TheApple

I know it'll be hard to limit it to one, but what's your biggest daily challenge as a teacher?

Getting the kids to listen the first time around so I don't have to repeat myself over and over again! 

I'd like to say "time to grade and enter grades into system" but I think that is a procrastination issue.

So then it is a toss up between getting lab materials (I have to frequently buy myself and sometimes I forget the night before to get and set in car) and cleaning up after labs.  This year I have a volunteer who is cleaning for me, so it is down to getting lab materials/supplies/equipment.

Deven says ...

brownoser says ...

I know this sounds lame, but sometimes my biggest challenge is getting up at the crack of dawn to go to school. Everything after that seems manageable! 

I'm with you brownoser. I get up at 4:20 every morning so that I can shower, eat breakfast, take the dog for a walk, and drive the 23 miles to school and find parking where I won't get a $50+ ticket. I like to get to school about 30-40 minutes early to make sure all my technology is working, lay out materials, chat with colleagues and take care of paperwork that mysteriously appears in my mailbox after everyone goes home.

OK, 4:20 is not "crack of dawn"... it is earlier.

Well, Eeyore, I do have SAD but I put in special lights and try to get my sunrays as much as I can on weekends.

I expect most of us have adjusted to the early hours.  Has anyone else's daily challenge changed?

apple4blea says ...

Juggling it all!   I have 3 ADORABLE babies at home (4 if you count my husband) ...  I have 21 ADORABLE kinder kids that are also very important to me!  

 

Organization tips:  does anyone have good ones?!?!? 

In addition to the ideas I emailed you, check out these sites:  http://organizedhome.com/, http://www.30daygourmet.com, http://www.onlineorganizing.com/ExpertAdviceToolbox.asp, http://shesorganized.com/

Things I did when my children were small (and I worked from 8 am to 6 pm, 5 days/week, year round):

- I brought them with me everywhere so I could spend time with them. 

- I made meals ahead and froze them, made healthy snacks by the bushel and froze them.

- When they were all in high chairs, they were fed at the same time (we stripped tops off to save on laundry - when they got older we had to teach them that keeping a shirt on at dinner was ok! LOL)

- When they were all in diapers I used cloth diapers and did a load a night.  And when I changed one, I changed them all!  (I actually got carpel tunnel from lifting their legs!)

- Once they could walk, the children helped prepare dinner.  My DD still teases me about how I let her cut broccoli at the age of three and she got a cut on her finger!  Do you have a salad spinner?  If not, ask your mom to give you one for christmas -- a salad spinner is a water top with greenery!  Any age child can tear lettuce.  (even Ethan-laughing baby, LOL)

- My DH helped.

- I did my work when they went to bed.

- Bath time and Reading hour were never skipped - it gave us all the together time we needed.

- My children have a great immunity to common germs and don't get sick much because the house was a mess!

- We still went camping (with kiddie-portapotty and portable crib and baby backpack)

- Whenever I could they were all enrolled in the same activity (all took gym, all took dance, all took art, all had music lessons at the same studio, all were in soccer)

- Take just one day a month, plan out the month for food (which is a time-consuming activity).

- I had an 8-passenger van and would take other kids whenever I could -- they seem to amuse each other longer that way. I can count to six as easily as I can count to three at the playground.or beach.

- We did not have a tv with reception (ie cable) until the children were about 6,7,8, but Friday nights was alwys pizza (mom too tired) and "big bed movies" where we all climbed onto our bed and watched a video.  Wind-down Friday.

- AND NUMBER ONE TIP:  GNO. Every few months the girls would go out and the boys had the children to watch.  Just getting together with a bunch of girlfriends helped keep us all going!

Good Luck!!!

I am needing my GNO!  We don't schedule them in September because the month is hectic for anyone with children going back to school or for teachers, so we are overdue.  I'm emailing the girls right now to start the ball rolling.