Three Ways To Streamline Your Systems

Learning Objective: Teachers will be able to (TWBAT) streamline systems to work smarter, not harder.

Now that at least one complete month of school has past, you can settle down and finally process and organize it all! Here are three simple, yet extremely time-saving, techniques you can easily implement this week.

1. Fool Proof Paper Management

It’s hard to keep students accountable for turning in their work, especially if you cannot keep track of who turns in what for yourself.

Solution 1: Cross off Sheets. When I go around the room to check who has completed his/her homework I cross off students names as they turn in their work. This way I don’t have to write down 30 names each period and I can just highlight those who I need to follow up with. See image.

Solution 2: In my teacher bag I have three manila folders: 1) To Grade, 2) To Input, and 3) To Return. By my desk I have another set of those same three folders so I can unload my papers when I get to school. Why? By having a set place to put papers I don’t have to re-think where I put my papers each time. It become a routine which saves me time and mental space to think about other things. Additionally, I keep one “To Copy” folder in my bag so that I only have one place to put papers I must copy and cannot lose.

2. Explanation Free Task Delegation

You know when you have an extremely sweet angel of a child who hangs around your classroom asking if you need help with anything, but you find yourself saying, “Oh, it’s okay. It’s complicated. I’ll just do it.” Teachers! To work efficiently, we need to learn to let go and delegate simple tasks.

Solution: Set up a task delegation system that doesn’t require you to stop what you need to do to explain how to do something else every two minutes. First, you must set up a task bin. In this bin, you will put tasks you would trust students to complete, separated into individual manila folders. Second, type out easy-to-follow directions you can put in each folder and use again and again. This is especially helpful for recurring tasks you can easily delegate but don't want to explain over and over again.

Bonus Points: If you have a teacher aide doing homework in your class, give him/her their own digital To-Do list. When my aide comes in, no time is wasted and all the documents I want her to update are hyperlinked right on her To-Do list. See image. #tooeasy #nofreelaborwasted

3. The Master Roster

Now that you’ve had a month to process all the student information thrown at you, you need to keep it organized in your mind. Solution: A one-stop-shop with all the student information you need. This makes it super easy when you need to put aside the tests for the SPED teachers, quickly find the no-media list, or remember who you gave reading modifications to. Below is an example of what a Master Roster would look like. Note, if you do this on Google Sheets, as opposed to a Word document, you can have multiple tabs, keeping all your student information in one place. Gold Star Tip: On this document, maybe in the Parent Contact column, link a Parent Contact Form you can fill out every time you contact a parent. This way, every time you fill out the form it logs of all your parent contact and makes a spreadsheet. This is super helpful when you want to search up all the times you called home for a particular student.

I hope reading this blog post gave you some ideas on easy ways to stay classy and composed in the classroom. It may seem daunting at first, but I believe Benjamin Franklin said it best in the quote below. Stay tuned for more next week!

“For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.”