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Your Summer To Do List – How Teachers Can Choose the Best Tasks for Big Impact [episode 64]

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Click below to hear how to create your teacher summer to-do list:

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Overview of episode 64:

If you’re anything like us, you want to thoroughly enjoy your summer break because you earned it! However, we tend to stress when we get back to school in the fall having not done anything school related. So if we choose to do school tasks over summer, we want those tasks to leave a big impact. In today’s episode, we’re sharing how your teacher summer to-do list will get you prepared for next year.

Your ultimate teacher summer to-do list is actually a combination of three lists. Each list is broken into things that are working, aren’t working, and what you need to do to fix or have ready before the next year begins. Since we know everything on your list could be a priority, we help by sharing a letter model to prioritize the most essential tasks that are aligned with your goals. Then finally making you aware of potential pitfalls when completing your tasks.

We know that summer is your time. And if taking a break from anything school is what you need, by all means, go for it! But if you want to feel less stressed when school starts back up or feel more prepared, identifying your teacher summer to-do list will give you the most impact for your time!

Highlights from the episode:

[00:57] Today’s morning message: what is a teacher gift you would love to receive?

[7:36] How to identify your ta-da, fix-it, and to-do lists.

[12:46] Ways to make your to-do list more manageable.

[16:09] Potential pitfalls to avoid when tackling your list.

[17:30] Today’s teacher approved tip for how to use photographs from this year to teach next year’s procedures.

Resources:

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Read the transcript for episode 64, Your Summer To Do List – How Teachers Can Choose the Best Tasks for Big Impact:

Emily
Hey, there, thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we’re sharing the three lists that can make your summer work time more impactful, and a teacher approved tip for something you can do now to teach procedures in the fall.

Heidi
We start our episodes with a morning message just like we used to do at morning meeting in our classrooms. This week’s morning message is what is a teacher gift you would love to receive?

Emily
And everyone said what I would say don’t you think?

Heidi
Oh yeah, I couldn’t come up with anything better.

Emily
Okay, so let’s just get to their responses. We’ll start with Vicki who said I love getting a heartfelt note from the parents. Honestly, it’s the best.

Emily
And I wanted to start with that one because we know that no gifts are needed or expected. And a heartfelt note from a parent is truly the kindness gift. Many teachers mentioned that they treasured these notes and hold on to them for many years and they pull them out to read on hard days.

Emily
But she goes on to say it doesn’t hurt if it’s attached to a gift card for somewhere. I can buy things I frequently use for the class like Target, Dollar Tree, or Amazon.

Emily
And lots and lots of people mentioned gift cards. I think this is definitely the best gift you can give a teacher or receive as a teacher. Suggested places where Amazon, TPT, Target, Starbucks and local restaurants.

Emily
Jen also mentioned a local car wash place which I thought was a fun gift card idea too. And then Emily said I give our kids teachers a car detailing. They will even come get the car, clean it and when school is over they get to go home in a nice clean ride. That is genius. I know I was like Can I be your kids. That is amazing. Such a nice gift.

Emily
Cynthia said once I received a massage gift card that was the best I have received a nail spa gift card too which I loved those truly made me feel pampered. Maggie said I once got two gift cards for a massage. There was an adorable poem that basically said that one card was for me and the other for me to give to someone else at school. It was the neatest thing I gave one of them to a parent who had never had a massage before. That is so thoughtful. I know.

Emily
Dale said flair pens, they are kind of expensive so I don’t want to send them money myself but I love them. They’re not necessary to my teacher life but they sure do make me happy. For that reason I would consider them a very welcome gift.

Heidi
I second that. My flair pens are kind of running down. I’m not going to have anyone give me teacher gifts this year, so I’m going to have to buy my own.

Emily
And they’re the go to that I always stick with a gift card for my kids teachers.

Emily
Shannon said I am a huge LEGO fan the year I taught on zoom the whole year, I would show the kids the LEGO sets I had made. For my end of the year gift they gave me the Lego flowers bouquet. Then of course I had to build it before the last day of school so they could see it all made. Oh, I love that. And that bouquet set is really cute.

Emily
Lea said a mug. I’ve been teaching four years and still don’t have one. And then everyone in the community was shocked and in awe that she didn’t already have a cupboard full by now.

Heidi
Maybe parents are learning learning the lessons.

Emily
I know but someone get Leah a mug. Cindy mentioned a few gifts she’s received that I thought were fun she said pancake mix and fancy syrup, heated blanket, Mr. Sketch markers, a delivered lunch Oh, I love that one high quality stapler or hole punch or large size post it notes.

Heidi
Oh, all winners.

Emily
Those are creative ideas. Karen said anything is totally appreciated. However, one that I love the most was a book made by the parents of pictures taken throughout the year. I love pulling it out and remembering everything. Well that’s a thoughtful I know.

Emily
And Stacy said I always enjoy a Christmas ornament sign from the child. It goes on my hodgepodge tree and when hung reminds me of that child. I’ve got a couple of those. Yes.

Emily
And Carol mentioned a dream gift that I wish all teachers could receive a day off with someone else writing my lesson plans for me and laying out the day’s materials so I could take the time off stress free.

Heidi
I want to live in that world.

Emily
Yes. And lastly, Andrea said, respect or gift cards. Yeah, if we can’t get the respect, can we get a gift card please?

Heidi
It only seems fair.

Heidi
We would love to hear your response to this and other questions in our teacher approved Facebook community.

Emily
Today we are going to talk about how to use three lists to identify the summer to do tasks that will have the greatest impact in your class.

Heidi
Now, if you are not ready to talk about summer break, let alone working during your break, we totally get it. You can still be our friend, even if you skip ahead to the teacher approved tip.

Emily
But you can come back later when you are ready to hear it if you need to do that, too. And we recognize that some people feel strongly that teachers should not be working in the summer. And honestly, we totally agree.

Heidi
Really, teachers should not have to work in the summer. And if you take your whole summer off from anything school related, we celebrate that. For me, though, I found that I needed a to do list to get some work done during the summer, or I really suffered through the whole school year.

Emily
Yep. And no one wants to spend their whole summer in the workroom, though. So if you’re like us, and you need to get some school tasks dealt with over the summer, let’s make sure that what you’re doing is the most beneficial.

Heidi
I have wasted plenty of summer days doing work that was maybe useful, but not particularly impactful. If I had stopped and made the effort to figure out what tasks held the most benefit for my class, I would have used my time so much better.

Emily
Yeah. And the last thing anyone should be wasting is their summer time, we got to use that wisely.

Heidi
So let’s look at how you can identify what you need to work on the summer. And then how to make sure that your to do list includes the most valuable tasks first.

Emily
The first place to start is what do you know about next fall?

Heidi
So think about things like are you teaching the same grade or in the same room? If so, you are going to have a very different to do list than someone switching grades or rooms or even schools.

Emily
You may even be in a position where some things are changing. But you don’t have details on that yet, which is the worst.

Heidi
Yeah, in situations where a big change is coming, especially change that you don’t have much control over, it’s really tempting to just throw up your hands and say, Well, I don’t know about that. So I can’t do anything.

Emily
And if you are in that boat, we feel you. Have your moment of frustration, and then give the situation a second look, you may not know everything at this point. But what do you know? Lean into the details that you can be certain of.

Heidi
Really doing at least one small thing to tame the chaos, even if you don’t have all the details yet, will help you feel much more in control of the whole situation.

Emily
Once you have a picture of what the fall is going to look like or as clear of a picture as you can have, at this moment, take the time to really look at what’s going well in your room this year. This is your Tada list instead of your to do list.

Heidi
It might help to mentally walk through a school day. How’s your morning going? Maybe there’s some bumpy spots, but your lunch system worked great. So write that on your list. Maybe morning meeting was a daily highlight or your small group math lessons really helped your kids put it all on your list.

Emily
And don’t forget the smaller wins too. Maybe parents have thanked you for being a clear communicator. Write that down. Maybe your class holiday parties were fun without being crazy. Write that down. Maybe you didn’t lose anyone on a field trip. Good job, write that down.

Heidi
All of those are actually wins. And I love a ta-da list because it’s such a morale boost to see that there are some things working even at those times when it feels like maybe it’s all been a dumpster fire.

Emily
And a ta da list is also a great reminder for what to continue in the future. So next to each item on your list right what you did to make that happen. If you designed a handy parent newsletter template, so it was easy to maintain parent contact, note that next to good parent communication on your ta do list.

Heidi
That way you will remember to do the same thing next year.

Emily
We definitely want to repeat our wins. So keep going down your list and clarify what made that item happen. Then once you’ve got your list of what’s working, it’s time to pivot to what’s not working the way you want.

Heidi
I always find a fix it list is much easier to make than than the ta-da list.

Emily
Yeah, sadly, that’s our big Enneagram one energy coming in here. fixing stuff is our favorite hobby.

Heidi
It really is. As you add items to your fixit list include day to day struggles like the pencils not getting sharpened or your center rotations getting out of control. But also try to think of the bigger picture of the whole year.

Heidi
Maybe dismissal on the first day of school was really chaotic and stressful. Maybe you didn’t schedule your field trips in time and no buses were available. I have experienced with that one. And then maybe your team collaboration meetings were unhelpful, all of that fun stuff.

Emily
Yeah, whatever’s bugging you put it on the list.

Heidi
But make sure to leave some room on the side because we’re going to add to that list too.

Emily
Once you’ve got your fixit list or your list of grievances, if you’re old enough to remember Seinfeld, it’s time to pinpoint the problems. Next to each item, right, the source of the friction.

Emily
Maybe you need a more robust routine for packing up at the end of the day. Maybe you need to spend more time reviewing math content throughout the year, instead of cramming it all into April, maybe you need to find a way to like that colleague that drives you. There’s always something.

Heidi
And identifying the friction isn’t always obvious. You might have to peel back some layers to get to the root of things. So try asking yourself why something isn’t working.

Emily
So let’s say the kids coming into the classroom in the morning get a little wild. Why is that? Well they’re not following the procedures, why not? Maybe they don’t understand the procedure. In that case, the friction is that you didn’t teach the procedure clearly enough. So now you need to correct that next year and make sure to keep reminding the kids about it more often.

Emily
Or maybe the answer to why is because you’re not in the room to make sure it happens correctly. Well, why aren’t you in the room? Maybe because you’re in the workroom making copies? Why are you in there? Because you get caught up talking with your teacher bestie after school and you don’t have time to prep.

Heidi
So in that case, the solution might be setting a rule that you and your bestie have to be working while you catch up.

Emily
Two classrooms may have the same problem, but for different reasons. So it’s worth taking the time to really dive into these points of friction, because the solution might not be what you first assume.

Heidi
Right. If we are looking for solutions at the surface level only. Without getting curious about why we have that problem in the first place. We run the risk of just creating more headaches.

Emily
Okay, so we’ve written our ta da lists and our fix it lists and added all the why’s to each one. Now what are we going to do with them?

Heidi
Well, we are going to use them to make our to do list. That was probably obvious. So look at your ta da list and all of the great things you did. What do you need to do to make sure those things happen again?

Heidi
Maybe you want to do your small group math lessons again. To make that happen, you might need to organize your math materials, get new manipulatives, take a class or read a professional development book, revise your assessments, look for new lesson ideas. You get the idea.

Emily
Add it all to your to do list,

Heidi
And then do the same thing for your fixit list. What do you need to do for each of the items on that list?

Emily
Your to do list might start looking a little long. But don’t freak out, we’re going to make it manageable.

Heidi
We start by identifying what is most important and I would recommend starting with anything time sensitive. If you have to attend a training that is only offered the week after school gets out, put it at the top of your list, even if that’s maybe not the most important thing on your list.

Emily
Also consider things that don’t have a particular time but need to be scheduled. Maybe you need to make an appointment to update your background check with the district. Or maybe your team needs to have a planning meeting so you need to schedule a date and plan an agenda. And if it’s not on the calendar, you know, it’s not going to get done.

Heidi
A suggestion that some podcast listeners have offered is to get your back to school materials copied and laminated before the work room gets crowded with tutors and teachers all doing the same thing.

Heidi
In that sense, these are tasks that might not have a set date. But they’re still time sensitive because doing them at a certain time means that you can do them more efficiently.

Emily
Once you’ve identified anything that needs to be scheduled add the dates to your calendar, the last thing you want to do is miss a deadline. And now what do with the rest?

Emily
Yeah, the next step is to separate the important things from the essential things. We do that by asking ourselves what we’re working toward.

Heidi
So if you have a goal to leave school every day at the end of your contract time, essential tasks for you might be a lot of planning and prep work to get ahead. If your goal is to shift your classroom from balanced literacy to a structured literacy model, your essential tasks might involve a lot of professional development.

Heidi
Or if your goal is to start the school year without triggering an autoimmune flare up, ask me I know about that one, your essential tasks might be getting everything ready for your first three weeks back at school so that you have time to rest.

Emily
Once you know your why you can identify the tasks that are most pertinent for reaching that goal.

Heidi
And there are lots of ways to prioritize a to do list you can poke around on Google for a few seconds to find lots of ideas. But since we are teachers I feel like Brian Tracy’s letter method is appropriate.

Heidi
So the idea is to go down your to do list assigning each task a letter based on his relevance to your goal. So the tasks most important to reaching your goal get an A, and then your next most important tasks, get a B, and then so on.

Heidi
And then when you look at all of your A’s, and you number them in order of importance, so you have a one, a two, and so on. This number determines the order to complete each task. Repeat the process until all of your tasks have a letter and a number. This system is great because it ensures that you are prioritizing the most impactful items.

Emily
I love that. And now you just have to do all of it. So no big deal.

Heidi
Right. Child’s play. You might want to work your way through your to do list in order from a one on down to f 12. Or you might just start scheduling things on your calendar.

Emily
Or maybe you want to break things down by category. This week, I’m planning and prepping everything for spelling. Next week, I’m working on teacher Open House materials.

Heidi
Whatever system allows you to get things done without losing your mind is the best system for you.

Emily
There are a couple of pitfalls you’ll want to avoid, though. First, don’t confuse being busy with making progress. I’m guilty of this myself. Unfortunately, summer does not last forever. If you’re filling your days with tasks that don’t impact your ultimate goal, you’re really just wasting your time off.

Heidi
And also be honest with yourself about the value of each task. If you need some clarity, ask yourself, Who does this impact? What is the benefit of completing this task? And what is the downside of not completing it?

Emily
If the answers to those questions aren’t pointing you toward your essential goal, then maybe this task isn’t worth your time.

Heidi
And with that in mind, avoid the second pitfall of the sunk cost fallacy. Don’t feel like you have to keep working on something just because you have already put work into it. Be brave enough to cut your losses and pivot to something more valuable.

Emily
Oh, that one’s a hard one to do. So as we get to the end of the school year, take some time to make your three Action Lists. Start by listing your successes on your ta da list. Add your frustrations to your fixit list, and turn those into plans by making a prioritized to do list.

Heidi
We would love to hear more about your summer to do plans. So please 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 use photographs from this year to teach next year’s procedures. Can you tell us about this, Heidi?

Heidi
I would love to because I have had this tip on my calendar for months, because I wanted to make sure that we didn’t forget to mention it in May. So if you are in a situation where you more or less, no, you will be doing the same procedures next year that you are using this year, have your students help you teach them.

Heidi
Take photos or videos of your students completing each step of the procedure. And then when it is time to teach it in the fall, you’ve got photos of kids completing the steps in your room with your materials.

Emily
Oh, I love this idea is so so good.

Heidi
And you can even go an extra step and have this year students create a class handbook explaining the steps and what to remember about each procedure. Kids are way more engaged in learning about something from another kid than from a boring grown up.

Emily
And it gets this year’s kids excited about helping next year’s kids and fill some of that time you have to fill at the end of the year.

Emily
And if you’ve got a procedure or two that is on your fixit list, you might want to take some time before the end of the year to try out possible solutions with your current students.

Emily
It’s tempting to think that it’s too late to fix anything at this point in the year. So you’ll just start over in the fall. But if you tweak things now you’ll already have a game plan in place for your new crop of students.

Heidi
I always think it’s much easier to try to experiment with kids that are used to you and how your class runs than it is to try and get a bunch of nervous little strangers to pivot.

Emily
Oh yeah, if you do try out some new procedures try to really pay attention to how well the updated procedure or routine is running.

Heidi
You definitely want to troubleshoot as much as you can now, so you can hit the ground running in the fall.

Emily
And then you can have your new pictures all ready to go so you can teach it with your new class. Such a good tip.

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

Emily
My extra credit is going to Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman. I needed a new book for our family read aloud and I was looking for something that I thought would engage all three of my kids at their different ages which sometimes is a tall order.

Emily
But this book completely fit the bill. It’s an outrageous and silly and funny story of a dad who goes out to get milk for his children’s breakfast cereal, but embarks on a wild adventure instead. So his retelling of his encounters with pirates and dinosaurs and aliens had us all cracking up. And of course the milk features prominently any adventures.

Emily
And it’s a really quick read. We all loved it. I asked for their star ratings and they gave it five I only gave it four though because on Goodreads I’m very stingy with my five stars. But it was really really good.

Heidi
Not heard about that one I’ll have to check it out.

Emily
Heidi what is your extra credit go to?

Heidi
So my extra credit goes to Tunefind.com. We were talking about it the other day Emily and I and I thought like everyone knew about this, but I guess not.

Heidi
So it is a website that catalogs the music that is used in TV and movies. So maybe you are old enough to remember life before IMDb when you would be watching movie and you would recognize an actor and have no way to know what you knew them from.

Emily
How did we live? I always check IMDb pretty much every time I watch something.

Heidi
Especially if you watch enough TV or movies that you start to see some of the same minor actors around and yet what does he know them from? Well Tunefind does the same thing for music.

Heidi
So the other day, Spotify played a song that I recognize from a show, but I couldn’t place which show it was from so I could go to Tunefind and I just searched by the band and then I could see everything that that song was in which was quite a bit.

Heidi
Or if you are watching TV and you hear a song you can go to that specific episode and will tell you all the music in the episode or movie. It is very handy if recognizing something that you can’t place drives you nuts.

Emily
Yes. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been like pulling out my phone to try and get Shazam on quick enough while I’m watching a TV show like what is the song what where I’ve heard it before, what’s the name of the song?

Emily
And then the actor start talking and your Shazam doesn’t work. And it’s so frustrating. So I’m so glad that I can just use Tunefind. Now you told me about it before and I already forgot about it, so.

Heidi
Okay, well, this can just be part of your rotation though. Good.

Heidi
That’s it for today’s episode. Make your three lists and figure out your summer action plan. And don’t forget our teacher approved tip to photograph this year’s class doing the procedures that you need to teach next year students.

More About Teacher Approved:

Do you ever feel like there’s just not enough time in the day to be the kind of teacher you really want to be? The Teacher Approved podcast is here to help you learn how to elevate what matters and simplify the rest. Join co-hosts Emily and Heidi of Second Story Window each week as they share research-based and teacher-approved strategies you can count on to make your teaching more efficient and effective than ever before.

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