Apple Blossom Teachers

It is TEACHER CAREER KICKOFF time!!! Today is all about how to stand out from the rest and show your interviewers why YOU are the most valuable candidate. We'll chat about how to showcase your unique Skills, Hobbies, Interests, Notable stories, and Extracurricular activities so you can really SHINE!! Be sure to head to appleblossomteachers.com/careerkickoff to download your FREE Interview Prep Pac...

"Why do we need to learn this?"  "When will we ever use this?" Today is all about helping you see these questions as awesome opportunities for boosting curiosity, rather than the most dreaded questions a teacher can get when trying to build engagement! I'm sharing 5 ways you can help students connect the content you're covering in school to ways in which it applies to them in the real world. By do...

Do you set clear expectations for effort and craftsmanship in student work, but still wind up with most projects looking simple, rushed, or with little variety? Students don't always naturally know what it means to produce high-quality craftsmanship, and even when we show them strong examples of great student work we've saved from past years, we either end up with projects that look almost identic...

First, STOP the social media scroll!! While we can get incredible ideas from other fantastic educators, the most unique and memorable ideas for your lessons can come from the most random of places! Doctors office artwork? Yup! A magazine article? Totally! The display of soda boxes in the grocery store??? You bet!  You'll be amazed at how much more you notice and connect to lesson ideas once you st...

Today I share some simple tips for building your knowledge of great books your students will love, and actually pumping them up for your students in an authentic way! You will start to see a true community of readers bloom, with real conversations around new favorite books happening so naturally between you and your students. Not only will this positively impact your students' literacy growth, it...

Today I share 5 quick tips for building a community of readers in your classroom. This is such a great way to strengthen the relationships in your classroom and build a love of reading that will carry beyond your 4 walls! 

Today is all about reflecting on how far you've come this year (yes, even if it feels like you've just been treading water!) and setting some goals to really amp up your impact in 2021! Leave today's episode feeling inspired, recharged, and with a sense of direction to tackle the next chunk of the school year, really making incredible strides forward for yourself and your students.

Summary:      Today's episode is all about staying on top of it all...the million little things that pop up in a day of teacher life! We're not talking about big, regular tasks like lesson planning and grading. This is all about the random tasks we need to take care of that pop up throughout the days, and can lead to major frazzle when we lose track! I share 3 common problems with daily teacher-ta...

Summary:  In today's episode, I share simple systems and activities you can implement in your classroom to continue strengthening your classroom community in a genuine way. These ideas go beyond the basic get-to-know-you and team-building activities and work to build sustainable ways to boost student engagement, motivation, and trust. If you are interested in more in-depth explanations of these st...

Summary:  We are past the back-to-school buzz, and now really trying to chug along with our students. But October is one time of the school year where, as teachers, we can start to lose that juice we had at the start.  Today is more of a "pep talk" episode, especially for my first-year teacher listeners!  I know it can get overwhelming, and some of you may even be doubting your line of work. But I...

Summary:  As teachers, it feels like we are always strapped for time! There's a mile long list of things to get through, beyond just our standard curriculum, and it feels like there is never enough time! Today I want to highlight 3 things that help me really squeeze the most out of those educational minutes, and really make an impact in my students' learning: hit the ground running, overlap the bi...

Summary:  Today I'll be sharing a bit about how we can use student feedback effectively, why we should, and some ideas on how you can start building a collaborative culture with your own class.  Key Points: When we think about getting feedback on our lessons, we typically think of observational feedback from a supervisor, another colleague, or even personal reflections we move through ourselves. A...

Summary:  Listen in for a variety of strategies to boost student engagement in a virtual setting. This was a big challenge for so many in the spring: students, teachers, and families alike. Now we have more than a weekend to prepare ourselves for the road ahead, though, so let's jump in! Key Points: I share 5 core pillars to help you keep your students engaged, and activities or examples under eac...

Summary:  Teachers must never stop learning! In today's episode, we'll chat about why continuous learning is SO important as an educator, for both you and your students.  You'll leave today with some great advice on how to get the most out of professional development for you and your students.  Key Points: As great as our undergrad and teacher prep programs may have been, they ended when we gradua...

Summary:  In the last episode, I shared a process for planning your educational priorities, even when you're not sure what your classroom will be like, so you can easily plan the specifics once the time comes. Today I'll be sharing my own process as a 5th grade teacher looking at an unknown back-to-school season amidst a pandemic. This can apply any year though, because so often we don't know what...

Summary:  Every teacher in the world has had to rethink their teaching practices and find new ways to do things as we navigated school during a pandemic. And we all have zero idea just how our upcoming school year will look!  We are all rethinking what our classrooms and year ahead will look like, and I want to help make that process feel more manageable. In this episode, I want to focus on how we...

Welcome to the Apple Blossom Teachers Podcast - a space for blooming teachers to learn, reflect, grow, and connect! Listen here for a quick glimpse at what you can expect from this show! This is not your average teaching podcast. There are so many wonderful places where you can find ideas or lessons to try, but my goal is to go beyond that. I want to be your personal teaching mentor, without all t...