Top teaching "hacks"?

[2slicesoftoast]

I know I'm crazy. it's not even half way through the holidays here and I'm already thinking about the classroom BUT I came across a great tip on another thread that is inspired.... a school that punches holes in exercise books and worksheets and the pupils use treasury tags to keep them in place. I love it!
I'll add one of mine. My pupils sit in groups so I name each group and label the books with a sticker corresponding to the group name (Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace, Empire State Building....). Makes handing our books so quick and the start of lessons much slicker.
Any one willing to share their time saving Ideas?

Treasury tags seems like a great idea but doesn't work in practise. The sheets rip and then fall out. The children leave the pages anyway and just turn over. The books look a complete mess! Sorry to spoil it!

Share lesson plans and resources with colleagues.

When you have essays or pieces of writing to mark, mark 5 or 6 (taking a "range" of kids in the class e.g. boys, girls, SEND and non SEND, one you expect to do well, one you expect to struggle, one who's around average), and, as you mark, write down feedback on a separate sheet. Then photocopy the feedback sheet and attach it to all of the students' work.

Rotate each week / fortnight so that different students' work is in the marked sample each time.

Our Maths department uses the hole punch and treasury tag method, and it seems to work (I'm not a Maths teacher). I think there are only a few loose sheets to attach, though, so maybe that's the trick.

I teach English and we use folders from Year 10 upwards.

It might well work with older kids. I teach little ones and it was a disaster! I was so disappointed!

My biggest one is try to mark within the lesson if at all possible. The kids get so much more from instant feedback and it cuts down on the amount of marking you have to take home.

Also teach the kids routines early in the term that will make your life a tiny bit easier. Eg taking responsibility for getting resources out and putting them away.

We were going to hole punch books and add treasury tags for sheets however I spoke to lots of schools and departments that have tried it and they all said it was a complete headache.

We have bought A4 plus books so no more trimming sheets

I'm secondary if that helps. (It sounds like you're primary but it can still apply.)
I'm still building up (and have been for the last two years, been teaching for much longer than that) a bank of resources - PPT, and then RAG sheets (even including extension where I can find it).
It's been great to use lessons I've got ready planned and good to go - I don't let the students write on the sheets which is how I justify my printing bill to my HOD.
They're all in zip wallets, filed by attainment target (if you're old-school NC), and then alphabetically.
I can then either adapt them / re-write them for LAPS etc if I need to. (And then file them in my filing cabinets.)
To give you an idea of what I've built up, when I delete my pen drive (32GB) and copy everything across again it takes nearly two hours.
It currently takes up two and a half four drawer filing cabinets.
If you can find a colleague to share with you too, so you can swap that would be great. My department are not very sharing, but I've shared my lessons with another teacher who has just down NTTC (? Not sure about abbreviation), and hope he'll do the same for me.

Agree with Sunnybeachbabe re: marking in lesson and getting students into time-saving, efficient routines, for fetching and returning equipment tidily, for example.

Don't do any written marking unless it adds something that can't be done another way.

(Please nobody shout at me on this one) Don't waste time making more work for yourself by reinventing the wheel, making fiddly resources that take longer to make than use, avoid laminating the shit out of everything, avoid overinvesting silly amounts of time on pretty-fying your room (nobody needs box labels changing to match this term' s topic).

Ask others to swap resources and share, share, share.

Be aware that sometimes you can spend longer on TES resources wading through a mix of reasonable and crap material that you'll probably have to extensively change to make it work. It's not always the timesaver you think.

PowerPoint - if you use it, keep it simple.

(Please nobody shout at me on this one) Don't waste time making more work for yourself by reinventing the wheel, making fiddly resources that take longer to make than use, avoid laminating the shit out of everything, avoid overinvesting silly amounts of time on pretty-fying your room (nobody needs box labels changing to match this term' s topic).

Totally agree. Do you want them to learn the sound or do you want them to learn to complete a fiddly process?

From a primary POV, simplicity and routine.... I spent my early teaching years trying to reinvent the wheel only to discover that the wheel is generally pretty good as is!

Agree with MaisyPops, great suggestions.

Live mark as much as you can. Walk round with a pen. If you see each class 3x week you can get round all 30 or so every week or two. Mine are in rows, I do a row a lesson, each pupil should have feedback (instructions and stamp).

My department expects nothing else marked unless it's assessed.

With assessments I do a sheet with 10 or so common improvements/tips, and three tasks based on the assessment to tackle. I highlight two or three instructions and the most appropriate 'next task'. Saves writing same old feedback over and over.

Amend for each assessment and after s year you've got a bank of progress focused assessment feedback that's simple to use.

Address labels on a roll work perfectly on the cheapest lol-roll holder in the school catalogue

I'm in a secondary school art department and we could never find the roll of labels, now I always know where they are.

An assessment/ photo app like SEESAW helps you to record and assess practical and spoken activities as you go. This helps you to be more comfortable with teaching lessons with a practical and verbal content and less reliant on " something to put in their book"

Make your room look really good now while you have time for display, and change displays as little as possible. I'm primary and unless your school has rules about how often you have to update displays, no one will notice, especially if these displays help the children every day, like key words.

When I'm given a non teaching task such as evaluating EHCP targets, I try to do it then and there or i forget.

Another display hack, we have a load of clip boards screwed to the wall so it's easy to swap things quickly.

In primary a board with washing lines strung across it makes it quick and easy to swap displays around to highlight the best pieces of the week.

Display tip: remountable spray.

Spray the back of whatever you're putting into the backing paper. Then you can move and remove easily. No more swearing at staples....

Share within your department.
No gimmicks (card sorts, puzzles, ...) that take you ages to make and will last 2 minutes.
Keep it simple, stick to routines.

Re: the stickers on books tip. I used to put a little rectangle of electrical tape on the spine of each exercise book, with each group being represented by a different colour. That worked a treat for quick and easy hand outs of books.

I left teaching but I guess I do miss the little bits and bobs that used to make it enjoyable, back in the day.....🤔

Agree for Primary something like Tapestry is great if you have an iPad to use in class. Quick photo, attach learning objective from bank and make a comment. Print off and bob’s your uncle.

It’s only 50 quid a year for something like 20 kids. However, as a teaching tool there is no need to load individual kids, you could just have your entire class as one ‘pupil’ or load your table groups.

Perfect for quickly recording Science/ History/ Music, whatever. If you use floor books you don’t even have to stick it in 30 times.

If you’re primary, keep a spare set of clothes in your classroom cupboard. I’ve been vomited on one too many times and driving home in those clothes is not pleasant...

Anythingforacatslife Spare clothes useful in secondary too...my colleague had a ceiling tile burst and filthy water splash all over her, and - more typically - I've had printer ink / toner, food, blood (student's nosebleed), and paint on me on various occasions at work (I don't teach art! Or food technology!) And you know those days will coincide with the days you have to meet the reporting inspector, or That Parent, or be photographed for something or other!

If you’re primary, keep a spare set of clothes in your classroom cupboard. I’ve been vomited on one too many times and driving home in those clothes is not pleasant...

Was never vom that got me - was usually my own shit coordination (since DD2 got diagnosed with dyspraxia I think increasingly she got it from me) and missing my mouth with my coffee cup meaning I got to spend the day trying to hide the coffee stain on my right tit with various "oh my lanyard just fell like this to have my ID balanced precariously there" manoeuvres every time I was speaking to someone vaguely important (IE over the age of about 7)

I'm supply.

When I have been left with the, "makes notes from the book then answer the questions"

After 1/2 an hour I put the time in the margin where the student's last word is, sometimes it is just the date. I then leave a note for the usual teacher sayng that's what I have done.

I also have a pack of logic puzzle cards in my bag for when no work has been left or I'm covering a tutor group.

I also have pens, bright sparkly pens, with "stolen from Ms X" on them. I was fed up of losing pens, I still do lose the odd one but no where near as many.

When I use a powerpoint the students have a gapped handout to fill in the important parts, it means I know they have got the most important bits and I tell them to use their own definitions. At one college the a group were given netbooks so I put the handout online.

To explain cell membranes / diffusion / channels buy a bag of ball pool balls and a couple of brightly coloured foootballs. Stand a group of students (5-6) in a circle with their legs 30 cm apart and let the rest of the class roll the ball pool balls at the 'cell' they tend to throw them but they don't hurt and you end up with the balls 'diffused' around the room and in the 'cell'.

One of the students in the cell membrane is a calcium channel, they take hold of the calcium football and bring it into the cell but the other students can't.

Repeat with other channels.

When I'm in my other subject and explaining different topologies of computer networks I have students arranged in different topologies, instead of packets of data they pass packets of sweets around the topology.

Sharing resources is the biggest timesaver that there is. It really helps if you can find someone to work with in this regard.