How Friday Planning Helps You Avoid the “Sunday Scaries”

If you’re a teacher, you are in the habit of planning. And if you’re a teacher – you also know that, very often, things do not go according to plan. However, we don’t give up on planning. We just regroup, reschedule, and figure out a different way to teach the content, differentiate, and modify. In other words, we drop back and punt!

The same strategies apply to planning in our personal/home lives.

Do you plan your week in advance? (If not, read on to see one way to do this and try it out!)

If you DO plan a week in advance when do you do that planning?

For years, I did my weekly planning on Sunday. That seemed like the perfect time to look ahead to the upcoming week, to plan meals for the week, to arrange for child care or to plan for my kids’ activities and drop-off/pick-up times. All of this was done in an attempt to be prepared and organized for my upcoming week and to feel some sense of calm since there was a plan in place.

But then, I noticed something. Every Sunday, I still had the “Sunday scaries” and the feeling of “OMG, this week is going to be crazy, I’m not ready,” etc. I decided that something needed to change.

So I switched my weekly planning to Friday and I have never looked back.

Here are just a few of the benefits I’ve found:

*if there were conflicts with events or activities on the schedule, I could make plans for that well in advance;

*by planning my menus for the next week, I could then create a grocery list and get the shopping done on Friday or over the weekend;

*workouts and other activities I need to do for myself got scheduled in advance, which meant that I actually did them, most of the time.

I recently read an awesome book by Laura Vanderkam called Tranquility by Tuesday. (Highly recommend, by the way.) One of Vanderkam’s “rules” is to plan on Friday.

In that chapter, she cites four main reasons to plan your week on the Friday before:
“There’s little opportunity cost. It is hard to start anything new on Friday afternoons . . . If this time would otherwise be wasted . . . why not repurpose it for planning? . . . .
You can make Monday productive. If you plan on Fridays, you can make full use of your Monday mornings. . . .
You can upgrade your weekends . . . planning on Friday gives you a chance to look at the immediately upcoming weekend. . . .
You can calm the ‘Sunday scaries’. . . . If you know exactly how you plan to accomplish what you need to accomplish before you quit on Friday afternoon, then you can relax. You can give your brain a true break.”

Here is the short version of how I do my Friday planning. (A longer version of weekly planning can be found in this post.)

First, decide where you will make these planning lists.

If you already use a weekly planner (either paper or digital), you could write tasks directly on your planner.

I like to use a notebook to make my lists, then transfer tasks to individual days in my planner. (That way, my planner doesn’t get too cluttered.)

But you do you.

Before I show you my lists, let me explain that I am married but with an empty nest, so I don’t have any childcare responsibilities listed.

1 – In your notebook (or on a page in your planner, keep a running “brain dump” list of things you need or want to do, errands to run, gifts to buy, whatever.

When you’re ready to plan your week, you’ll check this list for anything that needs to be scheduled for the following week.

Call it a “things to do this week” list, but keep it reasonable.

(Reasonable varies by person. A quick test is this: if the list stresses you out by looking at it, it’s too big! What can you delegate, postpone, or eliminate this week?)

Here is a sample page from my notebook.

2 – Check your email inbox for anything that needs to be done or scheduled. Add these items to your “things to do this week” list.

3 – Review your home and school calendar for any appointments, meetings, or events scheduled for the week. These are the “must-do this week at a certain time” events. (I indicate the day of the week beside each item. That helps me to see which days might be best for certain errands and which days might be overloaded.)

If you need to build in prep time or travel time, add those time blocks to your calendar as well.

4 – Schedule any regular weekly errands (like grocery shopping).

5 – Pay yourself first by scheduling activities that you want or need to do for yourself. This might include workouts, hair or nail appointments, devotional time, time for reading, etc.

Also schedule time for your important relationships, whether that involves date night, one-on-one time with each of your children, visiting elderly parents, writing letters, or keeping in touch with friends, etc.

Schedule rest for yourself. What time will you go to bed every night to be sure you get the right amount of sleep? Other rest times might be during your workout (if you prefer to do that alone), or quiet time for prayer or reading.

It might sound crazy to talk about scheduling activities for yourself right alongside all the “must-do” activities like meetings and medical appointments. But, trust me – if you don’t schedule these things, they will never happen.

Write those activities directly on your weekly calendar, in the time slots that you are planning to do them. These are non-negotiable. Other appointments and activities will need to fit around these.

6 – Do you need to plan time for your morning routine, your evening routine, and your weekly planning for school? Add those time blocks to your weekly calendar as well.

7 – Very important: plan buffer time (or back-up time) to finish tasks that did not get done at their scheduled time. I try to keep Friday afternoon open (other than the scheduled time for my weekly planning) and Sunday afternoon open. Choose some backup times that work for your schedule. I put a big X through my Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon to remind me that this is buffer time and that I shouldn’t schedule anything for this time unless an emergency arises.

8 – Schedule some time to work on a goal of yours. It might be writing or crafting or creating something for your Etsy shop. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time, but it does need to be scheduled because you won’t “find” time for it otherwise. Mark the day and the time you will do this work on your calendar.

9 – Plan specific days and times for those “things to do this week” tasks. Plug them into the time blocks for those tasks.

For example: if one of my “things to do this week” is return an item to Nordstrom, I might choose Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. to drop that box off at the post office. Before I can do that, I need to get my return authorization slip from Nordstrom and box up the return. So I might add those tasks to Monday afternoon at 5:00 p.m.

Get the idea? The Nordstrom return, while a relatively small task, also needs a small amount of time to prep it in advance so I intentionally plan for that.

10 – Other (optional) things you could add to your weekly planning routine:
*your house cleaning & laundry schedule (which tasks will be completed on which days)
*your menus for the week
*your workouts for the week
*your outfits for each day

Finally – using this weekly list of tasks and my scheduled times on my calendar, I make a daily schedule and to-do list for the day. I like doing this the evening before, but you could also make this list in the morning if you prefer that.

That’s it! Try this out and let me know how it goes. And – if you’re accustomed to planning on Sunday, try doing this planning on Friday and see if it helps. I’d love to hear how it works for you!

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12 Easy Tips to Overcome Teacher Overwhelm!

Have you ever looked at your ever-growing to-do list and thought, “There ain’t no way all of this can get done”? Yeah, me too.

Overwhelm starts to take over and I find myself almost paralyzed and unable to get anything done. Or I hop from unimportant task to unimportant task and the bigger, more important tasks don’t get done. Sound familiar?

Overwhelm can hit us at any time during the year. Right now it is hitting me because of all the teaching tasks I need to do, but also because of all the holiday tasks I need to do.

We may not be able to stop the wave of overwhelm, but we can learn how to take charge of it and get ourselves back to a feeling of being calm and of being in control.

Here are 12 strategies I rely on when the overwhelm hits.

1 – First, get it all down on paper. There are a couple of ways to do this.

One way is to list everything in one gigantic list. I tend to use a journal for this because it has lots of paper and I can always rip out pages if needed.

Another way is to write each separate task on a post-it note.

Just getting it all out of your head and onto paper is a huge stress relief. Now you don’t have to constantly obsess about all the things you need to do because you’re afraid you’ll forget something. It’s all written down and you will get to it when you get to it.

2 – Next, I like to categorize the tasks by category. What are work tasks, home tasks, personal tasks, family tasks, etc.? You can label your tasks by letters (like W for work, H for home, etc., OR you can use abbreviations.

If you’re using post-it notes, you can move the notes around to different pages labeled with your category names.

3 – Now that we’ve listed ALL the things and put them into categories, it’s time to prioritize the tasks.

I like to use a different color pen or a highlighter for this part. I use a simple ABCDE system.

A = most important to do ASAP.
B = important to do soon.
C = could be postponed if necessary.
D = this is a task to delegate.
E = this task needs to be eliminated. This could be because the task is just not important at all or just not feasible for this time in your life.

4 – Now, put the lists away and do some cleaning or decluttering of your space. Somehow cleaning up the space around me makes me feel more in control, even with a gigantic list of tasks waiting for me. Plus, there is something about taking a break from looking at the list that helps bring some more clarity around what is most important to prioritize.

5 – Back to that list (or sticky notes). Take a look at your A tasks and put those in order of what has to be done first, next, and so on.

Do the same with your B tasks. Leave the C tasks alone for now. (I like to put them on a “To Do, but Not Today” list.)

For the D tasks, indicate (with a different-colored pen!) who will be the lucky person to get the delegated task. 🙂 Then, for the E tasks – you get to cross them out (or throw away the sticky note).

6 – With your A tasks prioritized, take a look at the tasks that are bigger projects. Try to break them down into small, do-able parts. You know the saying about how you can eat an elephant one bite at a time? Take those tasks and list all the little things you need to do to actually complete that task.

For example: if one of my tasks is “decorate indoors for Christmas,” think about all the little tasks that need to be done in order to complete that big task.

Some of my mine are: put away fall decor, pull Christmas decor boxes out of the attic, store the boxes in the hall (or wherever), decorate the entryway, decorate the living room, decorate the dining room, etc.

I know what you’re thinking – yes, this sounds like a lot of work. But here’s the thing: if you break the tasks down into small, do-able parts, you will get the task done much more quickly and with much less overwhelm.

You can complete one small task towards your bigger task and feel like you actually accomplished something. That gives you motivation and energy to get back to the task the next time you work on it.

7 – Now it’s time to schedule those prioritized tasks. When will you actually work on them? There are a couple of ways you could plan for what to do.

Back to my example of decorating indoors for Christmas. I could write down one or two of those bite-sized tasks and what time I plan to work on them (5:30 – 6:00 p.m., after dinner, etc.) OR I could plan to do Christmas tasks for 15 minutes at 5:00 p.m. If I plan for that, I actually set a timer and keep doing small tasks until the timer goes off.

Somehow getting a few things done every day helps you progress toward a larger goal and gives you motivation and energy to keep going the next day (or the next time you have a little time to work). Even five minutes is enough time to get back on track with getting things done.

As you gradually check more and more tasks off your list, you will feel more energy and motivation around getting things done.

8 – Focus on three tasks at a time. Get those three tasks done (or part of the task, if you’re doing the elephant-eating thing). When those are done, then look at the next three tasks to do. And if you only get three tasks done in a day – and if those were your prioritized tasks – count that day as a win.

9 – When you start on your first task, just focus on that task. Try to eliminate distractions. Turn off your phone notifications. Shut your door. Do whatever you need to do to get the task done. Then take a break before starting on the next task! (If you do get distracted – or interrupted – just deal with whatever came up and then get back to your focus task.

10 – Add some joy to your tasks. What can you do at the same time that will make the task more fun to do? Listen to a favorite playlist, podcast, or audiobook? Watch a movie or TV show while you’re doing something that doesn’t require as much concentration? Find some way to add enjoyment to your tasks.

11 – When you finish your tasks for the day, go ahead and make your list for the next day.

12 – Remember that you do not have to be productive every minute of every day! Taking a break to get some rest is important too. (I have an entire post about different kinds of rest.) One challenge with overwhelm is that we feel drained of energy and it can be difficult to focus. If you need to rest, do not feel guilty!

To review:
1 – make a gigantic brain dump list of all the things.
2 – categorize the tasks by category (home, work, personal, family, holiday, etc.)
3 – prioritize the tasks in each category
4 – clean or declutter your space
5 – put your prioritized tasks in order of when you will do them (including which tasks you will delegate and which you will eliminate altogether for now)
6 – break your big tasks down into small, bite-size bits that can be done in small chunks of time
7 – schedule the tasks. When will you work on the first things on your list?
8 – choose three tasks to start. Just three! (You can always add more, but choose three to start.)
9 – when it’s work time, focus!
10 – add something enjoyable to your work time!
11 – when you finish your tasks for the day, make your list for the next day
12 – it’s okay to take a break and rest!

Let me know how these tips work for you!

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7 Kinds of Rest That Teachers Need to be Successful

If you’re a teacher, you’re probably tired. Just a few weeks into the school year, and you might feel like you’ve hit a wall.

In August, our brains go from summer mode to overdrive. There is no easing into it and it takes a while to build up our teacher stamina again. In August, we make our miles-long teacher things-to-do lists and get going. Adrenaline kicks in.

Every day becomes a race to check off as many of those back-to-school prep items as possible. Somehow, most things get done! By the third or fourth week of school, we might start feeling like we’re in a bit of a routine and even slowly building up our stamina.

But now – weeks into the school year – we’re tired. Can anything be done about it?

Thankfully – yes. And it doesn’t have to be “just get more sleep.” As I get older and wiser, I’m realizing a few things: #1 is that “sleep” and “rest” are two different things. And #2 is that rest is essential to success.

We can’t just keep pushing and pushing, thinking we’ll rest when everything gets done. If you’ve been teaching for more than one year, you know that “everything” is never done! Constantly pushing ourselves to do more and accomplish more leads to exhaustion and burnout.

I’ve learned that spending time resting actually makes me more productive. This quote from the book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less says it all:

“Rest is not this optional leftover activity. Work and rest are actually partners. They are like different parts of a wave. You can’t have the high without the low. The better you are at resting, the better you will be at working.”

So how can we incorporate rest into our teaching lives?

This TED Talk from Saundra Dalton-Smith helped me understand the seven different aspects of rest.

Physical rest
This is the first one we usually think about. Examples of physical rest include going to bed earlier and napping, but you can also get physical rest from yoga, stretching, massages, and foot rubs! (Shouldn’t every teacher workroom include a nap area and a masseuse to provide chair massages and foot rubs?!)

While napping (or massages) may not be an option during your school day, here are other ways to get some physical rest:
*do some stretches
*do some yoga poses
*deep breathing. Simply take six counts to breathe in, then six counts to exhale. Do this five times.
*take a brief walk (preferably outside)
*take your planning or grading work to another location for a change of scenery

You already know this, but making sure you are getting seven or more hours of sleep every night is also enormously beneficial.

Mental rest
You know you need some mental rest when you feel as if you have “monkey mind” – when your thoughts are all over the place, jumping from one idea to the next.

Some ways to get mental rest during the school day:
*get all of those monkey mind ideas out of your head and into a journal (otherwise known as a brain dump)
*do some small cleaning task
*do some small organizing task
*read something
*schedule & take regular breaks
*get outside
*deep breathing and/or meditation – even for just one minute!

Sensory rest
You’ll know you need sensory rest when you have been staring at a screen for too long, or when you’ve been in a noisy or crowded space.

How to get sensory rest during the school day:
*take screen breaks (try not to grab your phone and mindlessly scroll when you get a break)
*take a walking break (preferably alone and outside)
*go somewhere where you can be silent for a few minutes (even if it’s the restroom)
*wear clothes that are soft and not too tight
*close your eyes, even for just a few seconds

Creative rest
You need this type of rest when you’re feeling unmotivated and uninspired.

*change your environment – spend your planning time in another location
*shake up your routine – can you do tasks in a different order or in a different place?
*take a walk outside
*deep breathing
*journaling or doodling
*do something just for fun – not to achieve anything, but just to take a brain break

Emotional rest
When you find yourself just going through the motions and not expressing your true feelings, you are in need of some emotional rest. This is going to involve talking to another person who loves you and is on your side.

*call or text a friend or family member
*vent to a trusted co-worker
*consider therapy. Does your school district offer free or low-cost options?

Social rest
If you continually have events on your calendar that require you to spend time with people you’d rather not see (or not see as often), you need some social rest.

*can you cancel or reschedule and spend some time by yourself or with other people you love?
*schedule some daily alone time for yourself. This might be early in the morning, right after you return home from school, or later in the evening.
*say no. Set some boundaries around when and how long you will spend time with people who drain your energy.

Spiritual rest
If you feel like you’ve lost your purpose or your “why,” you might need some spiritual rest. Here are some things to try:

*attending worship services or a Bible study
*volunteering for an organization that inspires you
*joining a club to spend time with people who have similar interests

Instead of waiting until you are burned out and exhausted, think of how you can incorporate different kinds of rest into your life on a daily basis. Just try one and see how it works for you! Remember that rest is not the opposite of work. Rest helps you be more successful.

Need some encouragement on how to manage your teaching time so it doesn’t take over your personal life? Join our Sustainable Teaching Membership on Patreon!

How to Build Positive Classroom Community from the Very First Day of School

A few years ago, I worked as an instructional coach for our state’s department of education. In one school, I saw the school leadership insist that every teacher begin the first day of school almost like a college class – go over the “syllabus” (as in: “welcome to first grade and this is what we’ll learn this year”), define the rules and consequences, then immediately start teaching content.

A few teachers went “rogue” and did a good bit of community-building and relationship-building activities prior to beginning content teaching. They went even more rogue by continuing these activities throughout the first few weeks of school and any time they felt the need to strengthen the community throughout the year.

No surprise: the “rogue” teachers built the most positive relationships with students, had the most cooperative and collaborative groups of students, actually enjoyed their classes, AND got stellar academic results. Bonus: these teachers enjoyed teaching and enjoyed their students.

What about the teachers who followed the leadership directions? Well – let’s just say that their results were not so good. (Part of my job was to make suggestions. Changing how we started the year was the first suggestion I made.)

One important aspect of building a classroom community is to create routines/rituals/traditions in your class. Think about rituals or traditions that you might do with your family. These activities build a sense of belonging and give everyone something comforting and familiar to look forward to doing together. Creating some of these in your classroom will have that same effect.

Here are 7 ideas to try in your first week or month of school. Start small. Plan one thing to do each day and add on as you feel ready.

1 – Start a morning meeting routine. Community-building activities can happen throughout the day, so don’t limit yourself to morning! Here’s how to get started.

The Responsive Classroom website describes morning meeting in more detail.

There are four components of morning meetings: Greetings, Share, Activity, and Message. (This isn’t a requirement – just a suggested framework.)

Greetings can take many forms. Here are some ideas from Responsive Classroom. At the beginning of the year, you might focus a bit more on making sure everyone knows every student’s name and the correct way to pronounce it.

Share should always be kept optional. Sarah Gardner has some great ideas HERE.

The Activity part of the meeting is meant to build your community and let students practice their social and academic skills with an interactive activity.

And finally, the Message part of the meeting is where you shift the students’ focus to the academic content for the day. Here are some examples from Responsive Classroom.

If you’re looking for more information or ideas, these books are great resources:
Morning Meeting Book
First Six Weeks of School
80 Morning Meeting Ideas for Grades 3-6

IDEAS FOR SHARE/ACTIVITY:

~share compliments or appreciation for another student. Sentence starters like “I want to compliment ____ for doing _____” and “I appreciate _____ because ______” are simple ways to start.

Encourage students to compliment/appreciate something someone else does rather than something they have or are wearing. Make this a voluntary, optional activity. I also find it helps if I start the compliments/appreciations.

Don’t be surprised if you don’t get much out of students at first! They will get more comfortable with this as they get to know each other better and if you consistently implement the routine.

~”Would you rather?” questions. Minds in Bloom has a great archive of questions to use at different times of year.

~These awesome Question of the Day slides were shared in a Facebook group!

~And these slides were shared to edit and use for the different quarters of the year!

~Establish a day to go on a virtual field trip!

~Play 4 Corners with these fun prompts from Just Two Teachers.

~Use these questions for Walk-Talk-Swap. (Distribute question cards to students. Play music and allow them to move around the room. When the music stops, they stop, ask their nearest classmate their question, answer their classmate’s question, then swap cards. When the music starts, they walk around the room again.)

~Use “If I Could” questions from Just Two Teachers.

~Try a 60 Second Relate Break.

2 – Get your students up and moving and talking to each other with this classmate scavenger hunt. And here is another option.

3 – Learn more about your students’ likes and dislikes with these questions. Here is another option for this activity.

4 – Getting input from students’ families/caregivers is also very helpful. Here are some questions to ask.

5 – Have students bring in objects to share more about themselves with this classic “brown bag” activity.

5 – Establish classroom norms with your students. This post explains how to do that.

6 – Read aloud, read aloud, read aloud. Nothing brings people together better than a good story. Here is a link to my updated list of great picture books for upper elementary students, and a link to some great chapter books.

7 – Just like you started the day with a circle/meeting, consider ending the day with a closing circle. During this time, you might review the day, talk about what was good, what was more difficult, discuss what we’re going to do after school today.

Some questions I ask to get the conversation started:
*3 A’s – share an appreciation for something or something, an apology for something, or an aha moment (where you noticed something or mastered something)
*what was one rose and one thorn from the day?
*what was something challenging or new for you today?
*tell us about a time when you had to push through something hard today
*how were you creative today?
*what is something you did to take care of yourself today?

Taking the time to build this community at the beginning of the year is so important. Yes, we start teaching content pretty quickly, but taking the time to gather as a community and learn more about each other will give you more quality teaching time throughout the year.

If you want more tips for setting up your upper elementary classroom for success, take a look at my Get Started Teaching in Upper Elementary Grades course here!

What Teachers Absolutely Must Plan for Back to School Success!

Teachers are going back to school (or soon will be), hoping and praying for a better year after three years of COVID impacting schools and teaching. Besides setting up the classroom and attending endless meetings, the most important activities to plan are routines and procedures that build classroom community. Here are the most important routines and procedures to plan, followed by some teachers’ suggestions!

In my first year of teaching, a wise veteran teacher told me one of her secrets to success: “never let them see you sweat.” She explained that if you feel prepared with routines and procedures, you will feel more calm and confident as a teacher. Your attitude in the classroom is contagious. Knowing what you want students to do will ensure that your calm is contagious!

Routines & Procedures to Plan

Here are some routines and procedures to plan in advance so that you can have that “calm is contagious” feeling of confidence!

*Morning routines (entry and what they do first)
*Attention signals
*Classroom areas – what areas students can use (and how to use them); what areas are “off limits”
*Class jobs/classroom care
*Whole class lesson procedures
*Small group procedures
*Independent work time
*Where, when, & how to turn in work
*Lunch
*Recess
*Student materials – how to access
*Pencils! (this is always a hot topic)
*Transitions
*Hallway
*Restrooms & water
*Snack
*End of day routines

(If you want to learn more about planning any of these procedures, here’s a free course!)

How to Teach Those Routines & Procedures

It’s important to explicitly teach everything so they know how to do it. Practice, practice, practice! Make everything as routine and consistent as possible. Here are four steps to do that.

1 – Introduce the procedure and tell students what you want them to do. Be clear and set high expectations. (For example: if “no talking” during a transition is one of your expectations, don’t settle for even a little bit of talking!)

2 – Teach the procedure with guided practice:
~I do (where you model the procedure). Show them what you want them to do. If you want to inject some humor, show them what you do NOT want them to do! If you decide to do this, make sure you then model, again, what you DO want them to do so the last “picture” they see is how to do the procedure correctly.

~We do (where everyone practices). As you monitor students practicing the procedure, assume the best. Assume they are trying to do it right. Narrate the positive, not what is going “wrong.”

~You do (Provide plenty of opportunities to practice the procedure, not just on the first day but in the first six weeks of school. Yes, six weeks! It often takes that long for everyone in your class to “perfect” some procedures.)

3 – Rinse & repeat! Challenge students to try to get better every time they practice. Challenge them! Try to complete the procedure within a certain amount of time, use a chant or a cheer, or try playing different songs to signal the procedure or transition. Ms. Bensko on Spotify is a great resource for classroom-appropriate songs.

4 – Once almost everyone is doing it perfectly, you can stop practicing. Redirect students every time they don’t do the procedure correctly. Use the language of “reinforce, remind, redirect.” (Responsive Classroom has great resources for teachers. This article explains that “reinforce, remind, redirect” language.)

Teachers’ Favorite Tried & True Routines & Procedures

*Morning routine:

~have a designated place for student to place paperwork or notes from home for you. My bin is called “Stuff for Mrs. Smith” – nothing fancy, but it covers everything!

~daily slides – there are lots of great resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, but you can also check “Bitmoji Craze for Educators” Facebook group for free, editable resources! These slides could be used to give students directions for what to do in the morning. Curriculum Corner has lots of great resources too.

~start class with a morning meeting

~use resources like Question of the Day (I saw this free resource in a Facebook group. If you know who created it, would you let me know? I want to give them credit!)

~set daily goals as a class (at the beginning of the year, these could be related to those routines & procedures).

~add points on the board, pom poms or colorful cotton balls in a clear jar (or some other visible reinforcement) when your class meets their goals, makes quick transitions, earns compliments from another teacher, etc., then plan a whole class reward.

*Attention signals:

~wireless doorbell or attention signal

~use music playlists to signal different times of the day (Ms. Bensko playlists on Spotify work well for this)

*Class jobs:

Think about how to incorporate ways to take care of the classroom. Giving students responsibility for keeping the classroom clean, organized, and functioning smoothly is a great way to encourage students to work together and it helps everyone feel more connected.

~one popular idea is to create jobs for every student.

~if that feels like too much, you can designate one or two students a day to help do all the things. You can call them teacher helpers, teacher assistants, or VIP students – whatever makes the job sound extra special! These students could be the ones to pass out papers or supplies, collect papers or supplies, be the line leaders, monitor technology storage, pencil manager, etc.

*Speaking of pencils, have a pencil strategy! This is a good one to try!

*Small group/independent work time:

~using those daily slides works well for this.

~another option is Classroom Screen (with lots of different options for what to display on the screen).

~establish expectations for when you should be interrupted and what students should do when they need help or have a question.

*Turning in work:

~use baskets labeled by subject (or by class, if you teach more than one)

~place a class checklist beside the basket so students can check off their name when they turn in work. (Keep extra copies in the bottom of the basket.) Class checklists come in handy for LOTS of classroom organization tasks, by the way (checking off permission slips or other forms).

~assign every student a number (list names alphabetically by last name). Teach students to include their number at the top of the paper when they write their name. This helps with putting papers in order by number (to check for completion or to grade student work). If you do this, it’s also helpful to make a list of these names & numbers on a piece of chart paper and post it. You can use the numbers every year to label cubbies, bags of math manipulatives, etc.

~think about what you want students to do after they turn in work. Some teachers set up an “Early Finishers” file with puzzles or various activities that students can access when their work is “done.” Other teachers keep an anchor chart with options such as: independent reading, math practice on a website, review science notes, etc. Still others might keep a list on the board so they can change it easily.

*Transitions:

~count down from some number or use a timer for transitions. (If you count down by number, it’s also fun to include fractional numbers.)

~use a ”magic word” that means “go, get started.” Your students will have to listen to all of the directions and not move until you say the magic word! (You ould keep the same word all year, or change the word with student suggestions weekly.)

*Restrooms:

~use hand signals so that your teaching is not interrupted

~use a bathroom pass. One option is to have students keep the pass on their desk and then return it to its place when they return. You could only provide one or two passes to limit the number of students who are out of the classroom at one time.

*End of day routines:

~have a standard cleaning routine (clean up around seat; clean the table surface; return materialsto cubbies, technology cart or shelves; stack chairs; wait to be called to line up).

~play music or a fun kid-appropriate podcast while they are cleaning.

~have an end of day reflection time (my favorite is three A’s).

~challenge your students by thinking of a mystery routine/procedure/work habit/act of kindness. The “mystery” is that you don’t tell them what it is! Then at the end of the day, you reveal the mystery and review the day, telling them when and where you saw them do this correctly. If that didn’t do so well, don’t lecture, but do encourage them to do better the next day. Then use that same “mystery” again, a few days later.

~another fun challenge is to hold occasional cleaning competitions between tables (or transitions or whatever other class goal you have set). Announce the “winners” at the end of the day. (Keep it simple. There is no need to reward them with anything. The recognition is enough.)

My Favorite Routine

Nothing ever goes according to plan during that first week of school. It’s helpful to have a stack of books to read aloud during times when you need something quick and fun. The best part? All of this read-aloud builds classroom community since stories are one of the ways we build connections with each other.

If you want to implement one of my favorite activities – Classroom Book a Day – into your routine, here is my post about getting started. And if you want a list of some fabulous picture book read-alouds for back to school, here’s my list! I have products that include discussion questions for some of these books in my TPT store. (Keep checking back because I will be adding more soon!)

And finally – plan your own routines for yourself.

*What will you do when you enter your classroom in the morning?
*What will you do during your planning or prep time?
*How about right after school?

Whew, I know that’s a lot! But take it from me (since I’m now a “veteran educator”) – thinking through these routines and procedures plus having a plan for them will ensure that your students never see you sweat!

If you need more help with back to school planning, take a look at my Complete Guidebook for Back to School Planning in Upper Elementary Grades!

Have a terrific school year!

4 Ways to Calm Teacher Overwhelm with Back-to-School Planning

If you’re a teacher, I don’t have to tell you how busy and overwhelming the back-to-school season gets. It ranks right up there with the hectic holiday season. Let’s focus on what we can do to help ease the anxiety and feel optimistic about the new year ahead!

Four steps to calm the overwhelm:

1 – get a notebook or planner to jot down your ideas and thoughts because they’re going to come at you like a tsunami. Having one place to write everything down will ease your overwhelm.

You can take this a step further and label some pages with topics.

Here are some examples. Use the ones that work for you.

*room set-up
*room decor
*organizing tasks
*curriculum things to do
*meetings & important dates
*routines/procedures to teach (watch for my next post about these!)
*first week activities
*first day activities
*organization needs
*classroom supplies
*stuff to make
*stuff to buy
*stuff to copy

If you’re like me, when you’re busy working on one thing, you’ll think of an idea or something you need to for another category. Instead of interrupting yourself and getting off track, you can note the idea on the appropriate list and keep on going, knowing that your ideas are written down for when you can get to them.

2 – when you find yourself running around like a chicken with its head cut off, just STOP. Sit down. Take a deep breath. Or maybe several deep breaths. (My favorite is 4-7-8 breathing. Inhale for a count of four. Hold your breath for a count of seven. Then exhale for a count of eight.) Imagining yourself in a relaxing place helps too.

3 – when you feel calm again, ask yourself three important questions about your current tasks:

*Is this a must-do task (in other words: does this HAVE to be done before students enter the building on day one?)? If so, put a star beside it.

*Is this a would-be-nice-to-do task? (That bulletin board would be really cute, but for right now I could just put paper and border on the board and add the other cute stuff later.)

*Is this something I could delegate or drop altogether, or save it for later when I have time? (Tasks like cleaning out file cabinets or organizing a closet. They might be great things to do, but do they really have to be done before students enter the building?)

4 – organize your to-do list before you set foot in the building.

Here’s how to do that:

*Take those must-do tasks and plan when you will do them. Be realistic, knowing that you’ll also want to visit with school friends (but try to keep those visits brief) and that you’ll be sitting in meeting after meeting.

*Add those would-be-nice-to-do tasks to the list, but in a separate area (so you don’t get them confused with your must-do tasks).

*Before you walk in the door every day, have your list made for that day’s work. Put a star beside your top three tasks for the day. When/if you finish those tasks, then choose another task. Continue for the amount of time that you are in the building.

*Speaking of time, set time limits for yourself. You know as well as I do that school tasks expand to fill the time available. If you set a deadline (and a timer!) for yourself, you are more likely to work like a beaver during the time you’ve set.

*Make your to-do list public. Write it on the board! This way, when folks come into your classroom, they’ll see you working and they’ll also see your list on the board. It’s a subtle reminder that we all have a lot to do so visits need to be brief!

If you want more help with back-to-school planning (and reducing the overwhelm), check out my Back to School Planning in Upper Elementary Grades – The Complete Guide!

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