Teachers Resource Force Blog

Use afternoon meetings to build classroom community

15/2/2021

What’s the end of the school day like for you? For many teachers, it can be often frustrating and chaotic as everyone waits in anticipation for home time. Students are growing up to be constantly rushed from one activity to the next. They are in motion from the time they climb out of bed in the morning until the time they climb back into bed at night. They have no time to sit back, take a deep breath, and reflect. Wouldn’t you prefer to offer your students a time for peace, reflection, dialogue, and fun at the end of each day? If so, the answer can be found in your afternoon meeting. What’s an afternoon meeting, you ask? Keep reading to find out!

Afternoon meetings to build classroom community | Teachers Resource Force

What is an afternoon meeting and why do you need one?

We know the importance of classroom gathering for developing community. Many people have adopted morning meetings into their routine and school day, and those are powerful ways to start the day, but what about afternoon meetings? It’s so important to reflect and review on the day after it has passed; how did they do and what would they like to do better next time? It also makes for a much calmer end to the day, and is much better than just waiting for home time and running out of the building or shutting down the laptop! You can use afternoon morning meetings in a PowerPoint format or digital journal, and they work extremely well during face to face or online lessons to bring your class together one last time before they retire for the day. It effectively ends your school day in a nice little bow!

So what kind of activities can you do for an afternoon meeting? Here are 5 different ideas for your to end your day in a consistently positive and engaging way. These are easy to implement 5 minute prompts, ideal for distance learning and independent quiet time.

Monday afternoon meetings:

"Motivational Mondays" are great to end the day and week with a positive quote/thought/discussion. This quote is the same as the ones in the Morning Meeting set for continuity and deeper impact, but the prompts are different to allow for reflection on their day.

monday afternoon meeting | Teachers Resource Force

Tuesday afternoon meetings:

"True or False Tuesdays" are a fun way to end the day with a bit of joy and engaging trivia! You can have students put their hands up for true or false and then have a short discussion (or giggle) about some of the random facts they'll learn throughout the year. Alternatively, if you are teaching remotely you can use the afternoon meeting digital journal and ask students to type in their responses. These facts are different from the Morning Meeting set, but run along the same theme for continuity.

tuesday afternoon meeting | Teachers Resource Force

Wednesday afternoon meetings:

"Wellness Wednesdays" are for focusing on wellbeing, both mental and physical, that will help both themselves and demonstrate acts of kindness to others. These are either different or similar to the Morning Meeting set, but the prompts are different in order to encourage reflection on their day.

wednesday afternoon meeting | Teachers Resource ForcePicture

Thursday afternoon meetings:

"Thoughtful Thursdays" are to develop their thinking skills with some deep, philosophical thoughts and discussions. This can be done as a whole class or discussed in pairs or groups if preferred. These are completely different from the Morning Meeting set, but run along the same theme for continuity.

thursday afternoon meeting | Teachers Resource Force

Friday afternoon meetings:

"Funny Fridays" are great for ending the week on a high with a funny joke! These jokes are different from the Morning Meeting set, but run along the same theme for continuity.

friday afternoon meeting | Teachers Resource Force

These themed daily afternoon meetings are a powerful to end the day, or even your lesson, and there are enough messages for each day of the school year. This time for reflection helps with personal development and improving oneself, especially if it ties into to the morning meeting and it's a calming ending to the school day or lesson.

DOWNLOAD FROM TPT

DOWNLOAD FROM TRF

To conclude:

It is just as important to end the day in a positive way as it is to start it in one, especially if you are reflecting on the same things you did in the morning meeting which helps conclude the day. An afternoon meeting also means that both you and your students and no longer rushing or stressing or desperate for the day to finish as you have an afternoon routine that is effective and you can look forward to. If you are still remote learning or in a hybrid model, you might prefer to use the afternoon meeting digital journal, whereby students can type their responses into to the journal so that you can review your students’ responses, and maybe even identify areas that you feel your students would benefit from further attention in the future.

A freebie for you:

free afternoon meetings journal | Teachers Resource Force

End your day in a consistently positive and engaging way with these daily themed morning meeting whiteboard 5 minute prompts!

If you're interested in trying 1-week sample of the afternoon meeting, you can download it for free now.

DOWNLOAD FOR FREE NOW

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Teaching stress management during online, hybrid or face to face learning

18/1/2021

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Stress management has always been an important tool for our students, however during the current climate of learning through a pandemic, stress has taken on a whole other level and is more important than ever to be able to manage. If you're looking for ways to help teach stress management during these challenging times, then keep reading.

How to manage stress during online, hybrid or face to face learning | Teachers Resource Force

How to teach stress management remotely

It can be challenging enough to teach the regular curriculum right now as teachers battle online/hybrid learning, let alone crucial life skills! An effective way of teaching topics such as stress management, is through self-directed, self-assessing online lessons. The resource below teachers students all about stress and offers strategies for how to manage their stress in an effective way. This stress management online lesson makes teaching this topic much more manageable, particularly if you are still in distance or hybrid learning.

Why is it effective to teach stress management in this way?

This stress management lesson is completely remote and hosted online, making it an ideal tool for distance/hybrid learning. Your students will go through each slide at their own pace, reading the content, learning new information and then they get an opportunity to answer questions on the topic to check their understanding. There is a range of different question styles to keep the lesson interesting, and they will also get immediate feedback on their responses; if they have the correct answer, is confirmed automatically which means no more grading for you!

stress management online lesson for distance learning | Teachers Resource Force

How does this interactive, online lesson on stress management work:

This activity can be set as classwork, homework or remotely such as via distance learning. It’s fully interactive and so easy to use; there are absolutely no resources required. Students learn by repetition as they can redo the activity as many times as they need. You don’t even need to grade it as it is completely self-assessing. There is also slide at the end that summarises their score which they can screenshot and send to you as proof of completion.

DOWNLOAD STRESS LESSON ON TPT

DOWNLOAD STRESS LESSON ON TRF

Help students manage stress while they study independently from home:

Many students are also struggling to manage their stress while studying from home; the challenge of independent studying is a difficult one to master. There are distractions everywhere and being cooped up indoors all day has its own battles.

A resource to help combat this, is a guide/journal to help them in their home study routine. This journal guides them through how to plan their schedule and routine by reverse engineering their day using their assignment deadlines or personal academic goals.

This study from home guide also teaches your students how to manage stress by looking after their own well-being while they are stuck at home. It addresses body aches due to excessive desk/computer hunching, too much screen time and how to keep fit and healthy.

This resource is ready to use. It comes with a 17-page printable journal for them to fill in, and there is a digital version available too for them to type directly into the document, should they prefer. You can post the journal or send it to your students remotely. I hope this helps your students as they learn the discipline it takes to study from home!

Help students study and work from home journal | Teachers Resource Force

DOWNLOAD STUDY GUIDE FROM TPT

DOWNLOAD STUDY GUIDE FROM TRF

To conclude:

Stress management has always been an important skill to teach students, and in this current climate, it is more important than ever as students are experiencing a whole other level of stress. So providing students with an opportunity to work at their own pace learn about how to manage stress in an interactive way and test their responses over and over again, will give students the opportunity to embrace different strategies for managing stress. Not to mention, no teacher input required or assessment needed makes for a much less stressful teaching experience as well!

A freebie for you:

An effective way of helping students to manage their stress is for them to track their mood; seeing their behaviour patterns can help them inspire life changing actions. You can download this free mood tracker below:

free mood tracker for student wellbeing and stress | Teachers Resource Force

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Creating a culture of kindness in an online, hybrid and face to face classroom

14/12/2020

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Kindness is more important now than ever, as we are adapting to a new way of living; teaching and learning is even more challenging than it usually is. Schools around the globe are having to adapt to online, hybrid learning or face-to-face learning while dealing with all the uncertainty, fear and devastation that comes with a pandemic. It is crucial that we do our best to nurture a culture of kindness in schools: keep reading to learn some ideas but how to do this in your online, hybrid or face-to-face classroom.

Creating a culture of kindness in online, hybrid and face to face learning | Teachers Resource Force

Shower everyone with compliment notes of kindness:

A simple but effective way to encourage kindness in your classroom is by writing compliment notes! The benefit of having physical notes are that the compliments have a longer-lasting effect. While a verbal compliment is lovely to receive, and shouldn’t be overlooked if the opportunity presents itself, a physical note lives on forever and can be looked back on for years to come. Writing compliment notes is easy enough to do in face-to-face learning (although there are contamination concerns with passing physical objects!) but what about online and hybrid schooling? Sure, you can send messages via text or email, but doesn't quite have the same personal touch as these type of notes…

So what about specialised colouring compliment notes! They are a wonderful option for encouraging students to spread kindness, and come in both printable and digital versions!

Quote coloring compliment notes kindness project | Teachers Resource Force

Why are these compliment notes more personalised than a regular note:

These printable and digital colouring kindness notes are easy ways to spread kindness in your classroom, whether online or face to face, and they encourage your students to look after one another and support each other during these challenging times. They’re personalised because someone has taken the time to colour in the note especially for someone else, which adds that extra heartwarming element and act of kindness.

It’s easy enough to physically colour in notes, but what about online classes? Fear not - this brand new style of digital colouring means the notes can be coloured in on-screen. This has a double benefit: students will get the same relaxing experience of colouring, without cross contaminating products, but with the added bonus of being able to personalise and decorate the notes especially for someone else. Knowing someone has spent time decorating the note and thinking carefully about that person wanting to show kindness to them, is what makes these so much more powerful than just an email. Once these have been coloured in on-screen, they can then be digitally sent to friend or member of staff to help spread kindness.

Other ways you can use these colouring compliment notes:

Here are some creative ways that you can use these colouring kindness notes:

1) They can be used like reward coupons to offer students for good behaviour. They can then enjoy colouring the notes in and keeping them as confidence boosters.

2) They can be stored in a “compliment container” and students can take it in turns each day to pick some notes at random each morning. They can read it aloud to the class and select a student who they think would benefit from that note best at the end of the day.

3) They can be scattered and placed in students’ desks, on their lockers, inside library books and hidden in any other remote places that students might find them, thereby offering them some encouraging words of kindness which they can colour and keep.

4) You can keep a bowl of these in your staff workroom to encourage kindness among staff.

5) Cut and pin a range of these notes on a bulletin board for students to take for themselves or share with another student. The idea is that they can end up all over the school lifting spirits of students and staff.

6) Hand out notes to students to colour and write personal notes to others on the back of them. They can be handed out or pinned to a public bulletin board.

7) Set up a Kindness Club and send your members on a mission to colour in these notes then spread compliments and joy to others around school.

PRINTABLE COMPLIMENTS FROM TPT

DIGITAL COMPLIMENTS FROM TPT

To conclude:

As the current climate of education is so challenging and many teachers are either online hybrid or face-to-face during a pandemic, kindness is more important than ever and needs to be taught and encouraged in order to help the mental health and well-being of everyone. A simple tool such as these colouring kindness notes will make being kind an enjoyable experience and will help lift the mood of everyone, creating a culture of kindness in your online, hybrid or face-to-face classroom.