Time Savers {I'm SO Thankful for Linky Parties!!!}

Real talk, people... I'm horrible at keeping up with this thing.  It's right in the midst of CRAZY time in kindergarten.  When I get home, I'm ready to get in my jammies and saw some logs.  I get flat worn out!

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' to tell you about how I keep my sanity, which is debatable some days.

If it weren't for time savers, I would literally lose my mind.

At Home

I always get my clothes ready the night before.  If I don't do this, I'm guaranteed to try on 12 outfits and get out the door of my house 10 minutes before kids enter my classroom.  That does not equal a happy teacher. :)

I also always make my lunch the night before... Or the week before.  How you might ask?  Salads in a jar, people.

You can make them any way you want...  Find out more about them here.

At School

I have learned over the years that anything I can do to save myself precious minutes will make my job (and life) SO MUCH EASIER.

1.  Make the kiddos responsible for their own supplies.

In my first years of teaching, I ran around like a crazy person making sure supplies were stocked up and that each kid had what they needed. 

I made supplies easily accessible for students.  I keep them in the plastic drawers and added labels.

Students can just waltz right over and get what they need.  Perfection.

2.  T-E-A-M-W-O-R-K

I am blessed to work on a team with two of the best teachers I know.  We take turns organizing our lessons for the week, matching standards and making copies.  So rather than me having to do it every. single. week., I only do it every third week.  Here is what our planning guide looks like:

This doesn't take the place of formal lesson plans, but we are able to turn it into our principal since it is aligned with our standards.

3.  Organizing it all.

Having a place to organize all of your stuff is essential.  I keep each day's lessons inside a file folder in this cute holder from Mardel.  

(Excuse the horrible picture... I'm in a hurry.  It was a time saver, right?)

But don't look at my to-do stack... SIGH...