3 Things You Can Do in May to Make Back-to-School Easier!

I am married to a Certified Public Account.  He works 80+ hours a week during tax season.  He is adamant that teachers have two "tax seasons"- the end of summer/first month of school, and the last month or so of school.  Of course, there are always those weeks (or months!) where we are totally slammed by report cards, IEPs, etc...  I appreciate him noticing how much time and effort go into getting a school year up and running!  After 12 or 13 years of teaching, I finally started remembering to start prepping for Back-to-School time during May and June!

Here are three time savers that I REALLY appreciate having done come September!

1.  PURGE!!!  As I'm going in and out of my filing cabinet during the last 8 weeks or so of school, I pull files and such that I haven't touched all school year.  In my early years of teaching I had such a hard time letting go of things.  "What if I need that paper someday?"  "What if I decide to move to another grade next year and this paper would be useful then?"  After a decade of rarely needing that "someday" paper or file, I'm starting to have an easier time of letting things go!

During my planning time last week, I had 4 minutes to spare before I needed to head to the Art room to pick up my kinders.  I opened a drawer of my filing cabinet and took a quick look.  I pulled out several files I hadn't touched in two years.

This purge only took 4 minutes!  (The file folders had been at a weird angle in the drawer and I knew I'd never get them to sit correctly again- hence the purge of the actual folders and not just the contents.)

2.  Copy!  Start to copy for September right now!  Let's be real for a second.  If your school is anything like mine, trying to make copies just before or just after the school year starts can be stressful!  Lines at the copy machines, jams at the copier during the only time you have free to copy that day, etc...

I pull out my September folder in May and leave it on my teacher table.  Each time I head to the copy room, I try to grab one thing from the September folder.  I have a bin in my classroom where I put the September copies.  It is a great feeling to see that bin fill up before the school year even ends!

3.  (My favorite hack!!)  Layer your bulletin boards!!  I finished this one with 5 weeks left in the school year.  It may be the only one I get to, and that's okay with me.  It's still one less afternoon I'll need to spend at school at the end of my summer break!

So bear with me here...  

First, I took down the cloth I had for my current bulletin board display.

Next, I covered the board with the fabric that will be the background of my first bulletin board of the school year next September.

Then I put up my June bulletin Board.  The kiddos will put their hand prints and names on this board and it will stay up for our end of the year celebration with families.

Next, I put on the background of our May bulletin board and then completed the entire bulletin board.

This is one of my absolute favorite bulletin boards!  It makes me happy to look at it!  However, it makes me even more happy to know that my end of year and beginning of next year boards are prepped behind it! 

Thinking ahead has made a BIG difference in how relaxed I feel over the summer!  

What do you do to prep for the next school year before the current one ends?  Leave a comment with your favorite tip!!