Mastering Multiple Preps: Hacks for Managing the Multiple Prep Workload
It's no secret that Career and Technical Education teachers often get loaded down with tons of preps. One year I had 7 different preps to manage, and I thought I was going to lose my mind! Through that experience and the wisdom of some amazing veteran teachers, I learned A LOT about teaching multiple preps. This week I'm sharing my favorite tips for staying on top of the workload for a multiple prep teacher!
My Favorite Tips for Managing Multiple Preps:
Tip #1: Efficient Planning is Key!
Efficient planning is key to being an effective multiple prep teacher. When you are planning for one class, make sure you also look at what you are planning for your other classes so you can spread out your workload, your heavy direct instruction days, and you can reuse learning activities. When creating pacing guides for courses or doing your unit planning, look at your standards for all of your classes together & highlight any standards/topics that overlap between courses. This will give you a visual idea of activities and materials that you can reuse or edit only slightly to be reused in your different classes. When planning individual lessons, go with your first idea. So much time is wasted second-guessing. You won't know if your idea is good or bad until you try it out!
Tip #2: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!
Find a strategy/protocol/activity that you and your students enjoy, and use it over and over again. Just change the content! An imperfect lesson will not affect your students' learning, but planning to the point of teacher burnout probably will! When you find something that works well, you now have a template that you can use in multiple classes that will save you planning and preparation time. In my classroom I used gallery walks and choice boards constantly, but I changed the content for different units.
Tip #3: Systemize
Systemize repetitive tasks and find ways to make them more efficient. These tasks can include lesson planning, grading, cleaning, making copies, etc. I believe that the secret to success is hidden in our daily habits, and if you want to make the most of each day, you have to create a system that works for you.
This might sound WILD, but what if you only focused on one major thing each day of the week during your planning? How would that free you from the teacher guilt of getting everything done at one time? How would it help you identify and focus on priority tasks?
Here's an example of systems I created to help maximize my planning period:
Mondays- Housekeeping Day ( On housekeeping day I did paperwork like purchase orders, fundraiser requests, return phone calls, schedule emails, schedule DECA social media posts, make copies for the week, etc. All of the little things that pulled time away from other planning periods got rolled to housekeeping day.)
Tuesday-Grading Day
Wednesday- Grading Day
Thursday- Planning for next week (plan class content; identify if any activities/strategies can be used in more than one prep)
Click here to download the Weekly Newsletter I use to plan for my classes!
Friday-Planning for next week/Tidy the classroom (plan class content and spend the last 20 minutes making a "to-do" list for housekeeping day on Monday)
Once I established a system, teacher guilt started to go away! Feel bad about not getting to that pile of papers? Nope! Today wasn't grading day. Feel bad because the classroom is a mess? Nope! I'll tidy it at the end of the week when we're done making a mess. Systems help free our brains because when we have a system in place, we know we will get to everything eventually and a massive to-do list feels less overwhelming.
Too overwhelming to change your entire routine at once? Start with two designated days a week and work up to the 5 day system! I promise, you will see and feel a major difference in your productivity and stress levels!
Tip #4: Connect With Others
One of my biggest tips for success is to find and connect with teachers who have taught or are teaching the preps that you will be teaching. Maybe there is someone you can connect with at a neighboring school, within your district, or within an online community. (I love being a member of the Business Educators Facebook group and I run the Marketing Mayhem Facebook page and Marketing Teacher Madness facebook group if you want to join!) Collaborating with others and getting ideas and advice for lessons can help beat the overwhelm of teaching multiple preps.
Remember, productivity and efficiency hacks for teachers are more than just gimmicks or tricks, they are practices that help us foster a better work-life balance, increase the quality of the content we are delivering, and create more time for doing the things we love! When you embrace a new system, it creates parameters and boundaries for your work that allow you to rid yourself of teacher-guilt and help eliminate burnout!