I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all of the extra work on teacher’s plates lately. Back to school season is always a challenge, but this year is especially difficult for teachers everywhere.

I’m all about things that can make teacher’s lives easier this fall, and that’s why I want to talk to you all about CHOICE! Incorporating more choice in your classroom routines can engage your students a little bit more, give them more responsibility, and take some stress off of your plate. Let’s look at five reasons why choice is so helpful!

How can Choice Benefit my Teaching Life?

Differentiation 💡
Allowing your students to choose between a variety of activities can be a method of offering differentiation, without you needing to prep 3 different versions of the same activity. You can allow students to choose from a variety of early finisher activities that are all slightly above level, but they can choose their own level of challenge, based on how comfortable they feel with that skill!
Create an Investment 💡
Think about how much more invested you are in anything when you get to make the choice for yourself. I think as adults we can lose touch with the importance of this, because we’re constantly making choices. If you needed a new kitchen table, it would be on you to choose it, and because of that, you’re super invested in making sure it’s the right size, color, and more! When you choose for yourself, you’re automatically more invested. The same is the case for kids choosing their assignment, or choosing certain elements within one assignment. The move invested they are, the less you need to be on their case about completing the assignment.
Develop Grit 💡
When your students are invested in their work, they are more likely to push through to see the work all the way through, rather than giving up half-way through. So, if you’re trying to push some kiddos who don’t try to push themselves, giving them a little choice might be the missing piece to ensure that they dig deep and grow. Plus, the next time that you introduce something challenging that your students, you have already laid the groundwork for helping them to believe that they can do hard things.
Shift the Responsibility 💡
When you give your students some choices, you’ve shifted the responsibility off of your own shoulders. Now, the KIDS are in charge of choosing the work and keeping up with it. You won’t know exactly what they chose to do until they turn it in, so it’s up to them to follow through with their assignment until it’s complete.
Make Things More Fun! 💡
Finally, when you add all of these things together: letting students decide their level of challenge, investment, grit, responsibility…you get more engagement! When you offer choice, students can choose things based on their own interests, which makes the assignment more fun!

How Can Choice Boards Help?

I have a variety of choice boards in my TPT store that can give your students options on the assignments they complete, while still holding them to practicing the skills and standards that they need! If you’re looking for a way to gain all of the benefits of choice that I listed above, but also make sure that your students are working on purposeful assignments, then these choice boards are perfect!

Each board is aligned to 2nd-3rd grade math standards, and you can purchase them by month to cover entire weeks of your classroom teaching at a time!

Choice boards can be worked into your math block, used as homework, or turned into an early finisher station. You can read about my approach to early finishers in this blog post HERE!