July 8, 2025 • 23 mins
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Feeling overwhelmed with lesson planning week after week? In this episode, we're digging into how simple, consistent weekly routines can completely transform your classroom. Learn how to save time, reduce stress, and build stronger engagement—all by putting a repeatable structure in place.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Well, hello teachers and welcome back to another
episode.
Today we're digging intosomething that transforms your
classroom and...
your wellbeing, and that isweekly routines that support
planning organization and flow.
So before we start, I do want toremind you about our fun July
giveaway we're doing here on thepodcast.
We are giving away one free yearinside of our membership, the EB
(00:21):
teachers, ELA portal at the endof the month.
All you have to do to enter twinis leave a review on iTunes and
then send us an email at helloat EB academics.com to let us
know that you did.
That's it.
Super simple.
And honestly, I love readingyour reviews so much.
They keep me going with theseepisodes, especially two a week
(00:42):
right now.
So thank you so much for thoseof you who've left wonderful
reviews and the feedback and thelove.
I just, it means the world tome.
So thank you very much.
All right, let's dive intotoday's episode.
Hi there, ELA teachers.
Caitlin here, CEO and co-founderof EB Academics.
I'm so excited you're choosingto tune into the Teaching Middle
(01:03):
School ELA podcast.
Our mission here is simple, tohelp middle school ELA teachers
take back their time outside ofthe classroom by providing them
with engaging lessons, planningframeworks, and genuine support
so that they can become the bestversion of themselves, both
inside and outside of theclassroom.
And we do this every single dayinside the EBTeachers ELA
(01:25):
portal.
This is a special place we'vedeveloped uniquely for ELA
teachers to access every singlepiece of our engaging, fun, and
rigorous curriculum so that theyhave everything they need to
batch plan their lessons usingour EBTeacher digital planner
that's built right into the app.
Over the years, we've watched asthousands of teachers from
(01:46):
around the world have foundsuccess in and out of the
classroom after using EBacademics programs, and we're
determined to help thousandsmore.
If you're interested in learningmore, simply click the link in
the podcast description.
And in the meantime, we lookforward to serving you right
here on the podcast every singleweek.
(02:07):
Now, before we jump into theroutines, I want to start with a
critical question, which is whydo weekly routines work and why
do they matter?
And why do we need to put theminto place?
So number one is our brainscrave structure.
There is tons of research andcognitive load theory that shows
that when we create consistentsystems, especially as teachers,
(02:31):
our students are able to focusmore fully on learning because
what happens is it lightens thatmental load of worrying or
thinking about what's nextbecause they just know.
And what it does is it enablesmore effective memory and
engagement.
So when we have the structure,we're not thinking about what's
coming next or what do I have toprepare for or whatever it might
(02:52):
be.
And according to an article onparents.com, and we also quite
frankly just know thisinherently as teachers, but
according to an article onparents.com, routines build
safety, They reduce anxiety forour students and for us.
And they also foster sustainedattention.
So really routines primestudents for learning.
(03:12):
and being active learners, asopposed to constantly reacting
to their surroundings and notknowing what's coming next.
And then for us as teachers,routines really help us combat
decision fatigue, which we areprobably familiar with this.
And that's that gradualdepletion of willpower, of
patience, of, you know, I'vemade a thousand decisions today
(03:35):
and my brain is not functioning.
And in fact, there was onelandmark study that showed
judges make harsher rulings asthe day goes on, only to reset
after breaks.
How fascinating is that?
Decision fatigue, right?
And that same exhaustion showsup in our classrooms, right?
We lose patience.
(03:55):
We skip critical decisions.
We default to easier choices.
whatever it might be.
And Cult of Pedagogy even notedthat a lack of systems,
routines, and habits causesteachers to reinvent the wheel
every day.
And we don't want to do that.
So by building simple,repeatable weekly systems, we
free up a bunch of thiscognitive space in our brains.
(04:15):
We reset our mental energy, andthat allows us to keep our
patience intact.
So today I want to talk aboutweekly routines, not content
routines or classroom managementroutines.
I want to cover like the behindthe scenes nuts and bolts
routines that keep your weekflowing, that keep your
paperwork under control and putyour mind just a little bit more
(04:38):
at peace.
Because the truth is, if you areconstantly operating in chaos
mode, right, which is survival,if you're constantly scrambling
every single morning to figureout Where you put this thing or
digging through a pile of papersto find that one handout that
impacts our decision fatigue andour cognitive load and all of
the things that are going to setus up for failure.
(05:01):
So the truth is, is that if wejust have a few simple weekly
systems, what we can do is wecan create intentionally ease,
consistency and breathing room.
for you and for your students.
So today I'm gonna give you ninedifferent weekly routines that
can help keep your classroomorganized and your week running
(05:22):
smoothly.
But I don't want you to feellike you have to implement all
of them.
I want you to just pick one.
Or if you already do some ofthese, pick a new one to start
with.
And I promise you that you willfeel the shift.
I did all of these when I wasstill in the classroom and it
makes such a difference.
So I know some of you might belistening and you're like, well,
(05:43):
I'm not that type of teacher.
Well, that's fine.
And if you know anything aboutme, I'm going to say, you can
sit in that belief and you canallow that to be an excuse for
yourself, but nothing's going tochange, right?
So if you're quote unquote, notthat type of teacher, well,
now's the opportunity to be adifferent type of teacher and to
say, okay, I might be more oflike that organized chaos
(06:03):
teacher, but I do want to tryone of these new strategies.
Okay.
So don't, um, argue for your ownLimitations.
We can always change.
You can teach an old dog newtricks, okay?
So you can change, I promise.
All right, number one.
This I call Thursday or Fridaycopy and prep time.
(06:26):
So I love this one.
It's a game changer.
I did it every single week whenI was in the classroom.
What you're going to do isyou'll block off time every
Thursday if you have a prep onyour Thursday or I didn't.
So I actually stayed Fridayafternoons after everybody left
before I went home for theweekend and I made all of my
(06:46):
copies and I prepped all of mymaterials for the following
week.
Yes, it took me 30 minutes aftereverybody had left for the
weekend, but guess who didn'tthink about their school over
the weekend at all?
Me.
It gave me peace of mind.
What happens is, is you walk inon Monday and you are ready to
go.
(07:07):
You are not like, oh my God, Igot to get to school because I
got to make copies.
Hopefully nobody's there, right?
Think about that energy that youbring into the classroom and
That is frenetic.
That is uptight.
That is stressed out.
It is rushed energy versus theteacher who's made their copies.
They're nicely organized.
(07:28):
And I walk in on Monday and I'mlike, oh, okay, what are we
doing today?
Let me just look at my copies.
That is a totally differentteaching experience.
Okay.
So it's super, super simple.
Stay Friday afternoon.
Make your copies, prep yourmaterials for the following week
or on Thursday when you have aprep or Friday if you have a
(07:50):
prep.
So even if you don't have aprep, so what?
I stayed Friday for 30 minutesafter school and it was 30
minutes that was so well worthit.
And it's like, if that's whatyou want to do, to be able to
have that peace of mind over theweekend and to come in on
Monday, feeling good about theweek, then it's worth the
(08:11):
sacrifice of the 30 minutes.
But the thing is, is that mostpeople are not willing to do
that.
And so I don't want you to bemost people.
I want you to decide that I'mgoing to have the discipline.
Maybe I'm not going to bemotivated.
I'm not going to want to dothis, but because I'm
disciplined enough to set myfuture self up for success and
(08:31):
I'm going to take these 30minutes on a Friday when I don't
want to be doing this and I'mjust going to do it anyways.
And then on Monday, I'm going tosay to my past self, thank you
so much, Caitlin, for doingthat.
It made a huge difference on myMonday morning and my whole
weekend, quite frankly.
Okay.
And then a little pro tip withthis one is that you can combine
this with the Monday throughFriday drawer or bin system that
(08:53):
I'm going to talk about in justa second so that everything
stays super organized andaccessible for you.
UNKNOWN (08:59):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (08:59):
Okay, number two, Monday morning.
The Monday morning look ahead,what I like to call this.
So before the kids walk in onMonday, before your students
come into your classroom, I wantyou to take just five to 10
minutes to mentally preview theweek.
So pull out your planner, pullout your materials, your
lessons, and you're just goingto look.
(09:19):
You're just going to review.
And you will be amazed at what adifference this makes and how
you feel as you walk into theweek.
It grounds you.
It helps you remember what'scoming.
Oh yeah, that's right.
We have that assembly onThursday.
Don't want to forget that.
Or it's Halloween and they needto bring a dollar or whatever,
all the little things, right?
(09:39):
And it gives you that quick,calm reset before all of the
chaos of students coming intoyour classroom begins.
And one of the things I'd loveto do that I'd also suggest that
you do after you take these fiveto 10 quiet minutes to mentally
preview the week is before yourstudents walk in, I would put on
some music that makes you wantto dance.
Yes, even at 745 in the morningthat makes you want to dance and
(10:03):
just move your body before yourstudents walk in.
It is a simple way to get asmile on your face at the start
of every single week.
So that's number two.
Number three is weekly planningpower hour, or maybe 30 minutes,
however long it takes you,depending on your level of batch
planning expertise.
(10:24):
So what I want you to do withthis one is pick one consistent
time each week.
Again, maybe it's Fridayafternoon when everyone's gone
or during one of your planningperiods or Wednesday afternoon,
maybe you stay late because yourkids have soccer and your
partner takes them to soccer,whatever it might be, find a
time and you're are going to mapout the following week.
(10:45):
So in that hour, if you've batchplanned, you already know what
you're teaching.
So you're not even going to belooking at what you need to
teach because you should alreadyknow.
But what you're going to look atis what do I need to prep for
next week so that when you go tomake copies on Thursday or
Friday, you're golden.
What am I grading and what mighttrip me up?
(11:06):
So what you're doing is you'rethinking ahead and You're
proactive.
You're not constantly reactingto what's happening.
And that's where your powerlies.
And if you're a batch planner,this is where you take what
you've already outlined on yourscope and sequence and you plug
in your weekly planning, right?
We call this stage four of ourbatch planning framework.
(11:26):
So you know exactly what you'reteaching on which day, what
you're assigning for homework,all of that stuff.
Okay.
So I know for some of you, um,This might be an entire identity
shift.
Maybe you've never been thistype of organized person.
Well, now you can be, and youjust create a new belief.
You fake it till you make it.
It literally is that simple anddifficult at the same time.
(11:48):
Simple, not easy.
Number four is to use a dailydrawer or folder system.
So once you make your copies andyou've prepped your materials,
we don't just want to leave themin a pile somewhere on our desk.
Like disorganized.
What I always did is I had afolder system for each class
labeled Monday through Friday,and I would put my handouts or
(12:09):
my lesson materials or mymanipulatives in each day's spot
for that class period.
And then that's it.
So on Monday morning, I lookedin my folder.
Oh, that's what I'm teaching.
I have my lesson plan in there.
If I had to print it out for myprincipal, whatever, you know,
all of your copies and whatyou're doing is you are saving
time every single morning foryourself.
(12:30):
And you also create this visualclarity as well.
That when you look at thosefolder files, that filing system
that you've set up, you're like,Oh, I'm good.
I have seventh grade all readyto go.
I've got eighth grade ready togo.
I've got homeroom, whatever,whatever it is that you teach.
And you can do all of thesesystems for any type of subject.
It doesn't just have to be ELA.
(12:50):
All right.
Friday's desk reset ritual isnumber five.
This one was my favorite.
So at the end of every Friday,After my students were gone,
after I made all of my copies, Ispent literally just five to 10
minutes cleaning up my desk.
I cleaned out any lingeringclutter, just completely reset
my workspace.
(13:11):
And what it is, is it's thissmall act of like cognitive
closure, right?
You're physically saying toyourself, this week is done.
I'm cleaning this off and I'mready for what's next.
Because when you walk into yourroom on Monday morning, you have
this clean slate and you feelthe difference.
So if you struggle with clutter,this could be a whole separate
conversation.
(13:31):
And I'm sure I've talked aboutDiana on the podcast before, my
friend.
is the decluttered mom.
And I went through and took hercourse and I decluttered my
entire house.
And I now do it kind of like ona monthly basis.
I just get rid of stuff becausewe just have so much crap that
we don't need.
And it is like an emotional,psychological thing to detach
(13:51):
from certain items.
But the less stuff we have, theeasier all of these things
become and the more white spaceyou have in your brain.
So I did this with my wholehouse actually when my
ex-husband moved out.
I actually got a huge dumpsterbin delivered to my house and I
went through the entire houseand anything that was not
(14:16):
serving my future self, I gotrid of it or donated it.
So one of the two.
And it was hard.
There were certain things whereI was like, well, maybe I might
use it.
And then I'm like, Caitlin, youhave not used this face cream in
two years.
Throw it away.
It's expired.
Why is it still in your house?
Right.
And I will tell you right nowthat every single night it takes
(14:40):
me about 15 minutes.
I call it the PM pickup.
I think I got that from Dianaand I clean up my entire home.
And so I, and granted my houseis small, it's like 1200 square
feet, but I clean up my entirehome.
And when I wake up in themorning, my house is perfectly
clean.
I make my bed every morning.
My son makes his bed everymorning.
And it just creates this spaceof comfort, of safety, of
(15:05):
cleanliness.
And so when you do this Fridaydesk ritual, if it takes you
more than 10 minutes, youprobably have some stuff you got
to get rid of.
But that's a whole otherconversation.
We can talk about that.
Maybe I have Diana on podcast,actually.
That would be fun.
Okay, number six is a weeklyslide deck template.
So every single week, whether ornot you use like Google Slides
(15:25):
template for your daily agendasor you put your learning targets
or whatever on your board, everysingle week, maybe during that
weekly planning hour, you justupdate the next week's info.
So like what I would do, when Ihad my high school classroom
because I had a biggerwhiteboard is I would put Monday
through Friday every singleclass period for the following
(15:46):
week I would know what we weredoing and so on Friday before I
would leave I would eraseeverything that we just did and
I'd put everything up there forthe next week Or if you're super
prepared in advance, one of yourstudents with really good
handwriting can do this for you,right?
And they write everything on theboard.
But if you use a Google Slidestemplate, you're just typing in
(16:07):
your daily agenda, your learningtargets, your warmups, your
reminders, whatever it might be.
And so you're not recreatinganything from scratch.
You use the same exact template.
You use the same exactwhiteboard structure.
You just rinse, update, andreuse.
And it's efficient, it'sorganized, and also it gives
your students consistency too,because they know exactly what
(16:29):
to expect in Mrs.
Mitchell's classroom.
All right.
Number seven is to grade andreturn is to have a grade and
return routine.
So right now I would pick liketwo light grading days each
week.
This is like I know on Tuesdaysand Thursdays, I'm going to set
(16:51):
aside 15 to 20 minutes ofgrading.
This is nothing major, but thisis like those, I don't know,
skills-based passages thatyou're correcting, or these are
those reading comprehensionchecks to make sure your
students read, or they're aquick grammar quiz or whatever
it might be exit ticket.
And so what you do is onTuesdays during lunch period,
(17:11):
every Tuesday, I just know thisis what I do is I take 15
minutes and I grade from thispile of papers.
so that you don't have thispaper grading pile monster
sitting in front of you that hasto get graded.
So you just know.
I think about this with the gym.
Granted, I still am not able towork out yet.
(17:32):
I have to go have surgery.
I don't think I've updated youguys on that, but I will.
But I think of the gym...
Tuesdays were back and bicepdays.
Thursdays were chest andtriceps.
Fridays were glute focused legdays.
Right.
And so it's like, I just knewthere was no thinking.
There's no thinking that goesinto it.
(17:53):
This is just what I do.
I go to the gym on this day andthis is what happens.
So on Tuesdays I go into myclassroom at lunchtime and this
is just what happens.
I just grade this pile ofpapers.
I turn on some gladiator musicand to the soundtrack and I just
get it done.
I set a timer 15 minutes, boom.
And it just happens likeclockwork.
So all of these things I'msharing with you take
discipline.
(18:14):
It's not like, again, it'ssimple.
It's not easy, but if you canjust pick one of these and then
you master that, and then youadd another one under your belt
and then you master that it'sjust creating and stacking these
small wins, but you just, youhave to do it.
right?
You have to do it.
It's that mindset of, I don'treally want to do this, but I'm
(18:35):
going to do it anyway.
Right?
Layla Hermosi, who's a businessperson online, she says a bad
word.
She says, screw your mood, stickto the plan.
Like, so forget about how youfeel.
Just do what you said you weregoing to do.
And now you're creating evidencefor yourself that you're the
type of person who keepspromises to yourself.
(18:56):
And so the next time that youreally don't want to go do this,
you're going to do it becauseyou know that you're the type of
person who makes, who keepspromises to yourself and
actually follows through withwhat you say you're going to do.
Okay.
So grade and return, grade andreturn routine.
So you grade on one day orwhatever.
And then that means that everyThursday you pass out papers or
(19:16):
every Friday they go home in theFriday folder, whatever it might
be.
But we want to create thatgrading routine for ourselves
more than anything.
Okay, number eight, end of week,no stack grading.
That's what we've called this.
So before you leave on Friday,if you can, again, this is kind
(19:38):
of next level, this one, I wantyou to take care of any short
assignments that would otherwisestack up over the weekend.
So if you still have those exitticket, short responses,
homework checks, whatever itmeans that you have to get done,
maybe on lunch on Friday, Maybeat the end of the day when you
have that 30 or 60 minutes thatyou stay at school just to set
yourself up for success for theweekend and the following week,
(20:00):
what happens is you feel so muchlighter heading into the weekend
because you don't have that pileof paper like whispering your
name in your teacher bag sittingin the corner at your front door
that you swear, I swear I'mgoing to do it when I get home.
No, you're not.
You are not going to grade thosepapers when you get home.
That is not happening.
So you may as well not even putthem in your teacher bag, to be
(20:20):
honest with you.
And honestly, you can probablyeven throw some of those away.
For real.
Like, do you really have tograde everything?
The answer is no.
Okay.
All right.
Number nine.
Friday library tidy.
So this one is quick, simple,and you can actually have your
students reset the classroomlibrary every Friday.
(20:43):
So on Fridays in one of myschools, I had really short
class periods.
They were like 20 minutes everyFriday.
And all I did was my Rvocabulary test and silent
reading.
That's all we did on Fridaysbecause there was no time for
anything else.
And test prep depending on thetime of year.
And so what I would do is oncethey took their vocabulary test,
(21:04):
my students could earn theability to clean up my classroom
library.
So what I didn't want to happenwas I didn't want my students
who didn't want to read cleaningmy classroom library, right?
They had to earn it to get thatreward of being able to clean
the classroom library.
Fascinating psychology, right?
You get to earn the reward ofcleaning.
(21:25):
So we want to have themstraighten our books, fix any
misplaced titles if you havethem organized in a certain way.
Maybe you have them rotate afeatured...
book or whatever it might be.
And what it does is it keepsyour space feeling cared for.
And that really reinforces pridein your learning environment in
your classroom.
Okay.
So some final thoughts for youon this is these routines are
(21:48):
not just about being quoteunquote organized.
So I don't want you to see themas Oh, I've just got to be more
organized is what Caitlin'ssaying.
No, what I'm saying is, is thatthese routines create freedom
for you.
So instead of saying, okay, thismakes me organized.
You want to say instead toyourself, this creates freedom
for me.
So you're creating freedom fromchaos, freedom from decision
(22:12):
fatigue, freedom to actuallyenjoy your weekends without a
giant cloud of teacher stresshanging over your head.
You are creating your ownfreedom.
And so here's your challenge isI want you to pick just one of
these routines and implement itat the start of school.
Just one.
And then if you're a month inand you've got that one down
(22:33):
pat, come back and listen tothis episode and choose your
next one.
And over time, these habitsbecome the systems that are a
part of making teachingsustainable.
Even joyful again, because youhave so much more white space.
And if you are looking for donefor you, lesson plans,
time-saving tools, and acommunity of teachers who get
it, we've got that for you too.
(22:55):
We have our membership, the EBteachers, ELA portal, and we
would love to support you.
And while we aren't currentlyopen for enrollment, you can add
your name to the priority listat ebteacher.com forward slash
portal and learn more about whatour programs offer you as a
middle school ELA teacher.
All right, you guys, thanks somuch for listening today.
And again, I'm looking forwardforward to your reviews that
(23:16):
you're going to leave on iTunesbecause you're going to enter to
win the giveaway that we aredoing this month of July.
All right.
We'll see you guys next time onthe podcast.
Well, hello teachers and welcome back to another
episode.
Today we're digging intosomething that transforms your
classroom and...
your wellbeing, and that isweekly routines that support
planning organization and flow.
So before we start, I do want toremind you about our fun July
giveaway we're doing here on thepodcast.
We are giving away one free yearinside of our membership, the EB
(00:21):
teachers, ELA portal at the endof the month.
All you have to do to enter twinis leave a review on iTunes and
then send us an email at helloat EB academics.com to let us
know that you did.
That's it.
Super simple.
And honestly, I love readingyour reviews so much.
They keep me going with theseepisodes, especially two a week
(00:42):
right now.
So thank you so much for thoseof you who've left wonderful
reviews and the feedback and thelove.
I just, it means the world tome.
So thank you very much.
All right, let's dive intotoday's episode.
Hi there, ELA teachers.
Caitlin here, CEO and co-founderof EB Academics.
I'm so excited you're choosingto tune into the Teaching Middle
(01:03):
School ELA podcast.
Our mission here is simple, tohelp middle school ELA teachers
take back their time outside ofthe classroom by providing them
with engaging lessons, planningframeworks, and genuine support
so that they can become the bestversion of themselves, both
inside and outside of theclassroom.
And we do this every single dayinside the EBTeachers ELA
(01:25):
portal.
This is a special place we'vedeveloped uniquely for ELA
teachers to access every singlepiece of our engaging, fun, and
rigorous curriculum so that theyhave everything they need to
batch plan their lessons usingour EBTeacher digital planner
that's built right into the app.
Over the years, we've watched asthousands of teachers from
(01:46):
around the world have foundsuccess in and out of the
classroom after using EBacademics programs, and we're
determined to help thousandsmore.
If you're interested in learningmore, simply click the link in
the podcast description.
And in the meantime, we lookforward to serving you right
here on the podcast every singleweek.
(02:07):
Now, before we jump into theroutines, I want to start with a
critical question, which is whydo weekly routines work and why
do they matter?
And why do we need to put theminto place?
So number one is our brainscrave structure.
There is tons of research andcognitive load theory that shows
that when we create consistentsystems, especially as teachers,
(02:31):
our students are able to focusmore fully on learning because
what happens is it lightens thatmental load of worrying or
thinking about what's nextbecause they just know.
And what it does is it enablesmore effective memory and
engagement.
So when we have the structure,we're not thinking about what's
coming next or what do I have toprepare for or whatever it might
(02:52):
be.
And according to an article onparents.com, and we also quite
frankly just know thisinherently as teachers, but
according to an article onparents.com, routines build
safety, They reduce anxiety forour students and for us.
And they also foster sustainedattention.
So really routines primestudents for learning.
(03:12):
and being active learners, asopposed to constantly reacting
to their surroundings and notknowing what's coming next.
And then for us as teachers,routines really help us combat
decision fatigue, which we areprobably familiar with this.
And that's that gradualdepletion of willpower, of
patience, of, you know, I'vemade a thousand decisions today
(03:35):
and my brain is not functioning.
And in fact, there was onelandmark study that showed
judges make harsher rulings asthe day goes on, only to reset
after breaks.
How fascinating is that?
Decision fatigue, right?
And that same exhaustion showsup in our classrooms, right?
We lose patience.
(03:55):
We skip critical decisions.
We default to easier choices.
whatever it might be.
And Cult of Pedagogy even notedthat a lack of systems,
routines, and habits causesteachers to reinvent the wheel
every day.
And we don't want to do that.
So by building simple,repeatable weekly systems, we
free up a bunch of thiscognitive space in our brains.
(04:15):
We reset our mental energy, andthat allows us to keep our
patience intact.
So today I want to talk aboutweekly routines, not content
routines or classroom managementroutines.
I want to cover like the behindthe scenes nuts and bolts
routines that keep your weekflowing, that keep your
paperwork under control and putyour mind just a little bit more
(04:38):
at peace.
Because the truth is, if you areconstantly operating in chaos
mode, right, which is survival,if you're constantly scrambling
every single morning to figureout Where you put this thing or
digging through a pile of papersto find that one handout that
impacts our decision fatigue andour cognitive load and all of
the things that are going to setus up for failure.
(05:01):
So the truth is, is that if wejust have a few simple weekly
systems, what we can do is wecan create intentionally ease,
consistency and breathing room.
for you and for your students.
So today I'm gonna give you ninedifferent weekly routines that
can help keep your classroomorganized and your week running
(05:22):
smoothly.
But I don't want you to feellike you have to implement all
of them.
I want you to just pick one.
Or if you already do some ofthese, pick a new one to start
with.
And I promise you that you willfeel the shift.
I did all of these when I wasstill in the classroom and it
makes such a difference.
So I know some of you might belistening and you're like, well,
(05:43):
I'm not that type of teacher.
Well, that's fine.
And if you know anything aboutme, I'm going to say, you can
sit in that belief and you canallow that to be an excuse for
yourself, but nothing's going tochange, right?
So if you're quote unquote, notthat type of teacher, well,
now's the opportunity to be adifferent type of teacher and to
say, okay, I might be more oflike that organized chaos
(06:03):
teacher, but I do want to tryone of these new strategies.
Okay.
So don't, um, argue for your ownLimitations.
We can always change.
You can teach an old dog newtricks, okay?
So you can change, I promise.
All right, number one.
This I call Thursday or Fridaycopy and prep time.
(06:26):
So I love this one.
It's a game changer.
I did it every single week whenI was in the classroom.
What you're going to do isyou'll block off time every
Thursday if you have a prep onyour Thursday or I didn't.
So I actually stayed Fridayafternoons after everybody left
before I went home for theweekend and I made all of my
(06:46):
copies and I prepped all of mymaterials for the following
week.
Yes, it took me 30 minutes aftereverybody had left for the
weekend, but guess who didn'tthink about their school over
the weekend at all?
Me.
It gave me peace of mind.
What happens is, is you walk inon Monday and you are ready to
go.
(07:07):
You are not like, oh my God, Igot to get to school because I
got to make copies.
Hopefully nobody's there, right?
Think about that energy that youbring into the classroom and
That is frenetic.
That is uptight.
That is stressed out.
It is rushed energy versus theteacher who's made their copies.
They're nicely organized.
(07:28):
And I walk in on Monday and I'mlike, oh, okay, what are we
doing today?
Let me just look at my copies.
That is a totally differentteaching experience.
Okay.
So it's super, super simple.
Stay Friday afternoon.
Make your copies, prep yourmaterials for the following week
or on Thursday when you have aprep or Friday if you have a
(07:50):
prep.
So even if you don't have aprep, so what?
I stayed Friday for 30 minutesafter school and it was 30
minutes that was so well worthit.
And it's like, if that's whatyou want to do, to be able to
have that peace of mind over theweekend and to come in on
Monday, feeling good about theweek, then it's worth the
(08:11):
sacrifice of the 30 minutes.
But the thing is, is that mostpeople are not willing to do
that.
And so I don't want you to bemost people.
I want you to decide that I'mgoing to have the discipline.
Maybe I'm not going to bemotivated.
I'm not going to want to dothis, but because I'm
disciplined enough to set myfuture self up for success and
(08:31):
I'm going to take these 30minutes on a Friday when I don't
want to be doing this and I'mjust going to do it anyways.
And then on Monday, I'm going tosay to my past self, thank you
so much, Caitlin, for doingthat.
It made a huge difference on myMonday morning and my whole
weekend, quite frankly.
Okay.
And then a little pro tip withthis one is that you can combine
this with the Monday throughFriday drawer or bin system that
(08:53):
I'm going to talk about in justa second so that everything
stays super organized andaccessible for you.
UNKNOWN (08:59):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (08:59):
Okay, number two, Monday morning.
The Monday morning look ahead,what I like to call this.
So before the kids walk in onMonday, before your students
come into your classroom, I wantyou to take just five to 10
minutes to mentally preview theweek.
So pull out your planner, pullout your materials, your
lessons, and you're just goingto look.
(09:19):
You're just going to review.
And you will be amazed at what adifference this makes and how
you feel as you walk into theweek.
It grounds you.
It helps you remember what'scoming.
Oh yeah, that's right.
We have that assembly onThursday.
Don't want to forget that.
Or it's Halloween and they needto bring a dollar or whatever,
all the little things, right?
(09:39):
And it gives you that quick,calm reset before all of the
chaos of students coming intoyour classroom begins.
And one of the things I'd loveto do that I'd also suggest that
you do after you take these fiveto 10 quiet minutes to mentally
preview the week is before yourstudents walk in, I would put on
some music that makes you wantto dance.
Yes, even at 745 in the morningthat makes you want to dance and
(10:03):
just move your body before yourstudents walk in.
It is a simple way to get asmile on your face at the start
of every single week.
So that's number two.
Number three is weekly planningpower hour, or maybe 30 minutes,
however long it takes you,depending on your level of batch
planning expertise.
(10:24):
So what I want you to do withthis one is pick one consistent
time each week.
Again, maybe it's Fridayafternoon when everyone's gone
or during one of your planningperiods or Wednesday afternoon,
maybe you stay late because yourkids have soccer and your
partner takes them to soccer,whatever it might be, find a
time and you're are going to mapout the following week.
(10:45):
So in that hour, if you've batchplanned, you already know what
you're teaching.
So you're not even going to belooking at what you need to
teach because you should alreadyknow.
But what you're going to look atis what do I need to prep for
next week so that when you go tomake copies on Thursday or
Friday, you're golden.
What am I grading and what mighttrip me up?
(11:06):
So what you're doing is you'rethinking ahead and You're
proactive.
You're not constantly reactingto what's happening.
And that's where your powerlies.
And if you're a batch planner,this is where you take what
you've already outlined on yourscope and sequence and you plug
in your weekly planning, right?
We call this stage four of ourbatch planning framework.
(11:26):
So you know exactly what you'reteaching on which day, what
you're assigning for homework,all of that stuff.
Okay.
So I know for some of you, um,This might be an entire identity
shift.
Maybe you've never been thistype of organized person.
Well, now you can be, and youjust create a new belief.
You fake it till you make it.
It literally is that simple anddifficult at the same time.
(11:48):
Simple, not easy.
Number four is to use a dailydrawer or folder system.
So once you make your copies andyou've prepped your materials,
we don't just want to leave themin a pile somewhere on our desk.
Like disorganized.
What I always did is I had afolder system for each class
labeled Monday through Friday,and I would put my handouts or
(12:09):
my lesson materials or mymanipulatives in each day's spot
for that class period.
And then that's it.
So on Monday morning, I lookedin my folder.
Oh, that's what I'm teaching.
I have my lesson plan in there.
If I had to print it out for myprincipal, whatever, you know,
all of your copies and whatyou're doing is you are saving
time every single morning foryourself.
(12:30):
And you also create this visualclarity as well.
That when you look at thosefolder files, that filing system
that you've set up, you're like,Oh, I'm good.
I have seventh grade all readyto go.
I've got eighth grade ready togo.
I've got homeroom, whatever,whatever it is that you teach.
And you can do all of thesesystems for any type of subject.
It doesn't just have to be ELA.
(12:50):
All right.
Friday's desk reset ritual isnumber five.
This one was my favorite.
So at the end of every Friday,After my students were gone,
after I made all of my copies, Ispent literally just five to 10
minutes cleaning up my desk.
I cleaned out any lingeringclutter, just completely reset
my workspace.
(13:11):
And what it is, is it's thissmall act of like cognitive
closure, right?
You're physically saying toyourself, this week is done.
I'm cleaning this off and I'mready for what's next.
Because when you walk into yourroom on Monday morning, you have
this clean slate and you feelthe difference.
So if you struggle with clutter,this could be a whole separate
conversation.
(13:31):
And I'm sure I've talked aboutDiana on the podcast before, my
friend.
is the decluttered mom.
And I went through and took hercourse and I decluttered my
entire house.
And I now do it kind of like ona monthly basis.
I just get rid of stuff becausewe just have so much crap that
we don't need.
And it is like an emotional,psychological thing to detach
(13:51):
from certain items.
But the less stuff we have, theeasier all of these things
become and the more white spaceyou have in your brain.
So I did this with my wholehouse actually when my
ex-husband moved out.
I actually got a huge dumpsterbin delivered to my house and I
went through the entire houseand anything that was not
(14:16):
serving my future self, I gotrid of it or donated it.
So one of the two.
And it was hard.
There were certain things whereI was like, well, maybe I might
use it.
And then I'm like, Caitlin, youhave not used this face cream in
two years.
Throw it away.
It's expired.
Why is it still in your house?
Right.
And I will tell you right nowthat every single night it takes
(14:40):
me about 15 minutes.
I call it the PM pickup.
I think I got that from Dianaand I clean up my entire home.
And so I, and granted my houseis small, it's like 1200 square
feet, but I clean up my entirehome.
And when I wake up in themorning, my house is perfectly
clean.
I make my bed every morning.
My son makes his bed everymorning.
And it just creates this spaceof comfort, of safety, of
(15:05):
cleanliness.
And so when you do this Fridaydesk ritual, if it takes you
more than 10 minutes, youprobably have some stuff you got
to get rid of.
But that's a whole otherconversation.
We can talk about that.
Maybe I have Diana on podcast,actually.
That would be fun.
Okay, number six is a weeklyslide deck template.
So every single week, whether ornot you use like Google Slides
(15:25):
template for your daily agendasor you put your learning targets
or whatever on your board, everysingle week, maybe during that
weekly planning hour, you justupdate the next week's info.
So like what I would do, when Ihad my high school classroom
because I had a biggerwhiteboard is I would put Monday
through Friday every singleclass period for the following
(15:46):
week I would know what we weredoing and so on Friday before I
would leave I would eraseeverything that we just did and
I'd put everything up there forthe next week Or if you're super
prepared in advance, one of yourstudents with really good
handwriting can do this for you,right?
And they write everything on theboard.
But if you use a Google Slidestemplate, you're just typing in
(16:07):
your daily agenda, your learningtargets, your warmups, your
reminders, whatever it might be.
And so you're not recreatinganything from scratch.
You use the same exact template.
You use the same exactwhiteboard structure.
You just rinse, update, andreuse.
And it's efficient, it'sorganized, and also it gives
your students consistency too,because they know exactly what
(16:29):
to expect in Mrs.
Mitchell's classroom.
All right.
Number seven is to grade andreturn is to have a grade and
return routine.
So right now I would pick liketwo light grading days each
week.
This is like I know on Tuesdaysand Thursdays, I'm going to set
(16:51):
aside 15 to 20 minutes ofgrading.
This is nothing major, but thisis like those, I don't know,
skills-based passages thatyou're correcting, or these are
those reading comprehensionchecks to make sure your
students read, or they're aquick grammar quiz or whatever
it might be exit ticket.
And so what you do is onTuesdays during lunch period,
(17:11):
every Tuesday, I just know thisis what I do is I take 15
minutes and I grade from thispile of papers.
so that you don't have thispaper grading pile monster
sitting in front of you that hasto get graded.
So you just know.
I think about this with the gym.
Granted, I still am not able towork out yet.
(17:32):
I have to go have surgery.
I don't think I've updated youguys on that, but I will.
But I think of the gym...
Tuesdays were back and bicepdays.
Thursdays were chest andtriceps.
Fridays were glute focused legdays.
Right.
And so it's like, I just knewthere was no thinking.
There's no thinking that goesinto it.
(17:53):
This is just what I do.
I go to the gym on this day andthis is what happens.
So on Tuesdays I go into myclassroom at lunchtime and this
is just what happens.
I just grade this pile ofpapers.
I turn on some gladiator musicand to the soundtrack and I just
get it done.
I set a timer 15 minutes, boom.
And it just happens likeclockwork.
So all of these things I'msharing with you take
discipline.
(18:14):
It's not like, again, it'ssimple.
It's not easy, but if you canjust pick one of these and then
you master that, and then youadd another one under your belt
and then you master that it'sjust creating and stacking these
small wins, but you just, youhave to do it.
right?
You have to do it.
It's that mindset of, I don'treally want to do this, but I'm
(18:35):
going to do it anyway.
Right?
Layla Hermosi, who's a businessperson online, she says a bad
word.
She says, screw your mood, stickto the plan.
Like, so forget about how youfeel.
Just do what you said you weregoing to do.
And now you're creating evidencefor yourself that you're the
type of person who keepspromises to yourself.
(18:56):
And so the next time that youreally don't want to go do this,
you're going to do it becauseyou know that you're the type of
person who makes, who keepspromises to yourself and
actually follows through withwhat you say you're going to do.
Okay.
So grade and return, grade andreturn routine.
So you grade on one day orwhatever.
And then that means that everyThursday you pass out papers or
(19:16):
every Friday they go home in theFriday folder, whatever it might
be.
But we want to create thatgrading routine for ourselves
more than anything.
Okay, number eight, end of week,no stack grading.
That's what we've called this.
So before you leave on Friday,if you can, again, this is kind
(19:38):
of next level, this one, I wantyou to take care of any short
assignments that would otherwisestack up over the weekend.
So if you still have those exitticket, short responses,
homework checks, whatever itmeans that you have to get done,
maybe on lunch on Friday, Maybeat the end of the day when you
have that 30 or 60 minutes thatyou stay at school just to set
yourself up for success for theweekend and the following week,
(20:00):
what happens is you feel so muchlighter heading into the weekend
because you don't have that pileof paper like whispering your
name in your teacher bag sittingin the corner at your front door
that you swear, I swear I'mgoing to do it when I get home.
No, you're not.
You are not going to grade thosepapers when you get home.
That is not happening.
So you may as well not even putthem in your teacher bag, to be
(20:20):
honest with you.
And honestly, you can probablyeven throw some of those away.
For real.
Like, do you really have tograde everything?
The answer is no.
Okay.
All right.
Number nine.
Friday library tidy.
So this one is quick, simple,and you can actually have your
students reset the classroomlibrary every Friday.
(20:43):
So on Fridays in one of myschools, I had really short
class periods.
They were like 20 minutes everyFriday.
And all I did was my Rvocabulary test and silent
reading.
That's all we did on Fridaysbecause there was no time for
anything else.
And test prep depending on thetime of year.
And so what I would do is oncethey took their vocabulary test,
(21:04):
my students could earn theability to clean up my classroom
library.
So what I didn't want to happenwas I didn't want my students
who didn't want to read cleaningmy classroom library, right?
They had to earn it to get thatreward of being able to clean
the classroom library.
Fascinating psychology, right?
You get to earn the reward ofcleaning.
(21:25):
So we want to have themstraighten our books, fix any
misplaced titles if you havethem organized in a certain way.
Maybe you have them rotate afeatured...
book or whatever it might be.
And what it does is it keepsyour space feeling cared for.
And that really reinforces pridein your learning environment in
your classroom.
Okay.
So some final thoughts for youon this is these routines are
(21:48):
not just about being quoteunquote organized.
So I don't want you to see themas Oh, I've just got to be more
organized is what Caitlin'ssaying.
No, what I'm saying is, is thatthese routines create freedom
for you.
So instead of saying, okay, thismakes me organized.
You want to say instead toyourself, this creates freedom
for me.
So you're creating freedom fromchaos, freedom from decision
(22:12):
fatigue, freedom to actuallyenjoy your weekends without a
giant cloud of teacher stresshanging over your head.
You are creating your ownfreedom.
And so here's your challenge isI want you to pick just one of
these routines and implement itat the start of school.
Just one.
And then if you're a month inand you've got that one down
(22:33):
pat, come back and listen tothis episode and choose your
next one.
And over time, these habitsbecome the systems that are a
part of making teachingsustainable.
Even joyful again, because youhave so much more white space.
And if you are looking for donefor you, lesson plans,
time-saving tools, and acommunity of teachers who get
it, we've got that for you too.
(22:55):
We have our membership, the EBteachers, ELA portal, and we
would love to support you.
And while we aren't currentlyopen for enrollment, you can add
your name to the priority listat ebteacher.com forward slash
portal and learn more about whatour programs offer you as a
middle school ELA teacher.
All right, you guys, thanks somuch for listening today.
And again, I'm looking forwardforward to your reviews that
(23:16):
you're going to leave on iTunesbecause you're going to enter to
win the giveaway that we aredoing this month of July.
All right.
We'll see you guys next time onthe podcast.
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