New Teacer Advice Linky Party

In honor of Teacher Talk Tuesday over at Blog Hoppin', I am linking up this post again! The topic for today is new teacher advice and voila! I already have a post about this AND a link to even more advice! I'd say that's even a piece of advice in itself - repurpose, repurpose, repurpose! None of us has the budget we need, so get creative and use things in more than one way!

Cindy from Fun in Fourth Grade is having a linky party about advice you give to new teachers. This is great because one of my besties is getting her first full time teaching job this year, I will be blog hopping like crazy to compile all this advice for her! I am far from experienced, (this is going to be my third year) but here's advice that I valued, or that I wish someone would have given me!

1. DonorsChoose ~ I've had sooo many projects funded through this organization. It is great for new teachers who don't have a whole lot of materials for their classrooms. Also, this is a perfect time to get started because the annual Sonic campaign will be starting soon!

2. Keep on top of grading/paperwork! Set aside at least 15 minutes every day, that way you don't have a huge stack to do at the end of the week. I had to laugh out loud when I saw a fellow new teacher unload half her stack of ungraded work into the recycling bin. It wasn't required for grading, and she figured the kids wouldn't miss it!

3. Keep a journal and student work! Take a few minutes to jot down that funny thing a student said or save that writing paper that surprised you. It is so nice to be able to look back - and you'll be surprised by how much you forget otherwise!

4. Get a camera and document the year through pictures! Not only is a slide show a fun way to end the year, but those pictures will mean a lot when you look back on them. It's also great to take pictures of learning activities - sometimes those hands-on activities don't really leave a paper trail, so pictures can document the learning that took place.

5. Be overprepared - if you don't get to some of the stuff you have planned that's okay. The problems start when you finish everything in your lesson plans and there's still an hour left before the end of the day!