6 Things Teachers Can Do Now for a Better Back to School [episode 61]

Emily
Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we’re sharing six things you can do now for next school year. And we got a teacher approved tip for making a need first box.

Heidi
Normally we start our episodes with a morning message. But this week, we are sharing some fantastic community responses throughout the episode. So let’s get right to the show.

Emily
It’s time for the feedback of the week and we’re sharing a recent podcast review from MerelyHolli. She writes, “While K 12 teachers can benefit from this encouraging thoughtful and practical podcast. It is essential for second grade teachers.

Emily
“I learned about second storey window when I fell in love with their products on TPT. The podcast is an extension of their store, it’s packed with goodies and leaves you feeling prepared and encouraged. Grab your coffee and enjoy the invitation to join their conversations on all things classroom.”

Heidi
That is so sweet. Thank you.

Emily
And it’s true, we do really have a special place in our heart for second grade teachers.

Heidi
As a reminder, if we share your review on the podcast, please send us an email for a little surprise, just as our way of saying thank you for your kind words. So MerelyHolli, thank you so much for that review. And please send us an email at [email protected].

Heidi
Something we often talk about on this podcast is how you can give a gift to your future self. And that’s what we want to talk about today by sharing some actionable things you can do right now, before the school year ends, to make the start of the next school year easier, quicker and more enjoyable.

Emily
And who doesn’t want that. We also asked our amazing teacher approved community to share their tried and true tips for preparing now for next school year. So we’ll be sharing their ideas throughout this episode as well. Heidi, why don’t you kick us off?

Heidi
So our tip number one is declutter. I honestly think decluttering your space is the best gift you can give to yourself now and your future self.

Emily
Absolutely. I loved this tip from Cyndi, who said, What can kids help with? Test all markers and glue sticks to make sure they work, clean out binders that get reused, check indoor recess games for all the pieces.

Heidi
That is so smart to get your students involved in this stuff. And I really love the idea of having them go through your indoor recess materials and getting them organized.

Emily
I know that one I hadn’t thought of.

Heidi
Yeah. And then they can make a list of what games or activities are missing pieces as well.

Emily
And the kids really enjoy that sort of task where it’s just not a good use of a teacher time. My nine year old would be delighted to test markers and check games for all the pieces. Maybe we can start hiring him out. Yeah.

Heidi
Our next tip is from Lisa who said, if you didn’t use it this year, get rid of it.”

Emily
It’s so smart. As you’re looking to declutter, consider that question. Did I use this item this year? That will help you easily identify items you may be ready to donate.

Heidi
Just don’t fall into that trap of Oh but it’s a good game or a good math manipulative or a good cardboard box. It’s the perfect size cardboard box. And I know I’m going to find the perfect use for this sometime. Right but it’s a trap.

Emily
Let it go to someone who can use it.

Heidi
Or will also stash it somewhere. Yeah, but that’s not your problem, their issue. And then once you have weeded out the stuff that you haven’t used in a year, Haley says it is time to purge. Clean up to your computer, organize your Google Drive and your desktop. Thin out books recycle all of those extras that you never use.

Emily
I really like Haley’s reminder to not neglect your digital organization. That’s more important than ever these days. Get your files in order clean up your desktop. That’s a task that’s not too overwhelming, but will make things simpler every time you need to work on your computer.

Heidi
And Tabitha also said start straightening up shelves, cabinets and closets. I know I have a tendency to just dump stuff and things. Especially when putting stuff back in my closet. Tabitha you are not alone there.

Heidi
I start with one to two shelves a day reorganizing sorting, putting stuff back where it truly belongs and throwing out the junk.

Emily
So smart to do your decluttering and straightening just a little at a time.

Heidi
We recently just did a whole episode about spring cleaning your classroom. So if you want to do a deep dive, it’s a good one, check out Episode 60, to hear our best tips for getting your classroom clutter under control.

Emily
Next up is tip number two, take a look at what did and didn’t work in your teaching this year.

Heidi
Katie had a great suggestion for this. She said, go through this year’s lesson plans and mark things that didn’t work. Use time between now and beginning of the school year to look for things you can replace those with to try and make it work out better next year.

Emily
And surely some things did go well this year. So we recommend that you start there and make note of the good stuff. You want to remember which lessons and units went particularly well so you can be sure to repeat those again.

Heidi
We get it it is so easy to focus only on the negative things or everything you want to improve. But we guarantee that you are doing more awesome things than you even realize for sure, give yourself some credit.

Emily
After identifying what went well, consider what activities and lessons didn’t go the way you hoped they would. I like Katie suggestion to look through your lesson plans for this year to help jog your memory.

Heidi
And then like Katie said, you can take some time to think about how you can improve those areas for next year. Maybe your writing time just wasn’t where you wanted it to be. And now you can keep that in mind that you want to switch things up for next year and be on the lookout for new ideas that inspire you.

Emily
Or maybe you’ve got a real clunker of a science lesson in the middle of your adaptations unit. Make a note to be on the hunt for something that the kids will be excited about.

Heidi
And if you want some help finding quality teaching materials, we have a whole podcast episode about it. Not so much about the materials themselves, but how to find them. Go back to Episode 56 for five tips for finding quality resources online.

Emily
At the end of the year, it can feel tempting to want to revamp everything in your classroom. I am so prone to that I’m going to change every single thing, energy.

Heidi
I think as teachers we just always want to be improving, which is a great quality. But learn from our mistakes and just listen to this word of caution that you should focus on one thing at a time, so you don’t burn yourself out.

Emily
And you can’t burn out here because we’ve got more to discuss.

Heidi
Right, we can’t skip tip number three, evaluate how your procedures went this year.

Emily
Now, if you’ve been around, you know, we love talking about routines and procedures around here. We really believe that good procedures and routines will save you so much time and stress each year.

Heidi
So take a good look at how things have gone in your classroom this year. Maybe set aside a day or a week to make notes of how the procedures and routines are going in your classroom right now. Sometimes just paying close attention to your day to day for a little while will make it obvious exactly which procedures are working, and which you may want to change next year.

Emily
And if this is an area you want to deep dive into, we’ve got some episodes to help you. No surprise.

Heidi
If you need a deep dive into procedures and how to plan and teach them. start with Episode 18, where we guide you on discovering which procedures your classroom may need. And we share our three step method for teaching procedures.

Emily
If you want to figure out why a certain procedure isn’t working, check out episode 32 where we shared five questions you can ask yourself to get to the root of the problem and make changes when you need to troubleshoot a certain procedure. If you have time, you can even revamp that procedure this year to test it out.

Heidi
You know, you may as well troubleshoot things now and save yourself the headache of course correcting in the fall.

Emily
For sure, then you’ll go in with a better game plan to start. Your classroom transitions are probably the procedure you have to use most often in your day. If you want to improve those classroom transitions, we actually have a three part series, all about making them efficient to save you time and stress.

Heidi
Who knew there isn’t much to say about classroom transitions?

Emily
Turns out there is seriously that series starts in Episode 48. You could try out some of our strategies for classroom transitions before this year ends as well and see which ones you like.

Heidi
Now let’s move on to tip number four, which is to try something new.

Emily
The end of the year is actually the perfect time to try something new, whether it be content or procedures because chances are good that you’ve already finished up a lot of the core teaching you need to do and the kids may be, okay they’re definitely getting a little squirrely.

Heidi
So trying out something new at the end of the year helps give you a chance to do a trial run on things that you may want to change next year like a new or revamp procedure. Or you can test out a new activity or instructional routine to see how it goes before you commit to doing it next year.

Emily
And the added benefit here is that doing something new is a great way to get your students engaged. We’ve talked before about how we like to think of engagement as a scale with predictability on one side and novelty on the other. When things tip too far in either direction, students become less engaged.

Heidi
At the end of the year, your kids have seen all of your daily routines and activities a million times, trying out something new will benefit them too, by helping them reengage at a tricky time of year. So this is really a win win. Yeah.

Emily
So tip number five is to start preparing your classroom for next year.

Heidi
If you are at a school that requires you to have completely bare walls and shelves before the start of each summer, you have our condolences. Seriously, such a pain.

Emily
But Debbie has a great tip for tackling this. She says, At six weeks before the end of the school year, I choose the least used corner of my classroom and start putting it away. The following week, I choose the next least used corner and start moving everything toward the closets where I store everything for the summer.

Emily
I continue this with the other two corners, except I leave anything that I’m using for the moment, when the end of the school year comes I have very little to put away and at that point, I can ask the kids to help me. Believe it or not, the kids barely even notice when I do it this way.

Heidi
That is such a great tip for tackling an overwhelming task in a much more manageable way. But the other benefit I see is that putting things away one corner at a time is going to make it so much easier to pull it all back out next year. Everything that needs to be put back on the walls and shelves in one area will have been put away together. So this is an extra gift to your future self.

Emily
We have another great idea for getting your room ready for next year from Jill, she said, Put up your beginning of the year bulletin boards and cover with newspapers or butcher paper for safekeeping over the summer, then just pull off paper in August and you’re ready.

Heidi
I love this idea. I wish I had heard it years ago. Me too. Because I I often thought that by the end of the year, you’re not really using your bulletin boards anymore. So I I wanted to like put my back to school boards. But I wondered if maybe it would make the kids feel unsettled. And you know, we’re all forgetting ahead. But we want to be mindful of not making changes that will set off behavior problems in the class we have at the moment.

Emily
Yeah, we don’t want to be doing that. I really liked that idea of doing them one at a time and then covering them up with butcher paper. It keeps it from distracting your students too much, and will keep it safe while vacuums and carpet fans maybe maybe running in your room over the summer. And in August, you will be so happy pulling that butcher paper off to see your beautiful bulletin boards all ready to go.

Heidi
And if you really can’t do much to prepare your space for next year at this point, that is totally fine. But one easy thing you can do is just take pictures of what is working right now.

Emily
Yeah, so if you have bulletin boards you do like and want to replicate next year, take pictures of them. If you have a great seating arrangement or organizational system that’s working great, take pictures. Eou can even email those pictures to yourself with a delayed send. So they arrive in your inbox at back to school time. Especially good tip, if you were you won’t be able to find them in your camera roll or you might forget that you even took them.

Heidi
Oh yeah, that last one would definitely be me. And our last tip, tip number six is to prepare your back to school stuff.

Emily
Of course, there are plenty of things you can’t do for next year right now, it’s highly unlikely that you have a class list so that you could start labeling everything.

Heidi
But even if you do have a class list, right, it’s gonna change a bunch before school starts though, right? Don’t give yourself extra work.

Emily
Can’t do that task yet. But there are plenty of tasks you can do right now for next year.

Heidi
Teresa suggested getting ahead on all of your copies. If you have certain forms and packets, you know you’re going to need those first weeks of school, just go ahead and copy the noun.

Emily
Yeah, there are so many things you probably could already copy now like if you have a project, you always do the first day of school, copy it now. Do any cutting you need to do for that.

Heidi
And if you have laminating you know you’ll need definitely get a head start on that if you can’t, because the laminator I think is always the thing that gets broken first.

Emily
100% accurate. Here’s another idea for Maggie. She said, make templates for everything templates that you can use from year to year. You can make them as a Google Doc or slides. You can make copies her examples were your student roster, beginning of the year parent email, planning templates, templates to store grades, all that fun stuff. Yep.

Heidi
And one really easy tip comes from Shannon who said, I usually sharpened pencils for the coming year, just a box or two a week. But that’s one thing off next year’s list.

Emily
I’m not sure this has ever occurred to me, but I love this idea so much. And somebody could help you with this. If you have a parent helper that needs a job this will be an excellent thing to outsource. And it’s just such a good way to make some progress getting items checked off for next year. But it’s not an overwhelming task to take on, especially if you’re just doing a couple of boxes a week. If you want something really simple to do, this is the tip for you.

Heidi
Oh, another one I thought of is taking home scissors or math manipulatives or those other items that you might want to clean and run them through the dishwasher? Yep. If you think they will be safe in the dishwasher. Yes, don’t, don’t get mad at us. You can put them inside like mesh laundry bags to keep the pieces contained.

Heidi
Obviously, if you think it will melt, skip this step. Also time this well, don’t do this the day before you do a big end of your craft activity that requires scissors. Just save this tip until you know you’re done with an item for the year.

Emily
And if you really want to make next year easier, you can take Colleen’s tip which is retire. She was kidding, of course, unless you really are going to retire in which case congratulations!

Heidi
Well done. But for everyone else, try out these six tips for things you can do now for next year. Number one, Declutter. Number two, evaluate what’s working and what’s not working with your teaching content. Number three, evaluate what’s working and what’s not working with your procedures and routines. Number four, try something new. Number five, set up your room. And number six, prep your back to school stuff.

Emily
We’d love to hear your thoughts on getting ready for next year. Come join the conversation in our teacher approved Facebook group.

Emily
Now let’s talk about this week’s teacher approved tip. Each week, we leave you with a small actionable tip that you can apply in your classroom today. This week’s teacher approved tip is create a need first box. Heidi, can you tell us more about this tip?

Heidi
Of course. So if you are in a school that requires you to pack up your room, or if you’re switching rooms or schools, give your future self a spectacular gift and set up a need first box. Your need first box should hold all of the stuff you’re going to need when you’re back to school in the fall. And it’s time to set up your classroom.

Emily
And this is a great tip honestly, even if you’re not having to completely pack up your room. So as you’re wrapping up the year, start adding things to the box. Think about thumbtacks and a stapler for your bulletin boards. You might want to include your scissors or labels or roll up packing tape for taping up crayon boxes.

Heidi
All the fun stuff. Even if you normally keep your scissors and tape in a different place like you probably would as a normal human, add them to the box for the summer. The idea is to have all of this combined in one place that you can easily access. You don’t want to have to dig through all of your boxes to find your pencil sharpener when you’ve got 50 pencils waiting.

Emily
And you can add anything to this box that you know you’re going to need. We like to use pattern blocks on the first day of school. So once you know you’re done with your pattern box for the year, stick them in the need first box.

Heidi
Having all of this combined in one place means you can immediately get started on setting up your classroom, instead of having to unpack everything first.

Emily
And having your room ready to go is always a huge relief and also not having to go digging through any cupboards if you stayed in the same room to find the things that you need.

Heidi
I actually thought this idea was so helpful that I have applied it to my Christmas bins. I made like a little need first box with the stuff that I always seem to be searching for at the last minute. So like I put the sign for our delivery driver treat bins in there, and the extension cords that I can ever find on Christmas Eve. It’s just nice to know where all of that stuff that doesn’t have a clear home has a home.

Emily
And of course the key to success with a need first box, whether it’s for Christmas or back to school is knowing where to find it. So if you’re packing up your room, keep that box on the top of the pile, or maybe even put it in the trunk of your car. So you know right where it is.

Heidi
To wrap up the show we’re sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what are you giving extra credit to?

Emily
I’m giving extra credit to the activity and coloring books from the Caravan Shoppe and that shops spelled s h o p p e, just so you know. The creators of the Caravan Shoppe have actually had a huge influence on us. We met them like 10 years ago when they taught us how to use Adobe Illustrator.

Emily
At the time we were using Microsoft Publisher and Alma from the Caravan Shoppe was like Emily, you’ve got to stop. And that completely changed how we create resources. We have been their biggest fans ever since.

Emily
They recently came out with the coolest kid activity and coloring books that I have ever seen. They are so clever and funny and they’re full of really cool facts. Each book has a cool theme like space dinosaurs and my two favorites are creatures of myth and magic. Ooh. Which is about creatures like unicorns and dragons. and legendary monsters which is about cryptids like the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot.

Emily
I think it’s really hard to find engaging activity books for eight to 12 year olds. And these absolutely hit the mark. You can check out their books at yourveryfavorite.com.

Heidi
We love Caravan Shoppe. I honestly don’t know that we’d be here without them. So extra bonus points to Caravan Shoppe for me too. But the rest of my extra credit is for the show Jury Duty on FreeVee.

Emily
Oh, I saw a preview for this. And I was like, What is this? It looks hilarious.

Heidi
It is so funny. And I haven’t talked to you about it because I wanted to wait till you about it right now.

Emily
I know that’s our new life thing is waiting to tell each other things on the podcast. Makes it fresh.

Heidi
Yeah. So it’s a documentary about jury duty. But the twist is that there’s one person who genuinely thinks they’re part of a jury and part of a documentary and everyone else involved is an actor. It is so bonkers. And it is genuinely funny. I laughed out loud multiple times.

Heidi
It’s created by two writers from The Office. So if you like that show, or like Parks and Rec, I do, yes, this will be right up your alley. And kind of my favorite part is James Marsden plays himself. Like this level 11 Hollywood elite entitled actor guy. He’s trying trying to get in the mood for his role, like is so funny.

Heidi
And the judge is so good. Like he’s surprisingly good. And I just couldn’t believe he was an actor. So I had to look him up. And it turns out he’s also a lawyer. So that’s how comfortable he is in the courtroom. And Emily know Morgan from The Mindy Project. Yeah, he’s been a lot of other stuff, too. Yeah, the judge is his dad. So if you need a laugh, and we all need to laugh at the end of the school year, this is definitely worth a watch.

Emily
Oh, I’m adding that to my list right now.

Heidi
That’s it for today’s episode. Get a head start on next year as you finish out the school year. And remember our teacher approved tip to make a need first box for back to school.