positive and negative charge...

This post is part of the BlogHer #NaBloPoMo challenge.

Day 3 Prompt: What is your favorite way to recharge when you feel drained of energy?

My goal this month as I respond to the BlogHer prompts for this challenge is to connect each question to my middle school math classroom. It happens. Everyone has a day when they just don't feel up to par. So for today I want to share my Top 3 tricks for surviving a day of teaching algebra when I feel drained. Goodness knows an energy lapse isn't necessarily convenient...it doesn't always occur on a weekend or an extended break. What's a teacher to do?!?

Trick #1
Dress for an interview.
I automatically feel like I can fake energy if I'm dressed up. Don't call me crazy until you try it! :)

Trick #2
Meet your students at the door.
Their smiles are contagious! I don't know about your students, but my seventh and eighth graders have an abundance of energy...certainly plenty to share with me. :)

Trick #3
Insert an activity...Madagascar style.
I like to move it move it! When my students are up and moving around the classroom for an activity the energy level rises for everyone...including me. And if I find myself dragging on a day that doesn't have an activity with movement, I pull from a previous lesson and repeat an activity as review at the beginning or end of class.

The teacher is the biggest influence on the classroom environment. We can send a positive charge or a negative charge throughout the classroom...every single day. Good, bad, or ugly. Do the math. What kind of balance do you desire by the end of the block?

So how do you recharge your classroom? Please do share! I would love nothing more than to add your methods to my bag of tricks for those days I feel less than energetic.

Have a fabulous Thursday...make it count!