1st Grade Teacher Evangeline Dumping 70-Hour Work Weeks!

Evangeline shares about her (formerly) struggling students' early successes…

But she may be even more thrilled with her week-long
lesson prep time of just 26 minutes! ??

 

[Transcript selections]

Evangeline:
I'm excited. I'm excited to have found it because my programs are failing my special-ed kids, and last year they failed my gen-ed kids, and I'm going,

“There has to be something better than this,” and trying to create it on my own was a nightmare. So I'm grateful I'm doing this.
Marnie:

I know. I know.

*****

Evangeline:
My centers have already gotten easier. But last year my centers, good material, it was frustrating. This year I have a word work center, a work on writing, an independent read, and then I put them on Raz-Kids or Studyladder because I had to get permission to download the other apps. So I'm getting permission for that to download onto the thing. And I run, like the military, 15 minute groups. I have a little doorbell, wireless doorbell. I hit it at the 15 minute mark. They all switch, and every child, every day, the minute they get to their center, it's like a pin could drop in here and you could hear it.

*****

Evangeline:
I have never … I homeschooled eight years. I was a tutor for two years. I was an assistant for two years. I was a volunteer for four years. I was a substitute teacher for four years, a special ed teacher for two years, now this, and I have never seen kids as engaged in centers.

*****

Evangeline:
Well, I think the biggest thing that bites gen-ed teachers, and I saw this as a special-ed teacher walking into gen-ed rooms, was that ability to differentiate. How do you differentiate for all these needs without working 80 hours? What bit me as a special-ed teacher is, okay, my kids are making so much progress in my room, but then they can't transfer it.

Well, it makes sense now. Of course they can't because they're not working on the same stuff in there and they're not getting that differentiated level.

I knew there was a better way, but it's like there's no program out there for that. And then when you try and create it yourself, you're spending 60, 70 hours a week. It's insane, and it was like, I can't live like this. It's not functional. 

*****

Marnie:
Great. Great the first start for the year.

Evangeline:
Yes, it is. It's a good first start, and I'm excited, and I'm very happy not to be spending 70 hours a week on this anymore, to actually have the weekends off. That's nice. That's incredibly nice. My planning took me the other day, and I'm not kidding, I timed it.

My planning for my centers last Friday took exactly 26 minutes, and that was all my centers, and that was all my small group guided reading, 26 minutes.

I'm like, “Are you kidding me? I'm done. I'm done for next week.”

I kept walking around the house, “Hey, I'm done. I'm done, family,” and they're all looking at me like,

“Why are you so happy?”

I'm like, “You don't understand. I'm done. 26 minutes.”

I called all my teacher friends. We were excited.

Marnie:
Yay.

Evangeline:
But they all still think it's a gimmick, but I'm like, “Okay, you just give me three weeks, three months, and let's see what your MOY scores are compared to my MOY scores, and then I get the chocolate cake. You guys are taking me out to eat if mine are better.” But anyway, so thank you for meeting with me.

Marnie:
My pleasure.

Evangeline:
It's going to go well, and thanks for helping me figure this out. I just knew I just needed a little bit of tweaking in my brain to wrap around that.

 

P.S. If you want to discover the 3 simple activities Evangeline is using to boost her struggling readers and allow differentiated centers, then please join us for an on-demand workshop….

 

3 Activities a Day to Keep Reading Difficulties Away

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