Hello! I’m Mariel Desrosier, The Time-Crunched Teacher. As an elementary school teacher with over 15 years of classroom experience, I know what it feels like to try and fit everything into your contract hours. That’s why I created this channel - to save you time! Check out my videos on teaching, technology, and time management.
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This is a great system that I would to implement! What is confusing is that I have 5 colored folders that I’m thinking of designating Monday to Friday and the rest be one solid color for the rest of the months them days but I’m not sure if have yhose 5 colors would complicate the system. Should it be all one color or like how you have it?
Oh great question! I think you should do whatever feels the most natural for you. But I could see using the numbered/month folders for month long planning. Then having a separate area for your Monday-Friday folders where you pull the content just for the current week and dump it there. Not sure if that makes sense, but I think you could still incorporate both systems if you wanted to! Good luck and let me know how it goes. 🌻
I absolutely love this!! I too ask my kids to help me out by pointing out my mistakes. At the beginning of the year, when we're talking about good behavior, the kids show me what to do and what not to do. Encouraging a student to give wrong answers when learning content is eye opening to me. Will definitely try this. Love your classroom agreements! Thx!
That’s so cool! Thank you for sharing your ideas and experience. It’s been really fun getting to hear their wrong answers and their thinking behind it. So much better than a room filled with silence…😆
It’s held up great! It’s a high use area and the only wear is a bit of the electrical tape lifted, but it was any easy fix. I’m actually ordering more to cover more surfaces!
That's very kind of you to say! But much of the credit goes to my awesome colleagues. They do a lot of the "behind the scenes" idea processing with me. I'm very fortunate! 💕🌻
I use heavy duty card stock for the name placards and do not use a template. When the kids make their own, after I have shown them how to fold the paper into fourths, this gives me the opportunity to see which students can follow directions.
This is so simple yet effective! Definitely saving to use this school year. It also sparked an idea of having some form of mini LED lights that students can turn on at their desk when they need help - similar to call lights on planes for flight attendants. My creative wheels are turning 🙂🙃🙂🙃
Oooh great idea! I think I saw those push button lights at the dollar store of all places. Like the kind you stick up in closets. 💡 Thanks for sharing such a fun idea!
We have incentives when kids complete iReady Diagnostics with their % growth. Not sure if you do something like that in your school across the grade levels. That’s a fair competition for the chair 😜
Dark Chocolate covered-pretzels and I keep sub plans on my Google docs so I can just cut and paste things onto it. Then I paper clip all of the worksheets with post its on them stating reading, writing, and math. It’s easy to change them because the routines for everything are the same but the specials and the schedule may have changed, so tweaks are minimal. Thanks for your channel!!! ❤
That's a great idea! I love the flexibility of it. And for what it's worth, I would absolutely sub for you if you left chocolate covered pretzels! You don't even need to leave plans. 😆
My parents' insurance company started using this numbered system for follow-up on policy changes. The information was written on a small piece of paper with a date on it and filed in the right numbered folder. Then, I would pull those items and check the info to be sure it was done. This kept the file folders off the desk and in the filing cabinet where everyone could find them.
I love your channel! I use a similar system but use a expandable file folder that slides easily in and out of my teacher tote bag. A big box is just too bulky for me and I do bring work home to grade.
As an experienced teacher who has been subbing for the last few years, I get bored if I feel like I'm babysitting. I love getting to actually teach at least 1 or 2 lessons. The key is to please plan the substantive stuff for parts of the day when I'll have had the chance to review the lesson plans, like after a planning period or a duty-free recess. It's tricky to capture the nuances of multiple lessons that occur first thing in the morning.
You have such a great, kid-centered classroom, and I can see why your kids like it. Tell us about the space on your board that has a card that says “Ms. D’s errors” … I’ll bet they love that you’re so human! If I weren’t retired, I’d definitely request to steal that practice from you! Also, great idea to buy outdoor carpets at the end of summer! Awesome tour! Have a great year!
Thank you so much for the kind words! 🥰 Good eye on the “Ms. D’s errors.”One of our classroom agreements is: We celebrate failure because it helps us to succeed faster. I’d never ask the kids to be so vulnerable without me having to do it first, so I let them point out my mistakes and then I say what I learned from them. The first day that section was full! 😆 Turns out I spaced about an assembly and we were late. lol.
Great tour. I have a middle school Extensive Needs classroom for kiddos with autism and additional disabilities. I have flexible seating and we absolutely love it. I call that area "the living room" because it's right in front of the classroom tv. Yesterday, I put on a video. One of my new 6th graders put in a request for popcorn and a soda. It's the living room, not a movie theater! lol Competing for the (very awesome) rocking chair, AR points is a great way. Our site uses iReady, so to include the Extensive Needs classrooms, we do everything by ratio (I have 9 students, the other homerooms have 25). So, classes where the students complete a given amount of iReady, regardless of academic level, can compete fairly. My kids have won different competitions, which is amazing! Thanks for another fun video! I've sent your videos to several of the teachers I've mentored over the years for tips and tricks. Always amazing! -Terri
Oh great ideas! Thank you so much for the suggestions. And can I just say how much I love your student requesting the popcorn?! That’s a kid after my own heart. 🍿🥰 Thank you for taking the time to share my content with others. That’s very awesome of you!
Ooooh, yeah that’s a tough one. This might be too much, but maybe behind each date you have one folder for each period? When I taught middle school, I used a similar system, but instead of the entire month, it was just Monday-Friday. But I admit, the 43 file system works much better for an elementary school class. Sorry I couldn’t help more!
Love the tape on the spines of workbooks! Our phonics program has two workbooks, one as a reference/practice and one for assessments, and they are almost the same color and design......idk why an education company would do that to us.....but the colored tape idea will be a game changer!
Whyyyyyy?!!!! 😂 Especially when kids can’t read yet - why would a company make every cover look identical?! We actually have 3 math texts that the students use and so the teachers and I came up with the tape because we were losing our minds. Hope the tape works out for you too! 🥰
One way I’ve done it in the past is to have a class roster printed out in front of me. While I’m teaching I might jot down super quick notes after each name. For example, a plus mark means they answered a question or were able to demonstrate understanding. A check mark means they participated and maybe asked a question. And a minus symbol means they either didn’t participate or struggled and needed a lot of assistance. I’m not sure if that answered your question, so feel free to reply again if you had a different scenario in mind. I’d be happy to help or ask a colleague for their method! ☺️
@@TheTimeCrunchedTeacher That makes sense. I had been using a grade sheet that had all of my students names on it and a small grid next to the names. But the issue I was running into was there really wasn't enough space to write notes. There was enough space to do a small symbol [such as a check mark or letter] but that's about it.
Question: Where do you keep the sticky notes before they make it to the student file? How do you ensure that they don't get lost/damaged/ destroyed before they make it to the student file?
Oh that’s a fantastic question! So I actually teach with a clipboard that moves around with me. It has my lesson plans on it and any important notes I need to remember. I usually just put the sticky notes on a piece of paper on the clipboard. It’s hidden under my plans so students can’t see it. I’ve also just stuck them in my teacher’s manuals while I was teaching and then put them in the student folders at the end of the week. Basically I “hide” them in my teaching materials for the day.
This sounds great. I have a question. If all of a student's pencils are dull before the end of the week, is there a way for them to refresh their pencils? Or do they come to you (in the middle of a lesson interrupting instruction) to ask you for more pencils? I'm trying to problem solve before I try this out/ also I really don't want to be responsible for sharpening pencils.
Great question! If all of their pencils are dull or break, I just trade them out for them quickly. I have a stash of sharpened pencils (maybe 10 or so) that are ready to be traded out throughout the week. But I’ve found that it’s pretty rare a student will go through all 5 pencils before the end of the week. If the students are still working on fine motor skills and are pressing too hard or snapping them, then that may be a skill that needs a bit more time and practice. So you may have to have a few extra back up pencils until that gets solidified. Hope that helps!
I am only 45 seconds into this video and I had to stop and comment. This list already looks great and practical. As teacher who's been teaching 10 years, I can already tell this is a good list. Thank you for this video. No time is wasted. One hundred percent practical and you can use it today. Thank you for taking the time to make this.
Oh wow thank you for the compliments and awesome feedback - I really appreciate it! 🥰 I think I’ll store my markers in those bins until the day I retire. 😆
@@Wendidjohnson Oh thank you so much! Yeah I feel like centers were so much trial and error for me for years. I was planning on doing an update on this topic as I’ve modified things a bit more for 5th grade. Stay tuned! ☺️
