#416 – Preparing for a New School Year, with Leif Voltz

In this inspiring episode, middle school science teacher Leif Voltz returns to Unpacking Education to share his reflections on a challenging yet rewarding school year—and how he’s preparing to start fresh with hope and joy. Leif opens up about burnout, the importance of relationships, and the mindset shifts that help educators recharge and reconnect with their purpose. Listen in as Leif, Paul, and Winston explore how to balance high expectations with grace, lean into student-centered practices, and embrace new technologies like AI with timeless classroom values.

“The sheer amount of variables that a classroom of unique individuals brings with them makes for an awe-inspiring journey, year over year.”

Darri Stephens, “22 Tips I Wish I’d Known As a First Year Teacher”

Resources

The following resources are available from AVID and on AVID Open Access to explore related topics in more depth:

• Teacher Insights with Leif Voltz (podcast episode)
• Create Community and Nurture Connections to Support Deep Learning (article collection)
• Engage Students Through Inquiry Learning (article collection)
• AI in the K-12 Classroom (article collection)
• Effectively Integrate Technology Into Your Science Classroom (article collection)

Bringing Hope and Joy

When a school year ends, educators often carry both exhaustion and wisdom into the summer. Leif Voltz reminds us that a fresh start is not just an opportunity—it’s a responsibility. “Next year, it’s their [students’] first time as a sixth grader, and it’s the only time,” he says. With that in mind, Leif emphasizes approaching the new year with intentional joy, seeing each student with fresh eyes, and fostering meaningful relationships from day one.

Leif talks candidly about the need for grace—both for students and for ourselves. He discusses how systems like “data-driven relationship building,” classroom circles, and soft-skill reinforcement anchor his practice. The conversation also touches on how critical thinking and cross-curricular skills are at the heart of evolving science standards, and how AI, when used ethically, can support deeper learning. The message is clear: hope and joy are essential tools for building resilient classroom communities. The following are a few highlights from this episode.

• About Our Guest: Leif Voltz is a middle school science teacher at Prairie View Middle School in Otsego, MN. Leif is starting his 13th year teaching science.
• A Difficult Year: In reflecting on the past school year, Leif says, “I’m gonna be completely honest. This school year was difficult. There were lots of challenges that came up that really left me scraping the bottom of my toolbox.”
• Grace: Facing a challenging year reinforced Leif’s belief that it’s important to give ourselves grace in the difficult journey of educating students. He says, “I’m pretty relentless when I’m trying to figure something out. And although that’s a strength, I’ve learned this year that trying to go harder and harder can actually be a recipe for burnout in some ways.” He adds that because of that realization, “I want to make sure I’m approaching each individual and each space with grace while also giving myself that grace.”
• Embracing the Wins: Despite the challenges, Leif says, “There were some really tremendous wins this year that were really exciting to see, and what’s been lovely is having conversations with those students to let them know how much I’ve seen that growth, how proud I am of them, and letting them know what I’m excited to see in the future.”
• Growth Mindset: While it’s important to reflect on past experiences, Leif strives to look forward. He says, “Continuing to focus on relationships and starting each day with a fresh lens was really what I needed when things got tricky, you know, and you come back, and you want to give folks the benefit of the doubt, and you want to support them in a way that can help their growth.”
• Data Driven Relationship Building: “Over the last about three or four years, I’ve had a pretty strong formula that I’ve used in working with students,” says Leif. “I do what I call data driven relationship building. I’m writing postcards to students before school starts, a pretty specific list of students I think would benefit from a positive relationship. Then in the first week, all of those students get a positive phone call home, and then we continue to move from there.”
• It Takes a Team: Leif says he has come to realize that sometimes he won’t be successful building a relationship with every student. However, he knows that he will make a difference for some students, and for others, there is a “school full of amazing teachers” that can connect with the students with whom he doesn’t connect as strongly. He says, “I want to build a classroom community that can really make a difference, not only for the students, but for the sixth grade class as a whole. So that is my focus going into next year, and one that I’m going to continue to focus on for years to come.”
• Student Well-Being: “I would say, for the great majority, students are doing great,” says Leif as he reflects on changes in students since the pandemic. He adds, “I think we sometimes forget how resilient kids are. They don’t know that this is different . . . They’re just resilient to come to it with that fresh lens, and they’re always changing, and they’re always modulating themselves as they themselves are changing.”
• Areas of Struggle: One area Leif does see students struggling a bit more than in the past is with resilience. He points out that his current students were in first and second grade during the pandemic, important formative years. He says, “I think sometimes they may have missed out on the pieces that they needed most like the determination or that self-grit.”
• Soft Skills: In his science classroom, Leif spends a lot of time working with students on skills like “cooperation and students working in different teams and developing roles.” He adds, “Largely this year, I focused on active listening, what that looks like, how that builds relationships with classmates and teachers, and so a lot of what we did was practicing that.”
• Science Skills: An important academic skill Leif’s students develop is making “a claim, collecting the evidence, and then reasoning why all of that is coming together.” This has been a central skill in the newly updated science standards which focus more on process rather than content. Leif says the goal is to have students ask, “How do we do the work of a scientist?”
• Higher-Order Thinking: The new science standards have helped students push to develop higher-order thinking skills. Leif says that a big focus is “helping students to come up with their own explanation for scientific phenomena.” Rather than focusing on memorizing science facts, the goal is to develop scientific thinking skills, make connections, and think critically.
• Transferable Skills: Leif says that his work in science translates well to other content areas. “It’s teaching students how to be a student of the world. It’s saying, what do you see out there? How are you going to make sense of what it is you’re seeing, and then how are you going to pull it all together and explain it to somebody? I feel like the skills that we’re teaching are to set them up for greater success in whatever area they want to pursue while also giving them the necessary information embedded within that.”
• AI for Teacher Use: Leif has found success using AI to design lessons and extension activities. He says he’s used “AI as an assistant to help me formulate and curate ideas . . . [and] build frameworks of standards-based projects for students.”
• Ethical Use: While Leif feels AI is here to stay and that teachers must engage with it, he also believes that engagement must be done ethically. He says, “I’m coming to a greater understanding of the ethics of AI and where they’re getting their information to create their variety of chat bots, also looking at the ethical implications of our natural resource use within AI.” With those considerations in mind, Leif is thoughtful about how he uses AI.
• Student AI Use: Leif hasn’t seen a lot of students using AI yet in sixth grade, but he has taken advantage of teachable moments when they arise. He shares an example of helping a student use an AI chatbot to simplify content in a way so she  could better understand it. He adds, “What I’ve been doing with students is helping students to not only use it critically, but to think critically before using it. So they’re thinking critically about the information that’s coming back to them, but then they’re thinking critically, like, how am I using it, and what’s the appropriate way to use it?”
• Still Developing: Leif admits that AI is still in its infancy. He points out that sometimes an AI tool will give him great data and student results but with a poor teacher interface, and other times, it’s the opposite. The interface is great, but the data is poor. He adds, “In that infant state, I want to not turn away because that’s not the way to do it, but I also want to move forward in a way that makes sense and sets us up for success for a long term.”
• Toolkit: For his toolkit item, Leif talks about implementing circles once a week, at the beginning of his science classes. While not full restorative circle experiences, the opportunity to share has been well-received by students. He says, “We go through our procedures of how we build community. I was afraid that a lot of my students were going to think it was hokey, but they were asking for it and wanted to do it every day.”
• One Thing: Leif says, “I want to remind myself and others of the newness that a new year can bring. I think every year is very different, and I think sometimes it’s hard for us to start with new eyes, but we need to remember that our students do. They come in and it’s their first time as a sixth grader, and it’s the only time as a sixth grader, and that’s the only time they’re ever going to think about it. And so I want to come at it with newness and joy in that space for them because they deserve that.”