July is flying by in a flash. We hope you are spending time relaxing, refreshing, and recuperating—even as back-to-school season approaches ever so quickly.   One of the best ways to soften the transition from summer to the new school year is through John Dewey’s favorite practice: reflection.

When the new school year begins, students will enter classrooms feeling a range of emotions, not the least of which is fear. They may wonder: Do I belong?

Not all the writing your students do needs to be in formal, graded assignments.  In fact, most should occur in low-stakes situations, where students can brainstorm, wonder, create, practice, reflect, and apply skills without fear of grades or criticism.  A writer’s notebook offers the perfect canvas for such writing.

The first weeks of school feel like a whirlwind. Students enter our classrooms full of wonder but also worry: Am I smart enough? Will people accept me? Do I belong here? You can ease their worries by building a sense of belonging.

In your dream classroom, what does a good discussion look like? For the longest time, my dream resembled a scene from Dead Poets Society. I pictured myself facilitating lively conversations about literature, with energized students speaking up, sharing insights, talking through difficult ideas, and working toward new understandings. In reality, the reading discussions in my English classes were much more muted.

To develop new writing skills, students need something to emulate. You can have students read models of strong writing to explore new genres and prepare to write.

What motivates students to learn? Researchers tackled this age-old question in a recent meta-analysis of education studies involving nearly 80,000 students. The analysis showed two significant findings. First, teachers hold greater influence than parents in motivating students to learn. Second, students’ motivation to learn depends on meeting three psychological needs: competency, belonging, and autonomy. As ELA teachers, we know the importance of using classroom practices that support these needs. We also know one of the best ways we can motivate students is through choice.

“Trust your hunches. They’re usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level.” — Dr. Joyce Brothers That pit in your stomach, that flutter of your heart, that frisson down your spine . . . sometimes your body knows things before your brain does. More than odd sensations, these signals from our bodies can actually help us and our students to think. In her new book The Extended Mind, Annie Murphy Paul explores the power of bodily intuition (what psychologists call interoception).

Writing in school poses a unique challenge for ELL students. Beyond the obvious hurdle of using a new language, many ELL students come from oral cultures, so their writing experiences in general may be limited. Now inside English-speaking classrooms, they are expected to write up to grade-level standards while using unfamiliar words and grammar. It should come as no surprise, then, when ELL students are reluctant to write. But you can change that.

Human beings have always been tool users. Fire let us wake little suns; arrowheads gave us talons like eagles; wolfskins sent us out across Ice Age Europe; and language—whether spoken, written, printed, or coded—fueled every innovation since. Our brains require such tools. After all, those three-pound puddings of nerve and fat in our skulls haven’t changed much since we first fashioned arrowheads. In fact, in her new book, The Extended Mind, Annie Murphy Paul argues that we’re probably already using our brains at near-peak capacity. Thinking harder is not the answer.