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“Burning out” is something I have become all too familiar with as an educator, parent, and person that tends to take on a lot of additional roles and responsibilities. It seems like there is always somewhere to be, an appointment to make, or thing to do. And while it can truly be a privilege to be in this position, it is hard to ignore the feeling of being exhausted and “finished” by the time winter break rolls around.

Recently I had an opportunity to attend an ETFO workshop on “Building Sustainability for Complex Lives”. During this workshop, we were encouraged to examine ourselves critically and think creatively on how we manage self-care. For me, the most important part of the learning was realizing my mind was too busy to truly slow down and not always think about the next thing I needed to get done.

In my experience, part of being an educator means always trying to get ahead: planning the next lesson, special event, or presentation, finding resources, marking, assessing, or getting an important piece of paperwork or report card comment in on time. There are endless tasks, and it becomes easy to “feel behind” or overwhelmed by the amount of things to do. Sometimes even the act of making time to relax, exercise, take a walk, or watch a movie or show can feel like another task, since there is inevitably something you want to get done before I practice “self care”.

It is no surprise when the “burnout” kicks in, and I start scrolling my phone endlessly for distraction (a way to feel busy but not necessarily productive), I start avoiding work, or start to panic over not having spent my time wisely. Everything starts to irritate me, and motivation to do anything goes out the window.

So what is the best way to get through burnout? How do we make life more sustainable?

There is no shortage of advice on the internet for how we can better practice self-care. Indeed, there is an entire industry and culture built on the need for wellness in today’s modern world. Here are a few practices that I find work well for me.

Remind Yourself You May Be Exactly Where You Should Be

In the never-ending quest to get ahead, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that you may have indeed gotten everything done that you really actually needs to get done. Reminding yourself that some items on the to-do list are better done the next day or week can do wonders for your outlook and free up some time to rest or turn away from work.

Cut Things Out of your Schedule

When life gets overwhelmingly hectic, it may be a sign that you need to take cut back or cut out unnecessary items. This can be hard, as sometimes the items you can reasonably cut out or pause on are things that you genuinely want to keep, like a book club or even a home improvement project. Remember that the pause is just temporary, and that you are simply re-prioritizing to make your life make sense again.

Become a Morning Person or a Night Person (but not both)

Historically, I have been a night person throughout much of my life. I absolutely love tuning into a good show for a few episodes or getting a few things done when the house is quieter. I’ve learned, however, that the very early morning is a great time for productivity or going to the gym without cutting into family time, plus I feel more focused when I arrive at work.

Whatever you choose, make sure you get all the sleep you need to be healthy!

Stop Everything and Walk

There is nothing like a good walk to distance yourself from your screens, your work, or to take a breather after the constant stimulation of teaching in a busy classroom. I always find that walking gives me a chance to think through different problems I need to solve or simply to clear my head. Best of all you can get some steps in and maybe even some vitamin D if it’s sunny!

Find your Wellness Indulgence

Health and wellness activities are abundant where I live (the Toronto area), but you can always do at home any activity that makes you feel both healthy and a little indulged at the same time. Perhaps it is a warm soak, a great massage device, or time in a special place outdoors. Whatever it is, carve out time to do that wellness activity that takes a little more investment of time and resources.

For me, my favourite is a trip to a sauna/cold plunge circuit. The heat and stillness, combined with the shock of cold water somehow always does the trick of making me feel relaxed physically despite however I am feeling mentally, and by the end of the session the world seems a lot more calmer.

Sustain Yourself in the New Year

As I look ahead to the new year, my resolution is clear: to prioritize self-sustainability and actively guard against burnout. Working in education can be deeply meaningful, but it is also demanding, emotionally intensive, and often relentless. Without purposeful self-care, even the most passionate educators can find themselves stretched too thin.

As I continue my learning journey with Structured Literacy, I’ve been reflecting on the shifts that have had the biggest impact on my teaching.

The shift I will be reflecting on builds on the last post of progress monitoring, and focuses on something equally important for student growth: the power of positive self-talk. 

In this video, Rita Pierson reminds us how relationships are at the heart of teaching. One line that stays with me is: “-18 sucks the life outta ya, but +2 ain’t all bad”.  It is a powerful reminder to reframe how we share feedback to students, and families. Growth is growth. No matter how small, it deserves to be seen and celebrated.

This year, I have embedded positive self-talk in our daily routines, such as before exit tickets, assessments or even problem solving tasks. Students have generated their own phrases that they can say or write to themselves when a task is challenging. Together, we co-created a “self talk” chart that continues to evolve throughout the year. I regularly model it through “think alouds” to normalize it and show what it can look like in action. 

I have noticed that naturally, students are starting to use this language independently! The power of this self-talk is really transforming my students mindset, perseverance and resiliency. It is helping them see themselves as capable learners. 

I’m proud of this shift and excited to continue building on it, including writing (I will be reflecting on later in the series). I hope this inspires you to try it in your own classroom—you might be surprised by how powerful a few words can be.

At a professional learning workshop in the fall, we went around in our circle and offered tips to each other for report card writing.  I thought it was a great way to have an opening and also a great way to share ideas and strategies during this time of year.  Many of you may already be thinking about report card writing or even be in the middle of writing by the time this is published, but I’d like to share some of my own tips and ones that were shared with me.

First, know what conditions you need to focus on your writing.  For me, I need silence but I know many other educators who have a ‘report card playlist’ or who are able to maintain focus with some ambient sounds in the background.  I definitely require a well lit space (it helps if there is a view) and I put my phone in another room… I can be easily distracted!

My next tip is to take breaks when you need them.  When I sit and write, I know it takes me a while to get started, but I have also learned to recognize signs that I need a break.  My mind starts wandering or slowing down and I lose focus – two key indicators that I need a movement break.  I will get up and walk my dog for a quick outdoor break and it’s amazing how 15 minutes outside recharges my brain instantly.  Whatever your clues are, think about the strategies you need to refocus and bring yourself back to task.  

Just like some of my students students, I like to use a timer.  I’ve tried a few different techniques in the past, such as finishing all of one subject before a break or writing for three students and then a break, but I’ve found that a timer helps me the most.  I’ll set my timer and then keep track of how many comments I can write during that time. It helps to keep me accountable, but can also help me to anticipate when I will likely need a quick break as well. 

Last tip: plan your snacks!  I’m all about the snacks to fuel my motivation and I like to have some things in the house on hand….Whether popcorn is your snack of choice or fresh fruit, having those things ahead of time is handy. One educator I met told me that their staff members each bring a snack pack or fruit or such to give to every staff member;  each educator then goes home in report card writing season with a variety of snacks.  

This time of year when report card due dates are looming on the horizon can be daunting. While I love the opportunity to reflect on student learning, I also acknowledge the immense amount of time and energy that writing takes. Some of you may already have these strategies, but you might find some new ideas and maybe even some reminders of tried and true methods that have worked well for you in the past. If you’ve got more tips, share them with your colleagues – and me!

As both a teacher and a parent, I get to see what engages children including my own. Lately, my daughter has been bursting through the door with this excitement, arms waving, cheeks flushed, words tumbling out faster than I can catch them.

And every time, her stories follow this simple but exciting pattern. A picture book they read in class. The outdoor adventure that connected to it and the research they did afterwards to answer the many questions they came up with.

Watching her connect all those pieces has reminded me, more clearly than ever, how powerful picture books and outdoor time truly are.

My daughter will start by telling me about the picture book of the day. Maybe something about forest animals or changing seasons. But it’s really what comes after the story that shows the power of those pages. She talks about the characters, the setting, and the questions the book planted in her mind.

As a teacher, I know picture books can spark inquiry.
As a parent, I get to see that spark ignite in my own child.
Then comes the outdoor stories. Her absolute favourite part.

Her class has been exploring the forested trails behind the school, and hearing her describe it feels like listening to a nature documentary narrated by a very excited five-year-old. She tells me about following the path, spotting tracks in the mud, and crouching down to look closely at “real evidence,” as she calls it.

Recently she came home thrilled about finding animal scat on the trail . “We found ‘clues’, Mom!” and she continued to explain the different lines pressed into the dirt and snow that a muskrat had dragged cattails and sticks to the pond. She explained it like she had been on a wildlife expedition. And honestly? Her excitement was contagious.

After their walk, she said they went back inside and looked up muskrats on Google, because, of course, she had a hundred questions. And the facts she learned came flying at me as soon as she got in the car. She told me these things with such joy that I couldn’t help but smile. The book gave her the curiosity, the forest gave her the evidence, and the research gave her the answers. That combination of story + exploration + information is what made the learning so powerful.

Watching her experience all of this has reminded me, both as a teacher and a parent, that these simple ingredients aren’t extras, they are the driving force for deep, joyful learning.

We don’t need elaborate materials or hours of planning. Sometimes all it takes is a story, a walk through the trees, and the chance to follow a question wherever it leads.

When my daughter comes home overflowing with enthusiasm, talking about trails, animal scat, muskrat homes, and underwater facts, it’s impossible not to see the magic. It is clear that picture books and outdoor time don’t just teach. They invite curiosity and make learning come alive.

On a family visit to the zoo the Stewart children, Imogen and Arthur, catch the eye of a small penguin. He seems to be trying to communicate with the children. As they prepare to leave, their mother says “And you, Mr. Penguin, you must come and stay with us whenever you like.” No one expects that he would soon arrive on their doorstep!

The themes of family, friendship, welcoming strangers, and helping friends are built into this tale of mystery and adventure. Einstein is a brilliant penguin who enjoys messy meals and sneaking into Arthur’s backpack to spend time at school. There are many humorous scenes as their beloved feathered friend gets into a bit of mischief trying to find his friend. We see the siblings form a tighter bond and they begin to show each other more respect as the story goes on.  Both of them feel they don’t fit in but Einstein helps them have more confidence. 

The story is set in during early winter so a read aloud in December or January would be very relatable. That said, it really could be read at any time of the year. In the end, the children in the story grapple with the idea of saying goodbye but they realize Einstein isn’t suited to living in a townhouse.

I love that the chapters are short enough that you just need 10-15 minutes to read each one aloud.  Perfect for transitions from recess or at a time when the students have been out of the room for another subject. I remember my grade 2 teacher often read at the end of the day and we gathered together on the carpet. There is something about coming together for a read aloud that builds community as we share laughter, curiosity, fear, and sometimes even tears.  No tears for Einstein though, just giggles and surprises!

Einstein the Penguin can ignite our own excitement about writing and telling stories.  What type of animal could students imagine arriving at their door?  Would the animal stay at their house? What kind of adventure would they have?

Learning about penguins is a natural extension of this story. There are a few varieties of penguins mentioned in the book and students will be curious to learn about them. Einstein is a little penguin (also known as fairy penguins) and his friend Isaac is a rockhopper penguin like the one voiced by Robin Williams in the animated film, Happy Feet.

Einstein the Penguin has a mystery to solve and a villain in pursuit. Your students could very well get hooked on mystery stories at a young age. Setting up a mystery in the classroom makes for a very exciting hook in a lesson plan. Something as simple as a scavenger hunt can be a time for students to show teamwork and leadership. 

Students could also compare Einstein to Tacky the Penguin. As you may know Tacky is my favourite read aloud for primary grades so I wrote this blog all about it. Einstein and Tacky have similar traits of being dedicated friends and free-spirited creative thinkers.  I think your students will love them both.

Happy Reading!

Brenda

Einstein the Penguin was written by Iona Rangeley and illustrated by David Tazzyman. It was published in 2021 by Harper Collins.

In part 1 of this article, I talked about the difficulties I had faced when it came to sharing information about ESL/ELD programming with families. In the community where I worked, ESL/ELD programming was often viewed from a deficit perspective by many caregivers and even some school staff. Widely held deficit perspectives about ELLs, combined with my own need to learn more about ESL/ELD programming, resulted in rather poor communication with MLL families.

In my current work as an instructional leader working in ESL/ELD programming, I talk to educators that experience similar issues regularly. How should teachers go about addressing ESL/ELD programming with families that may not be aware of what it is? How should educators re-start conversations about their child’s ESL/ELD programming with families when it has gone unaddressed for an extended period of time?

Recently I spoke to a middle school colleague about how she communicates with MLL families when they transition to grade 6 from the feeder elementary school. Her practice was to call all MLL families to welcome them in the early months of the school year, and share with them that their child would be receiving ESL or ELD support. In her experience, families were often happy to hear how their child would be supported in this way.

The teacher also shared with me that she also calls families when their child is no longer receiving program adaptations, or had completed STEP 6 of the ESL continua. In her experience, caregivers often responded positively; after all, becoming proficient in another language is something to celebrate.

Listening to these reflections on family communication and transparency made me think of how empowered we are as educators to shift thinking in our schools and communities.

Let’s take a look at some ways educators can build transparency and communication with families about ESL/ELD programming, while also re-casting the work we do as MLL educators through an assets-based perspective.

Make Information about ESL/ELD programming Readily Available to Families

In an age of endless information, there is no reason families should have difficulty accessing information about ESL/ELD programming. Leave an easy-to-read brochure that explains what ESL/ELD programming looks like in your school in the main office so families can build their understanding and know who to contact should they have any questions.

Make ESL/ELD Programming part of Regular Family Communication

When you make welcome calls or share updates to families of MLLs, take the time to reference the student’s growth in language and literacy. It’s a great opportunity to share what you are doing to support their growth as multilingual learners, and keep the conversation going about academic language development.

Leverage Curriculum Night, Open House, and other school Community Events to Raise Awareness about ESL/ELD Programs

The tools, terminology and resources we reference as educators, like the STEP Continua, accommodations, and modifications, may be unfamiliar to families. Have a short presentation ready that you can use (or share with staff) to explain to families what these terms and tools are, and how educators use them to enhance and adjust programming for newcomer students. If possible, invite a settlement worker or community member that speaks the same language(s) as the communities in your school in to help interpret whenever necessary.

Sharing information with families about ESL/ELD programming should never feel like a hard or difficult conversation. With the right combination of direct communication and use of digital information, you will find that it will get increasingly easier to make programming for MLLs a regular part of your communication with families.

In my previous post, I shared that I implemented a foundations of literacy component to my language program to support students in developing the knowledge and skills that the revised Grades 1 – 8 Language curriculum (2023) states they need to learn to become confident, competent writers and readers. In my previous post, I also focused on how I’m explicitly teaching students sentence structures that includes sentence types and sentence forms, and I provided a brief overview of a lesson I taught. In this post, I’ll share additional strategies and insights to how I’m further supporting students in developing their ability to comprehend and compose a variety of sentence forms by teaching them about conjunctions.

Specific expectation B3.2 which focuses on grammar states that students need to demonstrate an understanding of the parts of speech, their function in a sentence and use that knowledge to support understanding and practicing expressive and receptive communication clearly.

Conjunctions are one of the nine parts of speech listed in expectation B3.2 and they are a defining component of compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences because they connect the clauses within the sentence. For example, in a compound sentence students need to understand that a coordinating conjunction can be used to connect the two or more independent clauses contained within the sentence. In a complex sentence, they need to understand that a subordinating conjunction connects an independent clause with one or more dependent clauses contained within the sentence. In a compound-complex sentence they need to understand that the sentence includes both coordinating and subordinating conjunctions that connect two independent clauses with one or more dependent clause or clauses contained within the sentence. They also need to know that some coordinating conjunctions include for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so while some subordinating conjunctions include when, if, although, before, after, since, even though, unless.

I think the value of teaching conjunctions in relation to sentence forms is that this approach helps students to deepen their understanding of one of the nine parts of speech in practice, while also supporting them in further developing their vocabulary knowledge and their ability to communicate and understand increasingly complex thoughts and ideas in written form.

Next, I’ll share a lesson and strategies I’ve used when explicitly teaching conjunctions in relation to sentence forms while working with students in intermediate grades 7 and 8. I’ll end this post with an insight I gained from my teaching experience that may be useful to other educators.

As usual practice, I began my lessons by sharing a learning goal and success criteria with students to inform them of what they were learning, why they were learning it, and how they would know when they had been successful in their learning. A sample learning goal I shared with students while explicitly teaching conjunctions was, I am practicing writing compound sentences using coordinating conjunctions and the new vocabulary I am learning to apply my understanding of both in written form. The success criteria I used to accompany this learning goal was, I can create a compound sentence using a coordinating conjunction and one of my new vocabulary words. I then provided additional insight to the learning goal and success criteria by informing students that they were learning to include and connect multiple thoughts within a single sentence using conjunctions.

I then shared a list of coordinating conjunctions along with an acronym to help students retain the information. The acronym I shared was FANBOYS – for, and, nor, but, or yet, so. After reviewing the acronym, I provided insight to how each conjunction works within a sentence by telling students a meaning associated with the conjunction; I did this to support building students’ vocabulary knowledge. For example, I shared that the conjunction for can show a reason that an action occurred within a sentence. And can provides additional information within a sentence, while but and yet can show contrast within a sentence.

Next, I provided an example of each conjunction in use within a sentence then examined the way that the conjunction connected the two independent clauses within a single sentence. My purpose for doing this work was to help students develop the background knowledge I believed they needed to successfully construct compound and later compound-complex sentences.

Following the review of the sample sentences, I modeled creating compound sentences using the coordinating conjunctions for, and, nor. Then I invited students to co-construct compound sentences using the coordinating conjunctions but, or, yet, so. I concluded the lesson by having students work in groups of 2 – 4 to create 7 compound sentences using one the coordinating conjunctions found in the FANBOYS acronym. I used this as a consolidation activity to see how well students were able construct compound sentences at the conclusion of our initial lesson.

I recently completed my second foundations of literacy assessment. Again, to monitor and measure my instructional impact on student learning along with a more formal opportunity for them to demonstrate their learning. On the assessment, I included a question where I asked students to identify and explain 1 thing that they had learned about sentence forms, sentence types, or conjunctions since we began studying them. When reading student responses, I noticed that a significant number of students commented that they learned how conjunctions worked to connect ideas within sentences.

The insight I gained from the experience and believe to be worth sharing with other educators is I/we should avoid assuming that students in intermediate grades arrive to our classrooms with a clear knowledge and understanding of how to connect ideas within a sentence using conjunctions or that they even understand the difference between coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. I think that at times reviewing and at other times explicitly teaching students how conjunctions function within a sentence serves to positively impact all students learning.