I’m sure most normal teachers use Winter break to relax and avoid thinking about school. I relaxed, for sure, and did many, many fun things with my family. But I also use these breaks for big-picture thinking. Here are two things that have been running through my mind:

• These “Top 5 Organizational Hacks for Teaching High School” need a better descriptor than “top” to show how awesome they are. I have gone back to this post repeatedly over the past few years, and every time I get something new to try from it. Here are three of the things I took from this post and how I use them:
  • The BGT: Mine is brown. The top two shelves are for my two English preps, and I label them Today, This Week, and Next Week. I store all my handouts in there, binder-clipped together, so I’m all set for the day.
  • Black Binder: I use her approach to setting up my grading pages (check mark=turned in, then put in the grade). I also geek it out further by putting on time grades in blue or black ink, late grades in green or purple. Once I enter the grade into PowerSchool, I highlight it in yellow. If it gets entered in after the original batch, I highlight it in orange. It sounds complex, but before I did this I really struggled with tracking late work. Oh, and I have a dollar-store 3-ring binder pencil case with the pens and highlighters I need (decorated with washi tape, so they don’t get mixed in with my other supplies).
  • Table bins for materials: Last year, I created annotation boxes for my students because far too many didn’t have basic supplies like highlighters, etc. Also, I was using Marisa Thompson’s TQE discussion approach and AVID techniques, which involve reviewing and annotating notes. The boxes worked brilliantly. Since I am 60% this year, I moved classrooms to share with another teacher. She has art boxes, with colored pencils, scissors, glue sticks, and other supplies. Even better! Now, when students work on a project or have to engage in a special task, I have students distribute the appropriate boxes, and everyone has the supplies that they need.
• The 40-Hour Teacher Workweek Club: All my good organizational and productivity ideas come from Angela Watson’s thorough online class/club. Not only are here materials well-organized and focused on results, but she also links to great blog posts (such as the one above) that have helped me make immediate improvements — big and small — to the daily teaching tasks. After my year in the program, I reduced my work time and regained a significant bit of my sanity. I am in the graduate program now, and although I still work too much, I use the materials at least monthly to work better or to refocus my time on the aspects of my job (and life) that really matter. Angela is offering a fast-track 6-week version of the club that I was very tempted to sign up for.