Try some of these expert tips to weather the 'spring fever' blues

One of the toughest things about coming off of spring break is just that -- coming off of spring break! I took a little time to find out what education author Julia G. Thompson was thinking about keeping students engaged while they are being distracted by "spring fever." This post my be aimed at teachers, but it's worth reading for parents, too.

Thompson has been a public school teacher in Virginia for more than 30 years. Her most recent book is, “Discipline Survival Guide for the Secondary Teacher.” For more educational tips from Thompson, click on her web site at http:juliagthompson.com.

Here's one of her online posts from the "Teaching Community." 

Rare would be the teacher who is not affected by spring fever during the month of April.

Your restless students are certainly no exception. Instead of trying (probably in vain) to fight the phenomenon, spend a little extra time planning lessons that will make class enjoyable for your students during this time. 

Here are some suggestions to consider:

• Be careful to build in relevance to make sure students are aware of the benefits of what they are learning
• Consider using multimedia in your presentations to engage student interest. Music, art, video clips...whatever your students enjoy can be used to snag their attention
• Sometimes tangible rewards can help students pay attention when they may otherwise be distracted
• Challenge your students to beat their personal best on assignments
• Challenge your students to beat each other in friendly competitions
• If your subject or grade level is appropriate, arrange for your students to participate in a WebQuest project. To learn more, try www.webquest.org
• Plan plenty of review sessions at the end of class so that students can see the relevance of what they are learning as well as the progress they are making.
• Allow more wiggle breaks when students are restless. A 30-second “stretch” break every now and then is preferable to a loss of 30 minutes caused by distraction and boredom

One sure way to make your classroom a livelier place during the month of April is to present a silly fact each day for your students to think about, dispute, talk about, research, write about, and enjoy.

For example, did you know these strange-but-true facts from www.amusingfacts.com?

• In 1982, Larry Walters tied 24 weather balloons to his lawn chair in Los Angeles and climbed to an altitude of 16,000 feet.
• In the spring of 1975, a baby in Detroit fell 14 stories and landed on Joseph Figlock, who was walking below. A few years later it happened again. Figlock and both babies survived.
• The Canadian province of New Brunswick had a bloodless war with the U.S. state of Maine in 1839.