yet it does not have to feel overwhelming. By recognizing teacher burnout triggers, trimming non-essential tasks, weaving in quick recovery moments, and lifting one another up, you can breeze into summer with energy to spare.

Take action today: Remember that you are important—not just as an educator, but as a person with needs, dreams, and a life beyond school walls. Don’t neglect yourself in the rush to finish everything for everyone else. Your students need you at your best, which means taking care of yourself first. Share this article with a colleague who seems overwhelmed, try implementing just one strategy this week, join our Facebook page to exchange more survival tips with educators nationwide, or connect with other TCEA members and share in one of the many groups in our TCEA Social Community. Your mental health matters—not just for summer recovery, but for returning next fall with renewed purpose and passion.

What strategies have helped you manage end-of-year stress? Share your insights in the comments below—your experience might be exactly what a fellow teacher needs to read today.

*This post was written in collaboration with AI.

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A joyful teacher presents an "End-of-Year Awards" certificate to a smiling student in a brightly decorated classroom. Other diverse students clap and hold certificates, celebrating together with balloons and colorful streamers.
End of YearGood Teaching

Celebrate Every Student with a Classroom Awards Show

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

A classroom awards show is a great way to end the school year on a meaningful note. It’s the perfect time to reflect on how far your students have come. An awards show is something that acknowledges the effort, growth, and individuality of each student in your classroom. It gives every student a moment to feel recognized. Below you’ll find practical ideas and examples to help you make it happen.

Why Awards Matter

You might be wondering if classroom awards really make a difference. The short answer is yes. The last few days of school can feel like a blur of final tests and emotional goodbyes. A personalized award, even a simple one, offers a moment of recognition that tells students, “I saw you this year. You mattered.”

The goal isn’t to reward perfection. It’s to recognize growth, kindness, creativity, and character. When done right, these awards become more than paper. They become memories students carry with them.

A cheerful classroom decorated for an end-of-year celebration, with student desks neatly arranged. Each desk has a certificate and a rolled-up paper tied with ribbon. A colorful banner at the front reads, “You Made This Year Shine!” with balloons, streamers, and festive decorations creating a celebratory atmosphere.
Image create by Author using Canva AI

How to Make It Work for Every Student

With the classroom awards show, every student walks away with award that feels real and personal. You don’t need hours of planning. Just ask yourself, What makes this student uniquely them? Some things to look for or think about are:

  • Small kindnesses
  • Growth over the year
  • Creative expression
  • Hidden leadership
  • A memorable contribution

On tip is to keep a running list of student traits or moments. Focus on specific traits. In addition, you could use a theme for your awards show. For example, explorers, superheroes, film awards, etc. If a student isn’t standing out right away, ask yourself:

  • What have they improved in?
  • How do they treat others?
  • What do their peers appreciate about them?

These questions often uncover the most meaningful answers.

Award Ideas by Grade Band (Primary, Middle, and Secondary)

Below are ideas that work across age groups but feel free to mix and adapt to your classroom tone.

Primary

Award TitleDescription
Storyteller AwardFor vivid imaginations and creative tales
Kindness NinjaQuietly helps others with care and compassion
Future InventorAlways building or thinking outside the box
Giggle GeneratorBrings joy and laughter to the classroom
Bookworm AwardAlways has a book in hand
Sunshine AwardBrightens every room they walk into
Future ZookeeperAnimal lover and fact sharer
Drawing DynamoConstantly creating artwork
Curious QuestionerNever stops asking “why?”
Dance Floor DynamoCan’t resist moving to music

Middle

Award TitleDescription
The Quiet LeaderLeads by example, not volume
Future CEOOrganized, focused, and goal-driven
Most Likely to Ask the UnexpectedBrings fresh perspective with surprising questions
Tech WhispererFixes tech before IT arrives
Eco WarriorPassionate about protecting the planet
Deep Thinker AwardInsightful, reflective questions
Puzzle MasterStrategy games and logic wizard
Teammate of the YearMakes every group project better
Always Has an IdeaBrainstorming machine

Secondary

Award TitleDescription
Most Likely to Change the WorldPassionate and driven
Chill Under PressureCalm, composed, and dependable
Words That Hit DifferentPowerful writing or speaking
Design EyeGreat with visuals and aesthetics
Quiet ScientistReflective, curious, and consistent
Future Podcast HostExpressive speaker and listener
Undisputed Style IconFashion-forward and self-expressive
Sharpest Eye for DetailNotices what others miss

Keeping It Low Effort but High Impact

1. Use a Certificate Template

Create a one-page certificate template that you can tweak for each student. Just personalize the award title and one short sentence explaining it. Check out these End of the Year Student Award Templates and these Student Tech Awards Certificate Templates.

2. Build the Experience, Not Just the Materials

During the awards show, consider playing music. Dim the lights or use a red carpet entrance. This will set the tone and give the moment weight.

3. Keep The Awards Show Short and Kind

The awards show doesn’t have to be long. You only need 10 seconds per student to say something that will stick. A quick sentence with their name and why they’re getting their award is enough.

4. Super Low-Effort Options

If you don’t have time to create and print certificates, you could use sticky notes and write the award titles on them. In addition, you could use a slideshow with each student’s name plus the award they are getting.

A collage of digital-themed student award certificates with titles like "Tech Savvy Scholar," "AI Enthusiast," "Digital Designer," "Website Wizard," and "STEM Star." Each certificate features a unique design and highlights students' strengths in technology, digital citizenship, and innovation.
Screenshot by Author

Additional Tips

For your classroom awards show, you could let students nominate their peers. Try using a tool like Google Forms to create a classroom ballot where students suggest fun awards for their classmates. Just screen them beforehand.

You could also print the awards on card stock or bind them into a mini class yearbook with notes from classmates. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just personal.

Lasty, you might want to keep a copy of the awards for yourself. It’s a great record for parent meetings, reports, or just your own reflection. Plus, it’ll help next year when you want to reuse ideas.

They Will Remember

At the end of the year, students won’t remember the last worksheet. But they’ll remember how the classroom award made them feel. A personalized award, even a quick one, can stick with them long after the school bell rings for the last time.

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An open spiral notebook with lined pages sits on a wooden student desk, surrounded by a pencil, pens, and folders in a classroom setting.
Classroom ActivitiesEnd of YearGood TeachingSocial-Emotional Learning

End the School Year with Gratitude: A 15-Day Journal Practice for Students

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

As the school year draws to a close, both educators and students often experience a mix of emotions. There’s excitement for summer, pride in accomplishments, and perhaps even some anxiety about transitions ahead. This time of year presents a unique opportunity to cultivate mindfulness and appreciation through the practice of gratitude.

Below is a 15-day gratitude journal practice for students designed specifically for the final three weeks of school. Teachers can implement this in various ways – as a daily warm-up activity, a closing reflection, or even a take-home assignment. The best part? No special supplies are needed, just paper or a notebook and pens or pencils.

Why set up a gratitude journal process for students?

Based on research and my personal experience in and out of the classroom, practicing gratitude has powerful benefits for mental health and well-being. Developing a gratitude journal practice for students can:

  • Improve mental health and resilience
  • Enhance social connections and classroom community
  • Reduce stress and anxiety about upcoming transitions
  • Create a positive mindset to carry into summer
  • Build a lifelong habit that supports emotional well-being

Getting Started: Setting Up the Gratitude Practice

Introduction for Students

Take time to explain the concept of gratitude and its benefits. For younger students, you might describe it as “noticing the good things in our lives.” For older students, you can discuss the science behind gratitude and its impact on mental health. Consider sharing your own gratitude practice or examples.

Guidelines for Journal Entries

Help students end the school year on a reflective note with this 15-day gratitude journal practice. Strengthen emotional well-being, build resilience, and create meaningful closure—one thankful thought at a time.

When introducing this journal practice for students, emphasize authenticity over perfection in their reflections. Remind them that this is personal reflection time, not graded work, which removes the pressure of academic evaluation. Let students know that entries can be brief—even just a few sentences is enough to capture a meaningful moment of gratitude. While creating opportunities for those who wish to share their reflections with the class, always make sharing optional to respect students’ privacy and comfort levels. Additionally, consider encouraging creative expression beyond writing, allowing students to draw, doodle, or use other artistic mediums to express their gratitude in ways that might feel more natural to some learners.

End the School Year with Gratitude a 15-Day Journal Practice for Students

15 Days of Gratitude Prompts

Week One: Reflecting on Our School Year

  • Day 1: What is something you learned this year that you’re grateful for? How has this knowledge changed you?
  • Day 2: Write about a classroom memory from this year that makes you smile. What made it special?
  • Day 3: Name someone at school who helped you this year. How did they make a difference for you?
  • Day 4: What challenge did you overcome this year? What strengths or support helped you through it?
  • Day 5: What is one way you’ve grown or changed since the beginning of the school year? How does this growth make you feel?

Week Two: Appreciating Our Present

  • Day 6: What is something in your classroom or school environment that you’re thankful for? How does it help you learn or feel good?
  • Day 7: Write about a classmate who has positively impacted your school experience. What qualities do you appreciate about them?
  • Day 8: What is a small moment from today that brought you joy? Try to notice the details.
  • Day 9: Name three skills or abilities you have that you’re grateful for. How do these serve you at school?
  • Day 10: What tradition or activity from this school year would you like to carry forward? Why is it meaningful to you?

Week Three: Looking Forward with Gratitude

  • Day 11: What are you looking forward to about summer? How can you bring gratitude into your summer experience?
  • Day 12: Write a thank-you note to yourself for something you did well this year. What would you like to acknowledge?
  • Day 13: What is something you’re grateful to have learned about yourself this year? How might this self-knowledge help you in the future?
  • Day 14: Name someone outside of school who supports your learning journey. How do they help you grow?
  • Day 15: As you complete this gratitude journal, what has been your favorite prompt to reflect on? What have you discovered through this practice?

To make things easier, we’ve created a ready-to-use template with all the gratitude prompts above. You can download it, print it, or customize it to fit your needs. You can access it here.

Closing Celebration Ideas

A group of students sits in a circle on a grassy lawn, holding notebooks and engaging in lively discussion under a sky with soft clouds and bare trees in the background.

Consider ending the 15-day practice with a special activity to honor the experience. These culminating events create meaningful closure and help cement the gratitude practice as a significant moment in your classroom community. The final celebration also reinforces the value you’ve placed on reflection and appreciation throughout this journey.

  • Host a gratitude circle where students can share one highlight from their journals. Arrange seating in a circle to promote equality and connection, and consider using a special object as a “talking piece” that students hold when it’s their turn to share. This format creates a sacred space for listening and honoring each voice.
  • Create a classroom gratitude wall where students post anonymous gratitude notes. Provide colorful paper or sticky notes in various shapes, and encourage artistic expression alongside written reflections. This visual representation becomes a powerful reminder of collective gratitude that students can visit throughout the final days of school.
  • Write thank-you letters to people who made the school year special. Guide students through the components of a heartfelt thank-you letter, including specific examples of what the person did and how it affected them. Consider delivering these letters together as a class if recipients are within the school.
  • Compile class gratitude quotes into a memento for students to take home. This could be a simple booklet, digital presentation, or even a recorded video montage of students sharing their reflections. Include a photograph of the class alongside these quotes to create a keepsake that connects gratitude to this specific school year.
  • Plant a “gratitude garden” with paper flowers containing gratitude messages. Use colorful construction paper to create flower petals, stems, and leaves, with each component containing a different gratitude reflection. Display this three-dimensional creation in a prominent location, inviting other classes to view your gratitude garden blooming with appreciation.

Taking Gratitude Beyond the Classroom

Encourage students to continue their gratitude practice over the summer. The habits formed during these 15 days can become lifelong tools for resilience and well-being if nurtured beyond the classroom walls. By extending the practice into summer, students maintain an emotional continuity that can ease the transition between school years.

  • Suggest keeping their journal going with a weekly entry on a designated day. Create a simple calendar template they can take home, with gentle reminders to pause and reflect. Explain that consistency matters more than frequency, and that maintaining even a minimal practice keeps the gratitude muscle strong.
  • Share simple gratitude practices families can do together at dinner or before bedtime. Provide a handout with conversation starters like “What made you smile today?” or “Who helped you this week?” These collective practices strengthen family bonds while reinforcing the value of noticing the positive.
  • Discuss how noticing good things can help during challenging transitions such as moving to a new grade or school. Help students understand that gratitude isn’t about ignoring difficulties, but rather finding balance by intentionally noting positive moments alongside challenges. This balanced perspective builds emotional resilience they’ll need throughout life.
  • Invite students to write a letter to next year’s teacher expressing what they’re looking forward to in the coming school year. This future-focused gratitude exercise helps shift any anxiety about transitions into positive anticipation. Consider collecting these letters (with student permission) to deliver to colleagues before the new school year begins, creating a bridge between grade levels.

Ending the school year with gratitude provides closure while building essential emotional skills. By taking just a few minutes each day for these simple reflections, as shown in this journal practice for students, we give our pupils a powerful tool for navigating life’s transitions and challenges.

As educators, modeling our own gratitude practice can be just as important as guiding our students. Consider journaling alongside your class and sharing your own reflections when appropriate.

How will you incorporate gratitude into your end-of-year activities? We’d love to hear how you implement this gratitude journal in your classroom! Share your experiences, adaptations, and student reactions in the comments below or on social media using #TCEA and #ClassroomGratitude. Your insights might inspire fellow educators to bring gratitude practices into their own classrooms.

The investment of this 15-day journal practice for students can yield benefits that last far beyond the final school bell.

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A split-screen image showing a young woman using her phone in two different settings: on the left, she stands in a classroom environment wearing glasses and a backpack; on the right, she relaxes on a couch in casual clothes, holding her phone with a candle lit nearby.
Digital CitizenshipGood Teaching

Social Media for Teachers: Smart Habits and Strategies to Adopt

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Social media has changed how we connect, blurring the lines between our professional and personal lives. For K-12 educators, this overlap creates both opportunities and risks. Teachers are seen as professionals, role models, and private individuals all at once. That makes managing social media more complex than it is for most other professionals.

When work and personal boundaries blur online, the consequences can be serious. A post meant for friends might reach parents, students, or administrators. Comments from years ago can resurface at the worst possible time. This guide offers practical strategies to maintain clear boundaries between your professional and personal social media presence.

Understanding the Risks

Two students sit at a table, looking at a large screen displaying a social media feed, with one student expressing surprise over a classmate’s negative post.

When you’re a teacher, privacy works differently online. Students and parents may recognize you in digital spaces even when you’re using different names or pseudonyms. Consider the case of a teacher whose gaming profile was discovered by students who recognized similarities in username patterns. Community members often follow teachers across platforms, creating unexpected visibility in spaces you might consider private.

What you post can directly impact your career. Schools increasingly monitor social media, and content that conflicts with institutional values often leads to difficult conversations with administration. Many districts now have social media policies that explicitly outline expectations for educator conduct online, both during and after school hours.

When students access your personal content, professional boundaries can erode. Consider how classroom dynamics might change if students discovered a teacher’s personal comedy podcast containing adult humor. Though created for a different audience entirely, such content could significantly alter how students interact with their teacher, potentially creating classroom management issues that persist throughout the school year.

Why Separating Accounts Matters

Split image of a young woman in two settings—on the left, she's seated at a desk in a classroom holding papers, and on the right, she's sitting comfortably in an armchair at home using a smartphone.

When looking at social media for teachers, maintaining separate work and personal accounts has several key benefits. A dedicated professional account highlights your expertise, classroom innovations, and teaching philosophy. It helps you connect with other educators, present at conferences, and even explore consulting opportunities. Keeping accounts separate allows you to share personal interests, family moments, and opinions without professional scrutiny. This separation lets you connect with friends and family authentically, without filtering everything through a professional lens.

There are also legal protections to consider. Even personal posts can lead to disciplinary action if they “disrupt the educational process.” Teachers have been fired for vacation photos, political opinions, and other content courts have ruled as disruptive to their classroom effectiveness. A professional account sets clear expectations for school-related interactions, preventing students and parents from expecting immediate responses during personal time. When work and personal accounts are combined, it becomes difficult to disconnect. Separate accounts help maintain boundaries, provide a more focused message and allow you to better meet the unique needs of both audiences.

Setting Up a Professional Account

A young woman sits at a desk, intently focused on a laptop screen, with one hand on the keyboard and the other resting thoughtfully on her chin.

Creating a professional social media presence helps educators engage with the broader educational community while maintaining appropriate boundaries. Choosing the right platform is key. While some platforms are great for networking and making professional connections, others facilitate subject-specific discussions or do well at support sharing classroom visuals.

Optimizing your profile is essential. Use your real name or a consistent professional pseudonym and include your teaching position, subject area, and certifications. Avoid sharing personal details beyond your professional background. A professional profile photo should be clear and reflect your role as an educator, ideally taken in your classroom. Your bio should highlight your educational philosophy, teaching experience, and interests. Stating your account’s purpose, such as “Sharing middle school science resources and connecting with fellow educators,” provides clarity.

Using your professional account to reflect on new teaching strategies, professional development experiences, and classroom successes adds credibility. However, identifiable student information should never be shared. Focusing your posts on teaching strategies and combined data from multiple students, without identifying individuals, helps protect student privacy and ensures you comply with privacy policies. Building strategic networks by following educational leaders, researchers, and organizations creates meaningful engagement and potential career opportunities. Many educators have secured conference speaking roles and job opportunities through professional networking online.

Security and privacy should always be prioritized. While making professional accounts public allows for networking, using content filters to control who can comment is a good safeguard. Enabling two-factor authentication and using a separate email for professional accounts helps maintain security. Thoughtfully planning content ensures a balance between sharing classroom strategies, professional development reflections, and educational resources while maintaining work-life boundaries.

Since professional accounts represent both the educator and the district, posts should align with the professionalism expected in parent-teacher conferences or school board meetings.

Managing Your Personal Accounts

A young man holds a laptop while appearing to juggle floating items around him, including shirts, a car, a planner, and a bag, symbolizing multitasking and life balance.

Keeping personal social media private and well-managed is just as important as maintaining a professional account. Adjusting privacy settings regularly ensures that content remains visible only to intended audiences. Setting personal accounts to private and limiting past post visibility provides an extra layer of protection. Platform updates frequently reset privacy settings, making regular reviews necessary.

Managing friends and followers is another crucial step. Some educators establish policies about accepting student requests, often declining them until after graduation. Using “Close Friends” lists on Instagram or custom privacy groups on Facebook helps control who sees certain content. Before posting, consider how it might appear if taken out of context. Even in private groups, venting about students, parents, or colleagues can have unintended consequences. The “headline test” is a useful guideline—if a post became a news article, would it be problematic?

Each platform has its own risks. Facebook’s privacy settings need frequent review. X should be protected if personal content is shared. Instagram and TikTok can expose location data, and Snapchat’s “disappearing” content can still be screenshotted. Conducting a regular digital footprint check by searching for your name online and setting up Google Alerts helps track what’s publicly available. Deleting old, inactive accounts further protects privacy.

Maintaining a clear separation between personal and professional social media isn’t about hiding who you are—it’s about maintaining clear boundaries with the school community.

Five Best Practices for Managing Social Media for Teachers

An infographic titled "Best Practices for Managing Social Media" featuring six key tips with icons and illustrations to promote safe, professional online behavior.

To maintain a professional and personal balance online, educators should keep these five best practices in mind. And, if you’d like to share these best practices, print out this PDF version to post in your teachers’ lounge.

  1. Separate Professional and Personal Accounts – Maintain distinct accounts for work and personal use to keep boundaries clear.
  2. Regularly Audit Privacy Settings – Review and adjust privacy settings every few months to protect your information from unintended audiences.
  3. Be Mindful of Content – Always assume that anything posted online can be seen by students, parents, or administrators, even if shared privately.
  4. Use Secure Passwords and Authentication – Enable two-factor authentication and use strong passwords for both professional and personal accounts.
  5. Monitor Your Digital Footprint – Search for yourself online and remove outdated or inappropriate content that may impact your professional image.

Maintaining separate professional and personal social media accounts isn’t just a best practice—it’s essential for protecting your career, reputation, and well-being. A professional account provides opportunities to showcase expertise, connect with educators, and support professional growth, while a well-managed personal account allows for authentic interactions without work-related concerns.

The most effective approach to social media management for teachers is proactive, not reactive. Thoughtful privacy settings, clear boundaries, and regular audits prevent issues before they arise. The effort put into maintaining these digital spaces safeguards your career and creates peace of mind.

By modeling responsible digital identity management, educators not only protect themselves but also teach valuable digital citizenship skills that students will need for their own futures.

What’s the best tip you have regarding social media for teachers? Let us know in the comments!

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Educational ResearchGood Teaching

Support Relational Thinking with Research-Based Strategies

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“I don’t get it!” This common classroom refrain highlights a frequent struggle. Students memorize facts but miss connections. They see pieces but not the whole picture. It’s easy to experience a fragmented view of what’s happening around us. This leads to frustration and disinterest, making it hard to use what we know. It’s easy to get trapped, recognizing individual puzzle pieces but unable to put a complete picture together. This can lead to frustration and disengagement, hindering their ability to apply knowledge in meaningful ways. This blog offers several strategies, no AI or technology needed.

What is Multi-Structural Thinking?

Here’s a vignette to capture the challenge many students face:

Picture Maria, a student grappling with a new concept. “I just don’t understand!” she exclaims, her voice laced with frustration. Her teacher, Mrs. Ramirez, offers a reassuring smile.
“You have all the pieces,” she explains, “but you haven’t quite figured out how they fit together yet.” Mrs. Ramirez then sketches four boxes on a piece of paper, labeling them “Main Idea,” “Details,” “Connections,” and “Summary.”
“Let’s tackle this one box at a time,” she suggests. A flicker of hope sparks in Maria’s eyes as she begins to relax. Maria’s experience exemplifies multi-structural thinking.

Like Maria, students experience thinking like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle they can’t seem to put together. Watching colleagues at work put a jigsaw puzzle, bringing every piece to its home, I identify with students who feel like they just can’t see the whole picture.

Students like Maria have the individual facts but can’t make the next step to see the complete image they form. For example, a student may know about the Boston Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence. What they may not see is how they are connected to the American Revolution. This fragmented view stops them from developing a deeper grasp of historical events and what they mean.

How do we move students from unistructural or multistructural thinking to encompass more perspectives? One way is to guide them towards relational thinking.

Strategies That Work

Relational thinking is the ability to see the connections between ideas and understand the bigger picture. Several high-effect size instructional strategies can help with that. If you read the TCEA blog, you know that there are various phases of learning (e.g. Surface, Deep, and Transfer Learning) that students may be in at any time relevant to what they are studying. Matching a high-effect size instructional strategy appropriate to the phase of learning students are in is key.

A few strategies (updated as of 01/2025) you may want to cultivate in your practice appear below.

Instructional Strategies by Phase of Learning

Surface Learning

  1. Feedback corrective reinforcement and cues (Effect Size: 0.92)
    Providing learners with information about their performance to guide improvement, reinforce success, and clarify next steps.
  2. The Jigsaw Method (Effect Size: 0.92)
    Students collaborate in expert groups to master subtopics and teach them to peers, fostering connections between concepts.
  3. Effects of testing (Effect Size: 0.63)
    Using tests and quizzes to enhance learning and retention.
  4. Flipped classrooms (Effect Size: 0.58)
    Reversing the traditional learning environment by delivering instructional content outside of the classroom.
  5. Direct instruction (Effect Size: 0.56)
    A teacher-led approach focusing on clear explanations and modeling foundational skills and concepts, suitable for introducing new topics.
  6. Retrieval Practice/Practice Testing (Effect Size: 0.49)
    Actively recalling information from memory to reinforce learning and improve long-term retention.

Deep Learning

  1. The Jigsaw Method (Effect Size: 0.92)
    Students collaborate in expert groups to master subtopics and teach them to peers, fostering connections between concepts.
  2. Constructivist Teaching (Effect Size: 0.90)
    Students actively explore ideas and solutions through hands-on activities, fostering deeper understanding.
  3. Feedback timing (Effect Size: 0.89)
    Providing learners with insights at the most effective moment in the learning process
  4. Argumentation (Effect Size: 0.86)
    Engaging in the process of reasoned debate to deeply explore and understand concepts.
  5. Outlining and Organizing (Effect Size: 0.86)
    Structuring information hierarchically using outlines or graphic organizers to identify relationships between ideas.

Transfer Learning

  1. Self-Reported Grades (Effect Size: 0.96)
    A strategy where students assess and predict their own performance or learning outcomes.
    This approach encourages self-reflection, goal setting, and self-regulation, fostering deeper engagement and ownership of the learning process.
  2. Mathematics problem solving (Effect Size: 0.88)
    Strategies and techniques used to approach and solve math problems
  3. Transfer strategies (Effect Size: 0.75)
    Activities that encourage students to apply learned concepts in new situations, emphasizing metacognition.
  4. Problem-Based Learning (Effect Size: 0.53)
    A strategy where students work in groups through a problem-based learning scenario and decide what they need to learn to resolve a particular problem or questions. The aim is also to promote critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, and communication skills.

Exploring how each of these strategies can be adapted in your work could take a lifetime. One recommendation is to slowly get comfortable with one strategy from each phase of learning, then work with your students.

Let’s take a look at three of my favorites strategies along with technology you can use (but you don’t have to). Each can lay the groundwork for relational thinking.

Three Strategies for Everyday Use

Strategy #1: The Jigsaw Method

If you are wondering, “Why not pick the Jigsaw Method for surface and deep learning phases?” you are on the right track. The Jigsaw Method, especially the three step jigsaw, works great for both Surface and Deep phases of learning. When I’ve used it with adult learners, I’ve found that learners become experts and advocates for what they have learned in a quick manner.

Grade K-5 Students

To introduce the Jigsaw Method to K-5 students, it might be fun to use a Game Design activity. Here’s one for your consideration:

K-5 Introduction: “Game Creator Teams”

  1. Home Groups and Game Elements:
    • “We’re going to design our own video game! First, we’ll split into Home Groups. Each group will choose a different part of the game to become experts on (characters, levels, story, music, or art).”
  2. Expert Groups and Becoming Game Designers:
    • “Now, let’s form Expert Groups. All the ‘Character Designers’ will meet together, all the ‘Level Designers’ will meet, and so on. Work together to brainstorm and plan the best ideas for your part of the game!”
  3. Home Groups and Teaching the Team:
    • “Time to go back to your Home Groups. Take turns sharing your game element ideas with your group. Work together to combine all the ideas and create a super fun game concept!”

You can follow suggestions in this blog entry for actually constructing the game using what students put together in this initial effort. Follow this same model of shifting students from 1) Home Groups, 2) Expert Groups, and 3) Home Groups with academic topics. Use it until students can do it with minimal guidance. I like to share a jigsaw organizer with students so they have something to write on. Some rely on EduProtocols but I find that the technology gets in the way. You want students engaged by ideas and their thinking, less so by the technology at surface learning.

Grade 6-12 Students

If you are in the grades 6-12, you may want to try this out to introduce students to the Jigsaw Method.

6-12 Introduction: “Pop Culture Showdown”

  1. Home Teams and Categories:
    • “We’re having a Pop Culture Showdown! You’ll start in Home Teams, and each of you will pick a different category to research: (Movies, Music, Social Media Trends, Memes, or Fashion).”
  2. Expert Groups and Deep Dive:
    • “Next, you’ll meet with the Expert Groups—all the ‘Movie Buffs’ together, all the ‘Music Maniacs’ together, etc. Your mission is to become the ultimate expert on your category so you can teach your team all about it.”
  3. Home Teams and the Showdown:
    • “Finally, return to your Home Teams. Take turns presenting your category. After everyone shares, your team will work together to create a final Pop Culture presentation that showcases the most important and interesting things from all the categories!”

What are some other ways you could introduce the Jigsaw Method in your classroom that would work for your students?

Two More Strategies for Deep Learning

You may be thinking, “I can’t use Jigsaw Method ALL the time for Deep Learning. What else is there?” Two of my other favorite strategies include two Deep Learning strategies. I can’t part with Outlining and Organizing and Argumentation. Use these when you want students to develop a deeper conceptual understanding of how facts, perspectives connect in a subject area.

Please find below two blog entries that explore various approaches:

Ok, let’s switch gears from introductory learning opportunities and seeing how learning connects to applying that learning to new situations. Applying what we have learned to new situations involves transfer learning.

Transfer Learning

This final area is one that many educators don’t spend too much time on. John Hattie suggests (source) “that around 90% of classroom teaching and learning focuses on surface knowledge and learning.” At some point, students must make the transition to Deep Learning, and eventually Transfer Learning. It’s when this level of insight is required that tools like John Biggs’ SOLO Taxonomy are helpful.

My go-to strategy for Transfer Learning is Problem-Based Learning. I also see value in schema-based frameworks that involve mathematic problem-solving. Read more about Problem-Based Learning, as well access other resources.

Relational Thinking: Seeing the Big Picture

Relational thinking empowers students to see how individual ideas fit together to form a cohesive whole. They begin to see the completed jigsaw puzzle, understanding the relationships between the pieces. For instance, they can articulate how the Boston Tea Party directly contributed to the Declaration of Independence and the ensuing American Revolution. As Maria works with Mrs. Ramirez, using the four-box strategy, she starts to connect the dots. She progresses from simply listing facts to explaining their significance and interrelationships. This shift marks a crucial step towards deeper learning and critical thinking.

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