Join Bridget Spackman, creator of Bridging Literacy and face of the Lettered Classroom as she shares her week of navigating a busy to-do schedule and a life with two rambunctious boys, her golden-doodle, Walter, and husband. 

Bridget shares how she structures her work work to ensure that she is moving forward in her business, as an educator, and spending time with family.

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Are you still using a Flash Drive or External Hard Drive? Do you store all of your documents on your desktop? Is your organization system nonexistent? If you’ve said yes to any one of these questions, this podcast episode is for you. 

So much of what we do as educators is now online. 2020 has thrusted our careers into the digital age and now is the time to begin embarrassing what technology can do for your productivity and for your teaching. However, new ways of going about every day can pose new problems. Today, we are giving you one really BIG solution to several problems. 

The first is to STOP using a flash drive or external hard drive to store your documents. The risk of you forgetting, damaging or even losing these portable devices is not worth the hours and pain you might suffer. Google Drive is the solution for you. We know. You might be thinking but I’ve used it and I like having all my items on a flash drive. We get it. In  fact, Bridget was echoing your thoughts not too long ago. 

Google Drive is a free, online cloud-based storage solution through Google. This is a place to store all your documents and files. You receive 15GB for free but there are reasonable paid options for either a monthly or yearly rate. This is connected to your Google account and it has integrated applications such as Google Slide, Google Docs, Google Sheets and more. 

In this episode we share our knowledge on the what, why and how of Google Drive for teachers. In this episode you will learn…

• How to create a free Google Drive account

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Ever wonder how Michelle Emerson tackles her busy schedule? This week Michelle is sharing her new schedule as she transitions to hybrid in the middle of the year. Listen as she shares how she manages to accomplish her goals, keep her school work at school and manage a successful business and YouTube channel.  

Michelle will dig deep into how she establishes her plan for the day, tackles a busy to-do list and establishes boundaries for doing more of what she loves. 

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Now if you’re feeling extra loving, We would be really grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find our podcast and they’re also fun for us to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let us know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

Life has a way of throwing curveballs, especially during times when  you feel like you have it all together. Earlier this year we both had a period that took the rug right out from under us. It put us behind in our personal tasks, and work tasks. While this can be overwhelming and frustrating, there are strategies that have helped us not only reduce stress but also play catch-up.

While these tips we are sharing are not evolutionary, they are a good reminder during difficult times. Save this episode, and come back to it as a mode of inspiration that will guide you through stressful and overwhelming times. 

In this episode we share: 

• Prioritize what is important (What is glass and what is rubber?)

LINKS:

045. The REALITY of Establishing Balance

064. How WE Handle Stress as a Teacher

Submit your TSH

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Now if you’re feeling extra loving, We would be really grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find our podcast and they’re also fun for us to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let us know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

There are always things that get in the way of  our teaching. We have papers overflowing our desks, copies that need to be made, and  emails that need to be answered. At the end of January we asked you which would you choose and overwhelmingly, you all said no grading.

Today we want to share 10 hacks that will help you tackle your grading woes! 

10 EASY TO IMPLEMENT GRADING HACKS

• Hack 1: Stop Grading Everything

Links:

30 Days to ONLY Working Contract Hours

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Everyone experiences stress, but how we choose to handle stress can determine the impact that it has on your overall happiness and productivity. Most of us view stress with a negative connotation, but stress can in fact be healthy to experience. 

Consider how diamonds are created. The pressure experienced reveals a beautiful diamond that can last for years to come. When we understand how we respond to stress then we can develop strategies for how we plan on controlling the stress in the long term. 

Over the years we have experienced a variety of stress as teachers. In this episode, we are sharing some of our tips on how we personally handle stress as teachers. We hope these tips will help you in the same way that they have helped us. 

In this episode we share:

• Try and be proactive so that you are not completely blindsided

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Everyday we forget tasks that need to be completed because we fail to process the information and write it down. So often, we tell ourselves “Oh, I need to remember to…” only to forget it with little hope in recovery of what we intended to do in the first place. We have a solution to this problem! 

The Notes app is a free app that comes standard to Apple devices. You are able to take and store various types of notes and access the information across all Apple devices that are connected to the cloud. This application has the potential to store brain dumps, checklists, recipes, gift ideas and more. 

Learn how we use this app to increase our productivity, reduce forgetfulness, and organize various aspects of our life. You’ll discover the WHAT, WHY and HOW of the Notes App. 

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Now if you’re feeling extra loving, We would be really grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find our podcast and they’re also fun for us to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let us know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

We did it! We took a personality test and we are sharing it all in today’s episode. We have been seeing a lot of educators discuss their Enneagram online and we thought it would be fun to take an enneagram ourselves and discuss what it means for our productivity as teachers. 

An Enneagram personality tests describes personality in terms of nine types, each driven by their own set of core emotions, fears, and beliefs. The free test which can be found here takes about 10-15 minutes to complete and asks you a series of 105 questions in which you place your response on to a scale of least to greatest. 

This was Bridget’s first time taking the test and Michelle’s second time. Listen in as we discuss our Enneagram types and whether or not we agree with the results. 

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Now if you’re feeling extra loving, We would be really grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find our podcast and they’re also fun for us to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let us know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

We all love a good hack. It’s not because of the creativity behind the design but because of how simple it can make seemingly complicated tasks. It can be easy to over complicate things especially when we are in search of solutions. But here is the thing, you can make small changes that add up to big results! 

We’ve got 10 simple hacks that you can start to implement TODAY and start seeing amazing results. Now remember, you do not have to do all of these; in fact, we recommend that you do not try all of these at once. Choose one hack to start with and add one each week as you feel more confident. 

OUR 10 EASY TO IMPLEMENT HACKS

Hack #1: Follow the 2-minute rule

Hack #2: Eat the frog

Hack #3: Set timers

Hack #4: Pomodoro principle

Hack #5: Lock your phone

Hack #6: Create a micro-productivity list

Hack #7: Double up

Hack #8: Use shortcuts

Hack #9: Use headphones

Hack #10: Just one more thing

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Are you subscribed to our podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don’t want you to miss an episode. Click here to subscribe to iTunes!

Now if you’re feeling extra loving, We would be really grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find our podcast and they’re also fun for us to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let us know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

Until next time… be timely,  stay organized, and be productive… buh-bye… see ya!

One of the biggest challenges that teachers face is not having enough time to get everything done. We completely agree.

Teachers have a LOT of responsibilities and it seems like we are always bombarded with more responsibilities each year. However, when we look underneath the surface at the root of the issue, we see that some of our struggles can be due to ill prepared planning periods.

We know that you are mentally fatigued by the time you get to your planning period. Many of us have good intentions but reach a point of exhaustion that prevents us from accomplishing our tasks. The truth is, if we plan on working only contract hours as a teacher then we need to use the time in our contract hours wisely. 

Don’t forget we have a freebie for you! If you want to reach the point where you are working less contract hours, check out our 30 Days to Working Only Contract Hours resource. 

In this episode we share 6 Tips that have helped us work only contract hours without compromising our commitment and service to our students. 

Tip #1: Decide Your Greater Purpose

Tip #2: Choose Tasks that Match your Time Frame

Tip #3: Have a Plan for Your Planning Time

Tip #4: Prepare Your Workspace

Tip #5: Reduce Distractions

Tip #6: Be Like Nike

Noteworthy in the Episode:

• Understanding that we are more than just teachers and we have passions outside of school drive us to organizing our time more effectively. 

LINKS

Check out our Digital Planner!

007: Lesson Planning Like a PRO!

30 Days to Only Working Contract Hours

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW

Are you subscribed to our podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don’t want you to miss an episode. Click here to subscribe to iTunes!

Now if you’re feeling extra loving, We would be really grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find our podcast and they’re also fun for us to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let us know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

Until next time… be timely,  stay organized, and be productive… buh-bye… see ya!