Feeling that familiar tug of guilt during summer break? In this episode, we’re sharing a simple, six-step system for back to school teacher prep that helps you feel calm, confident, and well-rested, without letting work take over your summer. Learn how to use just one hour a week to tackle high-impact tasks, stay focused on what matters most, and actually enjoy your break!

Prefer to read? Grab the episode transcript and resources in the show notes here: https://www.secondstorywindow.net/podcast/back-to-school-teacher-prep/

Resources:

• BTS Success Course
• Editable Classroom Seating Chart Maker Tool
• Tell, Try, Tally, Talk Slides
• Back to School Readiness Checklists
• Zero Days by Ruth Ware
• Podcast: Happier with Gretchen Rubin
• Join the Teacher Approved Club!
• Connect with us on Instagram @2ndstorywindow.
• Shop our teacher-approved resources.
• Join our Facebook group, Teacher Approved
• Leave your review on Apple Podcasts!

Related Episodes to Enjoy:

• Episode 55, Thriving as a Teacher: One Helpful Strategy
• Episode 87, 4 Important Ways to Build Classroom Community At Back to School
• Episode 201, 20 Easy Back-to-School Teacher Tasks You Can Totally Do From the Couch
• Episode 203, 6 Teacher Traps We’re Saying No to This Back to School Season

Mentioned in this episode:

Teacher WINTER Talks is a free virtual event to support elementary teachers who want to fall in love with teaching again. It runs January 17–19, and it’s free to join. Head to https://secondstorywindow.net/teacherwintertalks to get your ticket!

Teacher WINTER Talks is a free virtual event to support elementary teachers who want to fall in love with teaching again. It runs January 17–19, and it’s free to join. Head to https://secondstorywindow.net/teacherwintertalks to get your ticket!

This is episode 205 of Teacher Approved.

You're listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping

educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm

Heidi.

And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story

Window, where we give research based and teacher approved

strategies that make teaching less stressful and more

effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from

each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to

the show.

Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today's

episode, we're talking about how to use just one hour a week this

summer to start the year ready and rested. And we're sharing a

teacher approved tip for creating a summer planning

ritual that actually sticks.

But first, it's time for a try it tomorrow, a favorite

quick win that you can try in your life right away. Emily,

what is our suggestion this week?

This week, try the five minute Friday flip. Do you like

the alliteration?

If nothing else, the title is awesome.

Every Friday, spend just five minutes flipping through

your teaching materials, whether that's your teacher binders, a

curriculum guide, or even your phone's camera roll from this

past school year. Just flip and notice what catches your eye, no

pressure to do anything with what you find. Just let your

brain start making some connections for next year.

I love this because it is gentle prep with zero guilt.

You're just, you know, planting seeds for future planning,

without the pressure to have it all figured out right now.

If you like this idea or anything else we share here on

the podcast, would you take a second give us a five star

rating and review on Apple podcasts?

Over the years, Emily and I have created an extensive

library of back to school products. To help you find the

tools that will make the start of your New Year easier, today

we are spotlighting our editable classroom seating chart maker.

Tell us more about this, Emily.

Oh, we love this product so much. Not only will it help

you at the start of the year, but it will be such a huge

support all year long. One of the simplest, most effective

behavior management tools at your disposal is your classroom

seating arrangement. If you're intentional about how you assign

seats, you can minimize or completely eliminate so many

hassles.

In this product, we walk you step by step through our, I

want to say patented system.

It should be patented.

Trademark, copyright, something. But we walk you

through our system for strategic seating, and we give you over 90

different seating arrangements and list the pros and cons of

each one.

And we even include seating options for the carpet,

so you can help minimize any problems there as well.

Now, since you're not going to know your students at

the start of the year, the strategy part of assigning seats

isn't going to help you too much yet, but the desk arrangement

part can be a huge lifesaver, even in the first few days. So

the first thing you need to do is choose an arrangement that

fits your seating options, whether you have desks or tables

or those weird triangle table thingies, then you need to

choose an arrangement that will fit your space.

The last three steps of choosing an arrangement are the

most crucial but often overlooked. Choose a seating

arrangement that supports your teaching style. If you do a lot

of cooperative work, choose an arrangement that lets students

work together. Also look for an arrangement that minimizes your

walking. You're on your feet all day. Do yourself a favor, and

make sure that you can reach each student seat in the minimum

And last of all, and this is the secret sauce, keep as

number of steps.

many students as possible, as close to you as possible. The

number one deterrent for off task behavior is proximity to

the teacher. So leverage that power as much as you can.

We walk you through all of this in the editable

classroom seating chart maker, and you can find a link to that

in the show notes. But if you want more information, make sure

you go back to Episode 97 where we lay out this strategy in

detail.

Well, now we are well into summer, and chances are

good that you've had at least one moment so far where that

little voice in your head asked, should you be doing something

for school right now?

Oh, yeah, that critical little voice that whispers,

everyone else is probably picking out their first week

outfits and color coding their lesson plan binders, and you're

watching Netflix at 2pm on a Tuesday??

I hate that voice so much.

I know it's a jerk.

She gets the better of me more times than I care to admit

publicly. She's how you know before I know it, I find myself

elbow deep in prep I didn't plan on doing, and then my summer

relaxation turns into a guilt ridden productivity spiral. Ah,

good times.

But we're not going to do that anymore. Instead, we're

going to focus on doing the right things in small, steady

steps that protect rest and build readiness. We promise, it

really is possible to start the year feeling calm and prepared

without sacrificing your summer sanity.

This week, we are talking about what just one intentional

hour each week can do for your back to school prep. Gretchen

Rubin, from the Happier Podcast, which is a podcast that we love,

has a great hack that she calls Power Hour. She schedules time

once a week to power through the tasks that she can't normally

get herself to deal with.

And because it rhymes, you know, it's valid advice. So

we are going to take Gretchen's Power Hour idea and turn it into

teacher Power Hour. Very original, as you can tell, but

instead of using that time to call the electric company or

figure out your taxes, we're going to focus on our back to

school tasks, and we've got a six step system to help you make

it happen. We love a system.

The first step is to build a strong foundation by

clarifying what matters to you. Second, start a list of Power

Hour tasks so you don't waste precious minutes trying to

figure out what to work on, which is always my downfall.

Third, schedule your time. Fourth, and this is the hardest

one, protect your time. Make sure you reschedule if another

obligation conflicts with your time, and then make yourself

actually do the work. And that's why that step is the hardest

part.

And then comes the fun part. Step five is to celebrate

your accomplishments, and then all you have to do is step six,

which is to repeat it next week.

sound too hard, does it? So pour yourself a lemonade or

throw on your walking shoes, and let's talk about how to use one

hour a week to prep for back to school like the smart, seasoned

teacher you are.

Let's start where we always do by clarifying what

matters. Before you make a single list or organize a single

supply, we want you to get clear on your goal. If you joined us

for our recent webinar, we referred to this goal as your

readiness anchor.

A readiness anchor is simply the answer to this

question, how do you want to feel as you walk into your

classroom on your first day back? For now, forget how you

might feel or what you want to accomplish before then, or how

you want your classroom to look, just ask yourself how you want

to feel.

And then this feeling is going to become your North Star.

And we cannot stress this enough, it's important to

actually choose your word, not just think about choosing a

word. If you don't name what you want, what happens is you end up

chasing every task that crosses your mind, because you have no

way of knowing which tasks are the ones that actually matter.

So choose your readiness anchor. Maybe you want to feel

calm or grounded, maybe you want to feel excited or energized,

maybe you want to feel organized or in control. However you want

to feel is the exact right answer.

Here is why this matters so much. When you know how you

want to feel, it becomes so much easier to prioritize your prep

time. Every decision gets filtered through that goal. For

example, if your readiness goal is to feel calm, then maybe you

want to focus on tasks that reduce last minute scrambling,

like printing your welcome letter, prepping your first day

slides, or arranging your desks. And maybe you want to use our

desk arrangement tool to help you with that.

Yeah, that would be handy dandy. But if your readiness

goal is to feel excited, maybe your prep focuses on your

favorite parts of teaching, like picking a fun new read aloud, or

prepping a first week project that you can't wait to share

with your students, or planning a classroom theme that gets you

pumped to decorate.

See the difference? When your tasks align with your why,

they stop feeling like chores and start feeling like

confidence boosters. And we think this is so important that

we have updated our BTS Success course to start with a whole

module on teacher recovery and emotional anchoring, because

everything else is going to flow from there.

So before you do anything else, pause this podcast and get

clear on your readiness anchor. We're serious. This is your

homework. Write it down. Put it somewhere that you can see it.

Let it guide every choice you make about how to spend your

summer prep time.

Okay, you got it? Do you have your word? Good. That's

step one. Step two is to make your Power Hour task list. This

is where you jot down all of the tasks that will contribute to

your readiness goal. If your goal is to feel balanced, your

list will be full of tasks like prepping freezer meals, creating

standard operating procedures for repeated tasks and

streamlining your workflow.

Ideally, try to use this time to focus on light touch

prep. Light touch prep means low time, low effort, high payoff.

These are the tasks that in one focused hour can move the needle

significantly without draining your summer energy.

On the one hand, you could spend three hours deep

cleaning your classroom library, or you could spend one hour

creating a digital welcome packet that parents will

reference all year long. Both are helpful, but one gives you

way more bang for your buck.

Here are some examples of light touch prep that pack a

punch. Creating templates for things that you know you will

need, like your weekly newsletter format, your

substitute plans and your parent communication scripts.

Drafting a first day slide deck with all of your

procedures and expectations. You can always tweak it later, but

having the bones ready means one less thing to stress about in

August, and we have a whole set of Google slides that you can

adapt to fit any procedure, and this will save you lots of time.

Check out the link to our tell try tally talk slides in the

show notes.

Even something as simple as setting up your digital grade

book with student names, if you are lucky enough to already have

your class list. That 10 minutes now can save you 30 minutes

later.

The key here is choosing tasks that future you will

genuinely thank present you for doing. And the beautiful thing

is, these are exactly the kind of tasks that fit perfectly into

one focused hour.

Remember, you're not trying to solve every classroom

challenge or prep every lesson at this point. The goal is to

set yourself up so that you can hit the ground running when it's

time to actually get back to work.

Make sure you keep your list of Power Hour tasks

somewhere handy. If you have our back to school readiness

checklists, we recently added a Power Hour list, so you can

download the updated file and then just copy the Power Hour

sheet to your existing spreadsheet. If you already have

them, it's super easy to do that.

If you don't have the back to school readiness

checklists, this is your sign to grab them now. There are 50

pages in there, and knowing us, we'll probably add more to that

over the summer.

Yeah, by the time this comes out, there might be two

more pages.

Who knows. But all of these pages help you clarify

your goals and maximize your time. They are a serious BTS

lifesaver, and you can find them at the link in the show notes.

Power Hour can be a motivating way to tackle some

meaningful tasks. But as every teacher knows, there are just

some things that just have to get done, and we can't magic

wand them away. Labels need to be made, folders need to be

organized, copies need to be run. All the fun stuff.

Unfortunately, all that tedious stuff is real and it's not going

anywhere.

So here is our system for handling the must do tasks

without letting them take over your summer. First, make your

must do list. Get everything out of your head and onto paper. All

of the copying, labeling, organizing, decorating, whatever

you know has to happen before students walk through your door.

And then group similar tasks together. Make a list of

all the copies you need to make. Make a list of everything that

needs a label on it. Make a list of everything you need to finish

for your wall displays. This is just so much more efficient than

bouncing between different types of tasks.

Now to actually get those dreaded tasks done, assign each

batch to one of your weekly summer prep hours. One week

might be copy all the things, and another week might be label

and organize supplies.

A little pro tip that works with anything, not just

schoolwork, is to pair it. If it's not your favorite task,

pair it with a treat. Get your favorite iced drink to sip while

you stand over the copier. Listen to a fun audio book while

you're organizing supplies, put on a movie in the background

while you're cutting out bulletin board letters.

You could even lean into the summeriness of it all and

sit on the patio while you stuff folders. You don't have to

suffer through the tedious stuff. Make it as pleasant as

possible. And remember, it's just one hour a week. You can do

anything for one hour.

And if you want help prioritizing which tasks

actually matter versus which ones you can skip, we break that

down in BTS success too, so that you're not wasting time on busy

work that won't actually help your classroom run smoother. And

you can find a link to the course in the show notes.

Okay, so you've got your readiness goal. You know what

light touch prep looks like, and you have your plan for the must

do tasks. Now comes the really important part—actually making

it happen.

These are steps three and four, schedule it and protect

it. The secret to making it happen is treating this like any

other important appointment in your life. Choose your hour.

Maybe having a set hour each week will work best for you, or

maybe it's more of a movable feast.

Oh, that sounds exciting. For you, Saturday morning before

the rest of the house wakes up might work best. Maybe it's

Tuesday evening after your yoga class, when you're already

feeling calm and centered. Or maybe you hire a neighborhood

team to come play with your kids on Wednesday afternoons while

you escape to a coffee shop for an hour. The specific time

doesn't matter. What matters is that it's consistent and

protected. This is a date with future you and future you does

not want you to stand her up.

When you're looking at a blank calendar, it's easy to

start out with good intentions. Following through, however, is a

genuine challenge. If you're struggling to put your ideas

into practice, go back to Episode 55 where we discuss

another Gretchen Rubin idea, the four tendencies. This helps you

pinpoint what it takes for you to meet your own inner

expectations. That way you're leaning on your strengths and

not your weaknesses.

One thing that might help with follow through is to make

as many decisions ahead of time as possible. If it helps to have

a loose structure, try assigning a theme to each week's Power

Hour. Emily, why don't you share with us the sample plan for how

you might use your summer hours?

Sure. So maybe week one, you're going to set your

readiness goal and make your must do list. Get clear on what

you're working toward, and then choose a quick win from your

list and complete it right away to build that positive momentum.

Then in week two, prep one light touch task that aligns with your

readiness goal. So maybe that's making slides for your arrival

procedure or your dismissal routine, and then batch one

thing from your tedious tasks list.

And if you want help with those, there are priority lists

and task batching lists and the Back To School Readiness

Checklist to help you out.

And then in week three, you could plan and prep

materials for your first day. No matter your readiness anchor

goal, you're going to need a first day plan.

Week four, draft your communication templates, things

like your welcome letter, your classroom newsletter format, or

how to help students at home handouts. Also prepare

everything that you will need for your meet the teacher open

house.

And then in week five, plan something fun that excites

you about the new year. Maybe it's a special first day

activity or a themed unit you've been wanting to try.

That's just five hours, but it's five huge wins, and

your August self is going to be so relieved. So it's time for

step five in our Power Hour prep routine, which is to celebrate

your accomplishments. You're showing up for yourself when it

would be much easier not to and that is a huge win. Even if you

didn't check everything off your list during your hour, write

down what you did get done and give yourself a well deserved

pat on the back and maybe even a fun little treat, because you

deserve it.

I read a book called Tiny Habits, where he teaches you how

to take little, teeny steps towards your goals by making

these, like, micro habits, and then after you do it, you're

supposed to celebrate. And so his example was like, if every

time you wash your hands, you're gonna do five squats, then

afterwards you should like, give yourself a high five towards the

mirror, or you should like, do a little dance. And honestly, I

think psychologically, this might be a good tip. So maybe

come up with, like, a real little celebration for yourself

at the end of your power hour. Or, you know, you could give

yourself a little treat too. That's fine.

And step six is to do it all again. Decide what you want

to work on next, schedule an hour for each week, and then

follow through. The beauty of this one hour system is that you

can adapt it to whatever you need in whatever season of

summer you're in.

If you're in the early weeks of summer break and you

want to do absolutely nothing school related for a while,

cool, perfect. Start your one hour routine in a couple weeks.

If you're headed back to school in a couple weeks and feeling

behind, also perfect, you still have time to make a huge

difference. You just might need maybe two or three power hours

per week. That still gives you plenty of time to enjoy your

summer and still start the year feeling ready.

So as you're listening, assuming you're not driving,

open up your calendar and schedule your power hour for

this week. Make sure you've clarified your readiness goal

and have a list of essential tasks to help you meet that

goal. Get everything on the calendar and protect that time.

Once you're done working, take a minute to celebrate how much you

got done, and then do it all again next week, and think how

amazing you'll feel by the time that first day rolls around.

We would love to hear about your Power Hour plan. Come

join the conversation in our Teacher Approved Facebook group.

Now for our Teacher Approved Tip of the Week, where we share an

actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and

simplify the rest. This week's teacher approved tip is create a

calming planning ritual that signals prep time to your brain.

So tell us about this, Heidi.

Well, one of the biggest challenges of summer prep is

that our brains don't automatically switch into work

mode when we are at home in our pajamas. So we want to create a

simple ritual that helps signal to your brain that it's time to

focus. This sounds serious, but I promise it doesn't have to be

complicated. Maybe it's making a special cup of tea, lighting a

candle or playing a specific playlist. Maybe it's sitting in

a particular spot in your house or clearing off a specific

workspace. The key here is consistency. Use the same ritual

every time and your brain was going to start associating those

cues with focused, productive thinking. It's kind of like

training yourself to get into work mode on command.

This may sound like a fluffy little time waster, but

science backs us up on this. Prepping for a new school year

can quietly trigger your brain's stress response. You're thinking

about everything that went wrong last year, what might go wrong

this year, and how much you have to do. That kind of pressure can

make your brain feel like it's in danger. And when that

happens, it shuts down the exact parts that you most need right

now, the creativity, the focus, the problem solving.

And that's where a short calming ritual comes in. By

taking a few minutes to breathe deeply, ground yourself, and

reconnect with your purpose, you're activating the

parasympathetic nervous system, and that's the part of your body

that says, hey, you're safe, you've got this.

This ritual isn't just aimed at creating a nice

feeling. It's about training your brain to treat planning

time as a space of confidence and clarity, not panic or

perfectionism. Spending five precious minutes of your hour to

start peacefully will help you be much more productive during

the rest of that hour.

And when your hour is up, consider having a closing ritual

too. Close the laptop, blow out the candle, put away your

supplies. This helps your brain transition back to summer mode,

and it prevents that, I'm always thinking about school, feeling

that can tend to creep in.

And throw in your mini celebration too. I want you to

be having a mini dance party at the end of your power hour.

To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we're giving

extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra

credit?

credit to the book Zero Days by Ruth Ware. It's about a

woman who's in a race against time to find the person who

murdered her husband and clear her name as the main suspect.

Oh, wow.

Yes. It's really engaging, super fast paced

thriller, and it's perfect for when you just want to get sucked

into a book, which I recently did, so I blew through it in

just a few days.

Well, that sounds like a perfect summer read.

What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

I'm giving extra credit to you, Emily.

Me??

We recently had our Teacher Summer Talk Summit, and

it was so wonderful. And Emily crushed it. She has put so much

work into this. I know on the user end, it probably doesn't

seem like that much went into it, because you're just like,

well, I listened to it. And there was some cute stuff on

Facebook and Instagram, but that was months of work. She has

worked so hard. So many late nights. You know, she'll be

texting me at midnight, still at her computer. So all the extra

credit for that, Emily. Good job, and Melanie and Sara and

everyone else that helped along the way, and all of the tech

nightmares. Oh, it was so much work, but she did an amazing

job. It was a stellar event, and it was so fun. And I think

teachers got so much out of it. So hopefully all of you joined

us there as well.

Yes, I loved that. It was a really great experience, even

if I did have to work really hard, but I learned a lot, and

hopefully next year will be easier.

Fingers crossed.

That is it for today's episode. Remember, start with just one

hour a week and your readiness goal. Make summer prep work for

you, not against you.

And don't forget our teacher approved tip for

creating a summer planning ritual. And if you're looking

for more structured support in your planning, check out BTS

Success at the link in the show notes.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm

Heidi.

And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow

or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an

episode.

You can connect with us and other teachers in the

Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.

Bye for now.

Bye.