Teacher Tips for the New Year Happy January! I absolutely love the start of a brand new year. Crisp new planners, fresh goals, and good intentions are my jam. The thing I don’t like about the new year though? The fact that these “good intentions” only last about a week…and then we settle right back into our old routines. I personally believe the reason this happens so often is due to not have an actionable plan. People make their “resolutions” based off things they want to accomplish, but then don’t ever take the time to think about how they are going to accomplish it! The “how” is the most important…
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Teacher Organization Part 5: Time Management for Teachers
Happy Tuesday, friends! I can’t believe this is the last week of our teacher organization series! Today’s post is a little different as it is all about time management for teachers. We’ve mostly been focused on getting our classroom organized for the new school year, but time management is such an important part of staying organized as well! I wanted to make sure to spend some time talking about this before the series ended. As you know, I pride myself on my organizational skills as a teacher. But I also consider myself a really great manager of my time. Time is EVERYTHING as a teacher! We have a countless number…
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Teacher Organization Part 1: Organization Basics
One of my top skills as a teacher and the thing I probably pride myself the most on is organization. I cannot function in a disorganized room, and firmly believe that staying organized is crucial to your success as a teacher. I know a lot of teachers consider this a strength of theirs as well; however, I have also met many who struggle with teacher organization skills and have run into problems because of it. I decided to focus my blog this month on helping teachers prepare their classrooms for the upcoming year with a teacher organization series. Every Tuesday and Thursday in August, I will share a post focusing…
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Meet the Teacher Handout & Tips for Success (+ FREEBIE)
Meet the Teacher Handout & Tips Meet the teacher day/night can be a super exciting but also super stressful time. Exciting because you’re meeting your new students for the very first time, but stressful because you’re also meeting their parents and you want to make a good first impression. You may also have a lot to prepare – such as getting a meet the teacher handout ready – in addition to all the other beginning of the year stuff on your plate! There is a lot to think about when preparing for meet the teacher. I’m sure all schools do it a little differently, but in my opinion, meet the…
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9 Things I Learned as a First Year Teacher
I have a special place in my heart for first year teachers. I had absolutely zero idea how hard my first year of teaching was going to be. I knew it was going to be hard, but it was so much harder than I imagined. I don’t want to scare anyone! Admittedly, I was way underprepared and had a lot of things working against me. I’ll save that story for another day, though, because right now I want to focus more on the things I learned as a first year teacher and turn that into advice and encouragement for anyone going into their first year teaching. So, if you’re a…
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Summer Update
Hi friends! Dropping in real quick to give a quick summer update… Hopefully by the time you’re reading this, I am holding my sweet baby boy in my arms! (Due date was yesterday, but given that I’m writing this post 4 weeks ago…who knows?!) Basically I’m time traveling here. Writing to you from the past! (I guess it would be more impressive if I was writing to you from the future, huh?) Anyway, due to me wanting to spend some time with my new baby, I’ve scheduled out LOTS of blog posts ahead of time so that they are consistently posting. However, given that that was a lot of work…
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Teacher Interview Questions + How to Get the Job
It’s that time of year! Teachers all over the country are interviewing for a new position. Maybe you’re a first year teacher, excited to get into your first classroom and wondering what grade level you will teach. Or maybe you’re more experienced and just looking for a change in environment. Either way, you are likely dreading the teacher interview process and thinking about how you can make the best impression possible to increase your chances of securing your dream job. I have a lot of experience in the teacher interview department. In my 5 years of teaching, I’ve worked at 3 different schools. The job hunting process is no stranger…
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Five Tips for Teachers Changing Grade Levels
As teachers, so much is constantly changing in our career. State standards, professional requirements, our students…there is so much change to anticipate from year to year! And sometimes, for various reasons, we even change the grade level we are teaching. For some this might be an exciting change; for others, not so much. I’ve changed grade levels twice in my career. I taught kindergarten my first year teaching because, well, it was a week before school started and that was the only job offer I had. I wasn’t really in a position to be picky! I had zero experience with kinder, and much preferred upper elementary. A year in kindergarten…
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Life Update!
Hey, friends! Just wanted to drop in and give a little life update for y’all as some things are changing around The Average Teacher Headquarters! (Whoa, that sounds like, super official. It’s really just a super small room inside my home, but “headquarters” has a nice ring to it.) If you caught my live on Instagram a couple of weeks ago, then you can stop reading now – this is nothing new. But, if you didn’t, keep reading! As many of you know, I am having a baby in just a couple of weeks! We are so excited and cannot believe how quickly the time has gone by since seeing…
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Self Care for Teachers this Summer
Summertime, and the living is easy…. Wouldn’t it be nice if that were actually true? While summer is definitely one of my favorite times of year, I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily easy living all the time. As a teacher, I usually spend my summer planning, shopping, and getting organized for next school year. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in that! That’s just part of what comes with being a teacher, I guess! We have summers “off,” but are we ever really off? I’m going to go with no. We are always on, all the time, thinking about next year or worrying about that one student or dreaming (or nightmare-ing)…
