I always prepare my resources for the next week before I leave school on Friday afternoon. Because everything is organized and in its place, I can walk out of school and not worry about getting everything together on Monday morning. I have a file folder for each day of the week. It saves me valuable time, because everything is where it needs to be when I walk into the classroom on Monday morning and every morning there after. You can read more about how I keep my classroom organized here.
You can pick up my file folder labels in my TPT shop.
Number Two:
Are your students always asking, "Miss so & so, what time do we go to Recess? PE? Lunch? Art? Music? Fill in the blank..."
The display I created below saves me time by not having to answer these questions during instruction time. The students know better than to ask me what time we go somewhere.
Number Three:
My students never question me about the daily schedule. I post our schedule every single morning so the students know what we'll be doing all day. They are definitely creatures of habit so I made a "Be Flexible" tag for our chart. I put this up when we do anything that deviates from the normal schedule - a school wide assembly, guest speaker, etc. Again, the students know better than to waste class time by asking me what subject comes next in our school day. A few seconds saved here and there really do add up!
Of course there are those days when I (GASP!) forget to change the daily schedule. They are always so quick to point out their teacher's mistakes! :)
Number Four:
One way I save time before I even get to school in the morning is by having my lunch packed and ready to go the night before. I try to pack a few days worth of lunches and snacks on Sunday nights so I don't have to worry about it during the week:
Of course some weekends are busier than others and this isn't always a reality. When I do have the time to prep everything in advance, it saves me so much time and energy on busy school nights!
One way I save time before I even get to school in the morning is by having my lunch packed and ready to go the night before. I try to pack a few days worth of lunches and snacks on Sunday nights so I don't have to worry about it during the week:
Of course some weekends are busier than others and this isn't always a reality. When I do have the time to prep everything in advance, it saves me so much time and energy on busy school nights!
How do you save time during the school day? Let me know!
Heather
