Ever planned the perfect lesson only to watch students’ focus vanish? In this episode, we dive into building learning stamina, including why it matters, how to teach it, and 5 key strategies to help students stick with challenging tasks. We share a classroom story showing the power of starting small, celebrating progress, and using tools like timers, breaks, and goal setting to build lasting focus. By the end, you’ll see that stamina isn’t something students either have or don’t have. It’s a skill that can be taught, nurtured, and celebrated in every classroom.

Prefer to read? Grab the episode transcript and resources in the show notes here: https://www.secondstorywindow.net/podcast/building-learning-stamina/

Resources:

• Back-to-School Brain Breaks
• Kindle Page Turner Remote
• Visible - Save $20 with our link!
• Join the Teacher Approved Club!
• Connect with us on Instagram @2ndstorywindow.
• Shop our teacher-approved resources.
• Join our Facebook group, Teacher Approved
• Leave your review on Apple Podcasts!

Related Episodes to Enjoy:

• Episode 98, 5 Reasons Your Attention Signal Isn’t Working and How to Improve It
• Episode 164, Why You Need a Classroom Carpet And How to Manage Student Behavior
• Episode 191, Get Moving! Simple Movement Hacks That Save Your Sanity AND Boost Learning
• Episode 223, The Core 4 Routines Every Classroom Needs to Run Like Clockwork

Mentioned in this episode:

Try the Teacher Approved Club free for 10 days and get one perfectly timed, research-backed strategy each month—plus support from Heidi and Emily to help you actually use it when it matters most. Start your free trial at https://secondstorywindow.net/trial

Get dressed without the stress! Visit https://fashionfixmn.com/secondstorywindow for a special offer featuring a personalized body shape analysis, style quiz, and free closet clean out workbook just for teachers.

This is episode 224 of Teacher Approved.

You're listening to teacher approved, the podcast helping

educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm

Heidi.

And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story

Window, where we give research based and teacher approved

strategies that make teaching less stressful and more

effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from

each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to

the show.

Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today's

episode, we're talking about how to help your students build

their learning stamina, plus we've got a teacher approved tip

for elevating your sub plans.

But first, our try it tomorrow. Emily, what is our

quick win for this week?

Okay, so tomorrow, when kids are working, try narrating

positive things that you see, but make it about the effort,

not the outcome. So instead of, 'you're doing great,' try

saying, 'I see someone trying two different ways to figure out

that problem to make sure they got the same answer.' This takes

two seconds, but it shows everyone what you value, and

encourages them to keep working hard.

This seems so minor, but it's a really powerful shift.

Kids need to know what good work actually looks like.

If you like this idea or anything else we share here on

the podcast, would you take a second and give us a five star

rating and review in your podcast listening app?

All right, imagine it's the second week of school.

You've planned a beautiful, independent writing lesson,

you've explained the directions clearly, modeled what good work

looks like, and confidently sent your students off to write. And

I bet you can guess what happens next.

Well, let me think, probably about three minutes in,

half the class is at the pencil sharpener, two kids are done

with work already that should have taken them 20 minutes, and

someone's having a sudden shoe emergency that apparently cannot

wait.

Exactly. If you have ever asked your students to work

independently for 15 minutes in those first days of school, you

know exactly what we're talking about, the wandering eyes, the

bathroom requests, and suddenly everyone's water bottle is

desperately empty.

Yes, and it's not that your students don't want to

focus. It's just that many of them are still in summer brain

mode. So their attention spans are shorter. They're adjusting

to new routines and expectations, and they're just

not used to sustained focus anymore.

And that is assuming that they ever had the skills to

focus to begin with. But rather than pushing through hoping it

will get better, what if we took a more proactive approach? What

if we treated stamina not as something kids either have or

don't have, but as a skill we can teach and grow, just like

reading or math.

We don't expect kids to multiply two digit numbers

without teaching them how, right? So why do we sometimes

expect them to focus for extended periods without

explicitly building that capacity? And that's exactly

what we're going to talk about today. And Heidi, kick us off.

You've got a good example of this, right?

I do. Well I hope everyone is comfy, because we

are starting with a story time, and I so wish right now that I

could do a Sofia Petrillo impression, but you're just

gonna have to imagine me with gray curls and a wicker purse.

Picture it. And if you're too young to get that reference,

first of all, how dare you. And we probably seem so old to you

right now that you do think we have gray hair and wicker

purses.

So rude.

I mean, the gray hair may be accurate. It's not fully gray

though, we are taking care of that, but I do not have a wicker

purse, thank you very much.

Although, is it bad if I say I saw one the other day

Oh, shoot, let's just give up. Let's move to Florida.

online, and I thought, Oh, that's cute.

All the cheesecake we can handle. Well, picture it.

Sicily. I mean, my second grade classroom. It's the first week

of school. We have made it to day three, and I have been

working through my attaboy back to school goals. One of my

biggest teaching goals in the first week is to get students

used to the learning routines that we will be using all year

long, like how to spend silent reading time actually reading.

Yeah, the eternal challenge.

Oh, no joke. But I did find a secret weapon in the

daily five book. There are suggestions in that book that I

do disagree with, but the stuff that is good is so good that it

completely changed my teaching, and the author system for

launching reading time is really some of their best stuff. So

here's what I would do. I gathered my new little second

graders back at the carpet for a chat. We would talk about the

value of focus, and then I would give each student a stack of

books and place them in their reading spots. Now eventually, I

would let them choose their own books and spots, but that came

later. Once everyone was settled, I went back to my

table, because that's where I would normally be during reading

time, and I pretended to be busy with paperwork, but really I had

my stopwatch running and I was covertly scanning for the first

sign that someone was off task.

Oh, and those kids think they're being so sneaky while

they're secretly wasting time, but you're on to them.

Every time, they can't get it past me. Those kids are

about as subtle as a stampede. As soon as I spotted someone

looking around the room or building a tent out of books, I

stopped my timer and I called the class back to the carpet. No

matter how long they managed to read, even if it was just one

minute and 48 seconds, I was super pumped, because it is all

uphill from here. I told the kids all of the awesome things I

noticed them doing. Next we talked about the ways to get our

minds back on track if we lose focus. And then came the big

question, were they ready for round two? We set a goal for how

long they thought they could focus, and because they're

overachievers, they would immediately jump to 10 minutes.

Why did they do that? They think, they always think

they're ready to take on this, like, enormous challenge. I was

like, Guys, you couldn't even do two minutes.

That's why second graders are the best. They just have no

grip on reality.

That's what makes them so lovable.

Yes, definitely. So I would suggest something a little

more doable. Like, okay, we made it one minute and 48 seconds. Do

you think we can try for two minutes, and if we can keep

going, maybe we'll get to ten. So armed with their new resolve,

the kids went back to their reading spots, and I went back

to my table. The timer started again, and I got my paperwork

out again, and then as soon as I spotted someone off task, the

timer stopped. I had the kids put away their books and then

come back to the carpet.

This was the end of reading time for the day, and they were eager

to hear how well they had done. And even if they only beat their

previous time by a few seconds, it was still a celebration. We

wrapped things up by reflecting on what they had done to keep

their minds on their books, and we marked the day's progress on

a bar graph. That visual really made a huge difference. Suddenly

they could see, oh, today we made it two minutes. I bet we

get to three minutes tomorrow. It turns stamina into a class

challenge, almost like leveling up in a video game.

I love that, especially because they're all working

together for the goal. Now, this wasn't something you did all

year, though, right?

Oh, no. I think we all would have gotten real sick of

that real fast, but I repeated that process every day until

they could focus for about 10 minutes straight. After that, I

would keep slowly building their on task stamina, but we didn't

stop in the middle and discuss it anymore. So that was my grand

experiment with reading stamina, basically just me trying to

trick a bunch of eight year olds into believing that sitting

still and reading silently was the coolest new sport in town.

But you know what? It worked. It worked every year. By October,

that same class that could barely manage two minutes at the

start was reading independently for 20 or 30 minutes. I

sometimes had classes that could read for 40 minutes. But it

didn't happen all at once. We built it day by day, celebrating

every small victory along the way until they got where they

needed to be.

Oh, I love it so much. And this is a great story on its

own, but the best part is that these same principles that got

your kids reading longer can apply to any part of the school

day. That could be math practice, writing time, we know

how writing stamina can be so low, centers, even making sure

your mornings are efficient and effective.

So let's break down five reasons why this approach to reading

stamina worked, and more importantly, how you can apply

these same ideas to any time of day.

I think the first big takeaway here is that kids need

the language to talk about stamina. If we just say, try

harder, or pay attention, that really doesn't mean anything.

But when I started talking about it like training a muscle, it

clicked. I could tell them, alright, we're building our

reading muscles today. Every time you practice, you go a

little bit longer and you get a little bit stronger, and

suddenly they weren't just, you know, doing reading time they

were training. And who doesn't want to feel like they're

leveling up?

Yeah, and the key to making this stick is to use kid

friendly language. Defining stamina as the ability to stick

with something, even when it takes time or feels hard, is

something they can understand. We want kids to see that stamina

is a skill they can develop, just like learning to read or

ride a bike, and that same principle can apply to any

subject.

It's important to make struggle visible and normal in

your classroom by openly addressing it with your

students. You can start by having a conversation. Help them

understand that struggle is the time whenearning is happening.

You can ask students to share times when they've had to work

hard to learn something, and then work together to create an

anchor chart that defines what to do when you're stuck.

Students might suggest things like try a different way, ask a

friend, look for examples, or take a break and come back.

It's also helpful to include what not to do, things

like running away to the bathroom, asking to get water

when your bottle is already full, or just sitting there

doing nothing.

Yeah, and for some reason, students are often

surprised that we have picked up on these patterns.

What? How did she know?

Yeah, they think they're so sneaky. But naming those

little tricks helps everyone be more aware. The goal is to

normalize struggle and give students concrete strategies for

working through difficult moments.

The second lesson from Heidi's story is to start small

and make progress visible. And this might be the most important

principle of all. It's easy to think that kids should be able

to do something by this age, but as we all know, that doesn't

mean they can.

We have to meet them exactly where they are, which,

you know, in my case, was one minute and 48 seconds, and then

we can build from there. Starting small lets students

feel successful early, which is incredibly motivating. It's also

important to know when to stop pushing for the day. As soon as

my students were done with their second attempt, we were done

with reading time for the day. I didn't want it to become a

chore, so I ended things on a high note, even if it was only

four minutes long, and we celebrated any progress and

added it to our graph.

The clear visual of the graph makes this process so

motivating for students. As each day's bar gets colored in, they

have clear proof of their improvement, and it motivates

them to want to keep trying.

Unfortunately, success probably isn't going to be a

straight line. Some days we'll have setbacks, and that's

totally okay. We want students to know that we can learn from

mistakes too. So when this happens, have your students talk

about what went wrong and ask them to make a plan for what

they can try tomorrow.

Starting small and visually tracking progress

really does work for any subject. You can use the same

process to build writing stamina, math persistence and

getting kids focused during morning work time. The key is

making the increment small enough that success feels

achievable. Don't jump from two minutes to 10 minutes.

Even if they think they can make that jump.

Yes, don't let them do it. Each small victory builds

confidence for the next challenge, so you want to make

it easy for them to have those victories.

And then make sure you're celebrating. Did your class make

it four whole minutes today? Add it to the chart and do a little

happy dance. Those moments help stamina feel like a group

achievement instead of a chore.

And didn't you have a Facebook memory pop up the other

day that was like, my students read for three whole minutes

today, and we're celebrating, right?

We take our wins where we can get them.

The third takeaway for building learning stamina is to

use breaks strategically. Every time Heidi called the class back

together after a timed round of reading, she gave their brains a

chance to reset. They had just spent a few minutes

concentrating really hard, and that quick pause and movement

let them hit the reset button on their attention.

Plus taking strategic breaks teaches students that

focus isn't just about gritting your teeth and pushing through.

Sometimes the best way to maintain stamina is to pause,

breathe, and then jump back in. And that is such a valuable

lesson for kids to learn, and probably for some grown ups to

learn too.

And it's actually easy to build these focus resets into

any subject. If students are working on a long writing piece,

plan strategic pauses where they can share a sentence with a

partner, or do a quick stretch, or have them twist and turn in

their seats between math problems.

And luckily, there are a lot of creative ways to add

movement and breaks to your day.

Yeah, a great desk break is having students gently press

their palms together in front of their chests and holding it for

three seconds. It's simple, but an effective reset.

You can even do something like desk cycling. Ask students

to hold onto the sides of their chairs and then pedal their legs

as if they're riding a bike. Or you can use an imaginary paddle

to paddle a canoe, just make sure that students switch sides,

or their imaginary canoe is just going to go in imaginary

circles.

I know, we need to teach them proper canoeing skills if

we're going to bother at all. There really are endless ways to

build in movement without losing control. You could do wall push

ups, chair yoga, silent disco.

What's a silent disco?

Oh, it's where you say silent disco, and then kids

dance like they're hearing music, but it's totally quiet.

Be hilarious, and get the wiggles and the giggles out

without too much chaos.

I bet they love that. And if you want an easy way to

incorporate strategic breaks into your daily routine, we've

got dozens of brain breaks that you can use.

Probably hundreds, actually.

There's so many. We split them into three categories.

Breaks for when kids need to calm down, breaks for when kids

need to focus, and breaks for when kids need some energy. So

you can find exactly the right activity for your class.

The nice thing about our brain breaks is that they can be

done without technology, so you can use them anytime and

anywhere they're needed. You just print off the cards you

want and keep them where they're easy to grab any time of day. I

like to just put like a metal ring in the corner for each

deck, and you can check out our brain breaks at the link in the

show notes.

No matter what kind of break you do, a good idea is to

wrap things up with a clear transition back to focus mode.

Try having students stretch and breathe for a few seconds, or

have them do an energy check in, ask them to pay attention to how

they feel at the end of the break. Now you don't have to

discuss this. It can just be a moment of silent reflection

before getting back to work.

Okay, the fourth lesson from Heidi's reading launch is

to give students tools to manage their focus. We often equate

focus with willpower, but really it's more about having

strategies. Helping students recognize when their focus is

drifting is a powerful gift.

And one tool that even adults can use to help reset

their focus is to take a breathing break. If it feels

like your mind has a mind of its own, pause for a second for a

few calming breaths, and notice how your attention resets.

Another idea is to extend the discussions about stamina to

discussions about focus. Put it in kid friendly terms, maybe

create an anchor chart about what it feels like and looks

like when your mind wanders. Include examples like, you

realize you've been looking at the same page for a while, or

you catch yourself thinking about lunch instead of your

story.

There are also lots of practical supports that teachers

can give. A visual timer makes work time feel more concrete

because kids can tell exactly how long they have left for

their math assignment. Or you can try teaching students some

reminders that they can repeat to themselves, like, good

writers keep trying. This gives kids encouragement to push

through a tough moment.

The key is teaching students that when they feel

their focus slipping, they're not helpless. They have a

toolbox of strategies to try. This helps them see

concentration as a muscle that they can strengthen one choice

at a time.

The final lesson we want to talk about today is including

reflection and goal setting in your stamina building process.

Until my students were up to about the 10 minute mark, we

would debrief together at the end of reading time, and I would

ask them questions like, what went well today? What was tricky

for you? How did you handle it when your mind started to

wander? And what should we try differently tomorrow?

And I think that discussion piece is key. It's

easy to skip over because we feel the pressure to move on

with the day. You can keep things quick, though even a

couple of minutes will do the trick. But it is so important to

help students notice what works for them and what doesn't, and

it builds that sense of we're all working on this together.

After kids share their insights, you can wrap up the

lesson by graphing their progress and then deciding

together what to aim for tomorrow. If you had a rough

day, you might need to keep the same goal, or if progress is

slow, maybe just add 30 seconds. We want students to be proud of

how they're improving, even if it's just a little at a time.

This reflection piece is so easy to build into any

subject. Wrap up math by asking what was one part that stretched

your brain today? Or after group work, what helped you stay

focused on your team's task? Those conversations are where

the real learning happens.

As you're working on stamina building with your own

students, an important thing to keep in mind is that your

neurodivergent learners might need specific accommodations in

order to be successful. Breaking tasks down into smaller chunks,

providing movement breaks more often, or offering alternative

seating options can be essential supports.

But the good news is that these stamina building

strategies we've been talking about are exactly the kinds of

support that all kids need, including your neurodivergent

learners. Teaching focus as a skill, making progress visible,

providing tools and strategies, this benefits everyone.

And not only does it work for all of your kids, it works

for all of your subjects. Use these same principles to build

writing stamina, math stamina, listening stamina, just adjust

the specifics to match your different goals.

So to recap, our five key principles for building learning

stamina. First, give students the language to understand

stamina as a skill that they can develop. We're building our

reading muscles. Second, start ridiculously small and make

progress visible through tracking and celebration. Third,

use breaks strategically to help students reset their attention.

Fourth, give students concrete tools to manage their focus when

it starts to drift. And fifth, build in reflection and goal

setting so students become aware of their own learning patterns.

Your students are capable of so much more than they

realize. With your guidance and the systematic approaches, they

can grow their stamina day by day until they're tackling big

projects, sustained reading, and challenging work like pros, and

we promise it will happen, even if they can only handle one

minute and 48 seconds right now.

And we would love to hear how you help your students build

learning stamina. Come join the conversation in our Teacher

Approved Facebook group.

Now, it's time for this week's Teacher Approved Tip of the

Week, where we share an actionable tip to help you

elevate what matters and simplify the rest. This week's

teacher approved tip is to leave a happy surprise for your sub.

Tell us more about it, Heidi.

Well, now that everyone has been back in germ central

for a few weeks now, you might be coming down with your first

cold, and our apologies if that is the case, hopefully your sub

binder is ready to go and the copies are easy to make. But if

you have vending machines at your school, one thing you might

want to do is leave behind some quarters so your sub can get a

little treat. For me in my sub binder, I had a little zipper

pouch with a sticky note that said something like, Thanks for

your help today, grab a soda on me, and then I just had four

quarters in there. Now, of course, this assumes you can

still get a soda for four quarters. I haven't been to a

vending machine in a while.

Who knows, maybe you need eight quarters these days. And

obviously this is totally optional, but everyone

appreciates a thoughtful gesture, and if it happens to

motivate the sub to follow your plans with a little more

attention than before, then that would be a win for everyone.

To wrap up the show we are sharing what we're giving

I'm giving extra credit to my cell phone carrier, which

extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra

credit?

is called Visible. About 18 months ago, I decided to switch

carriers because I was just so sick of how much money I was

paying for my Verizon plan. After doing some research, I

discovered there were lots of low cost options, but Visible

jumped out to me because it is a affordable carrier that's owned

by Verizon and uses their same network. So it was basically a

no brainer to switch, and I have loved it. I haven't noticed any

difference in my service. I was nervous to switch to a totally

different company that I didn't know how the coverage would be

in my area, but switching from Verizon to Visible was no

different.

So that was really nice, and I think I was paying like at least

$70 before, and now I'm paying $30 a month for unlimited

minutes and data, just like I was getting before. So I will

put a link in the show notes, and I think you get a $20

discount if you use that code, and I believe you can combine it

with whatever their special introductory offer is too, which

is nice, because they always have great sign up offers. So

this is not sponsored. I just was thinking today how nice it

is to be paying so much less for my cell phone carrier these

days.

Okay, I have to get on that. Every time I pay my bill,

I think, Okay, I've gotta, I gotta figure out that switch. So

this is motivating me.

Yep, I'll send you the referral link, and then you can

join my circle. I think even though we're not on the same

plan, that's another thing they have where you can save,

everybody on the in the circle saves $5 a month.

Oh, that's cool.

If you have like other people who are Visible. I think that's

how it works. Don't quote me on it if, if that's not how it

works. But I just, I just read about it today when I was

looking for the link. So anyway, check it out. I'll put the link

in the show notes. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Well, my extra credit goes to my Kindle page turner

remote. I think mom gave it to me for Christmas.

Yeah, that's why I have one. So I'm assuming yes.

And, I mean, of course, it's always nice to get a

present. But I was a little skeptical at first, because

turning a page on an e reader is literally just tapping the

screen. I'm lazy, but I'm not that lazy. But I am hooked on

this thing now for two reasons. First, now I don't have to hold

the Kindle up. I can just, like, prop it up or use a stand, and

that's nice, because I do have arthritis in my thumbs, and

holding things can actually create a lot of pain.

Hey, we were just telling them we're not old. We don't

want to admit that we both have arthritis. Don't tell people

that, it's our secret.

Should I tell them I was diagnosed with arthritis in my

hands in my 20s?

No, shush.

But the second reason I like that remote, it's not

because of old, but it's because I can get all snuggly while I

read.

I know I love it.

You don't have to have one hand out in that chilling

room temperature air. You can just pull a blanket all the way

up and keep reading. So if you're also a little snuggly

reader, there is a link to a remote in the show notes. I

don't think it's the same model we have, but there's a bunch on

Amazon.

I think they all pretty much function the same. But I

co-sign this extra credit. It is very handy to have if you are a

Kindle reader who likes to read in bed, especially.

That is it for today's episode. Remember, building

stamina is a marathon, not a sprint. So start small, stay

consistent, and celebrate every bit of growth.

Come share your stamina building wins in our Teacher

Approved Facebook group. We love hearing what's working in your

classroom.

And don't forget our Teacher Approved tip to bribe

your sub with some quarters.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm Heidi.

And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow

or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an

episode.

You can connect with us and other teachers in the

Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.

Bye for now.

Bye.