I created a powerpoint for all the key vocabulary words that go along with Map Skills in third grade.  In the 15 minutes that I had to instruct it, I barely had time to explain what I wanted them to do, and pass out the papers that went with it.

In the future, either (a) give myself more time to do such things or (b) wait until it isn’t the 1st week of school and they still need CONSTANT reminders for EVERYTHING!

Centers are a must for the modern-day teacher.  Students learn to work independently AND can get things accomplished while you’re doing a million things at once.  However, in the beginning, you need to instruct them on how to properly behave in a center, what’s expected of them, and how to change centers without disrupting the space-time-continuum.  This can be taxing enough, let alone DEVELOPING the centers that they will be using.

A rule of thumb – teachers never throw away ANYTHING!  If you’re developing a center for one classroom, chances are you can modify that center to work in a different classroom down the road.  Also, ask the people around you.  If your fellow teachers are also using centers, see if they can help shoulder some of the work load of developing some new centers.  Everyone will be better off for it.

Lastly, ORGANIZATION!!  The best teachers never throw anything away, but also know exactly where to find said things when they need them.  Who knows when you’ll be getting yet another new student into the classroom.  Now aren’t you glad you didn’t throw away that extra folder the school gave you? (like you would really throw away a perfectly good folder!)