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Phoenix teachers officially went back to school in July this year! And we have very little time to prepare for students to arrive. Our “first” event to prepare for is “Meet the Teacher Night!” Meeting the teacher is such an exciting time for kids each year. Who will my teacher be this year? Is she/he nice? Who will I be in class with? I hope my best friend is in my class! What does the classroom look like?
It’s also exciting for teachers. I always have a combination of emotions going on. Usually, I feel a bit rushed to get my room set up and have everything ready for the little darlings to come in. I struggle to get back into a normal sleep pattern after summer hours. It’s hot in Phoenix, really hot! Kids don’t want to be in classrooms yet and neither do teachers. I am also excited to meet the kids and parents and anxious to get started. Happy, excited, nervous, tired, exhausted, rushed, did I mention tired?
Teachers might get 1 week to prepare before the students are back, but that week is generally filled with meetings and lesson prep. My preschool room has a lot of furniture and “materials” and it’s all in a big pile on one side of the room when we return. That takes a good 2 days to get organized. I recruit help from family and sometimes bribe my fantastic, loyal assistants to help me before the parents and student come to visit!
Once the furniture is in place and centers are set up I can work on bulletin boards (I don’t want bare walls when the parents come in to meet me in a few days). Next, we have to get student packets ready, organize a fun activity for parents and students to do when they come to meet the teacher and set up at least 20 workboxes.
Once I’m confident that we are ready for our “meet the teacher night”, I start focusing on being ready for Monday morning. I get all of the materials, music, and books ready according to my lesson plan and do all printing and copies, laminating and cutting. My teaching assistants join me for at least 1/2 day before the students start so I don’t fret too much if workboxes aren’t finished or laminating isn’t all cut out before they come. Preschool is a ton of fun and a ton of prep!
The good news? Once you are set up your workload for the rest of the month is greatly reduced!
Key things:
- have a lesson plan template on your computer,
- have a workbox for every enrolled student (plus 2),
- put objectives on the wall,
- hang bulletin boards and
- get the necessary organization tools in place. You do need to set up a workable system for your paperwork. Decide how you’ll keep notes for IEP goals to make progress reports easy. Figure out how you will take observation notes and keep them organized. Plan which informal assessments you will give, when you will give them and how you will keep track of them. Designate a place to keep student work for the parent conference. Design a spreadsheet of your class list that includes all of the important dates and information you will need at a glance.
Here’s MY 16-17 classlist.
I can quickly look at this spreadsheet to see when IEP’s are due, what therapies they get, their birthday, when testing is due, etc. I’ve removed personal info that would identify my students but you get the idea. Use the format if it will help you!
More organization tips that have saved me time: (who has any extra time?)
- Student files in the file cabinet – in a manilla folder. On outside of folder I write in green marker: IEP date, B-Day, MET date, therapies (OT/PT/SP), Vision and Hearing dates (this is a big deal in our district and I don’t want to dig for the info later), other billable services, such as daily living, ID # and Start/Exit dates. I like putting all of this info right on the outside of folders for 2 reasons: it helps us find that important info without going through the whole folder for every little thing, AND it forces me to look through ALL of their paperwork when I get it (instead of throwing it all into the folder to look at later) I can also make sure we don’t need anything before the child starts. Therapists appreciate it and so do our paraprofessionals when they need to document billable services for a child.
2. Folder jackets to keep a copy of IEP goals and student work for parent conferences. These are great! I keep them by the tables we work at and am more organized when I’m talking with parents about progress. I can think of so many uses for these, I’ll certainly be getting more of them! We taped a piece of laminating film (scraps we kept when cutting out laminating) on three sides so that we could slip an index card in and not write on the folder just yet. I’m all for reusing them! They are Acid-free poly file jackets and expand to 1″ so they hold quite a bit. Grab one when working individually or grab a group when in small groups. It’s an easy and quick reference.
3. Boxes in each cubby for work/papers to send home. It’s a quick place to put things and go back to when we have time to put it all into backpacks. Keeps papers together and clean in the cubby. I just love the design and size of these!
Here’s what they look like in the room. I have a name card paperclipped to the front right now. We are going to put a clear picture sleeve with student picture along with name soon.
