How to Teach When You Have Limited Time

Are you having a difficult time covering all the material you need or want to each day?  Do you have shortened class periods that present a challenge for your teaching style?  This post gives some of my best solutions to these problems!

Think About What You Absolutely Need to Teach First

Choose Quality Over Quantity

Pick a few things to cover, go deep with those few things, and make connections to as much as you can. Quality over quantity will give you the most bang for your buck. Plus, if you have fun "independent" study projects for them to design and complete, they'll be begging to get to the subject you teach.

Carefully Consider the Learning Activity

Sometimes things like waiting for students to write down notes can take an enormous amount of time.   I'm not saying that note-taking is not important, but think about what they’re writing and why. Can some of it be replaced with videos or printouts?

Teach Students Vocabulary During Activities Instead of in Isolation 

Instead of teaching vocabulary words in seclusion, include/ teach them while you’re doing a hands on activity. This can save a lot of time and you can always take the final moments of class to review vocabulary words each day to reinforce their meaning.

Try Stations

Just keep in mind that you don’t have to complete the rotations in a day. It can carry on for tomorrow or the next day.

Alternate Activities Throughout the Week

This is especially helpful if you teach multiple subjects and some subjects are allotted less time than others.  For example, if you have 90 minutes for math and only 30 for science. 

Try a Weekly Schedule

Once you have chosen the activities that are the most important, come up with a weekly schedule for when you will use them.

A sample weekly schedule might look like this:
Notes/Instructional videos on Monday/Tuesday to prepare students for in-depth things like labs or projects
Labs/Projects/Stations on Wednesdays/Thursdays
Quizzes on Fridays

Start Teaching as Soon as Students Enter the Room

I did another blog post about this recently.  Click here to learn more.

What else do you do to maximize your limited time in class?  This is a subject I always need extra advice in!

How to Help Absent Students Catch Up

How do you help students who are absent to catch up?  Here are some of my best tips for helping students help themselves and how you can assist them when they struggle with catching up on their own.

Have Things Set Up in the Classroom So They Can Help Themselves

"Were You Absent?" crate

I have a crate with a hanging file for each period I teach. I fill out a sheet for what we did that day or maybe even two or three days depending on if my plans are set in stone. Than I make copies. When someone is absent I just put their name on it and put it in the correct hanging file.  Student responsibility to check crate when they return.

Table of contents poster

I keep a binder with all of the items students should have completed.  It's basically the same as the one each of the students keeps for my class.  The first page is the Table of contents.

This is just a laminated piece of chart paper.  I write on it with dry-erase markers to keep it updated.  It helps students see what they missed as soon as they walk in.  Students know to ask for help from either teachers or accountability students (see my explanation below) to find these assignments.  Most often, I keep them in the Absent Crate I mentioned above.

Make up work poster

This is another laminated piece of chart paper.  I write the graded assignments on this one.  Most often, these will not be kept in the Absent Crate because I want to make sure:
1.  Students are given the proper testing environment, if necessary
2.  Students are given the proper assistance or information in order for it to be a proper assessment

Online homework/assignments calendar

My county uses an online repository called Blackboard, but you could just as easily have a classroom website with a Google Calendar that lists the daily homework and assignments.  I will often take pictures of the notes written on the board and attach them to the calendar so students know what needs to be done regarding those assignments.

Use Accountability Students 

These are the students who are organized, usually finish before other students, and are looking for a way to help in the classroom.  A good way to let them help is to have one of them fill out a "While you were out sheet" for the missing student.  It has a short description of what they did in class and the homework assigned.

A word of caution for this technique:  If you have a student fill out a form I suggest that you sign off on it that it is accurate. 

Making Up Stations and Labs

Divide the learning/lab into several stations

That way if a student is absent for a day or two, they can still make it up while working with the other students in the days following their return to school.

What About Students Who Are Absent for Several Days?

First, decide what assignments you must have for assessment purposes.

These are the assignments you want to help students tackle first.

Next, decide if you can modify any assignments.

Sometimes we give assignments for enrichment.  Sometimes we give assignments to help students dig deeper and think critically.  I'm not saying you shouldn't give these type of assignments to students who are chronically absent, but you may want to cut out any extra work that doesn't directly relate to what you will be assessing on the final test.

Be flexible with due dates.

My policy is that I give two days for every day the student is absent for them to turn things in.  That being said, I remain as flexible as possible.  If a student is working diligently to complete an assignment but it's taking a little longer, I tend to support that whenever possible.  To me, the learning is more important than following a strict deadline when a student is trying to catch up.

Decide what needs to be done at school and what can be sent home.

Things like labs and assessments obviously need to be done at school.  Things like vocabulary and study guides can be sent home for most students who don't have special needs.  If you send assignments home, you may want to communicate with the parents what you will be sending home and when it is due, along with any special instructions.  

Decide if you can exempt any assignments.

Sometimes, for one reason or another, students just can't make up the same amount of work that their classmates completed while they were absent.  In those cases, I look at everything I assigned a grade for during the period of time the student was absent and I decide which of those things to exempt (leave blank in my gradebook).  

How do you help your students catch up?  Which of the things I mentioned will you be using in the future?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

How to Start Teaching As Soon As Students Enter the Classroom

How can you begin the learning as soon as students enter the classroom?  This post shares my best tips for continuing the learning from one class to another and using every possible minute to its fullest.

Build Relationships First, Even if It’s not the Beginning of the Year

The beginning of the year is a great time to do this, but so is the return from a holiday break or anytime you need to reconnect with your class. 

Each day's warm-up should have something to do with relationship-building at first.  For example:

Monday: a deep breathing exercise/strategy.

Tuesday: students share a place they would travel to and explain why.  Bonus points if it's a place you will be learning about this year.

Wednesday:  Share what's going well and what needs improvement.  It could come in the form of "Two Successes and an Improvement".  Have students start with two things that are going well and give one thing that needs improvement.

Thursday:  What are you curious about?  Let students research and learn more about whatever they are curious about.  Bonus points if it's related to the subject in your classroom.

Friday:  Break out all of those get-to-know-you worksheets from the beginning of the year and start playing games with them.

Here's some things I like to do/revisit those get-to-know-you information you've already gathered:

Get-to-Know-You Name Tags

How to Use Get-to-Know-You Activities Later in the Year

If the traditional get-to-know-you activities aren't what you're looking for:

Fresh Alternatives to Get-to-Know-You Activities

After Relationship-Building, Focus on Directions

Have the Directions Clearly Displayed for Students as They Enter the Room

Use your Smart Board, projector, doc cam, or simply write the directions on your board.  I like to have them written in a numbered list so students know what to do first, second, and so on.  
This ensures that you are able to do the executive tasks, such as take attendance and get out materials for the next lesson, while students are preparing for learning themselves.

Write/Type These Directions on the Board Before You Leave Each Day

It's the last thing I do each day to prepare for the next day.  If you can't hand write the directions, try typing them and projecting them.  This might actually make it easier and quicker for you and your students.  You can blow up the font and edit it without losing much time.

Make Prep Work Part of the Opening Activity

There are administrative things that need to be done on almost a daily basis.  Getting students to do this on their own at the start of class makes everything go more smoothly and quickly for the rest of the lesson.  Some things I often have students do:

• Write homework in their agenda
• Get out papers that I will collect/grade so they are ready to turn in
• Get papers/materials they will need during the class

After Directions, Decide How You Will Encourage Good Behavior

Incentivize It

Teach them to get to work on it even before the bell rings and give them participation points for doing so.  You can award individual or team points if you have them sitting in teams.  You'd be amazed at how positive peer pressure can make things happen!

Make It Cumulative for the Week

Sometimes the warm-up will be a question on what we learned the day before. Then I have them turn in the whole thing on Friday. This way if a student is absent or needs more time to complete a particular assignment, they do not feel stressed to try to get it done all in one class. 

Go Digital 

If you have to ability to use Google Forms, you can both  assign and instantly assess your warm-up questions and activities.  Here’s is a detailed explanation of how to use Forms to create and assess. 

Finally, Make It Easier for Students to Continue the Learning on Their Own 

Give Students a Sneak Peak at What They Will Learn That Day 

Having a warm-up activity each day will establish what students are going to be learning and/or extend previous learning through a question, political cartoon, quote, etc.  

Have Students Review Previously Taught Material

This could be material you taught this year, or it could be material that should have been taught last year in your subject area. I will sometimes have students quiz each other on previous test material or study guides during this time.

Vocabulary 

I go through and find the most difficult words from the state test and assign a few at a time.  These are from the unit I’m ABOUT to teach. I only have them do the definition and draw a picture and we go over examples and non-examples as a class. It front-loads the information so students can participate in class discussions in the future.  If you're interested in learning more, check out my Vocabulary Instruction and Assessment packet.

How do you get students to begin learning as soon as they enter the classroom?  I'd love to hear your thoughts and tips!

How to Find the Time to Lesson Plan

Do you ever find it difficult to find the time to get everything done at school?  Do you have to take work home just to keep up?  This post has some ways you can manage the work each day and make more time for yourself!

Use Your Prep Time As Efficiently As Possible

I know, I know. Planning periods are often taken up by things like meetings and conferences, but when you do get those few unencumbered moments, use them to your advantage. 

Do the Things at School That Can’t be Done at Home: 

Copying 

I try to get all my copies done on Fridays for the upcoming week if I haven't had time during the week to get it done.  The copier is ALWAYS breaking, so I don't want to wait and take the chance the following week that I won't be able to get it done.

Parent phone calls 

Please don't EVER make these from your home or cell phone.  For one thing, it's important to keep those healthy boundaries between work and home.  For another, this is one of those things that really is best done at school for several reasons.


"Batch" the Tasks

What I mean by "batching" is to focus on one thing/subject at a time and finish that before moving on.  For example:

• Make the lesson plans
• Gather the materials
• Make the copies
• Grade the assessments
• Decide if any of these things can or should go home for completion (with the exception of copying)

Plan With Your Grade Level When Possible

Try to collaborate with anyone who teaches the same thing so you can work together on units.


Don't Reinvent the Wheel
If lessons or units don't need to be changed from previous years, don't bother with them. Focus on  making your lessons work smarter, not harder.

• Make sure you have accommodations/modifications written into your lessons for students with special needs. 
• Fluff (worksheets, filler notes) should get tossed aside quickly for learning driven by the students, such as projects where they have to actually find the answers instead of you preparing the information for them.
• Have a set number of assignments that repeat and use the same template. So the form doesn't change, but the content does. That way you don't have to create everything over and over.

Use An Online Planbook

I have the app on my phone, which means I can change or view lessons ANYTIME, ANYWHERE.

• PlanbookEdu :  This website has practically saved my life this year.  Yes, it's not free, but it's worth every penny.  You can input your state standards above your lessons and it keeps track of how many you've covered in your lessons.  You can attach files that you need.  You can print and email the whole plan book or a selection.  In a word, priceless.

When You Can't Get It All Done During Your Planning Period:

Have set “late nights” like Tuesdays and Thursdays (or whatever works with your schedule). 
That way you can get what you need to get done when there aren't so many people around to break your concentration. You're sacrificing a bit of time for work so that your don’t have to be stressed when you’re hanging out with your family. That way you can have the energy you need to give them.

Get To Work Early Instead of Staying Late or Taking Work Home

You will be so much fresher and not have the same interruptions you do by staying later in the afternoon. Of course if you're like me, I'm still groggy in the morning so I actually prefer staying later in the afternoon.

Be Very Selective About The Work You Do Take Home

Whether you have a family or not, your time in the evenings is short and you NEED downtime to recharge your batteries. Sure, you can power through some nights without much sleep, but if you do it too often, you are setting yourself up for teacher burnout.

You can read more about this in my "Avoiding Teacher Burnout" post.

Go to Your "Happy Place" to Grade Papers

Sometimes I have to leave the house to grade so concentrate at a Starbucks and knock out papers that way.

Join An Online Support Network

There are many Facebook and online teacher communities designed to support your effort to get more work done at school and bring less home. 

Many teachers have highly recommended the 40 hour teacher work week club. 

https://40htw.com/join/

How do you balance it all?  I can always use more tips on how to do this!

Decreasing Grading Time Series: General Strategies to Engage and Assess Students

Are you struggling to keep up with grading? Do you spend hours upon hours grading?  Do you struggle with creating and grading assignments?  Then this post is for you!

Don't Grade an Entire Assessment

Instead, choose the top questions that represent the concepts you want to assess.  For example, if you have a worksheet with 20 questions, grade four of the best questions and multiply by five.

Why it works:  You may be asking yourself why you would create extra questions and have students complete them if you will only be using part of them for assessment and grading.  The answer to that is that it is extremely useful for practice, particularly for classwork.  So the students get extra practice and you get an assessment that doesn't take ages to grade.

Give "Completion Points"

Students get a set amount of points that represent the quality of their effort and output.  For example, if you present the student with a 20-question assessment and they work diligently for an hour to accurately complete ten of those questions, they might receive full points, such as 10 out of 10.  If you were strictly going on percentage, that same student would receive only a 50%.  Is that really an accurate representation of their knowledge?

Why it works:  This works well for classwork that is being used for practice and formative assessments.  As you walk around to help students, you instinctively know which of them truly understands and which students are not quite there yet.  Awarding points on a sliding scale based on this is often better than a straight percentage.  So you are using your observations and knowledge of your students to accurately and quickly grade them daily.

Use Rubrics

Create rubrics with a certain focus for each assignment.  Many teachers like to save time by creating online rubrics using RubiStar.

Why it works: This is great for lengthy assignments like the Science Fair, essays, or labs.  When I was grading essays, for example, I picked writing traits that needed to be graded and only focused on them.  I ALWAYS graded for capitalization and punctuation, but I picked a few other writing traits  for each essay to grade as they were explicitly taught in class, such as adverbs or figurative language.  That way, I wasn't grading for EVERY little detail, which would take HOURS.  

Use the Open-Ended Strategy 

It starts with giving an open-ended assignment where students can use notes, etc to look up answers.  They can then use just the assignment to take the multiple choice version. I would make the multiple choice higher level or multi step questions, so there is still a level of recall and differentiation to the assessment.

  

Why it works:  Sometimes this is just as valuable for assessment as asking students to recall the information on their own. It takes longer, but it assesses multiple levels of understanding and levels the playing field for all students.  You can combine this strategy with the ones listed above, such as using a rubric or only grading part of the assessment, to make everyone's life easier.

Sometimes you Just Have to Grade the Whole Assignment

I know this doesn't go very well with the theme of this post.  However, if it's a state assessment or school-mandated assessment, you probably don't have a choice.  Ask your grade-level cohorts if you're ever in doubt.  If you aren't required to grade the entire assessment though, use the strategies above!

Decreasing Grading Time Series: Using Apps to Engage and Assess Students

Are you struggling to keep up with grading? Do you spend hours upon hours grading?  Do you struggle with creating and grading assignments?  Then this post is for you!

ZipGrade

What is it?  Here's an in-depth summary of ZipGrade, but it's basically a Google app that uses an Android device's camera as a grading scanner for multiple-choice tests.  

How does it help with grading?  You can use it in addition to the ZipGrade website for additional options once you create a free user profile.  It's a great option for IEP students who have modifications for a paper test.

Google Forms

What is it?  Here's the full explanation of what Google Forms does.  It's a Google app in which you can create quizzes, exit tickets and various assessment tools.  You then give the sharable link to your students via email or online classroom website.

How does it help with grading?  There are options you can select while you are creating the assessment that allows it to be immediately graded once you provide the app with the answer key you will also create.  You can add feedback for correct and incorrect answers so students know how to approach that question in the future.  By setting up the answer key, the results will be tallied and available to you with the click of a button.  If you use it to create exit tickets, it grades itself, and from that, you can make groups for practice the next day. It makes differentiation so easy!

Socrative

What is it?  This app uses devices to assess knowledge with exit tickets or questions (multiple-choice, true/false, short answer).

How does it help with grading?  You create and save your assessments to your Socrative account.  It tallies the results and allows you to view them by class, student, or question results.  These results can be downloaded and sent to email or Google Drive.

Quizizz

What is it?  Here's a comprehensive explanation of Quizizz.  I've heard it described as Kahoot, only quiet.  There's still competition, but less noise.

How does it help with grading?  You use a bank of quizzes that are already created and modify them to best assess your students.  Theses questions are presented to students at their own pace and the results can be sorted by class-level and student-level and downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet.

Plickers

What is it?  If you're worried about engagement with Kahoot and not being 1:1 with your technology, try using Plickers instead!  The device is used scan paper cards for student responses.

How does it help with grading?  All you need to do is print out the game cards, and have either an iPad or a cell phone for you to scan the cards when students answer a question.  You also can download reports if you choose to give the students grades.

Come back next week to see the next part of the Decreasing Grading Time Series: General Strategies to Engage and Assess Students.  See you soon!

Decreasing Grading Time Series: Using Videos to Engage and Assess Students

Are you struggling to keep up with grading? Do you spend hours upon hours grading?  Do you struggle with creating and grading assignments?  Then this post is for you!

Edpuzzle

What is it?  

• You can use any YouTube video and build a quiz into it. 
• You can use the cut tool to snip any unwanted parts from the video. 
• You can use multiple choice and free-response type questions.  
• You can connect it to Google Classroom for easy/automatic assessment.
• Multiple choice questions are graded automatically. 
• Depending on your county's internet security measures, putting a YouTube video in EdPuzzle will sometimes circumvent the problem of blocked YouTube videos. 
• If students fail the assessment, they can reset and watch it again.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Students can not edit their responses.
• Students need to watch the video until the end or it will not show up as complete.  
• If you have multiple “correct answers” students must select all to get it “correct”.  A way to fix this is to give any opinion questions a short-answer format.
• Short-Answer questions are not automatically graded.  The teacher must read through those.

Playposit

What is it?  

It was formally known as eduCanon.  Here's the full explanation of what Playposit is.

• Similar to Edpuzzle, except this website allows you upload videos from various places (not just YouTube) and use them as interactive assessments.  These places include: YouTube, LearnZillion, TeacherTube, Vimeo, and Khan Academy
• Students can't skip past anything they haven't already watched

How does it help with grading? 

• It sends the assessment data to the gradebook on your existing learning management system, such as edmodo, moodle, Blackboard, and Powerschool.
• If you don't have a learning management system, the results are sent to the dashboard on playposit

General Strategies

• Do a short formal assessment in class after students have watched the video.  This way, you can check what they know/recall without the video or other resources in front of them.
• Have students take notes while they watch and let them use the notes for the assessment that will follow
• Cloze Reading:  Here's the full explanation of what Cloze Reading is, but I use it with my videos by typing up the transcript of the video as I watch it or sometimes the transcript is provided by website.  I then blank out key words, print the transcript, and have students fill in the blanks as they watch.

Come back next week to see the next part of the Decreasing Grading Time Series: Using Apps to Engage and Assess Students.  See you soon!

Decrease Grading Time Series: Using Websites to Engage and Assess Students

Are you struggling to keep up with grading? Do you spend hours upon hours grading?  Do you struggle with creating and grading assignments?  Then this post is for you!

Problem Attic

What is it?  This is an in-depth summary of Problem Attic, but basically it's online database of questions that can be turned into warm-ups, exit tickets, review activities, and much more.

How does it help with grading?You can print the PDFs for written activities or use the scoring app to to assess and immediately grade students. You can build, save and edit tests year to year and answer keys are provided.

Moodle

What is it?  This is an in-depth summary of Moodle if you want to read it straight from the source.

How does it help with grading?  You can put your tests and quizzes on Moodle. It takes a little while to get them on there but the computer grades them. You also don’t have to re-enter them after the initial time and can use them the following year.

Edulastic

What is it?  Here's the full explanation of what Edulastic is.

How does it help with grading?  You can use it for your daily formative assessments as well as performance assessment benchmarks to practice for state testing.  What sets Edulastic apart is the fact that it offers a bank of Technology-Enhanced Items (TEIs) that truly prepare students for those type of questions that they will inevitably see on state assessments, all of which are automatically graded.

Padlet

What is it?  Here's the full explanation of Padlet.  Basically, I consider it to be like an interactive Pinterest board where students can ask/answer questions, collaborate, and share links and pictures.  Padlet calls it a "bulletin board".

How does it help with grading?   The boards can be exported, printed, or shared with a URL.  You can assess for understanding and attach a grade. 

GoFormative

What is it?  It can track progress, allow students to see answers after assessment is finished, and teachers can see live answers and direct message students to check questions.

How does it help with grading?   It gives percentages to correct answers for each class and an entire grade for each assessment. Students can have access to scores all year round to track growth. It has free and paid versions.

Come back next week to see the next part of the Decreasing Grading Time Series: Using Videos to Engage and Assess Students.  See you soon!

What to Do With Students Who Finish First

How do you manage the time when some students are done with an assignment and others need to finish before you move on in a lesson?  This post gives you tips and techniques for managing the time with early finishers.

Things to consider before choosing activities for your early finishers: 

• Are these activities for enrichment, review purposes, or just for fun? 
• Will the assignments count for extra credit?
• Will these be assignments to be done individually or in pairs/groups?

First, I’d like to mention that I always have a list of must-do activities to be completed before students are allowed to do any extras:

• Vocabulary
• Organizing notes
• Make up work
• Correcting tests 

Enrichment Activities 

If students complete the list above, they can request one of the following:

Laminated file folders with simple activities that can be completed with dry-erase markers: 

• Crosswords 
• Word searches
• Storyboards
• Acrostics 

Comprehension activities:

• TIME magazine
• Scholastic
• Book reviews

Reading

I love to tell students that when they finish early, they may EAT (enjoy a text). 

I have a classroom library with books and magazines about the subjects I cover in the courses I teach.  When someone finishes early, I often tell them to find something to read.  It gives students additional reading practice and it also lets them learn more about topics that I may not have addressed in my lessons that interest them. 

I have the following available for students to use while reading:

Nonfiction Close Reading Bookmarks

General Close Reading Instructions

Sticky Notes for Reading Comprehension

Review Activities 

Use Quizlett for:

• Vocabulary review
• Use Classtools.net to put in your content, copy, and then go to Quizlet and paste it in there.  

I also have them “quiz” each other on:

• vocabulary 
• turn the headings from their textbook into questions and quiz each other with that
• Old test questions (I have them keep all their old tests in their binder)

Student Tutors

One option is to pair up the kids that are always finishing first with kids that need more time so that they can hopefully encourage each other - one will reinforce their skills by 'teaching' it and the other will get the support they need.

A word of caution with this technique:  Make sure the personalities mesh before pairing up. Not all early-finishers are kind or helpful tutors. 

Activities just for fun:

• Challenge capsules: Little plastic bottles with random questions inside
• Make an enrichment bulletin board with QR codes to make it more interactive. Students watch videos with a tablet/phone

What else would you add to this list?  I always need fresh ideas!

How to Create and Follow a Pacing Guide

Have you been asked to create a pacing guide or felt the need to make one for yourself or your team?  What happens if you make one and can't follow it?  This post will help you navigate through the process of creating a pacing guide and sticking to it!

First and Foremost:  Always Plan With the State Standards

It's really best if each person on the team either has a printed or electronic copy of the standards, depending on what appeals to them.  I personally like printed copies so I can mark them up any way I see fit.  You can usually find the standards on your state's department of education website.  I like to save mine as a PDF AND print it out.

Make Sure Everyone in the Group has a Role  

Assigning roles and due dates will keep everyone on track.  Start with the standards you will need to teach at the beginning of the year.  Then, find out what each person enjoys using to teach those standards.  For example, I often liked to find the activities that involved movement or mentor texts to teach the concepts, so I was often in charge of finding those things and sharing with the group so we could include them on the pacing guide. 

Other roles you may want to add:

• Assessments (multiple-choice, online, vocabulary, etc.).  Make sure they closely match what your state will assess at the end of the year so students have plenty of practice before then.
• Multi-Media Instruction:  Things like online practice games, videos, YouTube, music, computer lab activities, etc.  You want to try to incorporate as many different forms of instruction as possible so that you reach as many different learning styles as possible.
• Vocabulary:  Make sure you do some kind of activities that explicitly teach the words that your state standards use.  My post on No-Tech Ways to Teach and Assess Vocabulary in Core Subjects gives several ways to do this, including a vocabulary review packet.

Use Google Drive to Make Sure the Process is Truly Collaborative

To do this, everyone will need to bring their laptop to each meeting.  You can either create a Doc or a Sheet and add all your team members using their emails.  I'd make a Sheet like the one below.

Don't Let the Conversation Wander

If you start talking about what you did over the weekend or "that student", you will never get the pacing guide done.   

Meet Weekly, If Possible

You'll want to meet regularly so you can talk about the standards you will need to teach in the future and make sure everyone is at the same place (or close) on the previous standards.

Now, Let's Talk About Everyone's Least Favorite Question: How do I Stick to the Pacing Guide????!!!!

Use a “Window” 

Setting a three-day window for when the team should do things like give the unit exam gives a level of freedom as far as the day-to-day lessons.

Build in Extra Days

Create a pacing guide with built in pause days. Don't forget things like holidays, snow/inclement weather, assemblies, state testing, and all the other things that throw the pacing off.  Make sure you sit down with the school/district calendar so you can include important dates as "pause days" on your pacing guide.

Adjust the Pacing Guide

The pacing guide may need to be adjusted as a grade level if everyone is just too far behind what was originally anticipated.  If only one member is behind, brainstorm how the team can best support that person and their students to help get them caught up. 

What else would you add to this?  I'm sure I'll be making more pacing guides in the future, so I can always use more advice!

How to Avoid Teacher Overwhelm

 Do you ever wonder how other teachers deal with feelings of being endlessly behind and never done?  Whether you’re a first-year or a seasoned teacher, this post has some time-tested advice for you!

For the New Teacher:

Most importantly, you need to understand that classroom teaching is different and difficult compared to college, which has set deadlines and a defined“end” with the final project/exam. In classroom teaching, there’s always more you can do or should be doing.

Try to find a seasoned teacher or mentor who is willing to explain what is mandatory and what is “extra”. Always focus on the mandatory first. For example, grading assignments and providing timely feedback, should be top priority since students’ knowledge (or lack thereof) should guide your planning and instruction. 

For All Teachers:

First of all, understand that the to-do list never ends, so you have to make it “end” each day for yourself.  

Make Sure You Differentiate Between Work and Home

If you come home and still work on school things and don't have time to do things with your loved  ones, this sets you up for overwhelm. You have to decide what your "school hours" and "home hours" are. Pick a time for school, say 7:00 am to 4:30 pm. At 4:30, leave school and school work behind so home is home time. Of course, it won't ALWAYS work out that way, but setting personal school hours really helps.

Make Weekly To-Do Lists

Many teachers like to use stick notes to do this so they can either throw the note away when it's done or move the sticky to the next week if they don't get to it. This helps them to prioritize and have a healthy work/life balance.

When setting up your to-do list, think of the daily tasks you need to get done.

Set Up Daily Tasks

For example, Mondays you could have students pass out portfolios and graded papers and then collect portfolios.  Tuesdays, are for grading. Wednesday is for inputting grades. Thursday is for planning your next week’s lessons. Fridays might be for getting your copying done and collecting materials for the following week.

After Your Daily Tasks, Write a Secondary List:

• You need a clear "do today", "do sometime this week/month", and "do one day whenever the world slows down" list. 
• Accomplish the “today” list and when you have a slower day or extra time, jump on the “this week/month list”. 
• Plan out your day each evening/morning and if you have a short today list, add something from your week/month list to "today" 
• Don't worry about the other two lists. Focus on today. Eventually you will get enough done. And eventually that future list will fix itself on some things and will get shorter.

Assign Class Jobs

If your school allows it, here are some common tasks that students can do to save you time:

• Take attendance  
• Pass back papers
• Help absent students catch up
• Tutor other students

Just Do Your Best, Always

Don't try to over do it. If you don't get to that one lesson, it will be okay. Some years you will be behind and it's not the end of the world.  If you stick to showing students that you care about them, they will likely learn and retain more anyway.

Spend Some Time Each Day Organizing Your Classroom

I don't like to leave each day until I've at least:

• Tidied up my desk 
• Put the to-do list for the next day in a visible area of my desk
• Put all stacks of papers to be graded in a neat stack in a central location

I have students help me out with the "clean up" portion of organizing the classroom during homeroom.  This includes:

• Putting back classroom supplies such as scissors, markers, and glue sticks
• Wiping down counters, tables, and desks
• Straightening up book shelves

How do you avoid teacher overwhelm?  What would you add to this post?  I'd love to hear your ideas because I still feel overwhelmed sometimes too!

Fresh Alternatives to Get-to-Know-You Activities

Do the traditional get-to-know-you activities feel a bit stale to you?  Are you looking for some fresh ideas to get your students interacting with you and each other?  If so, then check out these multi-age activities!

Minute to Win It Team Building 

For each activity, you can set a timer for the traditional minute, or you can choose the amount of time appropriate for the groups.  I like to have them strategize at the end of the round to see how they could better improve for the next round.

Chain

To be done in small groups: Set a timer for a minute. Then, each player must make a chain of paperclips. At the end of the minute, have teams count their paperclips and strategize about how to make a longer chain in the next round. 

Captain Kirk

The players are asked to discover a new planet (balloon). One player blows up the balloon as soon as possible and ties it off.  The other players "inhabit" the planet by drawing as many people on it as possible with a felt-tip marker.

Get Them Moving With....

Pool Noodles

Here's a fun way to use pool noodles to get students up and moving.  I love how the instructor gives modifications for students to work in teams or alone.  I also love that pool noodles are on sale during this time of year.

Switch Sides If...

I was inspired to share this activity with you when I read this post by Mommies Hobbies.

This is a really cool activity that works with any age.
First, divide your classroom into two sides.  You can even put painter's tape in the middle to make a visual divide.
Next, have students stand on whatever side they want.
Then, say "Switch sides if..." and insert get-to-know-you statements such as:

• You prefer country music to rock music
• Your best friend goes to this school
• Your favorite subject is science
• You have more than one sibling
• You were born in a different state
• You have lived in this area for at least five years
• You are a morning person
• You play sports 

What would you add to this list?  I always need fresh ideas to keep things interesting at the beginning of the year!

How to Reach the “Unreachable” Students

Do you want to increase student participation and assignment/homework completion?  Do you have students who seem impossible to motivate?  Then I have some solutions for you in this post!

1. Rethink Homework

If homework isn’t getting completed on a regular basis, consider not assigning it. 

Instead:

• Make all work achievable in class time. 
• Have them break up information and present it to each other.  Students can complete a graphic organizer as others present. 

You can also read my homework post based on Myron Dwek’s Grading Smarter Not Harder. 

2. Rethink Study Guides

• First, start with the test in mind. Create study guides from the tests. 
• To help students keep track of them, print them on colored paper. 
• Have them quiz each other daily on the study guide, even if it’s just a few minutes at the beginning of class. 

3. Rethink Review and Test Prep

Turn it into a game with this Review Games Packet. 

If you have access to technology:

 Webquests, edPuzzle, Kahoot (and more) can all add excitement to a class while reviewing content. 

Offer extra credit for thinking outside the box:

I tell them they can add any information not already on the test related to this subject to the study guide for extra credit.

4. Get Them Moving

I give a specific example of this in my post on 22 Interactive Learning Structures 

Another post I did was based on Rick Wormeli’s Summarization in Any Subject. 

You can pick up a FREE copy of the Human Bingo board. 

Some other good options for getting students standing and moving:

Learning stations

Gallery walks

What are some other ways you reach those students who struggle?  I always need more ideas!