My Advice to You Linky Party

It's interview season and so many new teachers are excitedly trying to get into a classroom of their own. Teachers already in the classroom are already assessing the year and starting to think about what to change for next year. More and more, I'm reading stories of teacher exhaustion and burnout. We have to help each other.  

I met up with some pretty fabulous teacher-bloggers for lunch this weekend. We chatted for *hours* and it recharged my teachers batteries so much. In spite of working in a school full of people, it can feel lonely as a teacher sometimes because it feels like you and your kids against the world. But this group of talented, funny, smart, and caring teachers reminded me that we aren't alone. Do you recognize these bloggers?

 Amanda from One Extra Degree

Abby from The Inspired Apple

Michelle from Fabulous in First

Rebecca from Darlin' in First

Jessica from Second Grade Nest

Jodi from Fun in First

Chelsea from Blooming Into First Grade

Katie from Queen of the First Grade Jungle

Mel D. from Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations

Sarah from Permanently Primary

Lisa from Fourth and Ten

So... feeling encouraged and rejuvenated, I decided to host a linky party of teacher advice for new and veteran teachers alike. I'm no expert, but here's my best advice.

1. Give yourself permission to *not* live at school. You are allowed to go home and enjoy your evenings. New teachers especially get caught by this trap, I know. When I was a new teacher, I would be one of the first cars in the lot every dark morning {after an hour commute at that!}. I'd stay after my coworkers went home. It was exhausting. Give yourself one (or two if you must) "long" days at school and stick to it. I go in about thirty minutes early and try to leave within twenty minutes after school every day now. By final bell, I've worked all day and am ready to go home and unwind. You are allowed to have a life.

2. Do not be a slave to the paper monster. You can combat this in a couple ways. First, don't be a "worksheet teacher" and kill a bunch of trees. Second, don't feel like you have to grade every single paper with an eagle eye. It's okay to have students check their own work for instant feedback and it's okay to do completion credit sometimes. Third, what papers you DO decide to grade should be checked as soon as possible. Don't let them stack up on you! If I don't get to papers during the day, I toss them in my school bag and grade them while watching the DVR in the evening. It doesn't take very long and I'm able to catch any problems before we build on the assignment the next day. I keep my computer grades current every other day so I don't have a huge stack to enter at the end of the week.

3. Work smarter, not harder. I multitask, multitask, multitask during the day. I give meaningful morning work so I can quickly check in homework first thing in the morning. I grade weekly spelling contracts while I'm giving the weekly spelling tests. I've been known to grade papers while monitoring a bathroom break.

I print off weekly schedules/grids for my plan book instead of writing in the same information each week. When I put away this week's copies/masters, I pull next week's out of the binder and stick them in my "to copy" folder at the same time.  

I have my students complete room jobs to help start and end the day. I don't need to stay after school and set the room up for the next day if the students help me before they go. Three minutes of everyone working can save me 10 or 15 by myself. If I can make every minute count during the school day, I don't need so many extra minutes after school. 

I could probably write a novel, but who would want to ready that? ;) So please link up and let everyone in on your great ideas too. I can't wait to read all about it! Be sure to grab the button below to add to your post before linking up.
 

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