Show 2 - Less is More: How to Spend Less Money and Time on First Day Prep with The Kinder Lady
In this episode, I talk with The Kinder Lady about being prepared for the first day of school using your time and money wisely.
7/20/202320 min read
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Transcript
Mary
A lot of times teachers want to please the administrator or show the administrator that oh I'm a great teacher you know and they forget their boundaries or you know forget that they need time they need time to relax anytime to be with their family you know and sometimes it's hard to turn that off you know but it's important that you do.
Shaun
Welcome to the teacher money show the podcast dedicated to helping Educators like yourself navigate your unique Financial challenges and unlock your financial superpowers. I'm your host Sean Morgan a full-time teacher and entrepreneur and I'm here to help teachers navigate everything related to your money. Whether you have questions about budgeting on a teacher's salary managing student loans increasing your income or making the most of your benefits, I'm here to make money less confusing, more empowering, and a tool you can use to focus on what matters most. So whether you're a seasoned teacher looking for fresh insights or a new educator navigating your first paycheck this podcast is your go-to resource for all things money related. So if you're ready to have a richer wallet classroom and life let's Dive In.
The contents of this podcast are informational in nature and are not legal or tax advice and neither I nor my guests are engaged in the provision of legal tax or any other advice. You should not act upon this information without first seeking appropriate advice from an accountant financial planner lawyer or other professional.
We've got a fantastic guest for us today we have Mary Prater. Mary is a dedicated educator who taught for 33 years before retiring in 2022. With a passion for Hands-On learning and a deep understanding of classroom management Mary has always prioritized the importance of effective teaching methods and fostering positive relationships with students and parents. Her commitment to sharing valuable resources led her to start a teacher's store on Teachers Pay Teachers. In 2008 Mary opened an account on Teachers Pay Teachers and posted her first resource a weather chart for first and second graders which she initially offered for free. To her surprise when she Revisited the website in 2017 she discovered that her weather chart had been downloaded a remarkable 17 000 times. This shows us that Mary is a seasoned educator and a successful entrepreneur, welcome Mary how you doing.
Mary
I'm good thank you happy to be here.
Shaun
I'm happy to have you on. So can can you just tell us a little bit about your teaching career what all you did while you were a teacher.
Mary
I had quite a wild teaching career I've been to a lot of places. I started in Chicago taught there for 18 19 years moved to Indiana taught there. Then came to California and I've had several jobs here. A lot of my jobs some most of my jobs were at private school but I also taught at Public Schools so I kind of moved around as we moved around I had to move around from school to school. So I've experienced a lot and I've learned a lot from a lot of different you know administrators and other teachers and other places in the country.
Shaun
I'm so happy to have a seasoned teacher on just here to give us some awesome wisdom.
Mary
Okay.
Shaun
So what you wanted to talk about was just preparing for for school preparing for that first day and you know one better topic for someone who's done it 33 times right?
Mary
Yes.
Shaun
I love it. So my first question for you Mary is how do you recommend a teacher starts preparing for day one of school I mean do they start preparing the morning of or do you like how how early in advance do you need to be preparing for for day one?
Mary
Well I would say most teachers um start thinking about it over the summer a little bit you know and then July comes along and you start thinking about a little bit more uh if you're been teaching for a while you've probably made notes from the year before to remind you oh I want to change this I'd like to do that that type of thing but um I would say to you know when they're called back which is usually a week or two before school starts um that's the time to to go and start getting what you need get it together. Um as far as prioritizing what uh you should be doing um you know teachers have to sometimes clean their classroom organize the classroom set up desks all those kinds of things takes a lot of time and a lot of thought. So I say get in there as soon as you can and to get it done.
Shaun
Right I think that's great advice I love how you said you think about it but when you get called back that's when the go time is right I think some teachers don't fully let go and we I think we need to let go a little bit during the summer for our own well being and then when it's time to be back we're back right we get it done but make sure you're getting it done when you get back for sure.
Mary
Definitely a lot of times teachers want to please the administrator or show the administrator that oh I'm a great teacher you know and they forget their boundaries or you know forget that they need time they need time to relax anytime to be with their family you know and sometimes it's hard to turn that off you know but it's important that you do.
Shaun
Right so I love this point I want to dig deeper here uh because living a a great financial Life as a teacher is not just about your money because money is just a symbol of our time right? We put time in to get money and then we exchange it for someone else's time that they put in to make a product it's it's all about time. So the more we can save time or make time for ourselves as a teacher it's almost like making more money and so so how do you uh as a you know a teacher of 33 years how were you helping yourself make time for yourself as you were preparing for school and during that crazy time before school started?
Mary
Well I I think that you know some I guess some years I gotten caught in the Rut you know and that taught me that um there's a better way don't go back until you have to go back don't spend the summer there like many teachers will do um and uh and when you're talking about money and time you're also talking about how much time do you spend on Amazon figuring out what what it is that you want and how much how you're going to spend or at the teacher store which you just can't get out once you get in you know? Those things you know you got to put your boundaries up for those things you know to uh so they don't you know just take you over you know it's exciting it's fun you know but before you know it you spent five hundred dollars and that is not an... that is an easy thing to do at the beginning of a school year. I'm sure there's probably teachers that even spend more but then you're giving up your time as well. You're you're you're not going to be at the school on Amazon or you're not going to be at the school you know you're going to be at the teacher's store and probably on your own time so I would just say you know watch the think about those things and think about how much time you're losing when you're spending all that time doing it.
Shaun
So you're spending all this time preparing for school outside of school hours how about like you know on those days that were supposed to be back how can we set boundaries for ourselves when we have so much to do and it's two weeks before school starts but our contract hours are still what they are our contract hours are not until midnight?
Mary
Yeah um well I think you you know you've got to prioritize what you need done you know get into that classroom and if it depends if you're a new teacher or you're a new grade there's going to be a lot of work to do and sometimes teachers get caught up decorating and making things cute you know and although that's nice and it's fun it doesn't have a lot of value and you could be wasting a lot of time and I always feel like you should get your room set up get those desks however you want those desks how do you want your you know set up in the classroom so you can utilize it the best are you going to have centers are you going to have you know timeouts place or whatever get those things set up. Once you've got your classroom set up then you can think about okay what else do I need you know do I need a you know um behavior chart or you know things like that I have to get up a bulletin board things like that but a lot of times I know I've done this where I've spent so much time decorating and making it look great I find myself on the first day oh I forgot to get this done you know I forgot to finish the lesson I or I or I get two or you get two weeks or two three weeks into class and thought I shouldn't have bought that that's not what I need I should what I need is this. So sometimes we're so gung-ho we waste our time.
Shaun
Oh yeah that that's true and I've definitely seen some classrooms that I know were not decorated in the amount of time we're given before school starts.
Mary
Yes
Shaun
So that that's huge um I I love how you're talking about prioritizing do you follow any uh any pattern or steps to make sure you're prioritizing the right things?
Mary
I always write it all out I write out what has to happen. I write out what the administrator says I have to have done um the curriculum the books do I have them uh are they organized you know do I have a lesson ready for the first day the first week you know different administrators expect different things but I always prioritize those things and then um what do I need it done in the class you know I might have like oh I'd like to organize the books I'd like to do but those are extra things you know organizing the the library or even your your closet and organizing that those things you know if you start doing that you could sit there for hours and then you've got nothing done so I make a list and uh I can't say I always stuck to the list but I try to because I didn't want to come up short.
Shaun
Ah that's awesome you know I I think that with if you're making a priority list sometimes those priority things are not really fun so you might need to do something in between priority lists right? Like a break right? You can say okay I'm gonna take 30 minutes to decorate because sure the fun part right but you know that that's almost like taking a break for yourself because you aren't spending like you know four hours working on the administration list and you realize that you could have done it in two if you hadn't stared at the wall for you know two of those four hours because you didn't want to do it right so there are things like that that actually sometimes if you prioritize but then you take breaks you can actually save time in the long run which I think this is huge.
Mary
Sometimes too um you can bring somebody with you if you've got older kids uh my grandson he helps used to help me get things put up and my husband would come and he would hang my string for you know whatever I wanted to hang and I got some help so I wasn't so kind of for those fun things that I wanted to get done I got someone else to do them for me. um You Can't Always Get help but you know you never know if you ask people are willing to help teachers.
Shaun
Yeah you know you'd be surprised at how often the a kid is bored at the end of the summer and willing to do almost anything.
Mary
Yes yes
Shaun
Please give me something to do I've been sitting inside!
Mary
Yeah they're ready for school they they definitely are.
Shaun
So I want to circle back to an original idea that we talked about uh new teachers or maybe changing uh a prep right you're not doing a new grade or if you're in an older uh like uh you're doing a new subject uh how can you make sure that you are not overstepping the time boundary even if you have that much more to do?
Mary
Well I think you know like I said making a list figuring out what it is that you need um if it's an if you're a new teacher or your new grade you really need to connect to the other teachers in that grade as if you can you know a lot of teachers are willing to be a mentor or um and help you through and some schools give mentors to new new teachers but teachers are usually very helpful and you know will tell you oh you know this is what happens, this is probably what you're going to need or this is how the other teacher did it uh that will really help a new teacher because a new teacher sometimes can be like oh I don't really know what to do. Um but also if you're coming into a new grade maybe that you've never taught or whatever going to that grade and seeing how do you do things you know looking at their lesson plan you know that could always help you figure it out and then you can prioritize um I mean you've got to do the important things first you've got to get those lessons you've got teachers run in there and they're just decorating and doing everything and then at the last minute you're like okay I gotta get all these lessons done and then they stay up to midnight trying to get those lessons done and really that's not it's not good for teachers there's a burnout there's a big burnout we know and the big burnout is we do too much.
We go over the contract time. How many teachers come in super early stay super late? That's burnout. You know so much is expected of us but teachers have to learn how to set their boundaries you know that's really important. I've Heard lots of different teachers talk about I'm coming in on time and I'm leaving at the contract at time and I will do my work uh when I have my you know time when they give me the time and and you know for the specials or whatever you're doing or maybe at lunch time or whatever it is uh that's real important for new teachers especially new teachers I would say because they want to they want to succeed they want to do their best but it doesn't take long to burn out it really doesn't.
Shaun
Awesome yeah I I love everything that you're saying here I I have a thing that I say to every teacher I get the chance to is when your contract hours are done go home!
Mary
Yes
Shaun
It's the number one thing that I you know I understand maybe like oh I need to finish this one thing I'll stay for 15 extra minutes 20 extra minutes I understand that I've been there I've done that I've stayed later than that too but when when your contract hours are done they're not paying you for that. You you're not being paid for those extra hours and uh I once when I was just in in the thick of you know I was coming in early staying later my sister asked me it's like well you know teachers are getting underpaid but you're also working you know 10 10 months out of the year like doesn't it even out? It's like well if you count all the extra hours I'm working that aren't paid I've worked the extra two months of the year.
Mary
Yes you have.
Shaun
Yeah that's kind of how it seems to go so if you want to get your life back you need to have that time you come in uh you know on time you leave on time and if you can't get everything that you're supposed to done in that time streamline it. There's some things that don't matter as much as the really important things that we can you know trim the fat cut it out because that's what you're being paid for.
Mary
Yeah
Shaun
Your teacher that's your job it is not everything that you are you are someone else besides being a teacher and I think that's that's a huge huge thing to remember also if you're new beg borrow steel don't stay until eight o'clock at night working on lesson plans other people have been there just get it from them.
Mary
Yeah really that's the truth absolutely.
Shaun
And those are that's what I heard and that's what I always tell people I love when we're on the same page on that.
Mary
Yeah oh for sure it doesn't make any sense especially if this teacher has all her lesson plans from last year and she taught your class and now you're going to teach it you know of course you'll probably change a little here and there or whatever but that's a blessing you better grab it.
Shaun
You do not need to start from scratch.
Mary
No
Shaun
Okay so we talked about time of course time is money as as I've already pointed out so I just want to ask you how can teachers save money as they are coming into the first day of school naturally it takes some money for a class to get up and running but like what can teachers do to not spend you know $500 on their class or a thousand dollars on their class or even you know $200 if they're trying to avoid that?
Mary
You know uh again I think it's you have to make boundaries for yourself you have to make a budget um you could spend spend spend um and I've done that a couple times and uh it's like there's a lot of extra money you know it's like hmm seems like we're a little short this month what happened you know? Um sometimes we get the wrong idea that it's stuff that's going to make our classrooms wonderful and sometimes the things we buy are helpful and it makes our life a little easier for sure. Um for years what I did I I had when I did centers and a lot of the schools will have um uh audio machines and all the kids have headphones and stuff I would go to yard sales and especially if they had kids stuff and I would pick up um the cassettes and the books for that you know I did that for years I had a huge thing I didn't buy them out right. I've picked up so many children's books at yard sales. Uh one lady she sent she sold me it was a big box of Dr Seuss books for she gave it to me for ten dollars I mean that took up half my library.
Shaun
Yeah
Mary
I mean there's other ways to do things without spending you know buying and you know there's you have to kind of think outside of the box um for one and that will save you a lot of money sometimes this probably irritated my husband but sometimes in the summer when we'd be on vacation if we would go into different shops and stuff I'd like I'd see something I'd like ooh that'll that would work and it's cheap you know or somebody got rid of it or whatever it is I just know that would fit and I'll buy it because it's you know it's a good deal. Sometimes you can do that you know if I know some people don't like to do thrift shopping but truthfully I love it it's fun it's fun to find good deals.
Shaun
I like thrift shopping too. I think if you're a teacher and you don't like thrift shopping you might not want to reconsider that with the salary... Um I love that that tip about going to a yard sale to get you know children's things because people are trying to just get rid of it it's not like they they're trying to make you know $20 on a children's book they're just like they're a quarter or a dime something like that they just want it gone and they want to make a little bit from it and I would bet that if you told them that you're a teacher they would give you a discount because...
Mary
People just give it to me take it you're a teacher you can have it that's happened to me more than once.
Shaun
Iit doesn't surprise me that's just that's what people do people want to help teachers as much as they can so I think that that's a really a good idea for for finding materials like that or like even if you want like alternative seating in your classroom people are always getting rid of different kinds of chairs at yard sales that's another great place to find those. Uh have any of your schools ever had um funds for teachers to purchase classroom materials?
Mary
I had to ask for them they didn't just give it out freely but many times if I would go and ask for them I'd get them I think sometimes teachers are afraid to ask or they don't know if they should ask or if it's allowed to ask you know but I would write it out sometimes I would write out to the principal I would like to have this and this is the reason and this is how I would use it sometimes I'd get it and sometimes I wouldn't you know I guess it kind of depends on the school it does depend.
Shaun
I know some states are now giving teachers an allowance to purchase make purchases for the classroom I I taught in Utah one year and there was uh like a $200 per teacher allowance you just had to give the receipt to the registrar and they would they would reimburse you I mean it was it was pretty simple but not everyone would use it right and then uh another uh school that I taught at you just said hey I want to do this and they'd give you the school credit card to go purchase what you want to purchase. They of course would you know want you to give them a reason for it but there's so many schools that actually have funds my last school before the school I'm at right now had um discretionary principal funds and the principal at the end of the year was always looking for somewhere anywhere to spend this money that would get taken back by the district at the end of the year.
Mary
Wow
Shaun
You never know what your principal has or what ability they have to to do so don't just purchase it because oh it's easy because it's just on my Amazon if your school can't buy it for you. It's it's not supposed to be your money that you are spending.
Mary
Yeah for sure that's such a that's a good reminder for all teachers check into the office ask and see what you can get.
Shaun
Awesome awesome well uh I love these tips that we've given to teachers do you have any other uh amazing tips that you want to to share with our teachers? Um anything that you can think of that someone who's getting ready for the first day of school might want to just keep in mind as they're getting ready?
Mary
I would say um yes because often we're it's it's the rush it's the excitement of the new year it's the decorating it's the getting things done but there's another aspect of teaching. What kind of teachers do we want to be? Who am I when I walk in that classroom? Am I ready for Joey who might throw his chair? Am I ready for you know someone talking back to me and being rude? Um when we're teachers there a lot of us expected of us but we also affect these children's lives in so many ways and being patient being encouraging uh being kind uh giving praise to kids these are really important things that we need to take into that classroom and use every single day more important than decorating um because it I have kids I have parents that contact me and kids that'll say oh you're the best teacher I really loved you you know blah blah and I've always love that to hear that but I know that why they're saying that. They're not saying that because I taught reading really well or I taught you know we had a lot of fun when we played Math they're saying it because how I treated them and the relationships I made with them and I really think in the long run when we look back on our school years we think of those teachers I love that teacher because. Um so I think that's a real important thing to remember to take into the classroom.
Shaun
Awesome and it's definitely not because you decorated your classroom for 10 hours during the first week of school.
Mary
Yeah
Shaun
That's not why they loved you. So please take your time you don't need to do that okay I got two more questions for you okay here at uh at this podcast the the teacher money show we're all about helping teachers have a richer wallet classroom and life what is your number one tip for teachers to have a richer classroom in life?
Mary
Well I think that um it really I guess it kind of depends who you are I'm an entrepreneur I started um selling teacher resources years ago um and uh the story that you told earlier that when Teachers Pay Teachers first opened I posted that that weather chart and my first graders loved the weather chart so I posted it and I forgot about it I forgot I was going to make some resources and sell them I was just too busy right. And then when I came back I was like Wow Wow teachers really love this sometimes we have things right at our fingertips that maybe we're good at um maybe not all teachers have time to do extra things if you have small kids but you never know if there's going to be opportunities for you to do. Nowadays you can work online nowadays you can you know sell things online. Those are you know things that you can think about. Um the the other thing would be to stick to your budget stick to your budget don't spend money you don't need to spend. Um just because it you want it prettier or you think it's going to be funner you know? If it's going over what you said you're going to spend then just wait. Maybe you're going to spend $50 a month. Um so wait till next month and buy it next month. You know don't go over your budget.
Shaun
I love those tips don't go over your budget is it's my favorite tip ever I love that and then you know just you use those those talents you have or what you have the entrepreneur spirit I think is huge I love uh recommending teachers that become entrepreneurs because we've got so many skills that can transfer into entrepreneurship.
Mary
Absolutely
Shaun
If we learn to budget our time correctly we've got the time as well we've got the the holidays we've got you know summer we've we've got a really good schedule that can really allow us to to grow entrepreneurship I love that.
Mary
Yes
Shaun
Okay last question most important question where can teachers find more about you?
Mary
Um well I'm on uh TikTok believe it or not my kids think that's really funny um I'm a tiktok I'm on Facebook I'm on Pinterest I'm on uh Instagram and YouTube I have a YouTube channel that I post you know tips on as well um and then I have a store on Teachers Pay Teachers uh the Kinder lady I'm called the Kinder lady and I have lots of resources lots of free resources as well so today check that out and see if there's something there they could use.
Shaun
Alright if you want to follow Mary or learn more about her or just get in contact with her on social media @the_kinderlady thank you so much Mary for coming on the show.
Mary
Thank you
Shaun
If you'd like to come on the podcast for coaching to share an expert opinion or just to talk about a topic you think is relevant I'd love to talk to you just fill out the form at teachermoneyshow.com/Guest I look forward to talking with you.