Teacher Time Savers {Teach Two Reach}

Hey all! I'm here today to share with you a couple of teacher time saving tips and tricks that have worked well for me. 

Since I started teaching, using a "Friday Folder," system has been a consistent organization tactic that's really worked for me.

I don't like sending home graded work or projects during the week in students' regular homework folders. I like to reserve those for homework like reading logs, and notices from myself or the office.

Instead, I keep the graded work and other projects until Friday. Another must in the classroom is a mailbox slot system. It helps with passing out notes or papers that go home everyday, and it is also where I put together all the work for the Friday folders.

Everyone has a red folder which I label. On Friday mornings before school starts, (or Thursday after dismissal), I put everyones' work in their mailbox slots. After it is all separated, I put my weekly newsletter on top, and then put each student's pile into their Friday folder. I put the folder back in their mailbox slot. When they are packing up for the day, they take them home.

This method has helped keep the paper clutter down, regular homework folders pretty neat and clean, and has cut down stress in trying to get things graded everyday ASAP to send home for the day! Definitely a teacher time saver.

Favorite Teaching Thing a magig time saver:

Magnetic Tape

This has recently come near the top of my favorite teaching related items - MAGNETIC TAPE...on a tape dispenser. 

Anyway, this is PERFECT for hanging things on the board super quick and easy. I put up my teaching related posters for the week on the white board with this tape, I put up my incentive class group points chart thing with this tape, and so much more.  SO you just rip off a piece, put the sticky side on the thing you want stuck, and put it up. Super simple. 

Come back the rest of the month for more tips to save you your precious time!

What I Wish I Had My First Year Teaching {Amna from Teach Two Reach}

How technology and retail items have changed in such a short amount of time. When I started teaching 10 years ago...I WISH I had so much of the stuff that I started to accumulate as years went on but those things just weren't that well known or didn't exist back then. So now looking back, I would have loved to have the following things my first year teaching. 

Book Bags and Whisper Phones

This is a two for one type of deal for me. How my Silent Reading time would have been really silent had I made use of book bags and whisper phones.

I made a bunch of whisper phone about 5 years back using PVC pipe and duct tape. Pinterest will give you tons of DIY ways or you can read one of my very first blog posts on my personal blog HERE for how I made mine. 

I also went to the Target Dollar Spot and got a class set of Dr. Seuss themed bags.  I attached each one to a Command hook and students would go once a week to the class library - pick some books they wanted for the week and put them in their bag. When it was Read to Self time during our rotations, they would get their book bags, grab a whisper phone, and get to work. They love the novelty of the whisper phone and so it motivated them to keep quiet. 

The TARGET DOLLAR SPOT.

Speaking of the book bags I got from Target, I SOOOO wish the Target Dollar Spot existed all those years back. That place is a gold mine but also a money trap! I have to stop myself from going there all the time because otherwise it becomes very expensive. I got all my paper bins, supply caddies, and buckets from the Dollar Spot and they've made my room colorful while providing all the storage I need. 

A Glue Gun

Some schools may not allow this, but after years of frustration of posters and other things falling down from the walls when it got humid, I finally started using the glue gun to hang everything. I would put painter's tape on the back of all my items, put the glue on the tape and then stick it to the wall. That stuff lasted all year! I also used the glue gun to layer different colored borders onto the butcher paper for my bulletin boards. 

These are simple things that made my life a whole lot easier I had known when I first started. I hope you've been getting tons of ideas during this blog series. Don't forget to come back every day this month to gather even more ideas!

Teaching Ideas We Are Thankful For {Amna from Teach Two Reach}

Finding time to run centers in my room with the amount of (really- lack of), time I have in my Language Arts block has been a yearly struggle for me. I have 80 minutes a day to teach everything related to Language Arts - reading, writing, spelling, grammar, centers..etc. Even having another 20 minutes would be so helpful! 

This year I am thankful for buying these 10 drawer rolling carts. One of them has helped me manage my center time for word work. 

I have two spelling lists a week- regular and challenge. I make copies of the lists and put them in the top drawer. Students know which list they are supposed to get. 

When they are at the word work station, they take out their spelling list from the drawer, and choose one of the centers I have in each drawer. I laminated the directions for each activity and put it on the top. Underneath I have a file folder for recording sheets. 

Next to the rolling cart is the shelf station where I have items that may be needed for some of the word work such as keyboards (Thank goodness for dads who keep the keyboards to all the computers they've ever owned), stamp pads, stamps, letter tiles, dry erase boards, etc. 

Everything has a place and when the rotation ends, students know how and where to put everything back. If they are working on a recording sheet, they keep that in their center folders. Students mark down the word work activity on a sheet in their folder so I can keep track and make sure they don't keep on doing the same ones every time. They have to do a variety of the activities whenever they go to the station. 

Having everything in one place, where students can just pull out what they need, has helped me tons this year with time management and trying to move through centers pretty quick so we can get in all the rotations. 

The other cart I have is for math centers. I'm thinking of getting another one for regular literacy centers too. 

Do you have an amazing organization strategy for word work centers? 

Thanks for stopping by and I would love for you to visit my on my personal blog as well!