Quick Tips for Back to School

All teachers are looking for ways to save time, especially when they head back-to-school! I just started my 8th year of teaching (already?!) and there are a few things I do every year that make the following weeks so much smoother.

One of the first things I do is to set up email shortcuts. We use Outlook for our school email, and I like to have a shortcut for emailing my 4th grade team, another for sending out plans, one for a committee, and one for emailing parents (if it’s not part of the gradebook or other software).

By choosing “Add Quick Step” at the top of the Outlook menu, you can set yourself up to send any of those emails in one click! Saves me SO much time.

Another favorite way to use this is to create automatic filters when emails are coming in. For example, I use Sign Up Genius for my parent-teacher conferences- so I set up a QuickStep to auto-forward those emails to a Conferences folder. I still have them, they're organized, and they don't clutter my inbox.



Look for ways to share the workload. Now is a great time to recruit volunteers and students to pitch in around the classroom! My students help me brainstorm jobs, and fill out job applications convincing me to “hire” them.

When our team is lucky enough to have a parent volunteer, we keep a bin of papers to copy or laminate. I love these free forms from Firstie Kidoodles to let the volunteer know how they can help! Getting a system set up early really pays off in a few weeks! I try to get my first few needed papers copied early, and I also use student or parent volunteers to help put up student work for open house.



One of the most important things to do is picking out a few really fabulous back-to-school books.  In my classroom, powerful books like One and The Junkyard Wonders really help to build our classroom community, while Your Fantastic Elastic Brain and Seymour Simon’s The Brain teach us about learning with a growth mindset, so we can set the stage for “making our brains stronger” every day! (Note: Book links are affiliate links.)



Help your students develop a homework plan. We read the book Frog Medicine and make a plan together. This little book has students answer questions like "How will you know if you have homework?" or "When will you do your homework?"

Taking the time to discuss this now really helps once our weekly homework starts- so students don't let it all pile up until Thursday night! We also share our homework plans with the students' parents at Curriculum Night.



Especially when I was self-contained and my schedule was a little different every day, a traditional plan book of squares just didn’t make sense for me. Instead, I was inspired by a colleague of mine who made a custom lesson plan template! Including weekly routines on the template sped up my planning and helped me remember important things.

You can pick up your own copy of my FREE customizable lesson plan page in my Luckeyfrog TpT store, and read more about personalizing lesson plans here.



Of course, once students arrive, it’s so important to get to know your students. One of my favorite ways is to read the book Exclamation Mark because I love the message- those things that make us feel “weird” are sometimes the things that let us do something completely unique and amazing! My students write about how they’re unique and create an exclamation mark all about themselves. Such a great back to school bulletin board!

You can check out this Exclamation Mark Mini-Unit in my TpT store.



All in all, remember that the first few days are always crazy- but anything you can do now that will save you time later is WORTH it!

As the year goes on, you can sneak a peek at what’s happening in my 4th grade science classroom by following me here on my blog, on Facebook, or on Instagram.



Another way I save time is by finding great resources created and tested by other teachers in their own classrooms. Could you use $25 in TeachersPayTeachers resources? Enter to win below- but hurry! The giveaway ends Sunday 8/21 at 11:59 EST.

Even better? TOMORROW, Monday 8/22/16, is a one-day sale where you can save 28% in my TpT store! Don't miss it :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway


For more quick back to school tips (and more chances to win!), check out the blogs below. Happy back-to-school season!

An InLinkz Link-up

Classroom Supply Organization for Departmentalized Teachers

Back-to-school time is always a little crazy, but a few of my upper elementary blogging friends have teamed up to share some of our back-to-school tips and tricks!

Last year, I moved into a departmentalized 4th grade classroom for the first time. I love getting a chance to really focus on teaching science, but seeing 125 students instead of 25 really changed the way I set up my classroom! Today I’m sharing supply organization tips specifically for departmentalized teachers (although many of them would work in any classroom!)



I set up these Sterilite drawers at the end of each table, and they are a lifesaver! Everything my students need on a regular basis is in these drawers. Because they switch classes, it’s really helpful to have the glue, scissors, markers, and crayons here (rather than having them carry their own). The bottom drawer holds our science textbooks (the drawers struggle a little with that much weight, but we don’t actually get them out much), and the top drawer holds small whiteboards, dry erase markers, extra pencils and erasers, and sets of markers.

  

Having the markers in individual “sets” made it so much easier to find text evidence in the passages from my Text Detectives (for 3rd grade and now 2nd) and Colorful Close Reads. This year, I’m keeping an eye out for travel soap containers so I can store my crayons in  similar way. I love Crayola, but those boxes just do NOT hold up!



Last year I used shower caddies instead of these smaller craft caddies. They held a little more, but they hung over the sides of the white drawers and sometimes my students would bump them… and of course, everything would fall all over the floor.

  

My solution this year was smaller caddies and Velcro on the bottom. (I start with both Velcro dots on to make sure they will line up.) I’ll keep you posted how it works!



My kids have science notebooks that stay in our classroom, and sometimes last year one was left behind. Despite sticker labels, it sometimes took a little time to figure out where it belonged- so this year, I’ll be using duct tape on the spines to help easily see where it goes.

I can use the same color-code for almost everything in my classroom, too!



I store my notebooks in these Dollar Tree bins. The same color of duct tape helps students identify the correct bin quickly, and once the school year gets started, I’ll write the homeroom on the frog, too. All of the bins sit on the floor under the whiteboard, in the order of when I see each class.

Since my students come in and start their day with a Science QuickWrite, I have a couple of students pass out the notebooks at the start of class. As I dismiss groups at the end of class, each group can drop their notebooks in the bin on their way out.



With 5 classes of science and 1 class of social studies, I occasionally struggled to keep up with make-up work. While my students were supposed to come pick up their work independently, it rarely happened- and then I spent time later trying to figure out what was missing.

Putting these open folders up on the cabinet in the back of the room helped me so much! As my students get started on their QuickWrite, I take a moment to catch up with any students who have papers here- whether they are absent work, papers to re-do, or pages I kept aside for reteaching.



Being a science teacher, I could spend so much time handing out materials. As much as possible, I try to keep common supplies at the supply stations and any special supplies (such as those for a lab) in a bin at the front of the room. I can simply call up one student from each group and most materials are ready within a minute!

This also helps because I see my classes every other day. (Our kids go to reading and math every day, but during their third block, they alternate between science and social studies.) This means that I teach the same lesson for two days in a row- so being able to keep all materials in a bin makes for easy clean-up at the end of the day, too!



While the “stuff” can be overwhelming when you see six classes, the paperwork can be even worse! The students each have a binder with tabs for each class, and my teacher binder has tabs for each of my classes, too.

Once the papers are turned in, I group them together with Clip-Rite BinderTabs (shown above). I use a small class checklist to mark off whose I have, whose I’m missing, and what the scores are. (Makes it so much faster to put grades in the computer!)

  

As soon as I have copies made, I keep my papers that I’ll need for teaching in the purple, blue, and green plastic drawers. (I love that they’re the 12x12 size so I can put one stack horizontally and then the next vertically!) I use the top black tray for the kids to turn in regular work, and the bottom tray for the kids to turn in anything late (make-up work, late work, redone work, etc.). I love having a central spot for any other supplies a kid might need (stapler, tape, hole punch, etc.) so they don’t have to ask me!

There is so much to do this time of year- but hopefully these tips give you some classroom organization ideas! For more tips on starting the year off right, I hope you’ll check out the rest of the Back to School Survival Guide.



And to thank you for checking out our blog hop, we’re EACH giving away 2 gift cards to TeachersPayTeachers. If you could use $25 to spend on back to school goodies on TpT, be sure to enter the giveaway below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you’d like a few more Back to School ideas (and more chances to win $25 gift cards!), please be sure to check out some of the other blog posts. Good luck as you start another school year!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tips for Meet the Teacher Night (and 5 FREEBIES!)

Hello friends- it's Throwback Thursday, to one of my most popular posts this week!

This open house/ meet the teacher night post was originally published August 25, 2012.

If you’re new here, you may not know that I’m running a series of new teacher tips called I Just Got a Teaching Job… Now What?!



I don’t know about you, but for me, meeting the kids is nowhere near as nerve-wracking as meeting the parents.

If your school has Open House, Back to School Night, Meet the Teacher Night, or anything of the sort, it’s probably one of your biggest worries as a new teacher.

For me, I student taught in Spring- so I hadn’t been part of any of this beginning of the year stuff, and I felt downright clueless. Since my parents didn’t officially come in before the first day, I made a brochure to leave on my door during registration with very basic information to know before school even started. Not every parent picked one up, but I had two or three parents mention it later, so I think it was a good move!



Yes, the Scotch tape is not the best look, but it was falling apart without it! Let me know if you’re interested in the template and I can post that, too! Sorry- no idea where this has gotten to!



This is one of those areas where talking to your fellow co-workers is so very important. You need to know:

•  Is there an open house?
•  Is open house before school starts, or after?
•  Is there a set day/ time for the whole school or grade level, or do I choose when to have it for my class?
•  Are students invited? What about siblings?
•  What things do you hand out and talk about? Can I have copies? (Remember- digital is best for easy tweaking and not having to reinvent the wheel!)
•  What sort of things do you set out for parents? Do you have them fill anything out?

At my old school, it happened before school, for the whole school on the same night, with a specific schedule. At my new school, we have a “walkabout” on the first day where parents can visit their child’s classroom before leaving, and most teachers also have their own parent meeting or open house in the next couple of weeks.

The time of your open house makes a big difference on what to do. It’s also a good idea to find out or decide if there’s a specific time frame for all of the parents to listen to you present, or if families will trickle in and out over a longer time frame.
If your open house occurs before school starts, think about what parents need to know.

You need to tell them:

• what their child needs for the first day
• how to best prepare their child for a new school year
• how to communicate with you, and how you will communicate with them
• that you are competent and confident

And the kids want to know:

• where your room is
• where their desk is
• something about their teacher
• something that will get them excited about the year!

When parents arrived at open house (for me, it was the 2nd week of school), here’s what they saw.



The Target pocket chart had directions, and then I put out a parent sheet and packet. The sheet I wanted them to return was BRIGHT pink, to hopefully make it stand out.



Grab your freebie copies of the parent information sheet and generic parent packet here.
When parents are trickling in, you want them to have something to do. I like to have things the kids are excited about, because then the kids drag their parents straight to their desks.

I had my kids give their parents a “quiz.” That day at school, kids filled out their favorites, and a note to their parent.



When parents got there, the right answers were hidden, and the kids got to give their parents a quiz and grade it. (The novelty of this is so amusing to 3rd graders.)



I got the quiz from Rachel at Minds in Bloom. You can pick up her freebie here.

After a quick summary of the packet from me, I gave parents time to check out a couple of stations where things were set out for them. I like to use some kind of tripod sign to make it clear where things are, and don’t forget to leave out some pens and pencils. Flower pens are great for making sure they don’t disappear! (You can see how I made them here.)



You can also get a copy of my parent volunteer form here (free).

The kids also got to share some of the work they’d done- a mini-book, Graphing Myself (grab as a freebie from The Tattooed Teacher!), and an All About Me writing project.



This was our first writing project. I model brainstorming important things about myself, such as things I like, things I’m good at, things about my family, places I’ve been, what I look like, how old I am, and if I’m a boy or girl.




Kids can use more than one page if they need to, and I staple them together along the top.



Then, we glue it onto a big piece of construction paper folded in half. When parents come, they read the All About Me’s and see if they can guess who the page belongs to. If they think they know, they lift up the flap, and…



see if they are right! We discuss ahead of time that their head should almost fill the page, and that they don’t look like a smiley face. We have noses, eyebrows, and eyes that don’t look like just dots. Unless long hair is covering them we have ears, too! We really focus on filling the page and adding lots of detail, and they turn out great.



The kids love seeing if they can stump their parents, and they make a really nice keepsake. I also hang onto them until the end of the year so kids can see the difference in their writing skills, their handwriting, and their drawing.

You can pick up a freebie copy of the All About Me writing sheet here.

A couple last tips:
- Make sure you have a parent conference sign-up sheet, so that parents with concerns can be pointed in the direction of a sign-up, and hopefully you won’t have to stay all night.
- Get yourself a new outfit for the night. You don’t want to do the whole try-on-10-outfits-until-you’re-satisfied thing and be late! Don’t forget a piece of jewelry or two- I’m no fashionista, but you want to look pulled together to both make a good impression and to feel confident.
- Consider making a quick slideshow of the basics you want to cover. It’ll help you focus on your presentation.
- Good luck! :)

To recap, here are your freebies:
Parent Information Sheet (updated year)
Parent Packet for Open House (editable .doc)
Parent Volunteer Form
All About Me writing page
Parent Conference Sign-Up

And links to 2 freebies from friends:
Graphing Myself from The Tattooed Teacher
Parent Night Quiz from Minds in Bloom

Whew. I had a little more to show you, but I’m going to save it for tomorrow. Please, please, please leave a comment and let me know if you downloaded anything!
(I’d be so happy if you’d consider following or pinning anything you love, too!) Have a GREAT weekend!

Now that it's a year later, I would also add that Open House/ Meet the Teacher night is a great time to introduce Remind 101 (have parents sign up RIGHT THEN) and to show them how the Scholastic Book Clubs site works to encourage ordering! Make sure to emphasize that their orders help you get more books for the classroom!