Finding teachers. Keeping teachers. Supporting teachers. Inspiring teachers. Helping teachers.
When it comes to giving teachers the support they need to do their jobs effectively, we can all pitch in to make the job easier. For an administrator, providing an efficient, favorable work environment is of the utmost importance to maintain staff morale and promote creativity and student success.
As teachers are stretched in many different directions navigating not only standard curriculum, but supporting the social-emotional growth of students while handling classroom and behavioral management, providing tools that can help do all of these things should be at the top of the priority list. How can you help save time, save money, and save sanity - to make your teachers' lives easier?
How can you...
Support Teachers Teaching Complex Concepts
What we know from the Learning Pyramid, is that students remember a small percentage of what they read, hear, see, and watch - but they learn the most when they teach others. When teaching something like the water cycle - which demonstrates a cyclical life journey of droplets of water, it might not be enough to have just a visual from textbooks or YouTube. With a tool like the VariQuest® Cutout Maker 1800 Digital Die-Cut Machine, paired with thousands of cutouts, fonts, and collections in our Engage Every Learner® Content, teachers can save time with an electronically-cut water cycle collection shown in this video to have students come up to a blank board and attach their own individual parts of the concept to show others their knowledge of how the cycle flows. This saves sanity in curriculum planning, while enhancing their teaching with a student-led, hands-on approach.
Support Teachers to Promote Social-Emotional Wellbeing
Alongside the reading, writing, and arithmetic we're taught in school, we also learn to be kind, cooperative, and self-aware. As educators are major role models outside the home for their students, the more they can do to promote the wellbeing of the whole child, the better. But it isn't enough to just know that - teachers need ideas, they need materials, and they need support. With the VariQuest Suite, teachers can select from thousands of templates, graphics, and cutouts to print and post or design their own creations to display visual reminders, lead check-in activities, and support students who are coming from a challenging environment. In this video, we demonstrate how we printed a "Mental Health Check-In" Poster (found in our Engage Every Learner® Content on the VariQuest Design Software) on the the VariQuest Perfecta® Series Poster Design System then laminated it using the VariQuest Cold Laminator 2510 for reusable classroom check-ins to make sure students are mentally ready to learn for the day.
Support Teachers Trying to Engage Every Learner
In your classroom you may have visual learners, verbal learners, learners with special needs, learners working on language skills, and learners who often need to hit the "reset" button to stay focused. With so many differentiated types of learning required in any given classroom, it's no wonder that teachers may struggle with innovating and creating new methods of instruction to reach all students. VariQuest can help to support that too! With time-saving tools to create anchor chart visuals, hands-on manipulatives, bilingual and non-verbal curriculum supports, and sensory path collections, we are constantly developing new content to help educators solve challenges to help every student (and teacher!) succeed. Download one of our free sensory path collections, designed to teach curriculum about things found in a forest and English Language Arts (ELA) while getting the wiggles out and having fun to enhance focus and create real-world connections, Sensory Path Activity: Forest Adventure. Easy to create on the VariQuest Cutout Maker 1800 Digital Die-Cut Machine using vinyl material for durable floor application, you'll love the possibilities and time-saving our content and tools present for these and all types of engaging curriculum content!
Support Teachers in Managing Their Classrooms
From creating a positive, well-architected learning environment to overcoming behavioral challenges, classroom management is a huge part of a teacher's job. Designing with organizational labels and directional signage, designating calming areas, and involving students in developing posted classroom expectations are all ways to efficiently run a classroom fit for all. Download our eBook on Building a Positive Classroom Culture to see how the VariQuest Motiva® Specialty Printer, Perfecta Poster Design System, and Cutout Maker 1800 Digital Die-Cut System all work together with thousands of templates and graphics in the VariQuest Software to assist with developing positive behavior-reinforcing techniques in teachers' classrooms!
We'd love to continue the discussion with you, on how your precious funding dollars can be well-spent investing in making teachers' jobs easier. Our expert education consultants, many of them former educators themselves, truly believe in these tools as beneficial for every classroom, every hallway, and every school campus. Contact us today for a no-obligation demonstration and see how the VariQuest Suite could be a great help for the teachers in your school!