Our Best Teacher Tips for Finding Pockets of Prep Time to Get Ahead for January [episode 169]

Emily  0:36

Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we’re sharing how to find pockets of prep time in your schedule to get ahead on your teacher to do list and a teacher approved tip for boosting productivity.

Heidi  0:50

We start our episodes with a morning message, just like we used to do at morning meeting in our classrooms. This weeks morning message is a silly one. It is, what is your teacher Superhero name?

Emily  1:00

We posted a fun teacher superhero name generator in our Facebook group, and the responses were a hoot. So, Heidi, what was yours?

Heidi  1:09

I am the master of the glue sticks. Of course, all of the caps will be found and clicked on appropriately.

Emily  1:16

Oh well, fantastic. I hope you can visit my classroom. Of course, mine was guardian of all field trips, and I could not hate that more, because field trips are the worst.

Heidi  1:29

The worst, oh no, but talk about needing a superhero for something. It’s probably field trips.

Emily  1:34

Yes, just I don’t want it to be me. Some of the other generated names were leader of the markers, captain of the data.

Heidi  1:44

Oh no, I don’t want that one either.

Emily  1:48

Defender of the laminator, important job, champion of all Velcro and protector of lesson plans.

Heidi  1:57

I love it. We need all of the superheroes.

Emily  2:00

Come join the teacher approved Facebook group and generate your own teacher superhero name. We can’t wait to hear it.

Heidi  2:07

In last week’s episode, we walked you through how to plan your end of December and start of January lessons now so you can get everything prepared in advance. This is the ultimate hack for saving your sanity at such a busy time of year.

Emily  2:22

But getting everything prepared in advance means figuring out what content you need to cover in December, planning your December calendar, scheduling your stop new content date before winter break, planning meaningful independent activities for the last few days in December, figuring out when you’ll resume new content in January and planning activities to fill the time before you get back to your regular schedule.

Heidi  2:48

Tikes. That is a lot, but we have got two big helps for you. First, go back to Episode 168 and get all of our best tips for tackling this project step by step. And second, check out our December teacher survival kit.

Heidi  3:05

That is a digital, editable resource that has pages already set up for you to do your planning. It has got everything you need to seamlessly make the bridge between December mode and January ready. There’s a link to our December teacher survival kit in the show notes, or you can find it in our store.

Emily  3:23

Once you know what work you need to do to teach in December and be ready for January, the magic question is, When will you get all that work done?

Heidi  3:32

And the answer to that is one of my favorite teacher secrets. You can get all that work done by creating little pockets of prep time. I love that name. I think we should maybe trademark it.

Emily  3:46

We should absolutely trademark that pockets of prep TM TM. As nice as it would be to have four uninterrupted hours to do all of this extra work, it’s just not feasible with everything else that has to happen in a school day. So that means doing work on your own time, or getting creative with the time you have.

Heidi  4:05

If knocking out all of this work on a Saturday is a better fit for you, by all means, make that happen. I have spent plenty of Saturday afternoons in the school work room because it meant I didn’t have to share the copier.

Emily  4:17

It was always nice working on a Saturday for that reason only, that like school was quiet and you could use all the machines at once if you needed to. But if your weekends are too busy to squeeze in work, or you just don’t want to give up your personal time for work projects, which is a valid reason, then you need to maximize the school time you have, and this is where pockets of prep come in.

Heidi  4:42

So this is just a completely hypothetical number, but let’s say it takes four hours to prep everything you need for December and January. And honestly, that’s probably low balling it. That means we need to find those four hours somewhere, and as a teacher, that likely means grabbing that time in 15 minute chunks.

Emily  5:00

But teachers know how to maximize 15 minutes better than anyone else on the planet, especially if they know exactly what needs to get done. That’s where the lists we talked about last week come into play. With your December prep list and your January prep list all filled out, you can organize all those tasks in our pockets of prep planner. Like the other list, you can find this in the December teacher survival kit.

Heidi  5:00

Because we have to grab these few precious minutes wherever we can, it’s important that we don’t spend that time wondering what we should be working on. This is why the pockets of prep planner as part of the December teacher survival kit is so genius, we might need a map to break all this down.

Heidi  5:45

The list in this planner are organized by location. We’ve got a list for classroom tasks, a list for digital tasks, a list for workroom tasks, and then a blank list for any other location where you might be working.

Emily  5:57

And because this is all digital, you can edit these locations to match your needs, or add as many sections as you might want.

Heidi  6:04

We love an editable resource. To use the planner take your December task list and your January task list and start adding all of those tasks to your pockets of prep planner. Add all of the copies you need to make on your workroom list, add all of the slides you need to make on your digital list, and then add everything else on the appropriate list for those tasks.

Emily  6:25

But we’re not done yet. We’re going to add some important tags to each of these tasks. Let’s say I need to set up morning slides for our first day back in January. I put that on my digital task list, then I need to tag it in four categories, time needed, importance, energy needed and priority level.

Emily  6:45

Making slides will probably take me five minutes, and it’s of high importance because I need to have them for that first morning, or the whole first day back will be off kilter. The energy needed for this task is light. Priority is tricky. Do I need to do it now, soon later? Because it’s a January task, I think I’d mark it as to do soon so I can focus on getting all of my December tasks done first.

Heidi  7:09

Once you have added and tagged all of your upcoming tasks, you’ll see the magic of this come together. Let’s say your class is watching a phonics video for the next 10 minutes. That means you’ve got 10 minutes to get something done. Open your pockets of prep planner and start by choosing your location.

Heidi  7:26

Since you need to monitor your students, you can’t really leave them and go work in the work room, and your computer is currently playing the video, so online prep is off the table. But that’s no problem, because you have got a list of classroom tasks also waiting for you.

Heidi  7:41

Now consider your energy level. Maybe it’s early in the day, so you still have some juice in your batteries. Look for a classroom task that can be done in 10 minutes or less and uses medium or high energy. Maybe taking down a December bulletin board is the perfect way to fill the next 10 minutes.

Emily  7:59

It’s a bit like clearing an avalanche with a shovel, but with enough pockets of prep, you’ll get those tasks crossed off your list before you know it.

Heidi  8:09

But that does mean it’s very important to find as many pockets of prep as possible. It’s almost a tongue twister. We’ve got many suggestions for you, so hopefully some of these will work for your situation. Let’s start by leveraging your swiss cheese weeks.

Emily  8:26

I don’t know if anyone has ever said that sentence before. Should we trademark Swiss cheese weeks too?

Heidi  8:33

This whole episode just full of trademark teacher approved. One of the headaches of the holiday ramp up season is that the school calendar starts to look a little Swiss cheesy. And by that I mean there are long holiday breaks. There are four day weeks and three day weeks, and potentially you have several days of early dismissal.

Emily  8:53

You might not have a week of five uninterrupted school days between now and mid January.

Heidi  8:59

Now a four day week doesn’t require too much adjustment, but you need a different approach for three day weeks. You really can’t cram a whole math unit into three days. So what are you going to do for math that week? There are a variety of options that range from sticking to the established routine on one end of the spectrum or throwing it all out the window and partying on the other end.

Emily  9:19

We did a deep dive into all the options for handling Swiss cheese weeks way back in episode 36 so revisit that if you want some suggestions. But if your goal is to maximize your pockets of prep, you want to plan your non traditional weeks to include lots of independent work for your students.

Heidi  9:37

If you have a three day or even a two day week coming up, consider creating a special, non traditional school day schedule for those short weeks. Instead of math lesson those days, you could have your students play the math board games that you taught them earlier in the year.

Heidi  9:53

Or instead of teaching a writing lesson, have your kids do a writing activity that they can do without your guidance. Show a video for science and stretch silent reading time for a few extra minutes. This is all meaningful work, even if you’re not leading a lesson.

Emily  10:09

Creating an alternate schedule for any days you aren’t teaching regular content like on a week with only three days, makes planning easier. You already know exactly what kind of activities and materials you need to keep the kids engaged. If you want to hear more about planning a schedule like this, we talk about it more in episode 168.

Heidi  10:28

And while your students are doing their meaningful independent work, you can bust out more of the tasks from your pockets of prep planner.

Emily  10:37

Besides leveraging your swiss cheese weeks for more pockets of prep, you can use what we call festive breaks.

Heidi  10:43

Yay.

Emily  10:44

Maybe we need to add a glossary to this episode. The idea of festive breaks is that you take little breaks during your day to add in some seasonal fun with a simple activity.

Heidi  10:55

An added bonus of festive breaks is that they can be a great tool for student engagement, too. The novelty of these special holiday activities can keep your students from checking out when things are a little too predictable and structured in your class. So really, these activities are a win win for everyone.

Emily  11:11

You can do anything you want for a festive break, but we designed some that are no prep for teachers, besides making copies and also designed to be done independently, freeing you up for some pockets of prep. You guessed it. We will link to our festive breaks in the show notes.

Heidi  11:27

Another way to create some pockets of prep in your day is by adjusting your schedule temporarily. In November and December, you could decide that on your weekly early out day, you’re going to just do that daily schedule differently. Or if you don’t have an early out day, maybe you could just choose every Friday to have an adjusted schedule.

Emily  11:45

The easiest way to adjust your schedule to maximize your pockets of prep is to take times of the day when normally you would teach a lesson and replace it with a video small group work, a technology activity or independent work time for your students. Then choose a prep task from your pockets of prep planner to do while the students are engaged with their own tasks.

Heidi  12:06

If you can’t adapt a whole day to allow for more pockets of prep, try cutting things down for a couple weeks. Instead of teaching a science lesson for a week, maybe use some handy dandy educational videos. Or maybe you only meet with two small groups a day instead of all four.

Emily  12:22

Obviously, this isn’t a long term plan, but your kids will be fine if they’re getting fewer small groups for a couple of days.

Heidi  12:30

We hope this gives you a few new strategies to employ in the coming weeks to help you find more pockets of prep in your schedule. And don’t feel bad about finding work time to complete work tasks during your school day. I guarantee you’re doing plenty of work for free already.

Emily  12:47

And really squeezing in important planning tasks while your students are engaged in meaningful activities is just working smarter, not harder. We would love to hear how you find pockets of prep in your schedule during the holidays. Come join the conversation in our teacher approved Facebook group.

Emily  13:05

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 to know what you need. What can you tell us about this, Heidi?

Heidi  13:19

If we’re trying to get ahead for the next couple months, it’s going to take some extra work, but unfortunately, we can’t pretend that we’re robots. We just are not always at the top of our game. So in order to make the most of the little time that we have for prepping, we need to have a clear idea of what we need to be productive.

Heidi  13:39

Do you need a few minutes to just zone out before you switch between tasks? Do you work better if you have someone to chat to, or do you work better if there aren’t any distractions? Do you need a little snack to keep from getting hangry while you are doubling up on your workload? Do you need to move around for a bit before you can focus? Is your cycle going to throw all your weld laid plans out of whack for the next week?

Heidi  14:01

We can only cite more from ourselves if we are giving more to ourselves. And I know that doesn’t come naturally to most teachers, but it’s true. So make sure that as you are crafting all of these get ahead plans that you are also planning for what you need to function at your best.

Heidi  14:19

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

Emily  14:25

I’m giving extra credit to the Athena razor. I recently switched to Athena after using Billy razors for years and years. I liked the Billy fine, but I felt like I did tend to knick myself a lot. Oh, yeah, that could have just been user error. But either way, I decided to give Athena a try, and I really vastly prefer it. The handle has, like, a rubbery grip to it, and it’s heavier, but like, in a good way, just like I don’t have to explain it, it just feels like more substantial and sturdy.

Emily  14:56

When I drop it the blade doesn’t usually go flying, which always happened with the Billy razor. The blades of the two are similar, but I think Athena’s is less bulky and kind of like easier to maneuver around. So that is more than you ever wanted to know about razors. But if you’re looking at either of these two razors, I think I give the edge to Athena.

Heidi  15:17

Oh is that a razor pen?

Emily  15:19

Yes, of course. What are you giving extra credit to Heidi?

Heidi  15:24

My extra credit goes to pickled blueberries. So a local restaurant has them, and I tried them for the first time at Emily’s birthday lunch a couple months ago, and I’m totally hooked, like probably I’m about two weeks away from needing an intervention. So Emily just wanted to make you aware so you can get the banner ready.

Emily  15:43

I am aware I’ve been working on the banner. But the thing is, I wanted you to learn how to pickle them so that I could also enjoy them at home. So I’m waiting for you to, like, take some action here and learn a new skill.

Heidi  15:55

Well I bought some stuff, and then I was like, reading the another recipe online, and they’re like, oh, no, don’t use that kind of vinegar. It’s way too strong. Use this other kind of vinegar. So I just put in a grocery order to get champagne vinegar, because apparently white vinegar is too strong for the blueberries. We’ll see how it goes.

Emily  16:14

Okay, well, I’m glad to know at least that this is in process, and I am anxiously awaiting the update on the pickled blueberries journey.

Heidi  16:24

That’s it for today’s episode. Use our tips to build some pockets of prep into your schedule before the holiday break, and don’t forget our teacher approved tip for taking care of yourself to boost your productivity.

Emily  16:35

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