1. No matter what planner I’ve had or lesson planning system I’ve used, I have always felt that the big tasks, the big projects I was working on as a teacher - like planning a unit, creating an assessment, planning out review and remediation, etc. - I always felt that no matter the lists I made to know what needed accomplished it just felt like I was barely keeping my head above water to get it all created and done in time.
1. Now, with Asana in my business, which absolutely applies to lesson planning and creation, then implementation in the classroom, I’m able to see when something I’m creating needs to be absolutely finished, and plan backwards, seeing where I have time available and when I’m able to work on it, and when I need to have certain aspects done in order to keep the train moving, but in ways that I’m not always thinking about only it.
2. In the classroom, if I ever wanted to implement something new and it required my creating and planning...

Raise your hand if you’ve ever emailed yourself information pertaining to a student so you were reminded of it later or it was at least documented somewhere that existed outside of your brain?

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a pile of paper rubrics you completed after some student performance-based work that you then needed to add into your online grade book?

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been asked “well, did you call the parents?” when in a meeting about an issue with a particular students’ performance or behavior.

I don’t know about you, but to me that seems like, and for me was at some point, a whole lot of physical and mental clutter in the forms of paper and unorganized thoughts I needed to recall at any given and very important moment.

I have a solution for you.

In today’s video I’m not just going to talk about “How to use Google Forms in your classroom” - nope, we’re going to get real specific and...

When I first started teaching, I hated lesson planning.  I loved teaching from day one, but when I had to sit down and write out plans I was doing it on someone else’s terms (meaning it wasn’t in the format that was helpful to me), and I knew by writing it down I would look at it once and then have to redo it again next year.

I hate doing things twice.

That’s when I stopped writing my lesson plans on paper and kept them completely digital.  Most teams I worked on did the same, which gave us a huge advantage because then our plans were sharable.  That’s a total game changer when it comes to collaboration for a team - seriously, it was beautiful.

Collaboration and team planning is one of the biggest benefits to digital lesson plans, but there are many others, and I want to point you to episode 5 of this podcast where I give 3 Steps to Sustainable Planning, and the first step is to go digital.  In that episode I talk about the benefits, so...

The list of lessons learned in 2020 is probably about a mountain high for most of us, and somewhere in the midst of it is all the skills and talents of managing the role of virtual teacher.  It truly is no small feat, and I hope that teachers aren’t the only ones who recognize that fact.

And that’s exactly why here at Teach On A Mission we wanted to do The Virtual Teacher Series.  So that we shine light on not only how tricky it all can be, but how so many teachers are rocking it (they may not describe it that way, but simply because they keep showing up, they are rocking it!).

From understanding your influence as a virtual teacher to reaching for more sustainable workflow to better systems of parent communication, we’ve touched on topics that I hope have brought value to your week and even your experience as a virtual teacher.

My hope for this week’s post is no different.

This week, in the last part of our Virtual Teacher Series, our focus is on a...

“Hours!” she said.  “I spent HOURS on my Sunday afternoon grading just late work alone, and then you want to know what I had to do the rest of the week?”  I could almost guess what it was, “call parents” she said, exacerbated.  My teacher friend went on to explain how as it’s the end of the quarter and grades are due soon, it’s that time of the year that comes around four times per year to communicate to parents whose child is near or actually failing a course.

I squinted and turned my head to the side to lessen the blow of her answer as I asked, “how long did it take to contact parents?”

Three days after school until well past 5pm.

We’ve all been there.  We’ve all been in a place where something in our teaching lives is taking up way more hours than we want it to, or than is healthy.  Whether that’s because we’re new at it and haven’t developed the processes to make it...

In various live Q&A sessions I do with groups of teachers in my programs, whether that’s the weekly Q&A in Flipped Classroom Formula or either of the monthly Q&A sessions I do for Sustainable Psych Teacher or my Insider’s Group, one of the most asked questions and top concerns teachers have had in preparing for and implementing their blended or virtual classrooms this year has been…

Testing.

Welcome to week two of the 5-part Virtual Teacher Series where we at Teach On A Mission™ hope to shine a light of positivity on all the hard work being done by teachers to prepare the virtual aspects of their classrooms, as well as offer some encouragement and strategies for those teachers.

This week we are focusing on, you guessed it, testing in the virtual classroom.  (If you haven't yet, now would be a good time to go check out week one's post here).

Testing in the traditional classroom is a pain in and of itself.  It’s one that teachers...

After a two month hiatus, I'm so glad to get back to blogging each week with the goal of providing a place of encouragement, and maybe a few tips, for teachers.  My hope is that this tiny spot on the internet can be one that  you routinely, albeit quickly, visit to fill up your cup as you take on each  week as a virtual teacher.  But, you know what I blame for a two month interlude from consistently blogging each week????  Three words...

Back to school.

The months of August and September this year were incredibly unique and I think it took most of us, or at least it did me, by surprise.  As a child, I was one of those kids who secretly geeked out about the back to school season.  School shopping, picking out my own supplies that were color coordinated for my classes (#extra), setting out my outfit for the first days of school, and getting back into the fresh start that is the beginning of the school year, year after year, was something I always...