Skip to main content

#MTBoSBlaugust - Back to School Planning

We went to the USWNT match against Ireland on Saturday!
I was out of town Friday & Saturday so I didn't get a post up but I'm doing it now!

Last year I got overwhelmed with soccer for my kids and back to school, and didn't blog past August but I'm hoping I can continue after because stopping to think and reflect really is good for my teaching practices.

This is the first summer I didn't have professional development for the last two weeks of July so it feels like I've had more of a summer than ever before. At the same time, I've been slowly working throughout the summer because I knew I'd have more time to relax and prepare.

I've been using Angela Watson's list making system to try to prioritize what I need to get done and I think it's been really helpful. I have a brain dump page in my Rocketbook for work & home so I can get the thoughts out of my brain and onto "paper." Then I put them on my weekly spread, either assigning a specific day or put things in the anytime section, though so far this summer I've found I don't do too much if it's in the "anytime" section. My summer hasn't been very structured still so I'm hoping to have something similar to Gretchen Rubin's Power Hour every week to get the stuff done that I tend to avoid for whatever reason.

Work Brain Dump with items I need to get done for my classes

My weekly spread with space for before school, after school, at home, etc.


 The list making system came in very handy when I did go in to school, because I was able to prioritize what needed to be done, which for me was organizing all of the materials I handle on a daily basis. When I got there the second time I found that my snacks for Girls Who Code had been overrun by ants, and my daughter luckily helped sorting that out while I focused on making my space more organized. I didn't actually take any pictures of my cabinets for some reason, but the shelves are so much tidier and I even used my label maker to have a place for everything, at least categorically. I have a tendency to just put items down wherever when I'm in a rush so I'm really hoping that I'll be able to keep everything organized throughout the year.

My first day of school is Thursday and I'm naturally thinking and overthinking what I'm going to do to get to know all (213!) of my students' names. I want to use Flipgrid again but my 6th graders don't get their Chromebooks until the first full week of school,so I'm going to greet my students at the door with my roster and have them check off their names and pronounce it for me. I've found if I try to pronounce it first I have a harder time remembering the actual pronunciation and I know how tiring it can be to correct someone, even the first time.

I'll post more on Friday after the second day of school. We'll see how it goes!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How I Plan & Reflect

I've tried a lot of different methods for planning & reflecting on my plans over the years, and I'm still trying to figure it out. Last year I used the Happy Planner for Teachers , and I loved it because there are a lot of stickers and I could add my own pages, basically customize it however I wanted. But, it was very large and I ended up not using it a few months into the school year. So Pretty So Unused I'm still very tempted by the new packages they have for teacher planners but am holding firm in not buying it because it will cause guilt and shame when it falls out of use. I did get a Passion Planner to keep track of time sensitive things, and am going to give myself a bit more grace about not filling it out. It'll be more personal/to do listy than lesson planning. So shiny! Mostly blank the week before school starts. There's things I need to add but shh let's ignore that right now I'm ALSO going to be using  Common Curricul
2 comments
Read more

Planning for Back to School August 2020

Me in my laundry room/office This year has been so different from any other years. SO much uncertainty.  I wanted to be super prepared so I read many, many books and articles and Twitter lists over the summer. I participated in webinars and Zoom meetings and tried to put what I found in one place but my brain doesn't really work that way, so I have some stuff in Google Keep, some stuff in Wakelet, some stuff written down. In the end I still felt unprepared for the first day of school. I have had so much anxiety in the last few days. I did set up assignments for my students before the first day of school. I used Howie Hua's  Math Autobiography  slides, and some of my students started working on them immediately. It's already creating amazing discussions and bonding between my students. The first day of school went well for me. I didn't plan much, I just shared a couple of slides about myself and then had my students do a community circle . It worked out well because it l
2 comments
Read more

PD Bonanza

Shown here: something I actually got from TPT and the pattern block blackline The past 3 weeks have been busy, busy. I had TEEM (Teaching Early Mathematics to English Learners) for 8 days. We focused on fractions, and I got some really good info about teaching fractions to my students. Pattern blocks, fraction strips, and number lines forever! I made my kids at home do some of the activities too.  Then I went to the AVID Summer Institute. It was a good reminder why I need to do notes  in my class, in addition to the fun, hands on stuff.  I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to include the summary & questions in the composition book I get for TEEM, but I've seen a few examples online I'll try to replicate & modify as needed. I've heard a lot of good quotes, but my favorite has been one I heard at AVID: "You can't do everything, so do 1 or 2 things well."  It often feels like I am expected, either by others or myself,
4 comments
Read more