By Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D. (@RetrieveLearn)

Back-to-school season always reminds me of this viral video from a long time ago. It’s catchy! Sorry (not sorry) if it gets stuck in your head.

I hope you had a wonderful summer. I feel very fortunate: I started a few exciting new projects (more reveals coming soon), spent time with family and friends (including sailing for the first time), and recently adopted a senior dog (click here for photos).

For back-to-school ideas, my favorite inspiration comes from talking with my teacher friends. That’s why I’m hosting four free live webinars to share what the first weeks of the year look like in my classroom and to provide a space for you to share your ideas, too. Click here to register for my FREE webinar series this fall. The live Zooms will be recorded, but you must register to access the recordings.

With more than 20,000 subscribers for my newsletter, this is a super-unique opportunity to Zoom with energetic teachers from all over the world. My Zooms are typically exclusive for newsletter subscribers, so encourage your friends to subscribe to receive exclusive subscriber-only announcements for upcoming events and free professional development.

If you’re looking for even more teaching strategies, I hope you’ll check out my list of back-to-school favorites below, download my free resources, and consider buying my first book, Powerful Teaching, which has 100+ classroom activities based my own 20+ years of research on the science of learning — all tried and tested by yours truly. Amazon is having a sale: my book is only $15.75 for a limited time. Welcome back to school, everyone!

Memorable professional development

Woman in a pink shirt smiles in a Zoom video window. — click to register

I can’t say it enough: I love talking with teachers and educators from around the world. I thrive on creating and sustaining communities, especially ones in which we support each other, candidly share ideas, and celebrate success.

I hope you’ll join me in doing just that — creating and sustaining a community — with my free live webinar series via Zoom this fall. My one-hour webinars are interactive, with small group discussion and an informal “ask me anything.” I always model retrieval practice to emphasize how easy it is to implement, which strengthens your long-term learning for professional development, too. Educators who attend all four webinars will be entered in a raffle to win signed copies of my books!

The Zooms will be recorded, but you must register to access the recordings. In order to increase accessibility for educators around the world, please note that the day of the week and time (in Eastern Time Zone, or ET) differ for each Zoom.

Friday, September 18 at 2:00pm ET: How to kick off the school year and get students excited about the science of learning

Wednesday, October 14 at 5:00pm ET: How to help students study smarter (not harder) with research-based study strategies

Tuesday, November 17 at 12:00pm ET: Why forgetting is normal, why it’s good for learning, and how to normalize it in your classroom

Thursday, December 10 at 10:00am ET: How the brain actually works, why we fall for neuromyths, and how to be an informed consumer of neuroscience research

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

My Favorite Back-to-School Activities

Teaching Tips

How to use retrieval practice on the first day of class

Welcome back to school! The whirlwind of lesson prep, meetings, professional development—and of course, teaching—is here. Here are my favorite back-to-school activities to engage students with retrieval practice during the first week of class.

My two favorite back-to-school activities

I want to share two of my favorite back-to-school activities, which are a huge hit in my classroom: using a trivia fact and using word pair mnemonics. Whether you have new students in your classes or returning students from the fall, K–12 students or graduate students, try these activities to build community and engage students in retrieval practice.

How to create mnemonics and finally remember students’ names

With these 4 steps to create mnemonics, 7 classroom activities to get students involved, and frequent retrieval practice, your classroom can be a community where everybody knows your name.

Use a trivia question to introduce students to retrieval practice

How can you get students and teachers on board with retrieval practice? Start and end your class or professional development with a trivia question. It’s a quick, fun, and memorable.

Don't ask students what they did over the break. Ask this instead!

How often do you start the semester or school year by asking students what they did over the break? Instead, ask a different question: What's one thing you learned during the break?

Jumpstart the school year with this simple retrieval practice

On the first day of class, start with retrieval practice. When students walk in the door, have a sheet of paper waiting for them on each desk – and ask these two important questions. On the last day of class, they'll thank you for jumpstarting the school year with powerful learning.

Learn more about learning:

Do your students use concept maps? They might be missing this key link

If your students use concept mapping strategies, there might be something missing. Based on research by educator and scientist Dr. Kripa Sundar, the key to an effective concept map isn’t the node, but the links.

The most common question I get asked about retrieval practice (and the answer)

What is the optimal timing for retrieval practice? The answer—from the world’s expert on spaced retrieval practice, Dr. Shana Carpenter—may surprise you. Learn about spacing (aka spaced repetition), Dr. Carpenter’s research, and how to incorporate spacing in your teaching.

Like a tie-dyed shirt: Mix it up with interleaving and boost learning

Get tips from cognitive scientist Dr. Veronica Yan, the world’s leading expert on interleaving. Boost student learning by mixing up concepts: problem sets, vocabulary words, different types of storytelling structures, etc. It’s a small adjustment that makes a big difference.

Use white boards for flexible retrieval practice

White boards for retrieval practice are engaging and effective for learning, providing flexibility for question prompts and student responses. Read tips by cognitive scientist Dr. Janell Blunt and make this a no-prep strategy for your classroom.

NEW book: Smart Teaching Stronger Learning

Read my new book, Smart Teaching Stronger Learning. Whether you teach K–12 students or graduate students, or you’re new to teaching or a long-time educator: If you want to improve student learning, this book is for you.

Practical tips to reduce student test anxiety

How can we support students during exam time and reduce test anxiety? Learn more about my research on student test anxiety and get quick lesson ideas to reduce anxiety with retrieval practice. It might sound counterintuitive, but the more students practice retrieval, the more comfortable they become with high-stakes tests.

Worried about AI? Here are 8 flexible prompts for retrieval practice

Retrieval practice doesn’t require more class prep for us or ChatGPT for our students. Here are 8 no-prep prompts for retrieval practice I’ve developed over my 10+ years of teaching. I’ve also included a variety of new resources I highly recommend.

Download these 5 free resources to unleash learning

The world has changed and teaching has changed. One thing hasn't changed: The importance of learning and the frustration of forgetting. Here are 5 new resources and downloads, all free, all by cognitive scientists, all to empower you to unleash the science of learning.

Download our database of retrieval practice research in real classrooms

Want a quick way to access classroom research on retrieval practice? Download our database of 50 experiments and read a detailed literature review by cognitive scientists.

Make flashcards more powerful with these 3 tips

Lots of students use flashcards. But using flashcards doesn't guarantee they're using retrieval practice. In fact, students could be wasting their time. This week, we share three research-based tips to make flashcards more powerful. Help students study smarter, not harder.

Think-Pair-Share? Think again!

Whether you teach at an elementary school or a medical school, you've probably heard of the instructional strategy, think-pair-share. Don’t skip the “think” step! Read on for research-based tips on incorporating retrieval, spacing, and interleaving to make think-pair-share an even more powerful strategy in your classroom.

Boost learning quickly with Two Things!

How can we use retrieval practice to break up our lessons, quickly and easily, without pausing to facilitate class discussion or collect papers? Use a retrieval strategy we simply call "Two Things," a no-quiz activity for your classroom.

Brain Dump: A small strategy with a big impact

With the end of the semester within sight, we feature a small strategy that makes a big impact on student learning – based on decades of cognitive science research. In scientific lingo, we call it "free recall."