EP260 Three ways to create teaching templates that will save you 5-10 hours a week (with Marguerite Rendelfs)

Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers

Angela Watson

Teachers, Courses, Education, Teaching

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Save yourself huge amounts of time by reusing your own work! Teacher Marguerite Rendelfs has developed a plan to create reusable resources that saves her between five and ten hours every week.

One major shift in my mindset that she learned through the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek program that has helped her in many situations is this:

We often focus on saving time right now. Considering how we can use our current work to save time for ourselves in the future can be a game-changer.

Marguerite shares, “Last school year, I’ve realized I can build templates while I’m doing my daily work, which saves time and batches the work I’ll be doing in the future. Now I love templates. They boost my productivity and focus my attention. When I notice that I’m repeatedly spending time on the same type of task, I evaluate whether a template might be helpful.”

Templates are most effective when a task is repetitive, generalizable, detailed, and time-consuming. If a template might be effective, you can build one as you work. Listen as Marguerite shares her process for using 3 kinds of templates:

Student accommodations
Instructional materials and activities
Comment banks for student feedback

Then, check out her article at TruthforTeachers.com to see step-by-step instructions, examples of her templates, and more.

Click here to read the transcript and participate in the discussion or, join our podcast Facebook group here to connect with other teachers and discuss the Truth for Teachers' podcast episodes.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to episode 260 of Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers. I'm your host Angela Watson
0:08.6	and I'm here to speak encouragement into the hearts of educators and get you informed
0:13.1	and energized for the week ahead. Today I'm talking with educator Margaret Rendelffs
0:19.2	about how she reuses her work via templates in order to save time, instead of creating
0:25.2	everything for teaching from scratch. Visit truthforteachers.com to get an easy to read,
0:30.6	easy to share version of this podcast episode. My number one advice is join. If you are
0:36.5	considering it, well you've probably found this at just the right time in your life. Definitely
0:40.0	highly recommend the program, really help me to have a successful year. Be more proactive
0:47.4	and intentional about how I use my time, how I grade, and also to make connections with
0:55.0	other teachers. It gave me back time with my family. I've had more time at home, I've
1:00.3	had more time and just done family, it made it really easy. It has allowed me to implement
1:06.5	balance in my life. My students and I have a completely different relationship now.
1:12.5	I'm excited to be with the kids and they can definitely sense that. What you just heard
1:19.9	were teachers talking about the impact of my 40 hour teacher work week. If you want
1:24.6	support with this, remember that our fast track program is open to new members all year
1:29.4	long, along with our 40 hour instructional coaching and 40 hour leadership program
1:34.4	for administrators. If you want to learn how to find a sustainable approach to the job
1:39.2	that you love, go to 40htw.com to learn more.
1:45.9	My guest today is Marguerite Rendalfs, who has taught middle grades, language arts and
1:50.4	social studies for five years. She's currently teaching eighth grade humanities and home
1:55.1	room at Frontier Charter Academy, which is an online charter school in Oregon. Marguerite
2:01.1	is here to talk about how you can save yourself huge amounts of time by reusing your own
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Angela Watson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Angela Watson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.