Teacher in-service time is going to vary greatly based on your school. Your school might start late and only have 2 days of in-service before students arrive, or you might have 2 weeks and have ample flex time built in the schedule to get ready for the school year.
Either way, you still have lots to do and not a lot of time to do it, so let’s tackle some ways we will not waste a single minute of teacher in-service.
Make sure to come back this summer as we waste no time during:
- planning periods
- teacher in-service (you are reading this now)
- instruction
- the first 5 minutes of class
Prioritize
Start by utilizing order of operations. Sure, students will need a lesson for the first day of school, but are the desks and chairs set up so students can sit down during that lesson?
“Done is better than perfect.” – Sheryl Sandberg
This is the motto we will adopt with limited time heading into the school year. For Noelle, it meant that her room needed to function at a B- (furniture set up, teacher desk generally organized, boxes unpacked) before she tackled the first week of lessons for school. A pretty classroom was important to her, so it served as a great motivator to accomplish necessary tasks. Once that first week was planned and copied, she would get her classroom to A+.
I am a little different. My environment is really important to my headspace, so I came up to the school before in-service started, enlisted a friend (Noelle), and knocked out my room in a day.
Ask yourself – what needs to happen so my students can learn and I can work? Brain dump as many first week of school tasks (seating charts, organizing manipulatives, activity set up, reading through paperwork for new class, professional development deliverables, laminating things, supply requests, setting up and organizing technology, meetings with your math and grade level team, setting up a substitute binder, writing a syllabus …. (Insert 100 more)). Once you have made that list, put dates by anything that has a deadline. You might also group things by how much brain power it requires: laminating and organizing tech would be something to accomplish at the end of the day. I liked to write this on my whiteboard where it was nice and visible and extremely satisfying to erase/cross off.
Work Together
As mentioned above, Noelle made it a priority to help me set up my classroom for many years. Many hands make light work, but it wasn’t only having two sets of hands that helped, it was also 2 sets of eyes! When hanging things in my classroom, Noelle was able to tell me if things were straight or spaced evenly before I stapled posters into the wall.
You can recruit a non-teaching friend, a teaching friend, or a kind family member. An extra person can also complete tedious tasks that don’t require a lot of direction. That way you can use your brainpower elsewhere. My teacher friend had her mom set up and organize her classroom library, so she was free to set up her teacher desk space and files.
Perhaps you can create a system at your school. At one school, we wrote down requests on a whiteboard. You’d write your name, room number, and the need then after P.D., everyone split up to go fulfill those requests. It was a great team-builder!
Reliable Curriculum
I’ve experienced years when the standards were rewritten, when I was starting from scratch, and when I was given what the previous teacher used the year prior. I did my best to improve and create something that would help my students learn math! But the best year I ever had both from a work life balance and from a student results/mastery standpoint were the years I used Maneuvering the Middle curriculum! I was able to spend my in-service time reviewing the lessons and thinking about my instructional approach. I wasn’t going down the rabbit hole of searching for lessons online or staring at a blank document wondering “How am I going to teach ratios?”
The time you will save over the school year will be astronomical.
“My biggest win has been the amount of time that I have saved lesson planning. It has been an absolute life saver. I have 3 preps – and Maneuvering the Middle takes care of them all.” – Deborah
“I used to spend way too much time trying to find quality things for my students. I teach three different grade levels. Maneuvering the Middle gave me my life back and I know my students are getting what they need!” – Karin
In-service usually consists of so many meetings and professional development opportunities. And while these things can be useful, teachers are busy at the beginning of the school year!
How do you use your teacher in-service time?
