Well, hello there, top teachers. We are your hosts, Michelle Emerson and Bridget Spackman,

and we are here to make your life easier by helping you master your time, organization,

and productivity as a teacher. In today's episode, we're doing a reset. No, not a juice cleanse

or anything like that, but we are going to share our best tips for getting back on track.

When you notice you've gone kind of off course with your planning time, yes, we know,

we know this happens, okay? And we have figured out how to plan more efficiently after

spending all that time chatting with your coworkers and we're going to share our

secrets with you. But first, let's hear a TSH from Amy. Amy says, I am a first year teacher and the

amount of prep to do before the kids come back is overwhelming. I feel like I'm hopping from item to

item, idea to idea, and I'm struggling to focus my attention on priorities versus once.

I wish I had a new teacher checklist to help me navigate the squirrel shiny object syndrome.

Amy, first of all, I mean, this is part of being a new teacher.

It's this whole you don't know what you don't know until you

figure it out. And I know that it's not necessarily helpful because it's not a good feeling when you

don't know what you're doing or you feel like you're all over the place, but just know it does get

easier. I'm going to give kind of two little nuggets here. First, I do have a like beginning of the year, it's not quite a checklist.

I have like a list of routines and procedures to teach. And then I also have a list of like

questions to ask like coworkers and stuff like that. So those might be helpful. But I think what

would be even better for you is as you're doing things,

you are going to start creating your own checklist because as much as you would love to just find a

pre-made checklist out there, you're never going to find one that's everything you need for your

unique situation. So start creating your own. That way next year, it will be that much easier for you so you can

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