 Do you ever come into your classroom in the morning and rush to try to get everything ready for your students before they arrive in your classroom? Yup, this was me too!!! Until I learned the best hacks to prepare for a successful school day. Today I was listening to a podcast by Mel Robbins and it reminded me of how I applied the same concept in my classroom. As a self-contained classroom teacher, I know that it can be overwhelming and time consuming the endless tasks required to set up the classroom. Self-contained classrooms often have many small centers, a lot of differentiated tasks, and hands-on work tasks. At the end of the day there is so much to reset and re-set up for the next day that you feel like there is never enough time. You have to ask yourself… What type of day do you want to have? Do you want to be able to come into work, calmly and ready to go? Maybe just a few things to complete or tackle first thing in the morning? Or do you want to have to rush in and try to get everything ready in a chaotic manner?
.Unless you make it to work early, let’s be real…there may not be enough time to get everything needed ready for your students. So often, you will find that students will transition in the morning and have to wait until you are preparing centers, grabbing materials and setting up your technology, whole group, instruction with the teacher, or you name it! I have learned that idle time equals behavior! So the less idle time, the less behaviors might occur and the more we can maximize learning and engagement for students. But how do you tackle such an overwhelming to-do list, after a long day??? You may be ready to rush out of the classroom and head home. No matter how long your day is, the key is to leave things ready and prepared for the next school day. I promise you these hacks will be life-changing!! It may take a bit to establish these routines, but once you do, you will thank me or remember me.  Hack # 1 First hack is to make checklists. I can never emphasize enough how beneficial it is to create a checklist for different things that need to be accomplished throughout the day. This is going to help everyone in the classroom, not just yourself as a teacher, to reorganize but also will help your staff members that are part of the classroom. When you create these checklists, you can identify different tasks that need to be tackled. For example, if you want to create a list of the things that need to be done after student dismissal then go ahead and create that list. This is a great tool when you want to have a to-do list that must be addressed daily or even weekly duties. This is going to ensure that you don't miss anything and also to help prepare for the next school day.
 Hack # 2 We have to keep in mind that there is no “I” in teamwork. As classroom teachers, we often want to micromanage everything or just take on everything ourselves. But this can be so overwhelming, taxing, and it can be very difficult to accomplish everything that needs to get done by yourself. So… this is when it is very important to establish relationships with your classroom assistant(s). When you build relationships, develop respect for one another, they will become your right and left hand! Learn about their strengths and weaknesses. For example, in my classroom, I had an assistant who was phenomenal at setting my student’s schedules at the end of the day. Meanwhile, I had another assistant who used to be a secretary, therefore her filing skills and organization of skills were on point so she would help me in those areas. As the teacher, you will need to delegate and share tasks and responsibilities. You cannot take on everything on your own if you want to accomplish everything that needs to be done. We can achieve more as a team rather than an island.
It is great to delegate, but I learned that it is helpful that EVERYONE (teacher included) knows how to execute all the tasks that need to be completed to effectively run centers, help with arrival and dismissal, and be prepared. Why? In case someone is absent or leaves, then anyone in the classroom can step in or guide others. Remember, the goal is to ensure that everything that is needed gets done. I always worked closely with my assistants by communicating and collaborating this way they could take over even when I was absent!   Hack # 3 The last hack and most important to establish a successful day is that you always prepare EVERYTHING the day before. If you leave everything ready, things will go a lot smoother in the morning. No matter how tired or what a long day it was, you will want to do it. Some days I wouldn't delegate or assign tasks, instead I would ask my assistant(s) to help me address the crucial items on the checklist, if it had been a rough day. The point is no matter what type of day we had, we always made sure that this was completed before we walked out of the classroom. If everyone chips in to complete the needed task, no one will come in stressed the next day. As my mentor always says… “Remember the 5 Ps- Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance!” With these hacks… you will not have to come in rushing or hoping you have enough time to get everything done. You will avoid having to set up while the students are present or making students wait for you to be ready. This can prevent a lot of incidents and behaviors from occurring. Besides, students with special needs thrive and perform better through routines, organized and prepared classrooms. I can share this with you from lived experience.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
Photo from shixart1985
