Dan (00:00):
Hi, everyone, and welcome to the effective teaching podcast. I'm your host, Dan. And today I thought I would spend a little bit of time talking with you about the concept of making sure that we, as teachers are planning and executing a process to help us to achieve our goals. Now, most of us understand the importance of setting goals for our professional development for our students, because by setting goals, we know where we want to get to, and then we might even create some sub goals to help us to know how are we going to get to the larger end goal. But what often happens as teachers and even for our students is that life gets busy and our goals kind of get set to the side in order to make sure that we are getting done the things that are most urgent for us. And so that could be, you know, reports come in.
Dan (00:52):
And so we prioritize getting our reports written or for students, it's an assignment that comes up. And so they prioritize getting that done because they need to get it done by a certain time or because we need to get it done by a certain time. And so I think it's really important for us to think about how we actually plan our days and our weeks as teachers and what we actually focused on as we do this. And so I've been working a lot lately on the idea of personal effectiveness and how as a teacher, we can actually save time and still be really effective in our classrooms and be effective as teachers, but still be able to have life outside of school, still be able to have hobbies and go look after ourselves. And so part of what I've been looking at is the process of making sure that we're still focusing on our goals.
Dan (01:42):
And so today, what I want to talk to you about is what I've taught you about how we do that, how we actually schedule in time to make sure that we are prioritizing the things that bring us closer to our goals. And so one of the things that I teach my students to do as they approach their major exams at the end of school. So for year 12 in New South Wales, the HSC exams is I teach them how to do a week to week or even better would be like a fortnightly schedule of their time. And that fortnightly schedule gets reviewed every week. I encourage you as a teacher, I would do it on a Friday before I left school. So that things were actually planned out and thought about before it comes to the night before school goes back here, I don't do it on Sunday night because there's not as much time to make sure that you're ready.
Dan (02:31):
It also allows for you to relax over the weekend because you know, what's coming up and you're prepped for that. Hopefully because the week is only just around the corner. So what I encourage you to do as you do, this is always you look at your week, have a look at your timetable. There's obviously things you can't change that are always in there. So put in your timetable slots, but then the times when you're off class and the time is outside of normal school periods, I want you to actually play and what you're going to do with your time a week beforehand. So on the Friday at the end of school term. So in a school week, I'll sit down, I'll pull out my diary, I'll look at my timetable and I know what I've got to teach, and I've got plans for that because my programs are done.
Dan (03:15):
And so I'll just make sure that's ready to go. That that's fresh in my head, but then I'll also look at my goals that I'm trying to achieve. And maybe one of the sub goals that will help me to get to that goal. And I go, okay, what two or three things do I need to do this week coming? That will move me towards that goal. And I'll first block out some time in my schedule to make sure that I'm doing something to achieve that. So for example, if I have a student in my class who has autism, I would plan some time because one of my goals might be to make sure that I'm better prepped as a teacher with how to look after that student better. And so I'll prep some time aside in my schedule, I'll allow it maybe an hour in the morning on a Monday morning to do some research and to do some reading and to make some summaries of those readings.
Dan (04:03):
As part of my process of working towards that goal of being able to better communicate and connect with my students and to be able to deliver my teaching in a way that's more appropriate for them. And so by building those types of things in I'm going to block out a bunch of time. And the important thing is that once you schedule in this time to work towards your goals is that you then don't allow other things to take that time. So if you get a phone call from someone who says that they want to meet you at that time, you go actually a busy at that time. Can we meet at, and then pick a time when you are free. And as I do my schedule, I will purposely block out times where I am free for meetings to happen. Generally I make those times lunchtime or recess because that's normally when all teachers and students are also free and I will not be free and available during my periods where I'm not on class or during before and after school, unless I particularly need to be.
Dan (04:58):
So I will block in times for me to get deep work done as well. If I need to get units of work done, or if I need to get my reports done, I will block in those sections of time, weeks beforehand, because I know that they're coming up. So at the beginning of term, I would start to block in times, okay. We would have write your comments for your seven for an hour and a half today, even though they're not due for another six weeks, because that means that when it does come time for the reports to be due, I actually have my comments done. I just have to make sure I've entered all my data, ticked all my boxes, and then we can, they're ready to go. I don't have that pressure of something being really urgent as it comes up, because what happens is we often prioritize the urgent and forget the things that are important.
Dan (05:43):
Cause there's lots of things that are important, but not urgent that we as teachers really need to focus on. And that's things like our professional development, it's things that help us as teachers to improve what we're doing in our classroom. It's our time to reflect on our programs on lessons, our time to adjust and create those and to make them even better than they were. It's our time where we want to go and hang out with students. That's our time where we want to invest in developing our rapport with them because they're not urgent. They often get put to the side. And so by using a schedule system where every Friday I sit down and schedule the next week and probably the week after as well go over, what's already scheduled, make sure I'm still that that's all still going to work for me. And then I go and I make sure that I stick to it unless there's something major that comes up or a less someone who is an authority to me, insists that I change my schedule in order to meet with them.
Dan (06:40):
That schedule stays in place. And whether it does have to change because of an emergency or because I've spent more time working on one thing, then I've run over time into something else that I would have done. I'll quickly reschedule some of my time to adjust and cater for that. And it's really important for us as we work towards our larger goals to do that. It helps to put in balance, okay. I will block in time, for example, for what I'm going to hang out with my kids. And I'm going to dance with my children for an hour just around the living room and stuff. I'll block that time in, and I am busy during that time, doing some of the most important work I'll ever do. And I don't allow other people to take that time. And it's really important for us as teachers to really guard our time.
Dan (07:26):
Our time is by far the most precious possession we have. It is not something we can get back. Okay. And he's more valuable to you than money. And often we will do things to protect our money, to protect our things, but we don't put in place systems and processes to protect our time. And so I want to encourage you to use a process like this. You don't have to schedule your things every week, but what I want to encourage you to use some kind of scheduling system so that you are really purposeful with your time and allow you to make sure you're building towards the goals that you want to achieve. That you're prioritizing the things that you really value in your life, as well as being able to put in the time for the other things that you need to do as a teacher, it is possible if you plan it out and you stick to it to get lots more done in less time, because you know what you're meant to be doing.
Dan (08:18):
You don't get to your desk and sit down and go, okay, what am I going to do right now? I have a free period. What do I need to work on? What's most urgent. Instead, you sit down and you look at your schedule and go, that's what I'm doing right now. And you get straight to it. There's no time wasted looking for things to, you have to do. And you also are free when you need to be, because you've scheduled that in and you go, okay, I'm going to go. And I'm on playground duty. So I know that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to make sure I'm chatting to all the kids while I'm out there to develop my rapport. I'm not just standing in a corner, eating my food and just keeping, watching things. You're actually engaging with the kids. As you walk around all that kind of stuff, being more purposeful with your time can have a great impact on your work that you get done, how busy you are and allow you to actually have more time outside of your school to spend time with the people that you love and to invest in yourself and look after yourself so that you have a long lasting, healthy life, but also a happier life because you are doing all the things that you enjoy and not being overly dominated by one particular aspect.
Dan (09:24):
So give that a go this week or for the next couple of weeks, or maybe for the rest of this term and make sure you tell me how you're going. I would love to get your feedback on how you do your scheduling or how you go about making sure that you are being purposeful with your time. Because I think it is the most important thing for teachers to do is to plan and be purposeful with their time to make sure that they are devoting it to the things that they value most and that they see as most important and not just the things that are urgent. And I'm not saying you have to ditch the things that are urgent. There are definitely things in teaching that are urgent that need to get done. They're urgent and important, but if you do things that are not urgent and important, you tend to have less things that are urgent and important. Anyway, make sure you come over, leave me a comment. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a review. I would love to hear from you in that way. Make sure you subscribe and come back and join me next week. But for now, please head over to teacherspd.net/94. And leave me some comments on this episode. I would love to hear from.
