I’m betting that when you’re in the middle of your week it’s not just your teaching responsibilities that have you stressed.  It is that endless teacher to-do list, but it’s that piled on top of all the things that need to be accomplished at home as well.  Whether you’re single, married, have kids or not, maintain a home or rent, there are things outside of your teacher life that are super important and can’t just be put on hold as you focus solely on maintaining your professional life.

In fact, your home-life will very much influence and even predict how your professional life is holding up. That is why we’ll focus on the home and how sustainable systems on the homefront can in fact help you be more present on the job as well.

At the time of this episode's recording, our family is in the heat of our first annual Christmas movie tournament.  We’ve got a bracket with the 16 matchups and are working our way through,...

With all the talk of self-care for teachers during a year where teachers have less time than they’ve ever had to even think about themselves, let alone their self-care, I’m here to remind everyone that without you there will be no classroom, there will be no lesson, there will be no impact on your students. 

But even if we do recognize that self-care is necessary, it’s such a broad, even vague and relative term.  Logistically, what really is it? And how effective will it be? 

I am here to make the claim that there is no better form of self-care than to set goals for yourself and to work toward them.  It’s taking what we know about planning in our teacher-lives, that is that planning is best when we do it backwards - starting with the end in mind - and applying it to our lives. 

Because you know what, yes you’re worth it. 

Even if taking the time to do so means you’re a day later on grading those papers, answering...

At the time this post will publish it is the Friday before a well-deserved Christmas break for teachers, and I'm hoping to get you excited for a little something we'll be doing over your break that will help you focus on you and your own sustainability in your career and personal life.

In my ten years of teaching, I was all too familiar with teacher-overwhelm, and this year has done nothing but heighten that tension and your to-do list.

So I would like to invite you to our 7-Day, totally free, Sustainable Teacher Challenge that will be starting on December 28th, 2020.

Sustainable Teacher Challenge

Each day of the challenge you will get:

1. A training video from me- Mandy Rice - that will help you reflect, think, and plan intentionally around your own sustainability inside your classroom,
2. A full workbook with reflection prompts and questions to help you plan for your sustainability in the new year that we'll focus on each day,
3. Access to our private Facebook community where...

This is the first blog of my new Sustainable Teacher series and I feel like the pressure is on, much like it is the first day of school when those first impressions with students mean EVERYTHING. Ok, that’s a bit dramatic, but I want you to know how important your time is to me. 

As a teacher I know what it is to feel like every single minute counts and that if you aren’t productive and effective in every single minute, then you simply won’t stay afloat.

Whether you thrive under that kind of pressure or not, I’m here in this first episode of my brand-new podcast to be super effective with your time so that you get key takeaways that impact your teacher-life and then you get to move on - whether that’s implementing those strategies or focusing on another aspect of life.

I’ll start with a story, one that may trigger some teacher memories for you.

I started college in Columbus, Ohio - shout out to all my Westerville peeps (I ended up...

What impacts student learning most is not a new conversation here in the USA (or in the world for that matter).  It's been hotly debated for quite some time.

What impacts student learning most?

Learning must be measured by tests.

Or, wait, tests hinder learning.

How does technology impact learning?

Standards-based, flipped classroom, project-based, problem-based, student centered, backwards planning, flexible seating...

Wow - so many things.  So many ways to impact student learning.

How in the world do we know what strategies impact students the most?

That's just it... there is no ONE strategy that will impact student learning more than another.

But...

... there is one person.

If you're reading this post, this is probably no surprise to you that teachers are the number one influencer in a student's learning.

But I don't want to just say that and claim it as truth.  I want you to see for yourself.

Economists Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard and Jonah E....