Grab the free companion guide with copy-paste AI prompts and step-by-step directions. .

In this episode, I walk through exactly how I use AI to compare my curriculum against my state standards, find the gaps, and combine old and new material when I switch textbooks or grade levels.

Sign up free:

• Claude for Teachers
• ChatGPT for Teachers

I was sick in bed Tuesday through Friday last week, and in the middle of it, I'm also downsizing into an apartment. Two things that would normally wreck a teacher's schedule. But I never once worried about what was happening in my classroom.

In this episode, I walk through why that was possible: a classroom website I built once, five years ago, that my students already know how to navigate on their own. I share exactly how it's set up for K through 2 and 3rd through 5th, and why updating it now just means swapping a link, not rebuilding anything.

I also talk about why I'm not afraid of AI replacing my thinking, just teaching me the how, and why it's worth jotting down your own system idea now, even if you don't have time to build it until a break.

Key Takeaways:

A system built once can carry you through the chaos life throws at you

You don't need to know how to build something to start dreaming about what you want the outcome to look like

AI can teach you the how instead of thinking for you

Start small: write the idea down now, build it when you have the time

Resources mentioned:

Free companion guide

Google Sites Made Simple (build your own classroom website)

See my site in action.

This week I'm sharing the system that replaced my old unfinished work folder, the one that lived in each student's desk and disappeared the second I looked away.

Instead, I used plain binder pocket dividers mounted right under the board at the front of my room, one pocket per student. Every day's morning work went in as part of the routine, absent students' missed papers went straight into their pocket instead of getting set aside, and anything left unfinished landed there too. I could see the whole room's status at a glance, no digging, no asking, no guessing.

Key takeaways:

• Give absent and unfinished work one visible place, and you take the guesswork out of it for both you and your students
• It doesn't have to be pockets. It has to be something you can actually see, every day, without extra effort
• If you don't have a self-contained classroom, use this as a brainstorming prompt. Talking with other teachers or seeing how someone else's room is set up doesn't mean copying it, it just gets your own thinking moving

Grab the full companion breakdown in the free PDF, and if you want more support building systems like this one, Teacher Systems Lab GPT is built for exactly that.

This episode comes with a free companion guide, grab it here: Free Companion Guide⁠

Margin doesn't start when you get to school. It starts the moment your eyes open. In this episode, I walk through two habits that protect your mental energy from the first few minutes of your day, and the systems that make sure your future self is never scrambling to catch up. This isn't just for new teachers or for making it to October, it's a good habit for life, for anybody.

Grab the free Google Doc templates for teachers.

Get more tips like this every week.

Grab the free "Who, What, When, Where" guide linked in the show notes. A children's pastor taught Alison this simple rule decades ago, and it still works: lead with who it's for, what to do, when, and where, and people actually read what you send instead of setting it aside for later.

Free Resource

Newsletter

Tired of carrying your whole class schedule in your head, or worse, your phone? In this episode, Alison shares the exact trick she's used for years to keep every class on time, no phone required, using the computer or panel she's already teaching from.

In this episode:

• Why relying on your phone for classroom timing backfires
• Step-by-step: setting alarms and timers using your computer's built-in Clock app
• The sub-account trick: setting the same alarms inside your substitute login, so a sub walks in with everything already labeled and ready to go
• A backup option for classroom display screens if your setup is different

Grab the free resource:

Setting Alarms for Your Classrooms

That Tech Savvy Teacher Website

Alison's first week back did not go as planned. A class icon missing, a default browser reset, a video that would not play, three things breaking right when she needed them to work. In this episode, she walks through what actually got the class through that morning: a backup plan she had already built, ready to go before she needed it.

This one is not really about technology. It applies to any subject, any role in a school. Alison talks through what makes a backup worth having, why staying calm protects your credibility with students more than being unshakeable does, and why grace and patience with the people supporting you (who are juggling a lot more than just your one request) makes hard mornings easier for everyone.

In this episode:

• Why a backup only counts if it does not depend on the thing that just failed
• How to keep one hard class period from taking over your whole day
• Why staying calm protects your credibility with students
• A reminder to extend grace to the people behind the scenes at your school

Resources mentioned:
Free companion guide, Your Backup Plan Toolkit
Teacher Systems Lab GPT
More from Alison: thattechsavvyteacher.com

Before your first week of school gets going, build your entire email system once so it just works every year after. This episode covers how to set up a class email group in Gmail and Outlook, the one privacy rule every teacher needs to know about Bcc, and five ready-to-use email templates for the first month of school.

Links Mentioned:

• Back-to-School Email Templates (free copy)
• Your Back-to-School Email Setup Guide (PDF)
• Teacher Systems Lab GPT - $37

Visit my website: www.thattechsavvyteacher.com

One simple question decides whether something in my classroom gets a name or a number, and it's saved me hours of relabeling every single year. In this episode, I walk through how I decide what's worth building into a reusable system and what's faster to just remake.

Full show notes (recap + key takeaways + resource):
The biggest question I get asked is whether I remember every student's name. The truth is I remember my students, I just don't always remember their names right away, and that's part of what led me to the system in this episode.

Before I label anything in my classroom, I stop and ask one question: how long am I actually going to be using this? That single question changes how I set up everything, whether you're teaching 800 kids like me or the same 25 kids all day.

In this episode I cover: why names go on personal things like desks and name tags but numbers go on anything with a long shelf life like cubbies, folders, and login systems; why I keep one lesson plan per grade level instead of one per class, and how I handle differentiation separately (including for IEPs and 504s); why some things, like my second graders' printed login cards, are faster to just remake every week than to build a system to store them; and how this same principle shows up in how I share materials weekly and in my class website.

Resources mentioned:

• Full Episode Notes PDF
• Google Sites Made Simple

You don't need a finished plan before you talk to AI, you need a wish. In this episode, I walk through how a sub plan that builds itself and a mouse practice activity for my youngest students both started as nothing more than a sentence I said out loud. The real shift wasn't the tools, it was learning to ask AI to show me how instead of asking it to just do it for me.

I also talk about what changed once my role grew from one classroom to 42, why I now go to AI before I go looking for a tutorial when I hit a wall in a spreadsheet, and how I use AI to help colleagues solve their own problems instead of creating more dependence on me.

Free Download: Your AI Wish List

Simple things to try building this week, plus where to start (ChatGPT, Claude, SchoolAI, and MagicSchool).

Mentioned in This Episode

Teacher Systems Lab, my custom GPT for teachers, $37, available inside the free version of ChatGPT.
learn.thattechsavvyteacher.com/products/digital_downloads/teacher-systems-lab