Work smarter, not harder: It’s a common adage for teachers who want to bolster their time management skills by keeping overtime at a minimum and classroom efficiency at a maximum. It's always a good idea to regularly check in with yourself and assess which time management strategies have been the most effective for you so far — and when to implement a few new ones.
Here, elementary teacher Genia Connell shares 15 tips on how to make the most of your time each day in the school year ahead so that you, too, can work smarter. Some of these ideas (say, those involving parent volunteers) may depend on your school district's policies, so be sure to refer to those before starting.
1. Archive Your Lesson Plans: Lesson planning takes an enormous amount of time and energy — the first time you do it. By developing a system for saving and archiving your lessons (hint: use binders!), you will be able to easily retrieve a lesson from a prior year, make a few modifications, and voilà: a new lesson for the new school year in a fraction of the time.
2. Day of the Week Baskets: Put all copies, books, and manipulatives you need for the current week in baskets (or hanging file folders) that are labeled with days of the week. Keep your teacher editions right next to them where they are easy to grab. This is also a great setup for a substitute teacher who will then be able to easily find everything they need in your teacher workspace.
3. Use Parent Volunteers: Many parents are eager to help out in the classroom, and many hands make light work! Schedule parent volunteers to come in twice a week to make copies, put up bulletin boards, and work with small groups.
4. Jobs-to-Go: Keep stacking trays right by your door to fill with papers to copy, items to laminate, or work that needs to be prepped for a lesson. You can easily grab the baskets to catch up on work during your planning time.
5. Paint Your Bulletin Boards: You can save a great deal of prep time by painting your bulletin boards rather than putting up new backings.
6. Easy Bulletin Board Backing: Using plastic tablecloths on bulletin boards is another way to save time since they don't fade and last longer than other backing materials. Use borders that are brightly patterned, and when you want to change your board, all you have to do is switch out what’s on top, not the tablecloths underneath.
7. Quick and Easy Daily Assessment: Start the day with morning bell work to regularly assess how your students are progressing. After taking attendance, walk among your students with a grading sheet for a quick check on how they did and what areas may require more focus.
8. Planning Time "To-Do" List: In addition to planning your daily lessons, you should plan out your release time, too. Connell’s strategy is to list four must-do items each day that take priority and have to be finished before she can move on to anything else.