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Five Ways to Save Time During Pre-Planning Week

Pre-Planning Week is always bittersweet. On the one hand, it’s time to say goodbye to summer. Although that never gets easier, the anticipation of starting anew always seems to spark a feeling of excitement in teachers. And it’s a good thing teachers are full of energy and excitement. From staff development classes to preparing our rooms to planning for the first week, we rarely have time to catch our breath. The week is gobbled up very quickly and before you know it, it’s Friday! Making every minute count is a must during pre-planning week. Here are five ways to get the most out of every minute!

Avoid Overdecorating – Creating a fresh, welcoming environment for students that is conducive to learning is a must in my opinion. Having said that, I’ve also seen so many teachers spend the bulk of their time hanging and taping and covering every square inch of their classrooms. By the end of the week, these teachers are in a panic because there’s so little time left for planning and last minute preparations. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you decorate your classroom:

Is the classroom clean and neat? (If not, that needs to be your first priority.)
How much time can I afford to spend on decoration?
Does the classroom look and feel welcoming when I walk in? If not, what does it need?
What information must be visible during the first weeks of school?
Is there space on walls, etc. for me to add important information to later?
Is there space for students to add to the look and feel of our classroom?

Here are tips for decorating your classroom when you’re short on time:

Add a few plants!
Cover bulletin boards with attractive colors, but leave them blank. Students can add work later!
Focus on organization over decoration.
Add curtains, lanterns, or string lights.
One of my favorite ways to make a classroom feel welcoming is to use a plug-in air freshener that has a nice, subtle scent. (I bought the same one year after year and almost every time someone walked in, they commented on how my room always smells so nice!)
It’s okay to think of your classroom like you think of your home … It’s always a work in progress!

Mix the Tried and True with the New – If you’re an experienced teacher, it’s not necessary to start from scratch each year as you plan for the first week of school. The first week plans you used last year and the year before may be old to you, but they’re new to your students! Instead, add fresh ideas without totally scrapping all of the old ones. That will save you valuable planning time. If you’re a new teacher, kindly ask for an experienced teacher’s first week plans. Chances are, she or he will be more than happy to share. If you’re lucky, several teachers may offer before you even ask!

Make Copies Early in the Week – You know that feeling of forcing yourself to be patient and polite as you anxiously wait for the copy machine? That can totally be avoided! All you need to do is gather important school forms and the printables from your Tried and True lessons and copy those at the beginning of the week. Of course, there will always be something to copy towards the end of the week, but if you arrive a little early you can get it done in no time!

Talk About it Later – Part of the fun and excitement of pre-planning week is catching up with teacher friends. It can also eat up a lot of time if you’re not careful. If you find yourself short on time because you’re constantly visiting or being visited, try scheduling lunch dates to catch up with friends, closing your door as you work, or doing your best to get as much as possible done before making a visit to a friend’s classroom.

Prioritize Your Checklist – Having a checklist is great, but prioritizing a checklist is better! Look at what you need to get done. Think about what’s most important and time consuming. Do those things first, if possible. That way, by the end of the week you have completed the most important tasks and can spend the remaining time completing the least time consuming ones!

I hope you have a positive, productive week!

Five Fresh Fixes for End of Year Fatigue

It took me years to realize that I didn’t have to spend the last few weeks of school feeling completely exhausted and “over it”. Somehow I both anticipated and dreaded the endless kickball competitions, theme celebrations, and influx of parent volunteers. It also didn’t occur to me that my students were completely capable of maintaining appropriate behavior until the very last day of the school year! So after too many years of muddling through those final days, I decided to rethink my approach. I made some very practical, yet effective changes that were good for my students – and for me! Here are five ideas that may help you as you wind down the school year:

Expect Some Things. Earn others. In an attempt to make the school year memorable, it’s not uncommon for teachers to be exceedingly generous with, well…fun! This can backfire, however. As students await one fun celebration after another, they get more and more excited, which ultimately leads to behavioral issues. Decide which activities your students can expect and which activities they need to earn, then let them know and tell them exactly what they need to do as a group to earn them. Be sure to make the earned activities as fun as the expected ones and schedule them wisely. By doing this, your students are more likely to be mindful of their behavior during those last weeks.

Continue or Revisit Class Meetings. Class meetings are as important at the end of the year as they are at the beginning. Communicate your expectations for behavior and effort each day. Also, be sure to plan discussion topics that address end of year situations. Class meetings at the end of the year are a reminder to students that they are a part of a community and their behavior affects everyone. It’s also a great opportunity for students to share their thoughts and feelings during this exciting time.

Control the Countdown. Keep countdown activities structured and purposeful! Simply making an end of the year countdown fun and exciting may cause your students to become increasingly energetic at times when they’re expected to focus on school work.

Don’t Go It Alone. It takes a village to clean a classroom at the end of the year…and students LOVE to help their teachers! (I never understood why cleaning is so fun for kids at school and not at home, but that’s another post for another day.) Instead of saving everything on your to-do list until the kids are out for summer, allow students to:

Organize book, separating those in need of repair
Wipe down and organize cabinets
Organize games and game pieces
Go through marker bins, tossing dried out markers
Clean desks
Sharpen pencils and prepare materials for the next class

Sprinkle in a Few Downtime Days. The end of the year doesn’t have to (or need to) be one big adrenaline rush after another. There are benefits to calm, enjoyable activities. Coloring is one example. It helps stimulate the brain and generates mindfulness in students of all ages. Download a free copy from my Summer Coloring Pages – 20 Fun, Creative Designs resource from Ford’s Board on Teachers Pay Teachers here: Free Summer Quote Coloring Page. This pages is great for your students – AND for you! I hope it inspires happy thoughts of summer and reminds you of all the fun you’re about to have in a few weeks!

10 Ways to Be a Happy Teacher

The Three Little Pigs ranks way at the top of my “Favorite Fairy Tales/ Fables” list. I loved reading the story, in its many different versions, to my students every year. I especially loved the third little pig – his wisdom, work ethic, and courage to do things differently. I always believed that if everyone really paid attention to the morals of the story and learned from the third little pig, our lives would be a whole lot happier. Here are 10 lessons I’ve learned about how to be a happy teacher from reading this book:

1. Remember that teaching is a journey. We never really “get there” as teachers. Each group of students brings its own challenges and rewards. The school year gets away from us so quickly and they’re off to the next grade level. As much as possible, live in the moment.

2. Take the road less traveled. There’s a lot of pressure to conform in education. Dig deep and find the courage to teach authentically. Do what works. Try new things. Be yourself!

3. Make wise choices. Do your best to make choices you’ll be proud of a month from now or even tomorrow! Sometimes that means biting your tongue when you want to snap back at a student or refraining from gossip. In making any choice, never compromise your integrity.

4. Plan. What’s the plan if the angry parent storms into your room? What’s the plan if the the majority of the class fails the science test? What’s the plan if you need to question an administrator’s evaluation? Get into the habit of thinking things through by creating “If, then…” scenarios when necessary. Of course, it is not healthy to assign a worse case scenario to every situation, but mental planning in certain situations will help prevent knee jerk reactions that you may regret later.

5. Trust your instincts. Sometimes other people know best. Sometimes you know best. In every situation, decide whose wisdom is required.

6. Build a strong foundation. Decide what your life will be like as a teacher. Don’t leave it to chance. It doesn’t have to depend on the group you have this year or the personalities of your administrators. When your foundation is strong, you’re house isn’t blown down when you have a challenging class or that parent has bad-mouthed you to the principal. You know who you are and what you stand for.

7. Be prepared. Think of the days when you’ve prepared top-notch lesson plans. You’ve really thought things through. Everything is in place and ready to go! Now think of the days when, for whatever reason, you’re scrambling to get it together. On which days do you feel the most confident and calm? Being prepared each day helps make teaching a little more relaxing!

8. Work hard, but remember to relax. This is a tough one for teachers. We’ve heard this so many times before, but we have a hard time giving ourselves a break. The more worn out we are, the later we stay up, the more stressed we are, the less effective we are as teachers. While it is true that teaching requires sacrifice, it should never come at the expense of your well being.

9. Expect the Big Bad Wolf. No matter how well planned you are, no matter how strong your foundation is, no matter how happy you are, the Big Bad Wolf is coming. He will huff and he will puff and he will try to blow your house down. The lesson won’t go as planned, the student will be disrespectful, the stack of papers to grade will pile up. When you know this in advance without allowing it to be a major source of stress, you realize that you are capable of dealing with difficult situations with ease!

10. Smile! In one version of The Three Little Pigs, the third little pig smiles as he waits for the Big Bad Wolf. As he smiled, he realized how dangerous The Big Bad Wolf was. But he also knew he was well-planned and prepared, and that he worked hard to build the house of bricks. So in spite of everything, he smiled! When you have done everything you can to be the best teacher possible, be pleased with yourself… and SMILE!

Five Ways to Save Time During Pre-Planning Week

Five Fresh Fixes for End of Year Fatigue

10 Ways to Be a Happy Teacher

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