10 Time Saving Tips Every Teacher Needs to Know

Does your classroom management system need a quick makeover?  Is your classroom organization plan driving you crazy?  These simple time saving tips will have your students easily meeting your expectations and giving you time to teach!

Mystery Student

This simple trick will keep your students guessing.  A mystery student is a student you pick at random. Either from your head, names on sticks, or any method you prefer.  Tell students what you are expecting (work independently, walk in a line, follow a class procedure, etc.) Then while students are performing the task you stated, you watch to see if the mystery student is meeting the expectation.  Want more details on mystery students?  Read the article HERE or click the image below to learn more.

Class Experts

Let your students get involved and share what they have learned.  Class experts are students who can assist others and keep the class on pace.  Class experts have special skills or have succeeded in mastering certain standards.  Read the article HERE or click the image below to learn more.

Magic Trash

Want help getting your room straightened each day?  Play Magic Trash.  Magic trash is a simple game where you identify something that needs to be cleaned (a piece of trash on the floor, a supply that has been misplaced, a book out of the class library, etc.). You then tell the students to begin.  Keep an eye out for the student who cleans the “magic trash.”  That student (if he or she wasn’t pushing others out of the way) gets a prize.  Read the article from Keeping Up with Mrs. Harris HERE or click the image below to learn more.

Weekly Schedule

You have a set plan for every minute of the school day, but what about your tasks.  Creating a weekly schedule for planning, grading, completing paper work, and relaxing will help with the overwhelming demands of your day.  This Free Weekly Schedule will help you get your week organized.  No more stressing over the growing pile of papers, you know when it will get done.

Assessment Plan

Having a plan for your assessments eliminates that last minute rush to get all of your grades in at the end of the quarter. Creating an assessment plan is a great way to start each year or quarter.  Try to get (at the minimum) your required amount of grades planned at least one week prior to grades being due.  You can always monitor and adjust as the year/quarter moves forward.  Having an assessment plan also helps you with planning your lessons.  This article HERE will guide you through getting your assessment plan on track. 

Student-Led Conferences

The attendance for spring conferences tends to drop a good bit.  One way to get parents into the classroom is to have student-led conferences.  These conferences allow you to save time by holding more than one conference at a time and turn the lead over to the students.  This is a great way for students to show their families what they learned throughout the year.  This article HERE will guide you through setting up student-led conferences.  You can also get the FREE conference guide for students to use during the conferences.

Teacher Reflections

One great way to end each week is with a teacher reflection.  This reflection is a great way to get all of those spinning ideas in your head out on paper.  Now you can minimize the number of nights you wake up with things you forgot to do.  The teacher reflection will guide you through what lessons went well, what needs to be tweaked or retaught, notes about contacts, and reminders for both you and your students.

Organize Your Computer

Get your computer files organized.  Be sure the folders you need the most are on your desktop.  Once a week go through your downloaded files and either delete or place the downloads in the correct folder.  Pick a day to clean out your email inbox.  Create folders for your important files.  (Be sure to keep ALL of those parent emails for documentation).  You can also organize all of your favorite fonts.  You can learn how to get them all organized for EASY use in this article.

Create a Bulletin Board Schedule

Start the year with a plan for your bulletin boards.  List each month out and the boards you have to fill.  Go ahead and pin ideas on Pinterest and come up with titles.  Cutting out letters is an easy task for parent volunteers.  If you already have the precut letters, put them in an envelope so you already have that taken care of.  Plan the lesson for the bulletin board work about a week prior to the end of the month.  If you have them all scheduled at the beginning of the year, you can always have parents sign up and volunteer to put the board together for you (one thing to check off your list).  Don’t forget to write a quick blurb to explain the board and the standard used.

Weekly Self-Assessment

Ease the weekly task of getting papers and documentation ready to go home each week.  Put the weekly write up in the hands of the students will this Weekly Self-Assessment.  This article will tell you about how to implement the self-assessment and how you can make it work for your classroom.  Plus, your class behavior and completion of tasks and assignments will improve!  Why? Because they are no longer the middle man taking what you say home.  This is THEIR words and explanations.

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