Category Archives: Classroom Strategies

Sustaining Compassion in Education, Part 1

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A Lutheran Educator’s Reflection on 2020

Written by Kelli L. Green

Why has teaching become so stressful? Am I trusting God enough? These are questions you may be asking yourself. Here’s my reflection.

Remembering Why.
Last month, as I opened a Special Education Task Force meeting, we took a moment to share how God called us into the teaching ministry. Over Zoom we took turns sharing our “Why.”

Some mentioned external factors, and others mentioned internal factors used by the Holy Spirit to guide them into education and to Martin Luther College, formerly known as Dr. Martin Luther College, as preparation. Thinking back on the original reasons for entering the teaching ministry, I became overwhelmingly aware that the purpose had evolved over time. Continue reading →

Six Top Anxiety Management Strategies

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Written by Dr. Jennifer Londgren

Lutheran teachers, you have a lot on your plates right now. Whether it is managing the educational needs of your own children or the stress and anxiety of students, parents, and congregation members in your care, dealing with those things along with your own personal emotional reactions can feel like too much. Developing outlets and ways to cope is essential. I believe that Christians who develop strategies to take care of themselves are better able to serve others.

Taking care of ourselves is not something we should “get around to doing at some point.” It is necessary for our health and wellbeing. As a Christian, university professor, mental health clinician, wife, and mother of three, I understand how important it is to create harmony between my roles. I have a set of self-care strategies and tools that I apply to myself and teach to my students, clients, interns, and even my friends. Continue reading →

Digital Strategies for the Multi-Grade Classroom

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Written by Alan Uher

Stressing over distance learning? Is the imminence of a pivot to distance learning getting you down? Struggling with meeting the needs of students who are not present while others are? A team of MLC educators presented ideas for online learning in June 2020 to encourage WELS teachers to embrace distance learning, unmask its blessings, and utilize existing technology resources to serve students who cannot be in our classrooms.

Having had the privilege of visiting nearly 100 MLC teacher candidates in over five dozen WELS elementary classrooms, I have gleaned ideas and current web resources, teaching tools, and assessment strategies that may assist you in delivering quality instruction in less-than-quality circumstances. Continue reading →

How Educators Can Help Children Build Resilience

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Written by Dr. Ashley Schoof

We hear a lot today about resilience and its importance in coping with the prolonged stress of COVID-19. What exactly is resilience? And how can educators help encourage its development in children?

Resilience is the determination, grit, and perseverance to tackle problems and cope with the challenges of school and life. That’s the psychological and emotional definition. Spiritually speaking, we can think of resilience the way the apostle Paul described it in Philippians 4:6-9:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Continue reading →

Quarantine Kids

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Written by Jason Schmidt

Coronavirus is here to stay, and we now need to move past crisis education and into utilizing our available resources to meet our students’ needs. Utilizing technology appropriately in a classroom is no longer optional since it has become an essential tool for connecting students with their classrooms—especially when students are in quarantine or isolation for days at a time.

Video conferencing tools like Google Meet and Zoom have been used to help give students an opportunity to participate in class even though they may be in isolation or quarantine. The following tips will help teachers make this experience beneficial for students both in school and out of school. Continue reading →

Why ePortfolios?

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Written by Gail Potratz

Building ePortfolios with the students in your classroom is a creative, exciting paradigm-changing endeavor. Digitally created portfolios can . . .

  • Provide an online container where student work can be stored easily in the classroom
  • Allow students to feel empowered about their progress in learning as they are . . .
    • Motivated to take an active part in the progression of skill development and learning as shown in their selected artifacts
    • Allowed to expand student-directed decisions about personal student learning
  • Provide purpose for teaching the important skill of self-reflection on one’s work
  • Provide numerous opportunities for seamless integration of technology skills such as . . .
    • Site design
    • Creation of various media types—such as text, artwork, video, audio, and images—as artifacts to display
    • Linking and embedding of varied media from where they were created—whether in G Suite or third-party apps such as Animoto, Voicethread, etc.
  • Enable students to easily revise and edit their work artifacts

Continue reading →

The Science Behind the “Aha!” Moment

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Written by Nicole Lehman

I think we can all admit that one of the highlights of being a teacher is seeing the “Aha!” or lightbulb moment go off in our students’ faces. We work so hard to help them understand a complex subject, or their brains have a hard time grasping what we find to be obvious, and so, after many attempts, we finally find the right thing to say and BAM! The light bulb comes on. These are the moments that make you smile at the end of a hard day/week/month. If only they weren’t so rare a sighting! Continue reading →

The “4Cs”: A Focus on Creative Thinking

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Written by Annie Gumm

Scroll through your preferred social media outlet and chances are you can find pictures of children demonstrating their creative-thinking abilities. Perhaps it is that toddler with chocolate all over his face who somehow reached the cookies on top of the refrigerator. Maybe it is a LEGO build designed by tweens or the random “Coronavirus quotes” that are spoken by a teenager.

Education has shifted from focusing on the “3Rs” of reading, ’riting, and ’rithmetic to now including the “4Cs” of developing communicators, creators, critical thinkers, and collaborators (NEA, 2012). Practicing creative-thinking and problem-solving skills should be an essential part of classroom instruction. Continue reading →

Should Students Be Allowed to Listen to Music While Studying?

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Written by Cori Humann

It’s a debate that seems to have no end. My students say they should be allowed to listen to music on their headphones while they are studying. With the backup of our handbook, I say they should not. Both sides claim to have scientific research backing up their position. What is the answer? Continue reading →

Homework: A Parent/Teacher Partnership

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Written by Philip Gustafson

As a 7th-8th grade teacher, I’m often asked by parents what their role should be at home when it comes to homework. This is not always an easy question to answer since all children are unique. So what do you say to parents who are looking for advice on homework support at home? Continue reading →