Thank you so much for sharing this challenge. The idea that teachers are able to complete their jobs with quality during contract hours is a farce. I am in year 10, and I rarely just work contract hours. It’s a shame that teachers aren’t treated as the professionals we are and adequately compensated.

I love getting to school early!! I seldom stay late because i can’t focus! Maybe use that early time to do lesson plans. I also plan what I’m going to work on during planning! Wishing you well!

Something I'm trying this year is batch planning. It is a bit difficult but I'm finding that I can do 2 weeks at a time. Overall, it is saving me precious time. Good luck!

Here's what works for me, but I know every teacher's situation is different: 1) Plan Period Schedule - I never have to guess what I'm doing and when because I made a chart of tasks I complete on certain days before school, during plan, and after school 2) Team Planning - I only plan a couple of subject areas, and my team does the rest 3) Come in Early - My students come at 7:30, so I arrive at 6:40ish. Yes, it's very early, but I'm more alert and have a huge chunk of my daily to-do's complete by the time students enter the room. I'm also so much calmer 4) Batch - I take one weekend afternoon a month and batch all my plans for the following month. That way, I can put my brain energy towards other tasks. It's exhausting for me to plan at work 5) Small Group Planning Templates - Planning takes less time this way because I have a reliable small group structure. I just need to plug in activities that relate to that category and student data 6) Low-Prep, Predictable Centers - I only have a few types of center activities. I teach the expectations early in the year, and my students practice them. The only part of the center that changes is the content, not the format/directions. It saves me brain energy, and I know what to prep. I don't use something if it's not low-prep. 7) Parent Volunteers - I have parents help with hanging decor, library organization, making copies, center prep, organization, etc 8) Fun Friday - The last 20ish minutes of the day, I give students time to draw, do STEM bins, etc. Students who don't finish iReady/other work for the week use this as catch-up time. This is a highly motivating incentive for my students. I have 20ish minutes to complete tasks that require less brain energy but still need to get done 9) No Slides - When I taught 6th grade (departmentalized), I had enough time to make daily slides. I no longer have time. I print out our grade's plans from Planbook, annotate them, and have them nearby when teaching This is just what works for me! I'm not an expert, but it's taken 6 years to find a system that works for me

Thanks for sharing! Glad you are back! I go into work a half hour before contract just so I don’t feel rushed before the kids come. I leave work at my contact time. I plan a month at a time so once a month I work on a Sunday afternoon to plan that month. I feel liked that is reasonable for my lifestyle. Hope your challenge is going well.

Getting to school as early as I want and leaving 10-15 minutes after contract time has worked for me. I thoroughly enjoy my time in the morning - I don't feel rushed and as someone else commented the copiers are free as well as the laminator. Just an idea to tackle your to do list and figuring out what you can accomplish during certain periods of time. Make a list of everything you would like/need to get done and then write about how many minutes it will take you to accomplish each task. Example: Email my principal (2-3 minutes), lesson plan (30-35 minutes), make morning copies (5-7 minutes) etc and then when you have those small chunks of time, check your list and see which task(s) you can work on during that time. You can also make your list and highlight each task a specific color which will signify an amount of time it will take you to accomplish the task. Example: pink - 5 minutes, orange-10 minutes, yellow - 15 minutes etc and then highlight the tasks with specific "time" colors. I hope this helps or at least sparks some ideas. 😉 You're doing awesome!!

I loved watching you do this challenge! This year (my 7th year teaching) is the first year that I have taken back some of my time. My contract time is 7:15-3:15. I leave at 3:15 on the DOT every day except Fridays (I need another 15-20 mins on Friday to prep a few things for the following Monday). I do, however, come in early every day. I love being one of the first ones in the building. It's quiet, calm, and the copiers are empty. 😅 I am proud of myself for leaving at contract time every day, though.. I used to stay way too late and really didn't get much accomplished anyway.

Getting students of any age to turn and talk (even after reviewing the procedure over and over...) is the bane of my existence as a teacher 😂

Hi Mrs.Braun I miss having u as a teacher. Your kids are so lucky to have u because I wish I can just go back to your class and start all over again. And school for me is a lot harder but when I was in your class I made it so easy for me to understand. :) ❤

Like teachers to wishes good for them its not a easy job good wishes like to visit to class room when to allow

I had no idea u were doing this