Taking the opportunity to connect your students to career opportunities can return great dividends for you and the young men and women you teach. We spend so much time teaching the content in our lessons, that sometimes we forget that we must train our students to learn, think independently, and make connections to real life. Try this twist on a common review technique to begin training students to make life connections to material learned in class.

Once a week have students complete a “Ticket-Out-The-Door” on a small slip of paper. Ask students the simple question, “What is one career that is related to the content we learned this week?” If students are unsure, have some resources available for students to quickly review. During some challenging concept areas, you may wish to imbed references to related careers throughout the week, to begin introducing students to career opportunities. Remember to include jobs at all experience levels, including completion of high school, technical school, or receipt of a degree from a college or university. After students capture down their career ideas, stand at the door and collect these “tickets” as students exit.

What may seem like a simple review technique is actually training your students to continually ask themselves, “How does this content apply to real life?” By repeating this activity weekly at the same time, you begin to anchor the thought process with students. Before long, students will be subconsciously going through this thought process each time they leave your classroom, and hopefully their other classes as well. Take the time to teach students to make these important connections, and you will open their eyes to a world of opportunities.

“It is more than probable that the average man could, with no injury to his health, increase his efficiency 50%.”  Walter Scott

 Time – there is never enough in the world of teaching. By the end of the day, drained and exhausted, you wonder…how did this stack on my desk get even higher? With the realization that every day will bring with it new challenges and opportunities, I pass on a bit of wisdom from my mother. Mom is an elementary school teacher who guides her class of Kindergarten-2^nd grade special education students through a myriad of adventures each day. Pop into her class on a given day and you will find students engaged in Zoo-phonics as they move their little bodies to learn the alphabet, baking a healthy treat as they learn nutrition and life skills, or working to develop social skills in the greenhouse. “How do you do it all?” I asked her one day. “I continually ask myself one question,” she replied, “Could a student do this?”

 Each day as she plans her class assignments, instead of spending hours cutting out shapes, sorting colors, filing papers, or moving materials, she asks herself, “Could a student do this?” If the answer is yes, she incorporates that step into her lesson. She looks at every step of lesson preparation as an opportunity for students to develop skills, and as a result, has streamlined her daily preparation process to an efficient machine. By empowering students to be involved in daily classroom tasks, she allows more time to focus on the conceptual areas of her teaching plan.

 As you get ready for this next week, and you begin to sort, file, stack and organize – ask yourself, “Could a student do this?”

Sometimes leaving your students with a sub can be more work than actually being at school! It is frustrating, if not downright disheartening, to come back from a day off campus only to find your room in disarray, and a note from the substitute listing the creative ways your students undermined authority while you were gone! In a follow-up tip to “Sink the Sub”, posted December 3rd, we bring you a new motivating tip shared by a junior high science teacher.

Students love competition. Adding a little competition among classes or class periods might be just the motivation students need to be on their best behavior for your substitute teacher. Establish ground rules for a competition, in which substitutes will give each class or period a letter grade (A-F) or a ranking (Excellent, Good, Average, Poor) based on their behavior and level of respect for the day. Leave your sub a note with an easy fill in chart so they can quickly grade class periods. Determine a time frame (quarter, semester, term, etc.) for which you will keep track of substitute grades. At the conclusion of that time period, the top scoring class/period will receive a prize such as a class party, a movie, a fun teambuilding activity, or even extra credit points.

Empower your students by having them establish guidelines for the grading. Ask students what a respectful class looks, sounds and acts like when a substitute is present. Capture notes on a tear sheet to post on the wall. You can also ask students for input on the end reward. Give students parameters, such as length of time, money, resources, etc., and they just might give you a great reward idea! It becomes a win-win situation for you, substitutes, and your students!