For a first-year teacher, your first week of school can be a doozy! Even though you may have tons of experience student-teaching, I don’t know any programs that let you walk into a classroom and student-teach on the first day of school. Therefore, this entirely different (and very important) world of teaching remains foreign to you until it is your own classroom and the first day of school is upon you! Then, with no practice, you are expected to explain and enforce classroom rules and procedures, establish a classroom culture, ween kids into challenging content and centers, communicate and coordinate … Read More

If you want to bring the skills of the 21st century into your classroom but don’t know where to start, drop what you’re doing and listen to this episode right now! This week, we have a special guest – Kiki Prottsman – who is the Curriculum Development Manager for Elementary Curriculum at Code.org.  Kiki has an incredible story and an even more incredible mindset! This interview is guaranteed to inspire and empower you to bring computational thinking and computer science into your classroom! No matter where you are in terms of starting knowledge, even if you’ve never seen a computer … Read More

The best way to learn about personal responsibility is to live it! With this long list of classroom jobs, every student will have an opportunity to contribute to your classroom’s success! To choose jobs each week, I would write each student’s name on a popsicle stick and place a piece of velcro on the back and pull a name out for each job. This process was quick, simple, random, and fair, but you can hand out the jobs any way you see fit! The important thing is that your students are learning all about personal responsibility! Listen to this week’s … Read More

If you’re looking for the perfect themes to plan in your classroom, look no further! Bring a new theme to the classroom each week and help your students find their passions! Expose kids to the most interesting, fascinating topics that exist and let them discover the topics and ideas that capture their imaginations! In this episode, teach everything from Astronomy to Zoology and get the full run-down of the 24 themes you MUST teach in your classroom next year!  [01:55] – Introduction [04:57] – Mindset Shift [06:58] – The World of People All About School Teamwork Confidence & Leadership Geography … Read More

Today we are doing our first interview on the Punk Rock Preschool Podcast, and it is not one you want to miss. Our guest today is Author, Podcaster, Graphic Designer, Coach, Entrepreneur, and Creator, Christopher Hines. Chris runs the Greatness Podcast Network, which includes podcasts on education, business, finance, community, mindset, and all the other tools for people to create their own successes. Speaking of successes, Chris hosts the Key to Success Podcast as well as five other shows! You’re going to be so inspired by Chris’ grind and hustle and incredible attitude!  You can follow him on twitter at … Read More