After a long year of teaching (especially this last year!), we know that teachers need a break during the summer! Unfortunately, the summer vacation flies by so sometimes it is necessary to spend a little time during the summer months to prepare for the next year. Some easy prep work now can make a significant difference at the start of your school year and avoid a scramble. Here are a few quick steps you can take to be better prepared for next year!
Organize Your Files
After a long school year have you ever looked at your Google Drive, One Drive, or Downloads folder to discover the chaotic aftermath of 180 school days and a plethora of document types? As an educator, this is your reality. It is hard to be organized during the year and July is usually the time to clean things up. If you do not stay on top of your files each year, you will end up with duplicates and “lost” documents, creating frustration! Take a bit of time and sort through everything to start afresh next school year.
Create Folders for Next School Year
While organizing last year’s files, take a moment to future-trip to next school year. You’re organized, on top of everything, what even is chaos anymore? Even though this scenario sounds like a distant fantasy, we can at least attempt to make this a reality. Take time to set up folders for the next school year. Common methods include organizing by school year dates and then sub folders for subjects and/or units. You don’t want to create too many folder layers- that is just setting yourself up for failure because who has time to click into a million folders to organize things? Keep it simple and maybe this organizational fantasy can become reality!
Prep Everyday Documents
Do you have a Meet the Teacher document that you hand out every year? What about daily/weekly slides? Department forms to reset? We all have documents we use consistently throughout the year. Summer is a wonderful time to let your creativity flow on these types of things without the deadline of the school year looming. Take a little time to sit down and refresh these documents. Even if you do not have the creative bug, taking time to search out, buy, or download templates will be a great use of your time. You will have so many things to do come August, getting this checked off will be an immense help!
Ending Thoughts
Educators, make sure to take care of yourselves this summer. Rest plenty and detox from this last year, it is well deserved. Nonetheless, it’s helpful to prepare now and ease the stress of the rapidly approaching school year; taking advantage of your low-key summer days to do this clean-up and readying yourself will bring peace of mind in the hectic preparations before the first day!
