It may be Valentine’s Day, but what does that actually mean for an educator?

In This Post:

Valentine’s Day, like any holiday, brings its own special set of challenges for teachers.
You can choose to simply survive Valentine’s Day, or focus on still connecting your content and engaging your students.
Providing opportunities to share happiness is one way of connecting Valentine’s Day to your content.
Community Challenge Cards are challenges students can push out in your community and challenge each other to find, complete, and leave for others to engage with.
Don’t let learning stop just because it’s a holiday day.

My initial thoughts consist of overly rambunctious students, mismatched schedules, a chaotic balance of work life and personal life responsibilities, and a day full of disjointed activities, rather than authentic incorporation of the content.

Have you experienced this mess? Are we all just trying to SURVIVE Valentine’s Day?

Is it really only about surviving? I don’t think it should be. I want you to do more than just survive your days teaching. I want you to thrive!

So, here is one super-awesome way YOU can thrive in your classroom…on Valentine’s Day, or any other day!

There is never a dull moment when you continually challenge students to share positivity with those around them. Click To Tweet

Provide opportunities to share happiness.

Any opportunity you can take to celebrate is one worth taking. Whether it is a round of applause for a student who chose to volunteer to explain their thinking, or a holiday to remind us of the good in the world – celebrate, celebrate, celebrate!

In proper “Rae” language – “choose to ooze happiness.”

How can you make this happen in your classroom without the chaos? Facilitate specific opportunities for students to share in the celebration. Yes, this may consist of heart candy or pink and red decorations, but it could also include a number of other “non-Holiday” related celebratory moments. Simple ideas, like setting aside time for students to share their voice with a personal story, or showing an inspirational video about the impact of happiness to lead a reflection activity, are easy to incorporate into any classroom.

Let’s take it up a notch: Ever heard of Community Challenge Cards?

Last year, during a themed internship sponsored by our school guidance counselors, students in my classroom connected their math understanding to mental health. While exploring how the students would share their learning to better educate the community, we brainstormed a number of ideas: write cards to a nursing home, send cookies to mental health specialists in the community, spread awareness in a student recording video… the list goes on and on.

Yet, it was not quite the message the students wanted. They were hungry to make an impact.

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So, we took a little idea from a cute card game and amplified our message through Community Challenge Cards! Each student made their own deck of challenge cards. The goal of the challenge is to find a card in the community, complete the challenge, and leave the card to be found in a new location. In addition to the traditional details of each card, we added a math spin to some of the cards to challenge the readers thinking as well as a mental health fact for the reader.

So get the candy hearts, cover your room in pink and red, and have some fun with your students. But don’t let the learning stop. Find ways to celebrate every day! And then take it up a notch and allow your students to make their own deck of community challenge cards and share their messages with the community!

There is never a dull moment when you continually challenge students to share positivity with those around them. This is one way we begin celebrating life beyond a happy holiday.

About Rae Hughart

Rae Hughart is a Middle Level Math and Writing Educator in Illinois and the Director of Training and Development for Progressive Mastery Learning, LLC. In 2017, Rae was honored with the Illinois State University Outstanding Young Alumni Award – inducting her into the University Hall of Fame.

Top image photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.