Autumn is one of my favorite seasons of the year. I love the pumpkins, the orange, yellow and red tones, the comfort food, the blankets, everything, even back to school season. It’s easy to be happy when you are at home, watching a movie and drinking a pumpkin spice latte, but when you are a teacher and you need to be at school all the time, the task “be happy” becomes a lot more complicated. Let me give you some advice from my point of view, and I hope my words will bring you some joy.

1.Buy something useful, reusable and not expensive – when it comes to quick things, like a meal or a drink, it’s very easy to create litter. A plastic comb I can use for years, but a plastic cup will go to the garbage pile after only a few minutes, or an hour, when I am done with my coffee. Starbucks (and not only, of course) offer reusable cups that look just like their regular ones all year round. And they are extremely cheap! In Bulgaria one costs €3.5 😱 This Fall Starbucks decided to take their reusable game to the next level by producing an Autumn-themed black reusable cup with pretty pumpkins and it is unbelievably cute! Another cool thing they brought us this season is the fancy pumpkin-shaped porcelain mug that I had a very hard time finding. So, this Fall, go grab your own cup/mug and become a better version of yourself. I can’t live without a reusable cup anyway, but it helps when it is so pretty 🍁❤️ Also, PUMPKINS! 🎃 And who doesn’t want more pumpkins in their life when October comes?

2.Good coffee – Everyone knows that 50% of a teacher’s blood composition is caffeine, so some good coffee is definitely a must! I spent 8 years (2014-2022) of only drinking tea and not consuming any caffeine (no black tea, coffee, green tea) but a few months ago I tasted the sweet taste of coffee again, and now I came back to it with full force! I still don’t like the taste of plain espresso, I never did, but I enjoy it a lot in combinations with milk and other flavors. My sister showed me “Beanie’s coffee”, which is instant coffee granules with different flavors (they have more than 40! wow) and I. AM. IN. LOVE! They taste so good, they have such rich aroma and now I can’t live without them anymore. They even have a flavor called “Pumpkin spice”! They are cheap, they come in a reusable glass jar AND they have zero sugar and calories! How cool is that? It’s what I’ve been drinking all Autumn (2022)! My favorite flavor is Jam Doughnut.

3.Spooky resources – A common trait of all fun, interesting and happy teachers, is the use of colorful, engaging and often seasonal resources. At least that is what I believe in. I have colleagues that teach the same stuff over and over again, every year, for many years, but I also have colleagues that work like me – I can’t teach the same stuff more than 2-3 times. I live for the feeling of change, of something different each time. That is exactly why I love creating and using seasonal and holiday-related resources. It not only boosts the spirit of the students, but also makes the lesson fit into our lives and brains easier. A student is more likely to remember those spooky math problems, in the shape of pumpkins and ghosts, than he/she is to remember the normal everyday math problems. Here is an example I created and absolutely adore: Microbit Halloween party in a box activity and BEGINNER project with 3 tasks

4.Halloween-themed bulletin board – October is not the same without a spooky bulletin boards outside the classroom or even inside the computer lab. I love creating boards and posters and I always add a bit of a seasonal touch. As you may know, October is online safety month so it is just the perfect time to create an online safety bulletin board, like I did. I just grabbed some black cardboard, printed my information (this is a link to where you can get all of the pictures and the info cards that I used), glued it and “voilà”!

I created the cool looking online safety poster you see below. It has 7 advice/rules on how to be safe when browsing the web and social media. The students in my school loved it! The idea of it is that browsing the Internet can be scary if you don’t know how to be safe. The scary Jack’o’Lantern bag is upside down and the rule cards and some Halloween candy are falling from it. I could do the poster without a theme but it would’ve been so much more boring and not even half the students would stop to actually see it and read it. And this is just a tiny example of the creativity you can put in a simple poster.

These were my 4 fast advice on how to make Autumn more enjoyable and magical, if you are a teacher (but not only!). I hope I helped you fight the Autumn blues. If you tried any of my advice, or if you want to tell me your opinion and your list of Autumn teacher must-haves, simply write to me in the contact form of my blog.

Thank you for reading my thoughts! ❤️

Happy teaching! ☀️

Geri