How to Get Your Weekends Back as an Elementary Teacher

The vital work of planning, coordinating, and deep thinking required to run a well-organized classroom has to happen sometime, and often that sometime is… Sunday afternoons. This leads to a cycle of going into the work week without a fully charged battery. After several weeks of this, exhaustion sets in around October. When you’re counting down to winter break on Halloween, there’s a problem.

But there are solutions—you can reclaim your time and keep the weekend free for yourself and outside-of-school pursuits. These strategies can shave time off your workweek and preserve your after-school time for deeper thinking and planning.

3 Strategies for Work-Free Weekends

1. The Magic Piece of Trash game. Has this ever been you? You dismiss your class in a big rush, go out to the bus dismissal area, and then return to your classroom to prepare for the next day. As you look around the empty room, you realize that math manipulatives need to be put away, 25 chairs need to be pushed in, and someone has left the entire contents of their binder in a pile underneath their group table.

Cleaning your classroom after dismissal can waste 30 minutes or more per day, which adds up to two and a half hours per week. To combat this, at the beginning of the year, I set a tight dismissal routine of cleanup time where students help take care of the room by putting away items, cleaning the floor, and straightening their areas for the next day through a game called the Magic Piece of Trash.

I announce to the class that something in the room is the “magic piece of trash,” and whoever finds it will be the winner. I mentally note which item is the winning item and then instruct students to start going around the room looking for things that need throwing away or putting away in their proper location. (Trash is defined as anything that needs to be thrown away, but it can also be something that needs to be put away in its proper location.) Students get to work locating the item that is out of place, and with great fanfare, I give away a small sticker, pencil, or toy to the person who finds it.

The result is a clean and tidy room in a flash. Kids love this game and will eagerly find items out of place. In just about two minutes, 25 students start straightening everything in sight. With the classroom in order and all items in their place, I dismiss the class. After dismissal, I can return to a clean classroom and get right to work on my planning and preparation for the subjects I teach instead of spending 30 minutes putting things away.

2. “Thursday is the new Sunday” planning block. I used to load up a canvas bag on Friday afternoon full of items, such as my lesson plan book, three teacher’s manuals, and a stack of grading. I had grand ambitions for what would be accomplished over the weekend. Then Sunday afternoon rolled around and I would dread opening the bag. It would go back into the car and back to school with the tasks mostly undone.

I no longer use Sunday afternoons to plan.

It’s tempting to save your deeper thinking work for a time when you won’t be interrupted and you have enough time to fully complete the long list of tasks required to keep a classroom running. But Sunday doesn’t need to be that day.

By the end of the day on Thursday, I generally know where things stand in the classes I teach. Thursday is the new Sunday. I stay late at work on Thursdays to plan the upcoming week.

I find that I don’t have a lot of brainpower left on Friday. Since my planning is all done on Thursday, I can use my time on Friday for important but not intellectually taxing tasks. I collect items for the following week, set things up, and make any needed copies. Most important, I head home on Friday afternoon unburdened by the Tote Bag of Doom.

3. Friday Tidy. It’s time to put your students to work. On Friday, I set aside about 10 minutes for my entire class to do what we call the Friday Tidy. Many hands make light work—we can get a lot done with 25 kids helping for 10 solid minutes.

The Friday Tidy routine is more in-depth than the Magic Piece of Trash game. Students clean their personal areas first, including organizing their cubbies and cleaning their desks and chairs. Anyone who’s done with their individual tasks quickly helps with classroom jobs, such as organizing the library, putting items away, or taking out recycling. I also have students take forms to the office or return items to our school library or colleagues.

This strategy works both as a time-saver and as a community builder. When students assist in keeping things running smoothly, they start to take ownership of the learning space. We show pride in how we maintain our classroom and contribute to its functioning.

These three strategies result in a well-organized classroom and prep that doesn’t eat up your weekend. Using your time in this way means you can be an educator with adequate time for planning and preparation during the workweek—and energy for life outside of your teaching role.