<![CDATA[New Teachers Retreat - Blog]]>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 17:11:26 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Announcing: New Teacher Conversations]]>Wed, 15 Jul 2020 07:00:00 GMThttp://www.newteachersretreat.com/blog/announcing-new-teacher-conversations
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We're so excited to announce our upcoming Zoom Conversation Series: New Teacher Conversations!

These last few months have been a whirlwind.  Whether you are new to teaching or have more experience, none of us have experienced anything like this spring before.  While we can't hold our annual Retreat this summer, we realize that many new teachers are still looking to process the year we had just like any other, if not more so.  Which is why we are hosting New Teacher Conversations over the next month.  

Join us for 4 conversations this summer to discuss Classroom Management, Parent Communication, Culturally Responsible Teaching, and Self-Care. These conversations are intended to help support new teachers, but teachers of all experiences are welcome to join in, especially as we discuss these topics in relation to the pandemic, remote learning, Black Lives Matter, and everything else that is happening in our world.

Our Leadership Team will facilitate these discussions to help guide you in processing the school year that just finished and prepare for the year ahead. They will be happening in our virtual teachers' lounge on Zoom at lunchtime on Wednesdays starting at noon, except for our session on Culturally Relevant Teaching which will take place prime time with our special guest at 8pm.
  • Classroom Management - July 22nd at noon
  • Parent Communication - July 29th at noon
  • Culturally Responsive Teaching with special guest John Bower - August 5th at 8 pm
  •  Self-Care - August 12th at noon

Register here and we will email the Zoom link to you each day of the conversation. We can't wait to talk with you!
]]><![CDATA[Update on the 2020 New Teachers Retreat]]>Tue, 21 Apr 2020 07:00:00 GMThttp://www.newteachersretreat.com/blog/update-on-the-2020-new-teachers-retreatWith heavy hearts, the Leadership Team of the New Teachers Retreat has made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Retreat.  We were holding on hope that we could hold this year’s Retreat, because we feel our Retreat is as important as ever with the challenges and trauma that the virus has caused for so many.  Unfortunately, we ultimately decided it was best to hold off until July 2021 with the continued uncertainty of this year and the COVID-19 situation.

We are working together to continue to remotely support new teachers with online resources to come out over the next few weeks and months and hope to be able to do more in the fall.  We look forward to the summer of 2021 when we will return to Keene State College for the New Teachers Retreat. Until then, we encourage you to follow our social media pages for updates on ways to help new teachers and other resources. 

To our new teachers out there, you’ve got this and you’re doing great.  Even for our more experienced teachers, this is very different from how we normally teach and reach kids.  This is hard and that’s okay. We would all love to be back in our classrooms and despite this, it’s awesome to see teachers of all experiences rise to this challenge.  We are still here for you. Please let us know how we can help support you from afar, and we look forward to seeing you in 2021.

​]]><![CDATA[Set Up Your Classroom with Our Free Guide]]>Tue, 06 Aug 2019 01:45:49 GMThttp://www.newteachersretreat.com/blog/set-up-your-classroom-with-our-free-guidePicture
As we enter August, it's that time again.  Back to school supplies have been on the shelves for weeks and our Southern counterparts have already started posting first day of school photos on our feeds.  We start wondering:
  • Where did the time go? 
  • What do I need to do before my students arrive? 
  • What do I still need to know before I set up my classroom?
  • What does it mean to set up a welcoming classroom? 
  • What do I need to buy?  (And just how much money will I have to spend?!)
  • How can I possibly be ready for the first day?  

In New England we still have a few weeks before we start a new school year and welcome our fresh-faced students, but before then it's time to get our classrooms ready for them.  If you are new to teaching or switching schools, this task can seem daunting, which is why we have written an eBook to help you out.  

The First Years Guide to Setting Up Your Classroom is packed with tips, tricks, guiding questions, to-do lists, supplies lists, and much more in its 12 pages.  This eBook is written by an organized teacher who knows that many of us just need to know what's possible and some advice on how to approach the task of setting up our learning spaces for our students (& us!) to be successful.  We're so proud of this book and can't wait to share it with you.  

Your free eBook is filled with clear advice to get your started.  Including:

  • Questions to Ask
  • 5 Considerations Before You Start
  • Tips & Tricks
  • Supplies List
  • To-Do Lists
  • Procedures & Routines
  • Resources
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Get your free eBook, "The First Years Guide to Setting Up Your Classroom," by joining our list . 

We promise to not email too much, but we do want to stay in touch occasionally with news and support.  We're full-time working teachers, so we get it.  You have enough in your inbox to worry about us too.
]]><![CDATA[The Teacher's Summer Reading List]]>Mon, 22 Jul 2019 14:43:50 GMThttp://www.newteachersretreat.com/blog/the-teachers-summer-reading
Creative Commons license from: https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=106698&picture=reading-a-book-on-the-beach
Some people say that the top three reasons to become a teacher are as follows: June, July, and August. While our post-spring-break-tired-teacher-selves might be inclined to agree, generally that particular characterization of our professional motivation can be a little demeaning. 
Nonetheless, there’s no denying that the respite of the summer months is a pretty significant perk of the job, especially when it comes to freeing up the headspace for one of my favorite summer activities: reading! Call me a nerd, but I eagerly look forward to the annual summer book binge, and my many trips to the local library and bookstores are truly a hallmark of the season.

I like to have books from a few different genres on hand at any given time so that there’s always something interesting to accompany my present mood. Sometimes I like taking advantage of the time away from the daily chaos of teaching to reflect on my practice with professional development books, sometimes I’m in a mood to expand my mind with nonfiction and current events, and other times I just want that silly escapist beach-read that gives me a whole new world of people and places to explore in my mind.

My husband may not love the stacks of books teetering on every flat surface of our house, but I insist that I am reading them all simultaneously and no, I can’t just do one at a time!

So, if you’re like me and looking for some great reads to dive into this summer, here’s a list to get you started. Some I’ve read personally over the years, and some I’ve heard great things about from others. We’d love to hear what you’re reading this summer as well, so feel free to leave a comment below, and happy summer reading!
Great PD books for teachers:
What the “kids” are reading, and books to build empathy in students:
​(Generally appropriate for middle and high school level.)
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Nonfiction:
Fiction & Memoir:

Svea Schreiner

Svea Schreiner has been teaching middle and high school English and Language Arts in public schools for ten years. She has worked in suburban and rural settings in New Hampshire and West Virginia. She received her undergraduate degree in English Education from SNHU and her Master’s in Educational Leadership and Policy from Boston University.

]]><![CDATA[Project-Based Learning for Middle School Math]]>Tue, 21 May 2019 22:18:01 GMThttp://www.newteachersretreat.com/blog/project-based-learning-for-middle-school-mathPicture
I want my students to look back on their experiences in the middle school math classroom with fond memories. As a middle school math teacher, I know I play an important role in whether a student goes on to love or hate math for the rest of their educational career, which is why I’ve both flipped my classroom and embedded projects into the curriculum. While I wouldn’t consider the entire curriculum “project-based”, students do learn a great deal from hands-on experiences in my math class.

Project-based learning, at its core, is the idea of having students learn through investigation of real problems. Good project-based learning is interdisciplinary, rigorous, and student-centered. 
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My favorite experience, the Natick Open Door Project, combines math with service learning. Sixth-grade students prepare a 3-course meal for the elderly community of about 60 patrons. They choose the recipes and use ratios, proportions, and unit rates to buy the correct amounts of food and then make the meal. Later in the day, we return to the community center and the students interact with the patrons and serve them their meal. Each year the students reflect on just how rewarding the experience was and, little do they know, they learned a lot of practical math in the process.

Another project my seventh-grade students enjoy involves using statistics to mislead. They study the practices used by data visualization specialists to manipulate readers and then apply these tactics in a real dataset of their choosing. One group looked at Boston Marathon data and determined that Idahoan runners had the highest percentage of finishers of any state (they also had the fewest registered runners from any state). They created a campaign to spread this misinformation using real statistics and graphs. In the process, they learned how to read data tables, calculate the various measures of spread (range, interquartile range, and mean absolute deviation), identify types of data, and omit the baseline of a graph to make a number look like an outlier. In the era of “fake news”, the kids were excited to gain some media literacy and learn the tricks used to manipulate consumers.
These are two examples of the many projects that take place in my sixth and seventh-grade classrooms. I aim to make the learning as student-centered as possible through choice and experiential opportunities. As a result, there is a lot of joy in the classroom as kids are encouraged to be creative and have fun while learning.

Tori Wilbur

Tori is in her 10th year of teaching in both public and private schools.  She completed her undergrad in Mathematics Education at the University of New Hampshire, her master's in Curriculum and Instruction from Boston College, and her CAGS at Plymouth State University.

]]><![CDATA[Read Alouds for Your Upper Elementary Classroom]]>Mon, 06 May 2019 11:31:26 GMThttp://www.newteachersretreat.com/blog/read-alouds-2019-for-your-upper-elementary-classroom
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If you’re like me, choosing a read aloud can be a real struggle. You want your students to be engaged, but you also want to expose them to different genres of books. Some books are so meaningful to some classes, but are flops in others. If you’re looking to spice up your read aloud with some new tried and true recommendations, NTR has your back! All of the following books are fourth grader and fourth grade teacher approved!

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A Long Walk to Water
by Linda Sue Park

This book is my go to year after year. I always read this during my nonfiction unit that coincides with my social studies unit on immigration. This book follows the stories of two young people, Salva and Nya, as they navigate the difficulties of living in Sudan during two very different, yet trying, times in the country’s history. ​

The Wild Robot
by Peter Brown

    This book is newer to my repertoire. I’ll admit that this came highly recommended to me for years, and I just wasn’t excited about the summary. How interesting could a book about a robot named Roz be, as she lands on a remote island and has to try and survive with the not so friendly local animals? Turns out: very! Not only is this one of my favorites, the students in my class were all vying to take the sequel out of the school and public library!

The Honest Truth
by Dan Gemeinhart

Tear jerker alert! No matter how many times I read this book, I cry. Every. Single. Time. This book chronicles a tween named Mark and his loyal and beloved dog, Beau. Mark leaves home on an epic journey as he tries to come to terms with a difficult diagnosis and feeling out of control in his own life. While it deals with several heavy topics such as: death, friendship, loyalty, despair, and bravery, it has lead to some of the best discussions about ethics and morals.

Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry

This book simply never goes out of style. I love reading this book each year with my students when I expose them to historical fiction. This book follows two best friends, Annemarie and Ellen, in occupied Denmark during World War II. The girls find that life is forever changed when Nazis begin to “relocate” Jews, and both families are forced to make decisions that will change the course of their lives forever. Although students require a lot of background information to access the historical significance of this book, they are always eager to learn more about this time in history. ​

The Tiger Rising
by Kate DiCamillo

Anything by Kate DiCamilo is amazing, but this one holds a special place in my heart. This book follows a boy named Rob and his unexpected friendship with a girl named Sistine. They have both been through traumatic experiences that students always relate to. When they find a caged tiger in the woods behind the motel that Rob and his father live at, they face a tough choice: should they let the tiger go or keep it caged?

The Lemonade War
by Jacqueline Davies

This book is the perfect read aloud right before summer vacation! Evan and Jessie Treski are siblings that usually get along. However, at the end of summer, Evan discovers that Jessie will skip a grade causing the two of them to be in the same classroom, and that causes the two to go to war...a lemonade war!

Caitlin Lomando

Cait is a is a fourth grade teacher in Nashua, NH where she has spent much of her decade-long career.  She graduated from Keene State College with degrees in Elementary Education and American Studies and holds a Masters of Administration from Rivier University.

]]><![CDATA[Creating a Sub Tub For Your Classroom]]>Sun, 14 Apr 2019 14:38:17 GMThttp://www.newteachersretreat.com/blog/creating-a-sub-tub-for-your-classroomLet’s face it: one of the most difficult decisions a teacher can make is whether or not to take a sick day. In what other profession is staying home from work actually more work than going? Luckily, NTR has your back! Whether you are in your first year teaching or twenty-first, taking the time to create a “Sub Tub” is the gift that will keep giving year round!

What is it?
    A Sub Tub is something that you keep in your room with plans and copies all ready to go. You won’t need to worry about writing out sub plans again once your sub tub is complete!

Materials Needed:
  • A container for your sub tub (I bought mine at Staples!)
  • Hanging file folders
  • Daily schedules/student information
  • Activities or printouts for each subject area you teach
Simple Steps to Sub Tub Bliss:
  1. Put your file folders into your sub tub, and label them. As you can see in my pictures, I put daily schedules, student information/emergency plans, and each subject I teach (writing, reading, math, and social studies.)
  2. Put a simple schedule in for each day of the week with the times that subject areas are taught.
  3. Put a page with basic student information. It should include if students leave the classroom to go somewhere during the day, and what their dismissal plans are. Remember to honor the confidentiality of students, by telling who they go see during the day, but not what for.
  4. Put any evacuation information for your classroom into the emergency section.
  5. Put various activities or worksheets into each subject tab. Throughout the year when you have extra copies of worksheets, feel free to put them in too! I like to put things in that are time consuming, but allow the students to be independent. Check out some of the great resources I use in different subject areas:
    1. Social Studies: I love to add maps for them to read, color, and answer questions about.
    2. Math:  Scholastic has a great resource that allows students to practice secure skills and color.
    3. Reading: Print out free question and answer sets from ReadWorks. If your students have access to iPads or Chromebooks, set up accounts on Epic , Lalilo, or Freckle. ​
    4. Writing: Leaving a fun writing prompt or have students write a letter to you about the day!

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Enjoy,
Cait

Caitlyn Lomando

Cait is a is a fourth grade teacher in Nashua, NH where she has spent much of her decade-long career.  She graduated from Keene State College with degrees in Elementary Education and American Studies and holds a Masters of Administration from Rivier University.

]]><![CDATA[Highlighting Books in Your Classroom Library]]>Tue, 05 Mar 2019 08:00:00 GMThttp://www.newteachersretreat.com/blog/highlighting-books-in-your-classroom-libraryPicture
,Just a quick tip today.  I have been working to increase the books in my classroom library recently and have been lucky to receive a small literacy grant from our school's local Rotary Club.  I'm at a new school and inherited a lot of older books in my library, bur I've been working to bring in new titles along with the books I brought with me.  The collection is starting to make the library shelves in my room more and more interesting. 

However, I wanted to highlight books and make it look more inviting that simply the spines of the books that typically crowd my shelves.  Also, since I do have some space on my shelves, my new strategy hides the space by making the area look more vibrant and exciting.  Win-win.  

This tip may be rather obvious to others, but it was a revelation to me.  Librarians have always known that the front of the book, not its spine, is best for catching potential readers' eyes.  Which is why I've given up some real estate to displays, because books are better when they're noticed and read.  ​We've been lucky to have all these books, but what good do they do if they kids don't know what's there?  
My last new addition to my library is the other recommendation tags.  I created a template that you can use.  It's a simple document that allows you to write a sentence or two to entice your readers to pick up something new.  I print them on bright paper to catch their eyes and hang them off the edge of the shelves.  

Hope you enjoy!
​Ali
recommendation_cards.pptx
File Size: 41294 kb
File Type: pptx
Download File

Alexandra Stewart

Ali is a career-changer who came to education in 2013 through Teach for America.  She is currently a middle school English teacher in rural New Hampshire after spending her first six years teaching in Boston Public Schools teaching middle and high school English, ESL, and Special Education.

]]><![CDATA[Tip Tuesday: Organizing Supplies]]>Tue, 05 Feb 2019 08:00:00 GMThttp://www.newteachersretreat.com/blog/tip-tuesday-organizing-suppliesMy students are working on a project in class this week and next.  We've bee reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief in my 7th grade English class and for our culminating project for the unit, students are choosing an original Greek myth to reinterpret for a modern audience as either a children's book, graphic novel, or an illustrated short story.  The artistic element is just another way to communicate ideas along with the written work and we've been doing some drawing basics as mini-lessons this week.  It's been a lot of fun.  

Part of the challenge, however, is managing materials and supplies that my students use in class.  Enter my supply boxes...
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​Earlier in the year we started creating Interactive Notebooks (my first attempt at these!) and I quickly realized that my previous approach to distributing supplies wouldn't work quite as well as I'd like with the constant use of scissors, glue, colored pencils, etc., etc., etc.  I created supply boxes for each table in my room as a result.  
The above photo is from my classroom.  I have tables that fits a pair of students.  I've labeled each seat in pink with a number and in blue with a table letter.  The table letter also corresponds with supply boxes for each table.  For my classroom, these supply boxes are supplies for each pair of students.  

These boxes are a pretty easy fix to distributing the most common supplies in my room.  I have two students for each class that are in charge of distributing, collecting, and maintaining them.  Mostly that last part of the job description requires them to communicate with me when supplies run low or if a box is getting particularly messy.  I just did an overhaul of the boxes this week because we're about half way through the year and they needed some love, but overall this system has cut down a lot on my involvement with supplies. 
Each box has: 
  • 2 scissors
  • 2 yellow highlighters
  • 1 non-yellow highlighter
  • 1 glue stick
  • 1 pack of colored pencils
  • 1 color pencil sharpener
  • 1 blue Sharpie
  • 1 pack of sticky notes

Every classroom has different needs, but these were the main items that I felt like I was constantly managing.

​Hopefully, this is a tip that can help you and your classroom management systems too.  

Always,
​Ali

Alexandra Stewart

Ali is a career-changer who came to education in 2013 through Teach for America.  She is currently a middle school English teacher in rural New Hampshire after spending her first six years teaching in Boston Public Schools teaching middle and high school English, ESL, and Special Education.

]]><![CDATA[Hard at Work & Self-Care]]>Sat, 17 Nov 2018 16:15:18 GMThttp://www.newteachersretreat.com/blog/hard-at-work-self-careOctober is one of the toughest months of teaching.  March often gets the attention for being tough - and I won't lie, it is.  But October is often overlooked for how difficult it can be.  The honeymoon is over with the kids and there is a while before the well-deserved breaks start happening.  Now that we're into November, breaks occur more often. 

With Thanksgiving around the corner, there's more rest built into the weeks to come as we close out the calendar year.  These breaks are important.  Of course you love your students, but we need time apart from them too.  If you're a new teacher, late-October and early-November can surprise you with how tired you are, but it shouldn't, because you are hard at work.  
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And so are we.  We are busy working to get ready for the 2019 New Teachers Retreat.  As our Board gets together, looking forward to the year ahead, I wanted to share some self-care resources that will help others as the year continues to ramp up. 

Smiling Mind - www.smilingmind.com.au - Australian guided meditation website.  There are loads of recordings that are geared for people of all ages and grouped by age groups so that their meditation for 7 year olds is different than for 17 year olds or 30 year olds.

Go Noodle - www.gonoodle.com - Great for brain breaks in class, particularly aimed at elementary school and younger middle school kids.

Headspace www.headspace.com - Guided meditation app/site that is great for kids and adults - $ app, but well worth it to hear Andy’s smooth voice.

Mind Yeti www.mindyeti.com - Another great meditation app/site  for kids.

EDIT TO ADD:
Relax Like a Boss https://relaxlikeaboss.com/the-art-of-mindfulness/ - A collection of blogs about relaxation, mindfulness, and meditation. Free!

Extra bonus - you can use these with your kids too!  Which is great, because as the holidays get closer, many of our kids get really antsy.  Between the excitement, candy, and, unfortunately, for some of them, the anxiety of the holidays, they will really benefit from some mindfulness as well. 

Enjoy!
​Ali

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