Five guiding questions to help you take stock of your professional processes and priorities.
It was early on a Friday morning, and Mr. Bower and I looked at each other through our screens. He had just stated that he felt like he was living in a pinball machine...and he was the pinball. This was not the first time this year I had heard an educator voice this feeling, and if you’ve said any of the following terms, you might be feeling the same way: scattered, not enough time, too many buckets, tired.
Although some call teaching a labor of love, it helps to highlight the labor part. I have seen many educators tackle new curriculum, leadership roles, and multiple club advisories due to vacancies at their schools, and all of these additional responsibilities can leave educators, well, feeling like a pinball. So what can we do? Every situation is different, and I don’t have all the answers, but I want to offer a few reflection questions that I have used in my coaching sessions with educators for your consideration.
Is there anything you can pull back on?
List out all of the responsibilities you have, including committees, lesson planning, clubs, etc. Take stock. I find that by the middle of the year, some educators don’t even realize everything they have said yes to. If there is anywhere you can pull back — whether that means delegating tasks to someone else or requesting to leave a committee — the break provides some time for you to think on it. Is there anything you can ask for help with? In one of my coaching projects, many department leaders mentioned the same thing: lack of co-planning time. In their school, they were able to make time in their weekly meetings for this, and co-planners have been able to tackle plans for the week ahead. If that’s not possible, is there a way to split up planning with someone teaching the same courses as you? Where are you spending the majority of your time? By keeping track of how much time you are spending on specific tasks, you can compare this with the tasks that you want to prioritize. If you are a teacher leader, make sure your meetings are run efficiently with an agenda and a clear plan to split up the work. Although this is more upfront work, it will save you time in the long run. As a teacher, take a look at your daily routine. Are you spending more time grading than planning? Perhaps consider cutting back on how many assignments you are grading; you do not have to grade everything that comes across your desk, nor is it equitable to! Consider which assignments can be designated as practice or process and which assignments should be graded to demonstrate growth and mastery. Then, move to question #4. Are there any systems that might streamline some of your tasks? An example of this might be something as simple as creating Exit Ticket reflection questions that can be repeated for multiple lessons, such as “What is something new you learned today?” If you’d rather keep your Exit Tickets specific to each lesson with comprehension questions, doing so on a Google Form by using a quiz template or creating a multiple choice bubble sheet to use with a scanner can help save time and provide live data. If you’re a department lead, consider data inquiry cycles that have set agenda templates for each meeting rather than attempting to create new ones on a continuous basis. I’ve also suggested that department notes be kept in Google Sheets rather than a running Google Doc with each tab named as the date of the meeting. This avoids the dreaded scroll and keeps meetings organized and easy to access for reflection. Are there any webinars for curriculum that might help you navigate new resources? Most of my coaching is within New York City, and most districts are being required to select curricula from a list of choices. If you’re working with an unfamiliar curriculum, check out its website for possible webinars. I also encourage you to ask your administration if you might be paid for attendance, and definitely ask for funding if the webinar requires payment. Another way to get help is through contacting a representative from that curriculum company and seeing if they are available to pop on a Zoom to answer questions.
The most important question to ask yourself is: What are you doing to take care of yourself? Are you setting time boundaries for work? Are you able to see friends and family? Are you making time for your hobbies? I would hope that the answers to all of these questions is yes, but if not, working through some of the above questions might help you reorganize your schedule in order to make time for whatever brings you joy.
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