productivity Archives

08 Oct 2019

4 Hour [Teacher] Workweek? | Best Business Books To Influence Your Teaching

In this video, I explore some of the principles of I learned from Tim Ferriss' 4 Hour Workweek in my classroom, particularly 'elimination' and 'automation.' What are things I can just STOP doing?What are things I can AUTOMATE by having someone else do it (a student) or technology do it for me? Spoiler alert…I still work more than 4 hours ;) https://youtu.be/PuycAhe9jLc Resources mentioned: 💸Classroom economy resources⏱4 Hour Workweek | Tim Ferriss📝Writing in math class➗Khan Academy online math exercises🤳Remind text reminders🎧Tim Ferriss Show podcast🥩Books & Beef Jerky Instagram🏫My teacher Instagram

13 Jun 2019

12 Ways To Make The Most of TEACHER SUMMER

In this video, I share the ways I structure my daily routine during the summer in an effort to do the things I want to do and not waste the day away scrolling on Instagram. In addition to how I structure my days, I also give you 12 things to do or try this summer to make the most of your teacher summer! https://youtu.be/BzLX_sM0dwY Resources Referenced: 'Daily Rituals' by Mason Curry Planboard My 'Books & Beef Jerky' Instagram 'My Teacher Side Hustles This Summer' video Emeals recipe app 'Thom Teaches YouTube' channel

04 Sep 2017

Post 02 – My Teacher Hacks

There's a community of math teachers on Twitter who are participating in a weekly blogging challenge and this weeks prompt was to write about teacher hacks. Here's what I think I do that could be considered hacks; ways that I save time, energy, or resources as a teacher. 1. Optimizing my most productive time of the day I found that in my late 20's, I started to become much more of a morning person. I began waking up at 5am a couple years ago even though I didn't have to leave my house until 7:30. After breakfast, some time of…

10 Sep 2016

Entry 3 – The Teacher Work/Life Balance & All-Boy Classes

It was a short week with Labor Day off. This weeks reflection prompt is: Are you working too hard? Do you have tips for achieving life-work balance? I've been thinking about this a lot. Talked to my sis last week and she teaches Spanish in public school in Tennessee. She has five or six classes and three of them have 35 students. That's huge. She shared how she tries to make assignments that are a little easier to grade but when looking for correct spelling and usage and accent marks for 150+ students, that's going to take a while. Not…

04 Jan 2016

Christmas Break Vlogging – What Do You Mean You Haven’t Read All The Harry Potters!?

Christmas Break winds down. I try to find my optimal working time in the day and figure out what to do while Sara is at work all day :) (more…)

28 Sep 2015

Tech Tip – Update Google Calendars Through Google Sheets

This year, I've started to send out a weekly Tech Tip to my colleagues in an effort to help them use technology to streamline their workflow. Below, I've included a tech tip I sent out about using FormMule to manage class calendars from a Google Sheet. It's saved me a ton of time and I hope it does for you too :) You'll need THIS Google Sheet with the magical FormMule script in it. SETTING UP YOUR SHEET http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVPN-iAThsg MAKING CHANGES / DELETING YOUR ENTRIES

23 May 2015

Using Evernote To Help Students Study For Final Exams

To help my students review for their final exam, I gave them a copy of the mid-term that covered our first semester's concepts, as well as a review packet for concepts we discussed 2nd semester. Originally I was going to have the answer key in class available to any students who wanted to check their work. The packets weren't for a grade, just a resource for them. A couple students suggested I put the answer key online, which is something I've done in the past. I pulled up Evernote and I'd used the document camera before, but I'd usually have…

07 Aug 2013

How I Made A Database of Lesson Ideas With Evernote

I finally downloaded Evernote this past June. I knew it was an organization tool but I wasn't really sure exactly what it did. My goal was to try and solve a few problems I found myself running into as an educator. Resources Everywhere One issue I kept running into as a teacher was having resources all over the place. If I remembered that I saw a great idea for a geography lesson, I didn't remember if I pinned it on Pinterest, read it in an email, favorited it on Twitter, bookmarked the website, saw it on a worksheet, read it…

26 Jul 2013

Diminishing Your Creativity By Reading Too Much?

I've never been much of a reader. I never even wanted to read the GOOD books in high school; I got CliffsNotes for Lord of the Flies. The book was only like 80 pages and the plot even intrigued me, but I just couldn't bring myself to sit and read. Around the time I started college, I began to explore my faith in Christianity further. In addition to the books of the Bible, I actually began to read books on different faith-related topics and would write a written reflection on some of the things I was learning. Unlike reading, journaling…