THANK-ful Teachers {Monday}

I'm linking up with the bloggers at Blog Hoppin' for a week of THANK-ful Teachers!  


Monday:  We are thankful for TIME-SAVERS! 
 Post ideas, tricks, classroom resources that help you save time in your classroom!

I'll echo what most teachers have said and say that getting as much done as I possibly can the night before, saves me OODLES of time in the morning.  

I'll share with you my two biggest time-savers, that took me until my 9th year of teaching to figure out- PARENTS and STUDENTS!  

Parents
I don't know why it took me this long to realize how amazing parent volunteers can be.  I have the absolute best parent volunteers this year.  I have three who come in or take things home on a semi-weekly basis and get so much done for me.  I made a quick little directions sheet for them.  It's working so well, that even on the day I was home sick, my parent came and completed all my tasks just swimmingly!  



I also made a little sheet to attach to papers to make copying easier.

And thanks to such wonderful parents, I have been able to stay about 5 weeks ahead on the items we use regularly {weekly tests, morning work, fluency passages} which saves a lot of time.  



Students
One of the things I love most about teaching second grade is how independent they can be.  Last year, I did way too much for them.  This year, I try to give them as much responsibility as possible.  My wise coworker this year says to me all the time, "Why do something that they can do themselves?"  SO TRUE!  Honestly, it's probably just because I'm so OCD and like to do things myself.  But let's be honest, ain't nobody got time for that!


They graph weekly tests, file papers, sharpen pencils, organize math centers for me, take out recycling, fill out their daily behavior reports, turn off smartboards/computers, and anything else I can think of.   The best part is: they LOVE to help!  All the boring jobs I loathe... they can't wait to do!  They get so disappointed on Mondays if they don't have a job for the week.  But luckily, I manage to find enough for them to help with.  :)  

1 comment

jbales said...

Love you volunteer direction sheets- genius!!!! Thank you for sharing.