Oh, Baby! Creating a Maternity Binder

For the past couple of days I have been talking about how to prepare for maternity leave. I will be leaving for my second maternity leave at the end of September and I am kind of freaking out that it will still be back to school season. As soon as summer began, I dove into creating a maternity binder to help me feel more organized and ready for my leave.

When I sat down to create my binder, I had to think about some things first. This will probably be different for every teacher.

I considered:

-What do I have to do? What does my district and principal require from teachers going on leave. How long do I have to plan for? What do I need to do concerning grades and report cards.

-What do I want to do? Some teachers are comfortable leaving the minimum amount of plans they are required to, this was not me last time. I left plans for my entire six weeks (vs. the two I was required to), because I'm crazy. I'm thinking I might plan for my entire leave again this time, just because we are departmentalizing and I will be responsible for another teacher's reading class,

-What can I count on my team for? My teaching partner is amazing! She teaches math, I teach reading, and we teach our own classes social studies and science. Luckily, I have plans for all my SS/science units from years past, but I know I can count on her to fill in any gaps.

-How do I want to plan? I decided that I would rather leave digital plans than hard copies. I will have all plans from last year organized and accessible to the sub, but I will be using planbook.com as the primary way I plan. I just got into planbook and I love it! You can attach documents, links, and pictures. I love that my sub, teaching partner, and I can all access the plans and that it will be a living document throughout my leave.

-What do I want to include in my maternity leave binder? Here are some things I settled on:

• Morning and Afternoon Routines
• Other Class Procedures and Routines
• Class Job descriptions and how it works
• Bus List
• Push-In/Pull-Out List
• Daily Schedule/Encore Schedule
• Homework Calendars
• Pre-made monthly newsletter
• Spelling Lists
• Emergency Procedures
• Parent Contact Info
• Where to find things in my room
• Where to put things in my room
• Pacing Guides/Unit Test Schedule
• How to do Guided Reading/Math

I ended up making the binder into an editable PowerPoint file that I posted in my TPT Store.

Check it out if you're interested.

***4TH OF JULY SALE*** UPDATE: My entire store is on sale for July 4th and 5th! ***

I hope this series about prepping for leave helped calm at least one teacher's nerves. I would love to hear tips and tricks from your maternity leave, please comment below.

---Preparing Students and Firming Routines
---Organizing Your Room for a Sub

Oh, Baby! Organizing for Maternity Leave

Today I'm back with more tips for the ultimate stress-free maternity leave. Yesterday was all about prepping your students and today is all about prepping your room. If you are a super-organized teacher, then this is the easy part for you, you probably already have most of this done. I myself, swing back and forth between being the most well-planned and organized teacher you've ever seen, to not being able to see the top of my desk for weeks at a time. Since this time, my leave is at the beginning of the year, I should still be in my pristine, "everything has a place" mode...here's to hoping.

Here are some of my organization tips to help you "dot your i's and cross your t's":

 Organize, Sort, File: Try to have everything is it's place when you sub takes over. This can be difficult because you may have to leave unexpectedly. Take some time at the end of each day to sort and file whatever mini-stack has accumulated throughout the day.

 Label Everything: I mean everything. File cabinets, files in the cabinets, desk drawers, cabinets, pull-out bins, shelves, crates, tubs, baskets, etc. Placing stickers on each shelf or cabinet with a number or letter can help tremendously. This will not only help you leave an easy guide for your sub, but it helps students find exactly what they are looking for. I don't know about you, but when I am preggo in the classroom, I take full advantage of all those sweet offers to help.

 Leave Detailed Notes: This will help the sub know exactly where to find things and exactly where to put things. Real talk: your sub might not read all your notes, that's life. But imagine how easy you will be breathing if you come back to find out they did. My sub for maternity leave last time was amazing. She was super organized and when I returned, everything was in it's place. No digging through random stacks of paper or having to file mountains of crap left in a corner. It was wonderful!

 Organize Units: Make sure your curriculum units are organized neatly and in a location where you sub can access them. Even if you are leaving plans and pulling specific things for them, you never know if your sub might need an extra activity. I left my units out last time, even though I planned, and I came back to find that my amazing sub had added to my resources with things the team had shared at meetings. Also make sure to leave other things your sub might need in a central spot, like: homework, spelling lists, or newsletters.

---Preparing Students and Firming Routines
---Creating a Maternity Leave Binder

Oh, Baby! Preparing Students for Maternity Leave

If you read my "Five for Friday" yesterday, then you know I am expecting. I am filled with both joy and anxiety. My due date is September 30th, so IF I make it to that date, I only have 4 weeks to prepare my classroom and students for my six week departure. Like the Type-A, OCD teacher I am, I have already started doing many things to prepare.

I've noticed from scrolls through my Instagram feed, that many of the fabulous teachers I follow are also expecting and due around my timeline. My hope is that this post will help any teacher prepare for maternity leave, especially those who have to step away at the beginning of the year. Or, help any teacher who has to prepare for another extended leave due to health or family leave.

When I had my first daughter, it was at the beginning of April, so my experience was a little different. I did learn that there are two crucial things that need to happen before you leave:
1. Prepare Your Students
2. Establish Routines

Talk About It: Begin the conversation about your upcoming absence. Don't let it be a surprise or something you mention for the first time a week before you're due. Even though your students can see that you are pregnant, younger ones won't actually realize that you will have to leave for a while when the baby is born.

Meet & Greet: If possible, have your sub come in for a day to meet your students. If you have an amazing principal, they might pay the sub for a day (or a half day) to shadow you and see how things work in your room. Take full advantage of having the sub and begin establishing relationships and helping them understand the consistency of your routines.

Get Them Excited: Plan a mini-baby shower for your class. Bring in cupcakes, play shower games, and even have them vote on names for your little one. Anything that gets them involved and excited will help them understand why you will be gone for so long.

The last week of school my sweet class threw me a surprise birthday party/baby shower. 
They decorated the classroom, brought in cupcakes/chips/juice/my favorite soda, and even gifts! 
I will definitely miss this bunch! It was such a great time!

Explain Everything: Well, not everything... Just be very clear about the importance of certain routines and the responsibility the students will have to follow them while you are gone. Don't just explain the math workshop routine, have a conversation about how it is important for them to follow the rules and learn how to do it right, so they can continue to enjoy workshop while you are gone.

Think About the Little Things: Make sure your classroom can run without you. Do students know what to do if they need a tissue, have to use the bathroom, loose supplies, have a question, need help, lose an assignment, etc. Think of all the little things students run to you for at random times throughout the day and make sure they know what to do. This would be a great anchor chart to create and hang in your room.

This amazing anchor chart is from Haley at My Silly Firsties.

Class Meetings: Have daily, bi-weekly, or weekly class meetings leading up to your leave. This will help build culture and it will give more time for conversation about what they should expect while you are gone. One great thing to do would be to role-play scenarios of every day things that might happen, and how the kids should handle it.

(...like, for real)

Step Your Game Up: In the weeks leading up to your leave, there is no room to play the nicey-nice teacher who lets students skate by with not meeting expectations. You don't have to be mean to be firm. Students should know that you expect them to meet whatever expectation is set, consistently. This might mean being the obnoxious teacher in the hallway, being a hardcore bathroom monitor, or shooting that death glare if someone calls out without raising a hand. It can be exhausting, but if you are consistent, then it won't last long and your sub will thank you.

Record Your Routines: Whether or not your sub can shadow you for a day, you need to have all of your routines written up somewhere for them to refer to. You should also include notes on rewards or consequences that are attached to following the procedures/routines.

Create Visual References: Don't just rely on your student's memory to follow all the routines exactly while you are gone. Create anchor charts with your students before you leave. Have them just used to knowing where the charts are and following them. For my last leave, I had a routine PowerPoint with slides for am routine, pm routine, entering/exiting class, lining up, bathroom, recess, hallway, cleaning up, getting out supplies, independent reading, math centers, fire drills, etc.. The sub would pull up the PPT every morning and display the slides as needed. The kids were used to it, because I used the same thing before I left.

---Organizing Your Room for a Sub
---Creating a Maternity Leave Binder