Although reentry into the vibrant energy of the classroom can be a bit jarring after a long, relatively quiet holiday rest, January offers us a fantastic opportunity for renewal. As students return to the classroom, a new year can serve as a fresh start, and is an ideal time to reset and refresh our teaching practices as well as our classroom environments! Read on for some ideas on how to take full advantage of the first weeks of a new calendar year. Incorporating these into your January plans will help ensure that teaching and learning with VEX in the months to follow is smooth and joyful.

Go Slow to Go Fast

When we return to the classroom after break, it is tempting to jump right into all the new content and experiences we have been dreaming up for our students, and to get a head start on completing all required curriculum. But it is so important to avoid assuming our students are ready for this, academically or emotionally! Slowing down at the beginning of the year will pay off in time saved later on. The following suggestions will help ease students gently back into academic expectations:

Reestablish classroom routines

Students may have forgotten classroom expectations and routines after a long break. Spending even a few minutes having students practice things such as how they gather robot parts, start an engineering notebook entry, or store their robots at the end of class can go a long way. Practicing these daily routines will eliminate students’ confusion and save time in the long run, as you won’t spend it redirecting them constantly!

Revisit collaboration strategies

Many students will need help positively reconnecting with others when they return after a long break. As collaboration is key to robotics classroom success, it makes sense to spend some up front time reviewing the collaboration strategies you have established.

• A discussion about what good collaboration looks like, sounds like, and feels like is a good jumping off point.
• Follow this up by presenting students with some collaboration scenarios to act out for the class, such as how to share responsibilities when building a robot in a group, or how to come to consensus when group members disagree on a competition strategy.
• Reinforce all of this by pointing it out when you see groups employing these strategies successfully!

Have fun reviewing material from the first half of the year

It is likely that your students will return from break in a variety of states of forgetting! Jog their memories while rekindling their enthusiasm for robotics at the same time by returning to a favorite competition or activity. If you are a 123, GO, or AIM teacher, choose an activity that revisits or remixes familiar content or building skills. If you are an IQ or EXP teacher, spend a day replaying a classroom competition your students particularly enjoyed. Or, challenge students to improve an algorithm they built for the Castle Crasher playground in VEXcode VR. The key is to keep it low stakes, and fun!

Reorganize your VEX Materials

January is the perfect time to reorganize and take inventory of your robotics materials, so everything is in place for the weeks to come. Even the youngest students can be involved in cleaning up and organizing, and their involvement also helps ensure they are invested in keeping the organization going.

• Consider providing GO, IQ, EXP, and V5 students with the parts posters from printables.vex.com to help them make sure their kits are complete and have the correct number of each part. The interactive parts posters for GO and IQ are also fantastic resources for giving students the agency to keep kits organized.
• Need suggestions for keeping VEX materials tidy and easily accessible? Visit the following PD+ Community Threads to see how other teachers manage.
  • This thread has fantastic suggestions and many images showing a way of organizing V5 parts.
  • For 123 teachers, check out the Coder card organization ideas in this thread.

Set New Year’s STEM Goals and Intentions

The word ‘resolution’ can sometimes be intimidating, as we’ve all had the experience of setting resolutions that just don’t stick. But, for teachers and students alike, setting focused intentions or goals after winter break can be both focusing and empowering. The key is to choose a goal that is actually achievable. Once that goal has been reached, a new, realistic goal can always be set.

For students, New Year’s goal setting in a STEM or robotics class could look something like this:

• Ask them to look back on the year so far, and to think about what they would like to achieve before the end of the year. Possible ideas include:
  • Designing a VEX EXP manipulator that moves Buckyballs effectively
  • Using engineering notebook data to make design decisions
  • Coding the 123 Robot to make a decision based on a color detected by the Eye Sensor
  • Persisting when coding projects don’t work as intended
  • Improving communication when sharing ideas for classroom competition strategies
• Have them phrase their goals in a way that will allow them to measure their success. For example:
  • I will design and build a manipulator for my IQ BaseBot that allows me to move two IQ Cubes at the same time.
  • I will ask at least two clarifying questions of my group, to be sure my idea was understood.
• Ask students to record their goals in their engineering notebooks, so they can refer to them later. Or, for younger students, record them in a journal or on chart paper to post in the classroom.
• Help students envision actions they can take towards achieving their goals. For example, for the student who wants to ask clarifying questions to improve their communication, encourage them to involve other group members to encourage them to ask a clarifying question each time they brainstorm.
• Set aside check-in time to revisit students' goals with them, so they don’t get lost in the hustle and bustle of the year.

Helping students set measurable goals not only gives them agency, but communicates your belief in their competence to achieve them, which can elevate students’ self image and encourage them to succeed.

And, teachers can set STEM goals too! Why not make your own New Year’s intention for teaching with VEX? The resources available in PD+ makes it easy to make your goals actionable and achievable.

For instance, maybe you would like to improve your mastery of student-centered assessment using the Student Centered Assessment in STEM Classes Masterclass. Or, you want to incorporate literacy into teaching with VEX 123 or GO.

Here’s to a 2026 filled with happy and engaged STEM learning!