Shownotes
Ever feel like the first few weeks of school are a tornado of papers, emails, meetings, and missed to-dos? You are not alone. But what if you could start the year with systems that actually stick—and save you time in the long run?
Topics Discussed
- Digital organization
- The paper monster
- Communication systems
Resources
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Mentioned in this episode:
Back to School Support
If you’ve hit a hiccup this Back to School, I have the resources to get you back on track. From labels for all your teacher drawers, to relationship building cards, to a review of rules and the why behind them, or maybe just a pair and share tool to get you going faster each day. Check out my Back to School category on The Colorado Classroom at TPT to help you get on your way. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/the-colorado-classroom/category-back-to-school-1441616
Transcripts
[00:00:19] Brittany: Ever feel like the first few weeks of school are a tornado of papers, emails, meetings, and missed to-dos?
[:[00:00:39] Brittany: Welcome to the Teaching Toolbox podcast. I'm Brittany, and I'm here with Ellie.
[:[00:00:46] Brittany: And today we're sharing real life, sustainable, organizational ideas for middle school teachers that go beyond the pretty planners, although we do love the pretty planners.
[:[00:01:00] Brittany: And in this episode we're talking about teacher organization.
[:[00:01:15] Ellie: So why don't we start with the digital stuff, because if your Google Drive computer files are a mess, or whatever you use, if it's a mess, everything else can start to feel chaotic too. Um, side note, I remember when there was almost no digital stuff and I didn't have to worry about that, just where were all my papers.
[:[00:01:38] Ellie: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
[:[00:02:06] You could also create a quick access folder on the sidebar for anything you'll need that week, drag and drop files into that folder or copy files there so that they're easy to find. It makes lesson prep and planning go a lot faster.
[:[00:02:36] Brittany: And we've got one for you that we will put in the show notes.
[:[00:02:43] Brittany: So to stay efficient long term, one option is to create a past units folder.
[:[00:03:03] You know right where those things are and what you've covered.
[:[00:03:16] Brittany: I did both. I had the digital and the printed 'cause I wanted students to be able to see a sample of what we were doing, and I wanted it to look like what theirs should look like.
[:[00:03:37] Brittany: I still have them all in binders.
[:[00:03:41] Brittany: Another really helpful tool is a browser bookmark. You could keep a teacher tools folder in Chrome with your most used links, like grade books, your LMS, your seating chart, your parent logs. First of all, to make browser bookmarks, highlight the URL, the link at the top of the page, the link you use most often,
[:[00:04:36] If it's recognizable enough, like Facebook or Instagram or your LMS. Once you have icons or names on your browser bar, right click on one and it'll say, go to folder. Name your folder, and then you can keep adding links there. So I have one for work, one for social media, one for design sites, one for history sites, and so on.
[:[00:05:40] And you can do that by going to the three dots on the far right in Chrome and then choosing settings. Go to on startup and then choose Open a page or specific set of pages, and then there you can choose which pages you want to open every time you start your computer.
[:[00:06:04] Ellie: Mm. Mm-hmm. That's a great idea.
[:[00:06:22] Ellie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And even something simple like a shared spreadsheet can reduce some duplicated effort, especially if you're coordinating assessments or pacing. Anything else for digital for now, or should we move on to paper?
[:[00:06:42] Ellie: That's for sure. It sure can.
[:[00:07:01] Ellie: Oh yeah, lots of those moments. And you might want one of these for every single class, so all the different class periods that you have, a separate one so you can keep the class periods separated and organized. I used to have them in different locations in my room, so I would put some of them on the counter near my desk, others on the side counter, along the windows, so I could actually fit a few over there.
[:[00:07:41] Brittany: I kinda like the color coordinated trays for paper turn in, but I did have a master basket on my desk, where students put late papers, notes from them or parents, any forms or anything important that I had to get to right away.
[:[00:08:02] Ellie: Mm-hmm.
[:[00:08:11] and that's where I would put their return work.
[:[00:08:15] Brittany: And so I didn't have to pass that out in class. I could do it whenever I wanted to, and then they could just go up and see their returned work
[:[00:08:23] Ellie: I had those stair organizers for folders and I would have different stair organizers for different classes to be able to put the important papers in there, the same type of thing, like either what we were using in class that day, or what was being collected or what needed to be returned.
[:[00:08:45] Brittany: But there's also like non-student paper, like potentially passes or memos you might have printed, or paper parent forms you need to send home, maybe nice notes, something like that, and you might wanna manage those documents. And those you could keep on a clipboard near your desk or maybe a letter sorter with passes in one, good notes in another slot, index cards, in a third slot and
[:[00:09:16] Ellie: I did use clipboards for some of those kinds of things, but I was also lucky I had a desk that had a filing cabinet drawer type of thing in it, which was really nice, so I could put hanging folders in that desk drawer and keep a lot of those files in there
[:[00:09:30] Ellie: along with my candy.
[:[00:09:56] That way you're walking into the new week ready to go with your physical space in order, which can really help your mental space and your attitude each week as well.
[:[00:10:07] Brittany: I would usually go to school on Sundays for a bit and do this because I chose to leave immediately on Friday.
[:[00:10:22] It's not one I recommend, but you have to do what's best for you.
[:[00:10:50] I had my stuff written on the board, whatever it happened to be, and then I could just thank my past self for helping out my present or future self. So what about the daily papers we use with students, like the warmups, the copies we've made for the day or for the week if we're really prepared?
[:[00:11:12] Brittany: Well, there was a time when I would make copies for the coming weeks, and then I would put them in a different spot each time. And then by the time it got to be that lesson, I couldn't remember where I put those copies
[:[00:11:26] Brittany: I would eventually find them, so then I'd have them for next year.
[:[00:11:33] Ellie: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
[:[00:11:50] When Tuesday's lesson came around, they were in the Tuesday tray. And if things were running fast or slow, I could just move them over a day or two or whatever.
[:[00:12:29] And it can become part of your weekly rhythm, loaded on Friday, coast a little bit easier on Monday.
[:[00:13:03] And then it was all there, ready to go for a sub or whatever needed to happen.
[:[00:13:35] And sometimes I feel like that's a peaceful time.
[:[00:13:53] Ellie: Mm-hmm.
[:[00:13:58] Ellie: Right.
[:[00:14:01] Ellie: Right. Right.
[:[00:14:03] Brittany: Yeah. So what about fast finishers or extra credit work?
[:[00:14:09] Ellie: Um, at one point I had a full-size paper, vertical filing pouch, and I hung it on my wall. I think it had like 10 or 12 slots for papers, so I could put 10 to 12 different resources in the pouches with a card or sheet on the front saying what each pocket held. What did you do for absentee kids?
[:[00:14:44] away.
[:[00:14:54] I wouldn't like set it down on my desk or, you know, put it on a chair or put it on their desk. I would just pass out papers, write their names on the papers, and then walk over to the board and put them on the clips right away.
[:[00:15:41] It's one option would be to send a class update like every two weeks. Just a short summary of what students are working on and what's coming up. Put it on your calendar for every other Tuesday or every other Friday, and then just check it off after you do it.
[:[00:16:08] away. And then keep track of those individual parent contacts. It's really helpful to maintain a running log. You could use a simple Google sheet with columns for date, student, and summary of the message.
[:[00:16:43] Brittany: I've just started using email templates and they're so helpful. Oh, that's such a great idea, especially for today.
[:[00:16:52] Brittany: And while you might not want to send an email when you actually have time to write it, you might be able to write it and then schedule it depending on the platform you're using.
[:[00:17:08] Ellie: Right. And while it's very easy to decide when you're gonna make calls or send emails, we all know you don't always receive emails and calls at ideal times. So it's really important to try to set communication boundaries early so that families know you might answer emails between certain hours and they know what to expect that you're not going to be answering at 10 o'clock at night.
[:[00:17:38] night. And once you start answering those, if they aren't an emergency, then it becomes an expectation that you're always gonna answer.
[:[00:18:04] I mean, you know, when I was in school so long ago, there was no way to contact the teacher after they left for the day. You had to figure it out, and do the best that you could, and clarify things the next day. And I think it's still a possibility to train students to stick to some certain hours and certain parameters as far as communication and parents as well.
[:[00:18:58] Ellie: You hope.
[:[00:19:13] Brittany: Exactly. Just pick a couple things to add to your teaching toolbox for the start of the year. Maybe it's organizing the trays for student papers, or organizing your digital files, or setting up some of those awesome email templates that Ellie mentioned.
[:[00:19:36] Brittany: If you found even one tip today that made your brain go, Ooh, I could totally use that, share this episode with a colleague and help them get a head start too.
[:[00:19:57] Brittany: Bye.
