Annette Lubbesmeyer

👣 Creator of My Digital Footprints 👣

Learner, Educator, Role-Model, Collaborator, Risk-Taker, Sports Fan, Dog/Animal Lover

[Annette Lubbesmeyer @Winhawk15]

https://t.co/5bbTosSVhB

[𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 @DrBradJohnson]

Elementary children should not go hours without an opportunity to move, play, and reset.
One recess during a seven-hour school day is not enough.
The American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes the importance of regular breaks from concentrated instruction. In countries including Finland, Denmark, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom, multiple breaks are commonly built into the school day, sometimes following approximately 45–50 minutes of instruction.
There is a reason for that.
Children's attention needs to reset. Their bodies need to move. They need opportunities to play, interact, explore, and develop the self-regulation and social skills that support learning.
Research also shows that recess and physical activity can improve attention, concentration, memory, and on-task behavior.
Yet we sometimes ask a six-year-old to sit through long stretches of academic instruction and then treat restlessness as a behavior problem.
And I have to ask: Who looks at a schedule where a six-year-old is expected to sit and focus for hours with little opportunity to move or play and decides that is developmentally appropriate?
We would never design a day like that based on what we know about how young children develop. Yet somehow, we have normalized it in the name of academics.
Elementary children should have opportunities for movement and meaningful breaks throughout the day, ideally around every 45–60 minutes for our youngest learners.
Stop designing elementary schools around how long adults want children to sit and start designing them around how children actually learn and develop.
Children often learn better on their feet than in their seats.

[Brian Tolentino M.Ed @TolentinoTeach]

During my first year of teaching, there was a veteran teacher near my classroom with nearly thirty years of experience.

She was methodical, well prepared, deeply professional, and ran a calm, well-managed classroom.

One day, I watched our assistant principal, someone who hadn’t taught in a classroom for over a decade, reprimand her for the way she managed her students.

I was stunned.

Sadly, this wasn’t an isolated moment.

It reflects a pattern that shows up far too often in education: veteran teachers being treated like children by people who haven’t run a classroom in years.

[Fixing Education @FixingEducation]

Schools spend hours trying to “reach” the kid who openly doesn’t care, while the kid who tries every day quietly gets ignored. We’re exhausting ourselves chasing resistance instead of investing in effort.

[𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 @DrBradJohnson]

Remember when kindergarten was half days,
naps, and story time, not standardized tests
and data charts?
We didn’t test childhood.
We lived it.

[𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 @DrBradJohnson]

When a 2nd-grade math word problem is written at a 4th-grade reading level, it’s not really about the math anymore.
It’s about reading above grade level.

Reading belongs in math. Kids have to make sense of problems.
But when the language is harder than the math, the outcome is predictable.

Students can understand the math.
They can know how to solve it.
And still fail — because of how the question is written.

This isn’t an accident.

International comparisons (PISA and TIMSS) show that U.S. math assessments are often longer, wordier, and more linguistically complex than those used in many higher-performing countries — even when testing the same math concepts.

In other words, testing companies design questions that make it easier to miss the math.

If we want math scores to mean something, grade-level math needs grade-level language.

[𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 @DrBradJohnson]

Class size does matter. Behavior matters even more.
It’s not just that it’s impossible to meet the needs of 30 engaged students in one room.
The real issue is that almost every class has one or two students who don’t want to be there and can derail learning for everyone else.
Teachers can manage big classes.
What they can’t do is teach, redirect, protect, and de-escalate all at once when one or two students are constantly disrupting… or worse.
We’ve reached a point where a teacher was shot by a 6-year-old, and she had to sue her district just to get paid for the trauma she endured. If that doesn’t show how far this has gone, nothing will.
Most students want to learn.
Most teachers want to teach.
But it only takes one or two to shut a class down or put a teacher in danger.
If we want better learning, we can’t ignore this reality.
Class size matters and so do the supports, boundaries, and alternatives for students who cannot function safely in a traditional classroom.

[Zach Groshell @MrZachG]

“Teachers need more training to differentiate properly.”

No, chasing the differentiation dragon is a logistical problem, not a training problem. It is demanding the impossible to expect teachers to teach remedial skills and grade level skills and advanced skills all at once.

[𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 @DrBradJohnson]

Education is relationship-centered, where effective communication, personalized learning, and emotional well-being thrive, fostering a community where everyone feels valued and connected

[TeacherGoals @teachergoals]

So true! 🧡

[TeacherGoals @teachergoals]

Love this! 🧡

[Tiny Buddha @tinybuddha]

"Today, I’m thankful for the people who love me, the places that soothe me, the adventures that fuel me, and the experiences that have shaped me.” ~Lori Deschene

[Pharis Smith @PharisSmith]

#truth

[TeacherGoals @teachergoals]

🧡

[𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 @DrBradJohnson]

Few things have greater impact!

[CHS Leadership @Leadership_CHS]

Be patient. (img: Tiny Buddah)

[Big Ten Football @B1Gfootball]

A WALK OFF WINI‼️

@GopherFootball rallies to come back and win on a last second field goal. 😤

[Jon Gordon @JonGordon11]

Three things you control every day are your ATTITUDE, your EFFORT and your ACTIONS. It doesn’t matter what others are doing or who you think is being unfair. Every day you can focus on being positive, working hard and making others around you better.