A New Resource

Teach Thought is a blog that I recently came across.  It serves to help educators be their best.  It offers a variety of instructional strategies and advice for educators.  I read their blog post entitled "How to Work Smarter--Not Harder," and I was inspired to share.

I believe that one of the best things we can do for newer teachers is to help them learn the balance between home and school.  It is best practice when we feel our best.  My school currently has four new teachers, the most we have had in a long time.  I check in with them frequently to see if they have any problems and to offer a helping hand.  I watch them struggle and feel overwhelmed.  While I feel overwhelmed quite frequently, I have found some strategies to help me operate at my best.  My husband still has to remind me to stop from time to time, but it has gotten better since I started eleven years ago.

"How to Work Smarter--Not Harder" offers advice for all teachers, old and new.  It gives advice, like do less, use technology effectively and don't correct everything.  I have made a couple of these points on other posts.

Onto the first point, do less.  This is essential!  We cannot do everything, nor should we.  As teachers, we have to consider which tasks are making a difference and which are not.  For example, if you spend all afternoon putting stickers on folders (yes, I have done this), is this the best use of your time?  Could the kids help put on the stickers?  Would it take them only a minute to do so?  We need to make smart choices about the tasks that we invest in.  We need to make great instructional choices.  We need to help students who need assistance.  However, there are many tasks that we do daily that we can drop.

Teachers also cannot take on all responsibilities in a school.  This is advice we all need to hear.  I have said it before, and I will say it again.  Teachers need to say no.  We cannot plan every activity, go to every event, teach every class and still be our best.  We need a break, too.  Teachers should not ever feel guilty for taking one.  The other day I had a student who told me that he wanted to stay after school three days a week to get his work done.  I told him I didn't mind if he stayed when he had homework he needed help to finish.  Soon he was trying to stay after even when he didn't have work (he wanted to play on the computer).  I spoke with his mom and set up some boundaries.  I felt much better after having done so.

The post also reminds teachers to use technology effectively.  I have made a point of doing better at this the past few years.  I used to have parents email me frequently for homework assignments.  My students would not write down their reading assignment and the parent would try to help them.  It would take a large amount of time to write back and get them the assignments.  Recently, I began using google classroom to aid my classes.  This year I began playing around with the functions for guardians.  Google classroom has a feature where an email will automatically be sent to parents with any assignments or announcements posted on the site.  It is amazing, and it has saved me a ton of time.

I have also played around with document cameras.  I bought one last year to help me in the classroom.  I use it all the time.  It allows me to share student work with my class, even if it is not digital.  I use it to show students how to use graphic organizers or to fill out a paper.  I even use it for read alouds.  It lets me show the pictures up on the screen.  I find that utilizing my document camera has made me better at sharing mentor texts and examples with my students.

My final piece of tech has been creating online classes.  I used Canvas this summer to create an online economics class.  My plate was full this school year, but creating an online environment allowed me to plan out my course and prepare all of the materials ahead of time.  This has made planning for this school year so much simpler.  On top of that, I am saving time, saving paper, and I can reuse the course at any time.  Of course, I will update the materials as needed.

Technology is not the only way that teachers can work smarter.  The blog also suggested that teachers should not grade everything.  Give feedback on assignments, but not all homework needs to be taken home to be graded.  This is something that I am constantly trying to improve.  You can read my other post on this topic here.

I really loved these fifteen ways to work smarter and not harder.  I hope that you will take a look and find some advice that will help you.