Teacher Blogs I LOVE

Teachers help teachers: spreading the blogging love:)

Elementary Endeavors  is such a great resource or organization and classroom ideas

Lessons With Laughter great reading ideas

Lovely Literacy self explanatory, great literacy tips

Teach Train Love great tips on just about every topic

Sub Folder Extraordinaire!!  seriously this is the best flipping sub folder I've ever seen.

Tumblr of idea pix some cute ideas on here. some printables

Cute ideas posters and rules

Evaluations VERY cool student evaluations idea

Teachers Pay Teachers some freebies on here, but mostly low-cost organization and worksheet printables.

Bloghopping. this is a pretty sweet freebie site.

Teacher Time-Savers

Hello Teaching community.

I'm getting organized for the fall semester. The thing I need most is TIME. As a teacher I find that my time slips away from me and I'm tired all year long! So I want to maximize my time in the classroom AND out.
Here is my "Motivational Teacher Time Savers" List:

1. Say No: Be OK with saying "no" to things, people, and extra projects.
2. Filter: Only access Social Networks (including Pinterest-eeks!) once daily. (EVEN if I have to set up Focal Filter during the day.
3. Rest: Pick ONE weekend night to work late, and knock out the early week prep (Friday, Saturday OR sunday- not all THREE, Abigail.) Then pick ONE weekday night to work late (I.e. Wednesday) instead of staying late afterschool everyday. 
4. E-mail: Designate two 10 minute periods during the school day to check my e-mail, solely checking/responding e-mail not multitasking other sites etc. 
5. Menu plan: Grocery Store once a week, menu plan with overlapping recipes so I don't have to stress over dinners.
6. Think ahead: Pack my lunch the night before, and do prep-work for dinner, if extensive. 
7. Yoga: Get back into the habit of daily morning yoga, energizes and helps with my migraines.
8. Organize Materials: Organize my grade level materials in boxes, weekly. Designate one student from each class to distribute the materials each week. 
9. Focus: prioritize what is most important for that day (i.e. grading, making copies, parent phone calls etc) and don't get overwhelmed by the week load.
10. Student helpers: give students jobs to do.
11. PUT TOGETHER A MASTER BINDER so you don't have to lug home all those binders and folders Abigail. DUH. that's like teaching 101 and I still haven't done it.
12. Throw crap away: if you don't need it, throw it out. Don't let the paperwork get out of control, throw away as you get stuff. Save ONE copy of important paperwork in master binder, throw away the rest.

We'll see if this helps me next year. I'm planning on updating regularly this summer with lesson plans and stuff I'm putting together for the fall. My plan is to teach a "music listening" class in third and fourth grade and have them compete (similar to a mathletes buzz-in type of deal) but with classical music excerpts and trivia. I'll be writing more about that as my idea develops. 

-avp