BubbleUp Take5: Mindfulness, behavior charts, time and more

This week's Take5 addresses lots of different things that I have been thinking about lately: the value of mindfulness for teachers, removing behavior charts from classrooms (which, perhaps, are quite the opposite of mindfulness), and what teaching content looks like in our present information-rich world. Are skills like critical thinking and creativity becoming more important than content? I read an interesting approach to the issue of time (specifically the time to innovate) in education. And finally,  practical tips for supporting teens with better sleep. Happy Tuesday! 

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Teaching can be a stressful job. How do you manage the day to day stress? A recent piece by Peter DeWitt on an Education Week asserts: Educators Need Mindfulness. Their Mental Health May Depend on It. Do you have a few minutes a day to dedicate to self care?

Thankfully, I think that my own children are past the age of behavior charts. Those years were tough, especially with my oldest who would obsess about being on green or yellow or (yikes) red. An article from Educational Leadership encourages all teachers to tear down your behavior chart and shares the "why" as well. Make this move in your classroom today.

On his blog, A Principal's Reflections, educator Eric Sheninger raises an interesting question: how relevant is content really in a knowledge-based economy that continues to evolve exponentially thanks to advances in technology? He challenges us to ensure there is purpose to content in the classroom and emphsizes that "the value in content relies on how it is applied to develop thinking." What's your take on content versus skills?

George Courous' insightful post discusses a pressing issue in the education field: the idea that educators don't have TIME to innovate, addressing it from both the perspective of an administrator and that of a teacher. Read his article and then find the time to be an innovative educator.

As the parent of a teenager, I appreciated the concrete strategies that this piece offered on helping teens improve the quality of their sleep. Putting some of these simple ideas into action can help teens sleep better at night, allowing for better daytime focus.

What are you reading this week?

​-Gretchen

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You might also like:

• BubbleUp Take5: Mental Health, Restorative Conversations, Capturing Student Voices, Discussion Strategies and Dogs! (March 12, 2018)
  
• Why Whole Class Discipline has No Place in your Classroom (October 24, 2017)