Blog | Teaching Well

December 11, 2016

Staying Mindful (and maybe a little more sane) for the Holidays

This month between Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation can be a bit energetic in the classroom. There is hustle and bustle. There is often a heightened stress that comes with students both anxious for and sometimes terrified of what the holidays may bring. Families can be a source of happiness and good memories, while they can also be the impetus for a lot of anxiety and uncertainty. Balancing the needs of all students during this time can be a challenging job, especially during this time. A...

December 4, 2016

in Mindfulness, Well-being

by Danielle Nuhfer

A Simple Way to Create Healthy Habits

Being classroom teachers, we’ve all had experience in trying to create large scale behavior that will allow us to do our jobs a little more easily and allow the class to function as a whole, doing the activities the way we need them done. We don’t refer to it in this way, but we’re creating whole class habits. We create these routines or habits with our students and when they enter our classroom, they know exactly what to do (after some initial learning). Most students...

November 20, 2016

in Well-being

by Danielle Nuhfer

Seasonal Stress Reducers

As teachers we are master jugglers, we have been trained in the art of keeping a lot of things in the air. During holiday season (which in some stores started before October 31!), there is definite potential for many things to be added to the activities we are already juggling, making for a very stressful scenario. Now, we all probably approach this potential stress in different ways: some of us are planners, scheduling tasks in advance and checking off mountainous to do lists. Those of...