HELLO teacher friends! I am beginning my Monday Musings! Every Monday, I will share a tip (or two!) that has had a positive experience in my classroom. Many of my tips will be geared for ELLs, however, good teaching is good teaching, and you can accommodate it fit your classroom needs with your students.
Have I told you how much I love my job? Think about it…I get PAID to work with students…all day! Isn’t that just insane? They GIVE me money to teach other humans! Crazy!
Musing #1: You need a Planner
The first tip that I would like to share is to be organized. I know, you are probably thinking, that isn’t a tip! It actually is. As teachers, we have MANY MANY MANY deadlines. It can be extremely overwhelming for a veteran teacher let alone a first year teacher. You should invest in a good planner. There are many planners out there, find one that works for your needs. Whether you need a place to jot down notes for lessons, a calendar to view month by month, student checklists, or pages for notes, a good planner will certainly make your life much easier. There are some great ones on TpT and Etsy! You can customize it even further to fit your personality and classroom needs.
As soon as I get my campus’ calendar, the first few days of school, I spend an hour or two adding those event dates to my calendar like Meet the Teacher, Open House, Curriculum Nights, faculty meetings, and so on. I do the same with the testing calendar and days off because, yeah, we want to know when we will be off!
Other dates I add:
Student birthdates
Teacher friend birthdates
Staff Development dates
Duty dates
Field trip dates
Nothing is worse than receiving an email from your administrator telling you that you have not submitted your lesson plans so I add a reminder to when lesson plans are due. I also schedule one late day. This date is a nonnegotiable for me. I try to leave by 4pm every day during the week but I do select one day, usually the faculty meeting day, to stay late and tidy up and work on classroom stuff. I implemented this rule for myself this year because I needed to balance my work life and personal life. As a teacher, the work NEVER ends. You complete one project but there is another one lurking right behind it.
Do you use planners to keep you organized?
Creando Einsteins 