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#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!
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