I groggily pour a half cup of coffee (trying to cut back on caffeine) and a big bowl of cereal. I swipe up on my phone and open Duolingo. The perky green owl greets me.
I gauge if I'm going to finish a lesson and earn double XP today or if I should do a few lessons and then practice a few old skills. They've gamified it so that I'm always trying to stay in the Obsidian League. My streak is over 1,500 days, so Duo is my first priority when I wake up.
Part of the reason I have such a long streak is that I won't let myself check social media until I've practiced my Spanish. I also have to finish the Wordle and Quordle before social media, so I generally don't open Twitter until lunchtime. (I got rid of Facebook years ago and almost never miss it.)
I'm not generally obsessive about routines (sometimes I sneak Wordle before Duolingo), but they do help build good habits.
I try to give my students some healthy routines too. We start class with a question of the day to build the habit of socializing with their writing groups. We do Silent Sustained Reading on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We do grammar lessons on Tuesdays.
Sometimes, I feel like shaking up routines to keep life from getting boring, but I also know that some students need consistency. That breaking routines is stressful for them.
How do you build healthy routines and consistency? How do you know when to break those routines?
I gauge if I'm going to finish a lesson and earn double XP today or if I should do a few lessons and then practice a few old skills. They've gamified it so that I'm always trying to stay in the Obsidian League. My streak is over 1,500 days, so Duo is my first priority when I wake up.
Part of the reason I have such a long streak is that I won't let myself check social media until I've practiced my Spanish. I also have to finish the Wordle and Quordle before social media, so I generally don't open Twitter until lunchtime. (I got rid of Facebook years ago and almost never miss it.)
I'm not generally obsessive about routines (sometimes I sneak Wordle before Duolingo), but they do help build good habits.
I try to give my students some healthy routines too. We start class with a question of the day to build the habit of socializing with their writing groups. We do Silent Sustained Reading on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We do grammar lessons on Tuesdays.
Sometimes, I feel like shaking up routines to keep life from getting boring, but I also know that some students need consistency. That breaking routines is stressful for them.
How do you build healthy routines and consistency? How do you know when to break those routines?