Teacher Survival Kit
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. - John F. Kennedy
When I first began teaching, I remember meeting a veteran teacher who carried a big bag with her everywhere. I forgot what the situation was but I remember her coming to the rescue with masking tape, scissors, and Post It notes. She told me she always carried those things among other items like dry erase markers, poster putty, and so forth as a teacher, because she had learnt that situations always arise when she needed these items. That left a huge impression on me and I kept thinking of this as a survival kit. I write about building a teacher's survival kit in my new book, The 30 Goals Challenge for Teachers. Generally, I recommend having a ball, masking tape, playdough, a mobile device with apps, graphic organizers, some icebreakers, flashcards, and chants/music. Scroll through the bookmarks to find ideas for using all these tools.
Get your copy of Hacking Digital Learning, The 30 Goals Challenge, or take one of my certified and accredited online courses. Ask me about training your teachers, [email protected]!
Resources
- Theodora Pap’s Survival Kit
- 30+ Ways Thinglink used in Edu by Lisa Johnson
- Survival Kit for Teaching Kids English
- Cell phone activities offline
- Ball activities including how to introduce yourself & inspire question/answering
- Puppet Activities
- Jump Rope Games
- Masking tape activities besides putting a line on the ground for pro/con debates
- Playdoh lesson plans besides creating what the teacher describes. I usually describe an alien, new animal or monster my kids have to recreate with my verbal instructions then they break in pairs and do this. A follow-up is writing where this creature lives and creating its home from the playdough
- Feltboard Activities