Planning for Three Classes

This is the sixth school where I have taught English/Language Arts.  For all of my previous positions, I have either prepared for one or two different classes at a time.  These were all schools that had multiple English teachers and they had the luxury of spreading out classes so that specific teachers would teach multiple sections of the same class.  So while a teacher would teach four classes, there would only be one or two to plan for.

I have learned that at a small school, things are quite different.

Right now, I am the middle school Language Arts teacher.  I teach 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade.  I also teach a class called Writing to Publish, but, fortunately, that does not require any real planning.  I have four 50 minute Language Arts classes every day – two 7^th grade, one 6^th and one 8^th. 

I can’t believe how much work this is.

However, I am used to much longer classes, so I have been preparing way too much for each class.  That should help me out a little for now.  But just the fact of having to juggling what I’m teaching in three different classes is a bit overwhelming.  I have so much respect for teachers who do this all the time. 

At the other extreme, when I filled in at a suburban high school last year, I taught only ninth grade.  We had block scheduling so I taught the same thing two days in a row.  I also had a total of four and a half hours of prep time every two days.  On an A day, I had one period off and on a B day, I had two.  That meant I really never had to bring anything home.  I really miss that job.

Here, I have to prepare for the three different classes and have only 50 minutes each day of real prep time.  I do cover a silent reading class for 30 minutes and I can accomplish some work during that time. 

The way I’m handling it all right now is by just over planning.  I have calendars for each class and am making sure I’m at least a day ahead in making materials for individual lessons.  That way I feel like I’m keeping up and not drowning.  However, I don’t know how I’ll be doing a month from now.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?  Are there other ways to wrap my head around this?