​I never realized how much time I spent on my teaching job until I didn’t have the time to spend anymore.  In December of 2012 my son was born and after a short maternity leave, I was thrown back into the world of teaching.  My job was the same, but my life was completely different.  I had to learn how to better manage my time, and I had to do it fast.
 
We may not all have kids, but we all have people in our lives that we want to spend time with, personal interests that we want to attend to, and places we want to see.  The more effectively we can get all that other stuff done, the more time we can save to add to our personal time bank accounts.  So, here are 10 things that I learned during my crash course in teacher time management:

• Prioritize – it will never all get done.  Look at your tasks and ask yourself if the classroom will fall apart if it doesn’t get done.  If the answer is no, either don’t do it or push it to the end of the list.  It is okay to throw away a stack of homework papers or an activity they did in class.  Trust me, they won’t notice; I’ve been doing it for years.
• Use a Planner – if you haven’t already developed this habit, you need to.  Every time I check my e-mail I do it with my planner sitting right next to me.  Anything and everything important goes into it and I always know where it is.  I open it every morning and I take it with me every night.  My planner has events, times, phone numbers, reminders, alternate schedules, meeting notes, makeshift lesson plans, and brainstorming.   If I have a question, my planner has the answer.

If you are looking for a new planner, here are a couple to check out!  La Profesora Frida made this great Editable Teacher Planner and I made this Digital World Language Teacher Planner to help teachers manage their classrooms and plan proficiency-based lessons.

• Take Breaks – teachers need brain breaks too.  If you are embarking on one of those marathon-grading sessions, you can take breaks after you finish grading a class or two worth of papers.  I try not to work for more than an hour without getting up for at least 5 minutes.  Then, it’s back to work I go.
  
• Just Say No – Only someone who works in a school could ever understand the number of requests there are for your money and your time when you are a teacher.  There are clubs to be run, dances to be chaperoned, detentions to be supervised, and extra help to be given.  I agree to probably about 1 in 5 things that I am asked to volunteer for.  I don’t feel bad saying no because I say yes too – I just say no more often.
  
• No Distractions – Everyone has different things that distract him or her, so this one takes a little self-reflection.  If you like listening to music while you work, maybe that is not a distraction for you.  Unfortunately for me, much of my work involves being on the computer, which means there is a high danger of my falling into the “Pinterest Hole” – you know, when you click on one thing and it makes you think of another thing and then you need to see this thing and that thing and…yeah, just stay away from those situations you know will get YOU off track.
  
• Small Chunks – Setting small, easily reachable goals feels way better than facing a stack of papers that seems insurmountable at 10:00 on a Sunday night.  Try to complete one small task every other night.  Set a limit to the time you want to spend and complete a task that can be done in that time.  If you do this 2-3 nights a week, you will find that you suddenly have most of your weekend back.
  
• Throw it Out – Teachers are some of the biggest hoarders I know.  It must come from the fact that we are always begging for supplies to make our classes run more smoothly.  When we get them, we don’t let go easily.  However, “stuff” takes time to manage.  If you decrease the amount of “stuff”, you decrease the amount of time it takes to deal with it.  Doing your job effectively really doesn’t take as much “stuff” as you think.  For the past two years, I have taught out of a backpack.  Think about your essential things – your backpack things – and get rid of some of the things that don’t make the cut.
  
• Let Go of Perfection – This is the toughest one for me.  A lot of teachers are perfectionists, but don’t feed the monster.  “Perfect” takes a lot more time than “really good” takes.  The only person who would notice how perfect you are is you anyway (and you already know you’re perfect).
  
• Delegate – See if you can get a student aid or two to handle the monotonous tasks of checking off homework, sorting papers, filing, etc.  When I don’t have time to create something for my class, I delegate to the fantastic teachers on TeachersPayTeachers.  Why would I spend an hour creating something that I could buy for a couple of dollars?  My time is worth more to me than that.
  
• Group Tasks – You will work much faster if you group common tasks together.  The less time you spend jumping around from task to task, the more your brain settles in to what you are doing and the more efficient you become.  Grading the last 10 papers in a set is much easier than grading the first 10.  Planning for the end of the week is much easier than planning for the beginning.  This is because your brain likes to stick with the same task and gets better at it as you go along. 

 
 
The Back to School displays are already being set up at my local Target, which means that the new year will soon be upon us.  I hope that at least a couple of these tips got your wheels turning.  Ultimately, I hope will give you more time to spend with the people that you love, doing the things that you love.           

Much of the work that is done in my classroom is done in cooperative groups.  It is important to me that the actual process of formulating the groups be quick and efficient.  It is also important to me that students have experience working with a wide range of different people throughout the course of the year.  I used to let students choose their own groups, but it just ended up in mass confusion and hurt feelings - so now, I use grouping cards.

The concept is simple.  I created cards that each have a different color, number, and shape combination.  If we are going to be working in cooperative groups during the class period, I instruct students to pick up a card on their way in.  Once each student has a card, I have 3 random ways to group them - by color, by shape, or by number.  They never know which one I am going to choose, so trying to cheat the system is difficult.  If you are performing an activity where you need to change groups up several times, these are perfect. 

If you would like to try them out in your own class, the file to download them is below.  I recommend printing them on heavy paper or card stock and laminating them for continued use.  Once you start using them you won't know how you ever lived without them.  They are a huge time-saver and, more importantly, brain-saver!

I have always been discouraged when looking for a plan book for the new school year.  Most of them are geared towards an elementary classroom, and even the other secondary plan books need so much modification they were hardly worth it.  So, I finally did it!  I finally created my own plan book focused on the Two-Week Model that I have referenced in previous blog posts.  I will be excited to finally have what I need when school begins in August!

Here is the link!  Check it out and let me know what you think!

World Language Teacher Planner

Do you have ideas of anything that I could add to make this planner more helpful or easier to use? 
Leave me a comment!

Being a teacher sometimes feels like putting together one of those 1,000 piece puzzles where the pieces all look the same, but each is slightly different.  We are expected to meet the slightly differing expectations of students, parents, colleagues, administrators, and state and federal government policy makers.

As a new teacher, I found this...well...puzzling.  As I reflected on my performance I began to see that in trying to please everyone, I was losing my focus.  What was I going to teach?  What the textbook told me to and what my colleagues expected?  What my students were interested in?  What the parents wanted to see their children able to do at home?  Where did the benchmarks and standards fit into all of this?  What did all of these groups have in common and how could I fit them all together?

Eventually, I decided to focus on the skills my students needed to build.  The ACTFL (American Council of Teachers of Foreign Language) has published a series of "Can Do" statements aligned with varying proficiency levels (Novice-Low, Novice-Mid, Novice-High, Intermediate-Low, etc.).  These statements are actually written for students, so they are devoid of much of the education jargon and rhetoric we have become so accustomed to.  They are straight-forward, measurable skills that build on themselves throughout a students course of language study.  These have become my anchor as each year I face a new group of students.

Throughout the year, I have posters featuring these "Can Do" statements in my room.  They are hanging up from day one so that students can see what they are going to be able to do (if they hold up their end of the bargain) by the end of the year.  During open house and conferences, I share them with parents.  As administrators walk in and out of my classroom throughout the year and during evaluations, they are there.  They have done a lot of the communication for me and made that puzzle feel like it has a few less pieces.

Here are links to the posters I use in my room, which align with the ACTFL "I Can" statements:

Foreign Language Learning Goal Posters:  Level 1
Foreign Language Learning Goal Posters:  Level 2
Foreign Language Learning Goal Posters:  Level 3
Foreign Language Learning Goal Posters:  Level 4
Foreign Language Learning Goal Posters:  Level 5

How do you make students aware of the goals and what they should be able to do?
Leave a comment below!