Get Ahead For January Now With 4 Easy Steps [episode 107]

Emily

Hey, there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we’re helping you prep now for January. And sharing a teacher approved tip for prepping your room for the break.

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 do you plan to do to take care of yourself during the winter break? Emily, have you made any winter break plans yet?

Emily

Well, it’s very exciting, but I’m doing a puzzle. Dang it. I love a Christmas puzzle. And last year, I never got around to doing mine. So I’m not going to let that happen this time.

Heidi

Do you have the same puzzles last year?

Emily

Well, yes, because I never did it. And I still want to do it because it’s cute. Although I have others on my list if I was quick, I could do more than one but I think I might go one puzzle per.

Heidi

Yeah, that makes sense.

Emily

You know, I like puzzles, but I don’t need too many. Just one just one’s good. What are you looking forward to this winter break Heidi?

Heidi

Well, I really need to organize my office. And I know it’s not the most like restful, peaceful self care activity, but it would remove a lot of stress in my life.

Emily

Yeah, I should probably add that to my list.

Heidi

We got some great responses from our teacher approved community. Laurie said, stay in my jammies and drink cappuccino. Then I’ll exercise. She’s got her priorities straight.

Heidi

Dale said, sleep, workout, read, then go back to sleep. Renee said, this winter I’ll relax, watch TV and have a chai latte or two. The best thing though is I will be planning my retirement.

Emily

She made it. We’d love to have you join the conversation over in our teacher approved Facebook group.

Emily

It’s that time of year when we think a lot about gifts.

Heidi

But instead of adding something to your shopping list, we’re going to talk about our favorite kind of gift: a gift to your future self.

Emily

And bonus, you don’t even have to wrap it.

Heidi

So really this is a win all around.

Emily

And what is this winning gift to yourself? Well, it is the gift of having your first January lessons planned and prepped before you go on winter break.

Heidi

It may sound tricky to add extra work on top of the work overload you’re already managing. But we’re breaking it down into some clear steps to help you find some pockets of time for getting it all done.

Emily

To pull this off, there are four main steps First, you need to finish teaching your December content. Second, make a plan for filling the remaining days in meaningful, easy ways. Third, plan your first January lessons. And fourth purposefully create small pockets of time to prep those January lessons.

Heidi

So let’s start by discussing the first step: finish teaching your December content. Emily, tell us more about this.

Emily

Well, there’s a point in December where it becomes futile to introduce anything new. We all know this moment. It just hits you. The kids are too hyper to focus kids will be absent because they’re sick or traveling. And we’re headed into a break and so kids are going to forget.

Heidi

Even though teaching new content may feel like you’re making progress on your curriculum map. If you’re going to have to reteach everything in a few weeks anyway, you’re really just creating more work.

Emily

Yeah, so schedule a stopping point, add it to your calendar. This point will be different for each classroom, but it’ll probably be a few days before the break.

Heidi

Once you have identified your new content stuff date, you need to start two lists. The first list is everything you need to prep to finish your December lessons.

Emily

And the second list is to gather ideas for meaningful easy ways to fill the rest of the month. That’s the second step in getting ahead for January.

Heidi

The key to making this work is finding activities your students can do without your direct guidance and support. Maybe during your regular math time you get out the math games you’ve played so far this year and you just have kids rotate through the games. Or if you have access to technology, you can have the kids playing online math games.

Emily

Just because you’re not teaching a lesson doesn’t mean you’re wasting learning time. I really want to stress this because I know some principals make it seem like only certain types of lessons count as teaching. But if you look at the research for how learning happens, review is an important part of the process.

Heidi

So if you are scheduling review time, you’re not shortchanging the kids. You are strengthening the neuronal networks the brain needs to retrieve information from long term memory and move it to working memory.

Emily

Yeah, feel free to drop that knowledge bomb on your admin if you get any pushback.

Heidi

Or you know, you could just send us their email address because we would love to chat with them about retrieval practice.

Emily

We do love retrieval practice. And one of our favorite ways to incorporate retrieval practice is with a work packet. Whoo, whoo. Yes, it’s exciting. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it is.

Heidi

It really is. A work packet does sound like a bummer. But I swear, my kids really did enjoy work packets. I have analyzed this and analyze this to try and figure out why maybe it was because I let them have free choice about the order they worked on the pages. So that they you know, some of them could do the fun stuff first, and some of them savored it and saved it.

Heidi

Or maybe it was because I used a fun theme. I don’t know the reason but they would genuinely cheer when I handed them out.

Emily

I know my kids always liked them, too. Maybe it’s because we use them strategically, and we don’t overuse them. So maybe that was part of it. So to make a packet, we would just gather a mix of math and language arts pages.

Heidi

Plus a few just for fun pages like word searches or mazes.

Emily

And then we like to reduce each page to half size and copy four worksheets on each sheet of paper.

Heidi

I usually plan about 45 minutes to an hour of work time in the morning. And then I have the students keep their packets at their desks as a fast finisher for that day. To fill that much time I aim for about 16 worksheets, you could do 12 They won’t find it as much time and 20 seems like a lot.

Emily

Better to have too much than not enough.

Heidi

Yes, absolutely. So maybe I would end up with six math review pages, six language arts pages, and maybe for fun pages.

Emily

That’s enough work to keep kids busy for a while and it’s nice that you can fit so much practice onto four sheets of paper.

Heidi

So add work packets to your list of easy meaningful independent activities alongside review games.

Emily

And another thing to add is movies. Now, I don’t mean full length films. But a 25 minute PBS video can be very informative for your students. Plus it gives you a little break.

Heidi

Besides review and movies do you want to use these loosey goosey December days for any end of term assessment? We’re probably coming up on that end of second term here. And it can be tricky to manage a whole class assessment when a bunch of kids are absent. But maybe you can get a head start on a few things.

Emily

We always had parent teacher conferences the second Thursday in January, I didn’t want to give my winter break for the depressing slog of grading. So I was scrambling when January started to get all my assessments and grading done before report cards were due.

Heidi

It definitely makes sense to get progress monitoring or math interviews or any other assessments done before the break if you can. Maybe you can’t get through the whole class in December. But really any progress is going to mean less work and less stress when you come back to school.

Emily

Once you’ve got a list for what to prep for your December content and assessments and a list of easy meaningful activities, it’s time for step three plan your first January lessons.

Heidi

To start with, let’s just figure out your first day back. How much of your regular routine are you going to dive into?

Emily

You definitely want to get things back on track after that big December disruption. But before you launch all your new units, make sure to schedule time to review your procedures and routines.

Heidi

Your first day back after winter break is like your second first day of school. So make sure you’re setting yourself up for smooth sailing by revisiting all of your wonderful procedures.

Emily

If you want some support doing that we have a digital product to help you. It’s a set of Google Slides. And there are different color combinations to keep things interesting. But all the slides are the same.

Heidi

We tried to make this as teacher friendly as possible. All you have to do is type the name of a procedure you want to review with your class. And then you have your class rate, how well they usually follow directions with that procedure from a one to five.

Heidi

So let’s say they give themselves a four you just click four times and four stars appear. Then on the next slide you have a class discussion about what they can do better and what they need to stop doing.

Emily

And if you have some real trouble spots, you can pull up the tail try tally tuck slides from the beginning of the year and reteach your procedure step by step.

Heidi

If students understand that you really expect them to do what you say the battles to get them to follow directions will be greatly minimized.

Emily

We will link to both the procedure review slides and the tail try tally talks slides in the show notes so you can add them to your January plans.

Heidi

Besides procedure review, what else do you want to do on your first day back? Maybe you need time to finish any assessments you couldn’t do in December. Maybe you want to do some new year goal setting or add a new activity to your daily routine.

Emily

It makes a lot of sense to introduce anything new before you try settling into your regular routine.

Heidi

Once you have a schedule for your first day back, consider how much of January you want to prep in advance?

Emily

Yeah, maybe you just want to get a couple days prepped, so you don’t feel like you have to work over your break.

Heidi

If you are starting back in the middle of the week, you might just want to prep for those few days so you can get ready to get back to your regular units when you’re back to your normal weekly schedule.

Emily

Even if you don’t want to prep much of January in advance, I would strongly urge you to plan and prep at least your first day back.

Heidi

Yeah, not only does that protect your break from interruptions and work guilt, the worst, but it’s a good insurance policy. If you’re sick or a flight is delayed, or something else happens so that you need a sub, you will have the relief of knowing everything is ready to go instead of sending frantic emails to your co workers.

Emily

Going back to school is hard enough, no one needs any stress on top of that.

Heidi

Plus, think how happy your January self will be to walk into your classroom that first day and know that everything is planned, prepped and ready to go.

Emily

That is definitely a gift your future self will appreciate. So how do we make this possible?

Heidi

Well, that is the fourth step in how to get ahead for January. e’re going to create small pockets of prep and then we’re going to be super intentional about how we use each of those prep times.

Emily

This is where your students independent work time comes into play. Let’s say your last day of school is on a Thursday, that day is going to be full a party, so you want to use Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for extra prep.

Heidi

If I were still teaching second grade, my schedule would go something like this. I keep my regular morning routine to help keep the kids calm, right, we’re keeping that structure in place. After morning meeting, instead of starting writing time though, I would introduce the work packet. I’d have the kids work on that until morning recess, which means I just gave myself a 45 minute prep time. After recess, we would do 30 minutes of math review games, and that’s 30 minutes I can work.

Emily

Obviously, while the kids are working, you can’t be up in the work room cutting construction paper. But there’s a lot you can do in your class while still keeping an eye on what the kids are doing.

Heidi

Before lunch, maybe we want to mix things up and do a festive break. Maybe I’d read them a story, or have them make a 3-D Gingerbread Man picture from our festive break set. Most of our Christmas festive break activities can be done independently. So bonus once the kids get started, I can be working at my desk.

Emily

The nice thing about starting the packet in the morning is that I already introduced all of the pages and so it makes it a handy fast finisher all day. The kids can work on it for a few minutes before lunch if you have some time to fill after they make their pictures.

Heidi

And that is a bonus. After lunch, the second grades have planning time when I could go work in the workroom for a bit. When the kids got back we’d do a lesson or activity together. And then we could do our regular reading time and center rotations. Except I wouldn’t have worked with the teachers, one of the centers, I would be using that time to grade or prep or plan.

Emily

Or you could still have small groups during centers and use that time for assessments with the kids in the group. Either way, you’re getting ahead. And that’s what we’re after right now.

Heidi

After reading and centers, we could do an activity together. Or maybe I’d show Wild Kratts Creature Christmas, it’s on Amazon, and it’s 50 minutes. So we can watch over a couple of days. And that way they’re getting in a little bit of science as well. And you know, then we would just wrap up the day as normal.

Emily

And that’s pretty good that kids were engaged in learning activities the whole day, and you manage to claim more than two hours to get your own work done. You wouldn’t want every day to look like that. But it’s a pretty good system for a few days, especially right before break.

Heidi

Think of how much you can accomplish with two extra hours of prep. The key to maximizing the extra time is knowing exactly what you need to get done.

Emily

Go back to those lists we mentioned at the beginning. You want to list of everything you still need to prep for your December lessons and everything you need to prep for your meaningful time fillers.

Heidi

And now let’s add some more lists. We love lists. And that’s a good thing because we want a list of what you need ready in January. So think about the copies to make slides to prep books to pull centers to organize assessments to give grades to enter all the fun stuff.

Emily

And don’t forget your room. What does it need to be January ready? This is especially important if you have conferences coming up. What seasonal stuff needs to be switched out? What needs to be tidied? Do you need to switch the calendar or class jobs or bulletin boards or your seating arrangement? Start a list of everything your room needs.

Heidi

Okay, these lists might start looking a little overwhelming. So let’s tame them a bit. We want to save time by batching similar tasks at the same time.

Emily

Making all your copies at once is much more efficient than making five trips to the work room. Although the work room was across the hall from my room, so it was pretty quick for me to make.

Heidi

That’s lucky I had to trek up to the front of the school.

Emily

Mine was so close. I could I could run right in there real quick but for most people, it’s probably pretty far so look at which of your tasks can be done together.

Heidi

At this point, you might want to regroup your lists. Make a list for all of your copies, make a list for all of your reading group prep, make a list of all of the books you need to gather, make a list of all the grades you need to enter.

Emily

And it’s okay if you have a few outliers those can be their own list.

Heidi

Once you’ve grouped your tasks, start assigning them to one of your prep times. Maybe before school on Monday is the time for gathering books. Maybe while the kids do their work pack on Monday, you’re catching up on your grading. Just don’t create the work pack is not that important.

Emily

Oh, never grade a work packet.

Heidi

During math games, maybe you work on the slides that you’ll need for the first week of January’s math lessons.

Emily

Do your tasks in whatever order makes sense for you. But you may want to set aside your regular daily prep time for making copies or any other outside of the room tasks since you don’t have to worry about supervising kids during that time.

Heidi

Batching tasks and scheduling when to do them. It’s not necessary for getting ahead. But it does help you maximize your time. If you wait to decide what you’ll work on in the moment, you’re going to end up wasting time and minutes matter here.

Emily

If you’re going through all the effort to create extra planning time you don’t want to waste it.

Heidi

So hopefully this helps ease that transition out of winter break mode and into January teacher mode. Decide when you’ll stop teaching new December content.

Emily

Then make a plan for filling the remaining days in meaningful easy ways. and plan your first January lessons.

Heidi

And use your students independent work time to create small pockets of prep time so you can get ahead for the new year.

Emily

Do you have any tips for planning ahead for January? Come during 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 prep your room before you leave for the break. Tell us more about this Heidi.

Heidi

Well surprise, there is one more list you might want to make. And that’s a list of what to do to secure your room before you leave.

Heidi

Shut down all of your electronics and unplug them so you’re not wasting electricity. Make sure anything valuable is locked up, clear out any food that might spoil or tempt rodents to visit. No, no. empty your trash is if the custodians won’t be around to do it. Or if you know it’s got food in it, it might be sitting for a few days.

Heidi

But you also might want to hide any contraband. In some places, the fire marshal likes to use the winter break to visit the school. Or your admin might step into your room when you’re gone. And that’s when you get dinged on things. If you have a coffeemaker or microwave or little fridge, you might want to pack those away or maybe take them home for the break.

Emily

We’re not encouraging you to break the rules, by the way, but just if this happens to be true for your classroom.

Heidi

It’s good to know, you know, sometimes twinkle lights might not be allowed or maybe decor hanging from the ceiling. If you’re not sure talk to a teacher who has been at the school for a while and they can give you the details.

Heidi

It’s hard to know what might catch somebody’s eye because in my experience, it seems largely arbitrary. Things are fine one year but not the next or the opposite is true. You got in trouble for something last year. But then another teacher got away with it this year. It’s really hard to know.

Emily

Yeah, one year we were told nothing on top of our cupboards and then that totally changed. So it’s hard to predict it’s best to just play it safe and pack it away.

Heidi

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

Emily

I’m giving extra credit to holiday romcom books so good. If you like the predictability of a Hallmark movie, and the festivity of a holiday book, I give you holiday romcom books They are my favorite books to read this time of year when I just want some frothy, Happy Ending fun to read.

Emily

I’ve already started on my list for the year and I’m currently reading Christmas Baggage by Deborah Hathaway. It’s good. I like it. And I know we’re listening to the same book, which is Snowed in for Christmas by Sarah Morgan.

Heidi

Actually just finished and it was really good.

Emily

Oh, I’m not done. Yeah, that one takes place in Scotland. So we highly recommend listening to that one for the accents. But I think it would be best if we just put together a list of our favorites for you to choose from because there are so many we’ve loved over the years. So we’ll put together a little list and link it in the show notes.

Heidi

That will be fun memories to go over there.

Emily

What are you giving us credit to Heidi?

Heidi

Okay, well my extra credit is kind of silly, but it goes to the Trubisky Fire Cracker sound system. So I have a gas fireplace which I really liked. Get all the coziness of a fire without the mess. But I read about a study that showed that the sounds of a crackling fire can relieve stress and lower blood pressure. And with a gas fireplace you don’t get those happy little crackling.

Heidi

But don’t you worry because technology has a solution. This little box plays three different crackling sounds. I think the second one is the best is Bluetooth and rechargeable, you know, just as if Mother Nature made it herself.

Heidi

Okay, it’s silly, I admit it, but it does add to the ambiance. And if you want to project maybe a fire in your classroom, adding crackling sounds might be a good way to increase the calm all winter long.

Emily

Plus, it’s a nice background sound while you’re reading your holiday rom coms.

Heidi

Look at how we work together today.

Heidi

Well, that’s it for today’s episode. Remember, our four steps for planning your January ahead of time. And don’t forget our teacher approved tip to prepare your room before you leave for the break.