• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

May 20, 2014 Elementary School

Open Your Doors to Learning

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Lori H Rice

Lori Rice is a fourth-grade teacher at West Elementary in Wamego, Kansas, who has taught K-2 reading as well as kindergarten, first grade and fourth grade since 1996. She has a passion for creativity, learning, questioning and the whole child. Her classroom is a place of acceptance and celebrating differences.
  • Bringing Project Based Learning to our Classroom - August 12, 2018
  • Keep the Engagement Alive: Start the Year with Purpose - August 5, 2018
  • It's Our Fault: A Teacher's Confession - March 18, 2018
  • Keeping Your Teaching Real: A Teacher's Role - March 11, 2018
  • Sketch Notes in the Elementary Classroom - February 15, 2017
  • Teach From the Heart - February 9, 2017
  • Who is the Teacher: School or Family? - January 11, 2017
  • Dear President Elect Trump, From Your Teachers - November 17, 2016
  • Let them Be Children - October 21, 2016
  • Print Resources: Great Tools for Kids - October 17, 2016

orange_treeThe winter was long here in Kansas.  When we finally got some spring air it was refreshing to open the windows and get outside.  Students and teachers can both benefit from getting out of the classroom.

It’s just a space, the classroom.  Learning comes from the lessons, the questions, the educator, and the interactions among and with your students. If the activity you are doing does not require supplies, resources or technology, why are you indoors?  If students are reading or working without these supplies, go outside!  I have a classroom set of clipboards (garage sales or local business donations are great resources to pick some up for cheap) so we can take spelling test or complete work outside.  For more ideas check out this article.  Setting up some simple expectations, like any good classroom management, will allow you to open your doors to a fresh air learning environment.   

Field trips are a popular spring activity for good reason.  Getting out of the classroom brings experiences to your students to enrich learning.  If you can’t leave the building though, bring the world into you.    Technology makes it possible for you to invite experts into your room or explore museums virtually.  Interview and learn from authors as well as visit locations around the globe.  If it is a local field trip or a virtual field trip, opening your doors to these experiences brings opportunities to your students.

Expand your resources.  Science and math are everywhere outside.  Use the playground to find angles and measure distances.  Learn about exercise and heart rates.  Find habitats and erosion on the school grounds.  Find ways to experiment and let students create experiments to test ideas about our natural world.  Engaging and fun activities keep learning as the focus and help decrease negative behavior that is common as the year comes to an end.  Open the doors to more questions and learning as you step out into the school ground.

As the school year winds down, look for opportunities to open your doors.  Set boundaries and explain expectations for behavior as well as objectives.  Move the classroom outside of your room either into the playground, the school ground, or virtually.  Have fun setting up opportunities for your students to keep learning as a focus for the remainder of the year.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Paper or Paperless Classrooms? Default ThumbnailDifferentiating your Formative Assessments Default ThumbnailTake Your Apps Outside 5 Ways to Use Emojis in the Classroom
« Learning Disorders in the Math Classroom
High School Recess: Should it be an Option? »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • "Let's Make This Happen": Following Student Interests to Interest-Based Mentorships
  • Want to Keep Special Education Teachers? Try Mentorship
  • An Idaho teen who won his school board election has a message for educators
  • Moving Beyond Diversity to Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging: Lessons from a Sunday Sermon

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.