Heidi: This is episode 205 of Teacher Approved.
You're listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping
educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm
Heidi.
Emily: And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story
Window, where we give research based and teacher approved
strategies that make teaching less stressful and more
effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from
each episode at secondstorywindow.net.
Heidi: We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to
the show.
Emily: Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today's
episode, we're talking about how to use just one hour a week this
summer to start the year ready and rested. And we're sharing a
teacher approved tip for creating a summer planning
ritual that actually sticks.
Heidi: But first, it's time for a try it tomorrow, a favorite
quick win that you can try in your life right away. Emily,
what is our suggestion this week?
Emily: This week, try the five minute Friday flip. Do you like
the alliteration?
Heidi: If nothing else, the title is awesome.
Emily: Every Friday, spend just five minutes flipping through
your teaching materials, whether that's your teacher binders, a
curriculum guide, or even your phone's camera roll from this
past school year. Just flip and notice what catches your eye, no
pressure to do anything with what you find. Just let your
brain start making some connections for next year.
Heidi: I love this because it is gentle prep with zero guilt.
You're just, you know, planting seeds for future planning,
without the pressure to have it all figured out right now.
Emily: If you like this idea or anything else we share here on
the podcast, would you take a second give us a five star
rating and review on Apple podcasts?
Heidi: Over the years, Emily and I have created an extensive
library of back to school products. To help you find the
tools that will make the start of your New Year easier, today
we are spotlighting our editable classroom seating chart maker.
Tell us more about this, Emily.
Emily: Oh, we love this product so much. Not only will it help
you at the start of the year, but it will be such a huge
support all year long. One of the simplest, most effective
behavior management tools at your disposal is your classroom
seating arrangement. If you're intentional about how you assign
seats, you can minimize or completely eliminate so many
hassles.
Heidi: In this product, we walk you step by step through our, I
want to say patented system.
Emily: It should be patented.
Heidi: Trademark, copyright, something. But we walk you
through our system for strategic seating, and we give you over 90
different seating arrangements and list the pros and cons of
each one.
Emily: And we even include seating options for the carpet,
so you can help minimize any problems there as well.
Heidi: Now, since you're not going to know your students at
the start of the year, the strategy part of assigning seats
isn't going to help you too much yet, but the desk arrangement
part can be a huge lifesaver, even in the first few days. So
the first thing you need to do is choose an arrangement that
fits your seating options, whether you have desks or tables
or those weird triangle table thingies, then you need to
choose an arrangement that will fit your space.
Emily: The last three steps of choosing an arrangement are the
most crucial but often overlooked. Choose a seating
arrangement that supports your teaching style. If you do a lot
of cooperative work, choose an arrangement that lets students
work together. Also look for an arrangement that minimizes your
walking. You're on your feet all day. Do yourself a favor, and
make sure that you can reach each student seat in the minimum
Heidi: And last of all, and this is the secret sauce, keep as
number of steps.
many students as possible, as close to you as possible. The
number one deterrent for off task behavior is proximity to
the teacher. So leverage that power as much as you can.
Emily: We walk you through all of this in the editable
classroom seating chart maker, and you can find a link to that
in the show notes. But if you want more information, make sure
you go back to Episode 97 where we lay out this strategy in
detail.
Heidi: Well, now we are well into summer, and chances are
good that you've had at least one moment so far where that
little voice in your head asked, should you be doing something
for school right now?
Emily: Oh, yeah, that critical little voice that whispers,
everyone else is probably picking out their first week
outfits and color coding their lesson plan binders, and you're
watching Netflix at 2pm on a Tuesday??
Heidi: I hate that voice so much.
Emily: I know it's a jerk.
Heidi: She gets the better of me more times than I care to admit
publicly. She's how you know before I know it, I find myself
elbow deep in prep I didn't plan on doing, and then my summer
relaxation turns into a guilt ridden productivity spiral. Ah,
good times.
Emily: But we're not going to do that anymore. Instead, we're
going to focus on doing the right things in small, steady
steps that protect rest and build readiness. We promise, it
really is possible to start the year feeling calm and prepared
without sacrificing your summer sanity.
Heidi: This week, we are talking about what just one intentional
hour each week can do for your back to school prep. Gretchen
Rubin, from the Happier Podcast, which is a podcast that we love,
has a great hack that she calls Power Hour. She schedules time
once a week to power through the tasks that she can't normally
get herself to deal with.
Emily: And because it rhymes, you know, it's valid advice. So
we are going to take Gretchen's Power Hour idea and turn it into
teacher Power Hour. Very original, as you can tell, but
instead of using that time to call the electric company or
figure out your taxes, we're going to focus on our back to
school tasks, and we've got a six step system to help you make
it happen. We love a system.
Heidi: The first step is to build a strong foundation by
clarifying what matters to you. Second, start a list of Power
Hour tasks so you don't waste precious minutes trying to
figure out what to work on, which is always my downfall.
Third, schedule your time. Fourth, and this is the hardest
one, protect your time. Make sure you reschedule if another
obligation conflicts with your time, and then make yourself
actually do the work. And that's why that step is the hardest
part.
Emily: And then comes the fun part. Step five is to celebrate
your accomplishments, and then all you have to do is step six,
which is to repeat it next week.
Heidi: sound too hard, does it? So pour yourself a lemonade or
throw on your walking shoes, and let's talk about how to use one
hour a week to prep for back to school like the smart, seasoned
teacher you are.
Emily: Let's start where we always do by clarifying what
matters. Before you make a single list or organize a single
supply, we want you to get clear on your goal. If you joined us
for our recent webinar, we referred to this goal as your
readiness anchor.
Heidi: A readiness anchor is simply the answer to this
question, how do you want to feel as you walk into your
classroom on your first day back? For now, forget how you
might feel or what you want to accomplish before then, or how
you want your classroom to look, just ask yourself how you want
to feel.
Emily: And then this feeling is going to become your North Star.
And we cannot stress this enough, it's important to
actually choose your word, not just think about choosing a
word. If you don't name what you want, what happens is you end up
chasing every task that crosses your mind, because you have no
way of knowing which tasks are the ones that actually matter.
Heidi: So choose your readiness anchor. Maybe you want to feel
calm or grounded, maybe you want to feel excited or energized,
maybe you want to feel organized or in control. However you want
to feel is the exact right answer.
Emily: Here is why this matters so much. When you know how you
want to feel, it becomes so much easier to prioritize your prep
time. Every decision gets filtered through that goal. For
example, if your readiness goal is to feel calm, then maybe you
want to focus on tasks that reduce last minute scrambling,
like printing your welcome letter, prepping your first day
slides, or arranging your desks. And maybe you want to use our
desk arrangement tool to help you with that.
Heidi: Yeah, that would be handy dandy. But if your readiness
goal is to feel excited, maybe your prep focuses on your
favorite parts of teaching, like picking a fun new read aloud, or
prepping a first week project that you can't wait to share
with your students, or planning a classroom theme that gets you
pumped to decorate.
Emily: See the difference? When your tasks align with your why,
they stop feeling like chores and start feeling like
confidence boosters. And we think this is so important that
we have updated our BTS Success course to start with a whole
module on teacher recovery and emotional anchoring, because
everything else is going to flow from there.
Heidi: So before you do anything else, pause this podcast and get
clear on your readiness anchor. We're serious. This is your
homework. Write it down. Put it somewhere that you can see it.
Let it guide every choice you make about how to spend your
summer prep time.
Emily: Okay, you got it? Do you have your word? Good. That's
step one. Step two is to make your Power Hour task list. This
is where you jot down all of the tasks that will contribute to
your readiness goal. If your goal is to feel balanced, your
list will be full of tasks like prepping freezer meals, creating
standard operating procedures for repeated tasks and
streamlining your workflow.
Heidi: Ideally, try to use this time to focus on light touch
prep. Light touch prep means low time, low effort, high payoff.
These are the tasks that in one focused hour can move the needle
significantly without draining your summer energy.
Emily: On the one hand, you could spend three hours deep
cleaning your classroom library, or you could spend one hour
creating a digital welcome packet that parents will
reference all year long. Both are helpful, but one gives you
way more bang for your buck.
Heidi: Here are some examples of light touch prep that pack a
punch. Creating templates for things that you know you will
need, like your weekly newsletter format, your
substitute plans and your parent communication scripts.
Emily: Drafting a first day slide deck with all of your
procedures and expectations. You can always tweak it later, but
having the bones ready means one less thing to stress about in
August, and we have a whole set of Google slides that you can
adapt to fit any procedure, and this will save you lots of time.
Check out the link to our tell try tally talk slides in the
show notes.
Heidi: Even something as simple as setting up your digital grade
book with student names, if you are lucky enough to already have
your class list. That 10 minutes now can save you 30 minutes
later.
Emily: The key here is choosing tasks that future you will
genuinely thank present you for doing. And the beautiful thing
is, these are exactly the kind of tasks that fit perfectly into
one focused hour.
Heidi: Remember, you're not trying to solve every classroom
challenge or prep every lesson at this point. The goal is to
set yourself up so that you can hit the ground running when it's
time to actually get back to work.
Emily: Make sure you keep your list of Power Hour tasks
somewhere handy. If you have our back to school readiness
checklists, we recently added a Power Hour list, so you can
download the updated file and then just copy the Power Hour
sheet to your existing spreadsheet. If you already have
them, it's super easy to do that.
Heidi: If you don't have the back to school readiness
checklists, this is your sign to grab them now. There are 50
pages in there, and knowing us, we'll probably add more to that
over the summer.
Emily: Yeah, by the time this comes out, there might be two
more pages.
Heidi: Who knows. But all of these pages help you clarify
your goals and maximize your time. They are a serious BTS
lifesaver, and you can find them at the link in the show notes.
Emily: Power Hour can be a motivating way to tackle some
meaningful tasks. But as every teacher knows, there are just
some things that just have to get done, and we can't magic
wand them away. Labels need to be made, folders need to be
organized, copies need to be run. All the fun stuff.
Unfortunately, all that tedious stuff is real and it's not going
anywhere.
Heidi: So here is our system for handling the must do tasks
without letting them take over your summer. First, make your
must do list. Get everything out of your head and onto paper. All
of the copying, labeling, organizing, decorating, whatever
you know has to happen before students walk through your door.
Emily: And then group similar tasks together. Make a list of
all the copies you need to make. Make a list of everything that
needs a label on it. Make a list of everything you need to finish
for your wall displays. This is just so much more efficient than
bouncing between different types of tasks.
Heidi: Now to actually get those dreaded tasks done, assign each
batch to one of your weekly summer prep hours. One week
might be copy all the things, and another week might be label
and organize supplies.
Emily: A little pro tip that works with anything, not just
schoolwork, is to pair it. If it's not your favorite task,
pair it with a treat. Get your favorite iced drink to sip while
you stand over the copier. Listen to a fun audio book while
you're organizing supplies, put on a movie in the background
while you're cutting out bulletin board letters.
Heidi: You could even lean into the summeriness of it all and
sit on the patio while you stuff folders. You don't have to
suffer through the tedious stuff. Make it as pleasant as
possible. And remember, it's just one hour a week. You can do
anything for one hour.
Emily: And if you want help prioritizing which tasks
actually matter versus which ones you can skip, we break that
down in BTS success too, so that you're not wasting time on busy
work that won't actually help your classroom run smoother. And
you can find a link to the course in the show notes.
Heidi: Okay, so you've got your readiness goal. You know what
light touch prep looks like, and you have your plan for the must
do tasks. Now comes the really important part—actually making
it happen.
Emily: These are steps three and four, schedule it and protect
it. The secret to making it happen is treating this like any
other important appointment in your life. Choose your hour.
Maybe having a set hour each week will work best for you, or
maybe it's more of a movable feast.
Heidi: Oh, that sounds exciting. For you, Saturday morning before
the rest of the house wakes up might work best. Maybe it's
Tuesday evening after your yoga class, when you're already
feeling calm and centered. Or maybe you hire a neighborhood
team to come play with your kids on Wednesday afternoons while
you escape to a coffee shop for an hour. The specific time
doesn't matter. What matters is that it's consistent and
protected. This is a date with future you and future you does
not want you to stand her up.
Emily: When you're looking at a blank calendar, it's easy to
start out with good intentions. Following through, however, is a
genuine challenge. If you're struggling to put your ideas
into practice, go back to Episode 55 where we discuss
another Gretchen Rubin idea, the four tendencies. This helps you
pinpoint what it takes for you to meet your own inner
expectations. That way you're leaning on your strengths and
not your weaknesses.
Heidi: One thing that might help with follow through is to make
as many decisions ahead of time as possible. If it helps to have
a loose structure, try assigning a theme to each week's Power
Hour. Emily, why don't you share with us the sample plan for how
you might use your summer hours?
Emily: Sure. So maybe week one, you're going to set your
readiness goal and make your must do list. Get clear on what
you're working toward, and then choose a quick win from your
list and complete it right away to build that positive momentum.
Then in week two, prep one light touch task that aligns with your
readiness goal. So maybe that's making slides for your arrival
procedure or your dismissal routine, and then batch one
thing from your tedious tasks list.
Heidi: And if you want help with those, there are priority lists
and task batching lists and the Back To School Readiness
Checklist to help you out.
Emily: And then in week three, you could plan and prep
materials for your first day. No matter your readiness anchor
goal, you're going to need a first day plan.
Heidi: Week four, draft your communication templates, things
like your welcome letter, your classroom newsletter format, or
how to help students at home handouts. Also prepare
everything that you will need for your meet the teacher open
house.
Emily: And then in week five, plan something fun that excites
you about the new year. Maybe it's a special first day
activity or a themed unit you've been wanting to try.
Heidi: That's just five hours, but it's five huge wins, and
your August self is going to be so relieved. So it's time for
step five in our Power Hour prep routine, which is to celebrate
your accomplishments. You're showing up for yourself when it
would be much easier not to and that is a huge win. Even if you
didn't check everything off your list during your hour, write
down what you did get done and give yourself a well deserved
pat on the back and maybe even a fun little treat, because you
deserve it.
Emily: I read a book called Tiny Habits, where he teaches you how
to take little, teeny steps towards your goals by making
these, like, micro habits, and then after you do it, you're
supposed to celebrate. And so his example was like, if every
time you wash your hands, you're gonna do five squats, then
afterwards you should like, give yourself a high five towards the
mirror, or you should like, do a little dance. And honestly, I
think psychologically, this might be a good tip. So maybe
come up with, like, a real little celebration for yourself
at the end of your power hour. Or, you know, you could give
yourself a little treat too. That's fine.
Heidi: And step six is to do it all again. Decide what you want
to work on next, schedule an hour for each week, and then
follow through. The beauty of this one hour system is that you
can adapt it to whatever you need in whatever season of
summer you're in.
Emily: If you're in the early weeks of summer break and you
want to do absolutely nothing school related for a while,
cool, perfect. Start your one hour routine in a couple weeks.
If you're headed back to school in a couple weeks and feeling
behind, also perfect, you still have time to make a huge
difference. You just might need maybe two or three power hours
per week. That still gives you plenty of time to enjoy your
summer and still start the year feeling ready.
Heidi: So as you're listening, assuming you're not driving,
open up your calendar and schedule your power hour for
this week. Make sure you've clarified your readiness goal
and have a list of essential tasks to help you meet that
goal. Get everything on the calendar and protect that time.
Once you're done working, take a minute to celebrate how much you
got done, and then do it all again next week, and think how
amazing you'll feel by the time that first day rolls around.
Emily: We would love to hear about your Power Hour plan. Come
join the conversation in our Teacher Approved Facebook group.
Now for our Teacher Approved Tip of the Week, where we share an
actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and
simplify the rest. This week's teacher approved tip is create a
calming planning ritual that signals prep time to your brain.
So tell us about this, Heidi.
Heidi: Well, one of the biggest challenges of summer prep is
that our brains don't automatically switch into work
mode when we are at home in our pajamas. So we want to create a
simple ritual that helps signal to your brain that it's time to
focus. This sounds serious, but I promise it doesn't have to be
complicated. Maybe it's making a special cup of tea, lighting a
candle or playing a specific playlist. Maybe it's sitting in
a particular spot in your house or clearing off a specific
workspace. The key here is consistency. Use the same ritual
every time and your brain was going to start associating those
cues with focused, productive thinking. It's kind of like
training yourself to get into work mode on command.
Emily: This may sound like a fluffy little time waster, but
science backs us up on this. Prepping for a new school year
can quietly trigger your brain's stress response. You're thinking
about everything that went wrong last year, what might go wrong
this year, and how much you have to do. That kind of pressure can
make your brain feel like it's in danger. And when that
happens, it shuts down the exact parts that you most need right
now, the creativity, the focus, the problem solving.
Heidi: And that's where a short calming ritual comes in. By
taking a few minutes to breathe deeply, ground yourself, and
reconnect with your purpose, you're activating the
parasympathetic nervous system, and that's the part of your body
that says, hey, you're safe, you've got this.
Emily: This ritual isn't just aimed at creating a nice
feeling. It's about training your brain to treat planning
time as a space of confidence and clarity, not panic or
perfectionism. Spending five precious minutes of your hour to
start peacefully will help you be much more productive during
the rest of that hour.
Heidi: And when your hour is up, consider having a closing ritual
too. Close the laptop, blow out the candle, put away your
supplies. This helps your brain transition back to summer mode,
and it prevents that, I'm always thinking about school, feeling
that can tend to creep in.
Emily: And throw in your mini celebration too. I want you to
be having a mini dance party at the end of your power hour.
Heidi: To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we're giving
extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra
credit?
Emily: credit to the book Zero Days by Ruth Ware. It's about a
woman who's in a race against time to find the person who
murdered her husband and clear her name as the main suspect.
Heidi: Oh, wow.
Emily: Yes. It's really engaging, super fast paced
thriller, and it's perfect for when you just want to get sucked
into a book, which I recently did, so I blew through it in
just a few days.
Heidi: Well, that sounds like a perfect summer read.
Emily: What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?
Heidi: I'm giving extra credit to you, Emily.
Emily: Me??
Heidi: We recently had our Teacher Summer Talk Summit, and
it was so wonderful. And Emily crushed it. She has put so much
work into this. I know on the user end, it probably doesn't
seem like that much went into it, because you're just like,
well, I listened to it. And there was some cute stuff on
Facebook and Instagram, but that was months of work. She has
worked so hard. So many late nights. You know, she'll be
texting me at midnight, still at her computer. So all the extra
credit for that, Emily. Good job, and Melanie and Sara and
everyone else that helped along the way, and all of the tech
nightmares. Oh, it was so much work, but she did an amazing
job. It was a stellar event, and it was so fun. And I think
teachers got so much out of it. So hopefully all of you joined
us there as well.
Emily: Yes, I loved that. It was a really great experience, even
if I did have to work really hard, but I learned a lot, and
hopefully next year will be easier.
Heidi: Fingers crossed.
That is it for today's episode. Remember, start with just one
hour a week and your readiness goal. Make summer prep work for
you, not against you.
Emily: And don't forget our teacher approved tip for
creating a summer planning ritual. And if you're looking
for more structured support in your planning, check out BTS
Success at the link in the show notes.
Heidi: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm
Heidi.
Emily: And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow
or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an
episode.
Heidi: You can connect with us and other teachers in the
Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.
Bye for now.
Emily: Bye.