Teacher Hacking

http://wapo.st/1SjWQ81

                                    

Teacher Hacking

Brigid Schulte of the Washington Post recently wrote a favorable piece celebrating “The 21-day Timehacker Project”.

Schulte showcased a Leadville, Colorado kindergarten teacher who utilized five time hacks to get the reins on her burn-out. I think there's a good chunk of "Pie-in-the-sky" thinking in the article. I agree with the principle, but practice is a much different animal. Teaching burns. Having just exited on the flip-side of 33 years, I know this truth all too well. Through my career, I found my own "life hacks" that enabled me to manage stress and fight burnout. I was moderately successful, but still ended up battling hypertension, anxiety, family disassociation, weight gain, and genie dancing.

First, here's a summary and brief commentary on the WaPo article.

1.   DECIDE: DO YOU EVEN LIKE YOUR JOB

It sounds like a no-brainer, right?  I can guarantee you that if you enter the education profession without really having a passion for it, you won’t last.

2.   FOCUS ON THE WORK THAT MATTERS MOST

Here’s the rub with this advice.  If you are in a classroom for any length of time, you quickly learn that matters presented to you by the students, parents, administrators, and the requirements of the job all matter most.  To ask an inexperienced teacher to rate and rank the mind-boggling flood of matters plated for each teacher is, at best, a life’s work.

3.   MAKE A PLAN TO LEAVE WORK AT WORK, ESPECIALLY ON WEEKENDS 

Plans are all well and good. Frankly, this idea is unrealistic in today’s education world.

• Work 30-60 minutes every morning on lesson plans before school. On Friday, she should work a bit after school to get ready for the next week.

Many of the best teachers I know come in to work an hour or more before contract time. The morning hours are an ideal time to gather materials and visualize the upcoming day.  Working only “a bit after school” on Friday is laudable; however, “a bit” doesn’t accurately describe the actual amount of work that needs to be done.

• Put lesson plans in Google docs in order to build on them for the following year, instead of always starting from scratch.

This is a fantastic idea; one that should be incorporated in all schools.  It doesn’t have to be Google Docs, OneDrive, Dropbox, or other cloud storage services.  Most teachers have drifted away from the traditional paper and pencil planning grids to computer-based templates that are editable.  Making plans and teaching from them year after year is a troubling concept. In my experience, each year is completely new.  Each class is unique, as is each student.  You can have a template, scope and sequence, for instruction, but the details of that instruction should be tailored to meet the needs of the current class.  So, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel; you just have the build a new one every year.

• List To-Do’s by week, not day “to add flexibility of doing them when you are in the right frame of mind and diminishing the tension of a deadline.”

Survival in the job requires a teacher to keep a mental or written To-Do list. That list must always be flexible as deadlines tend to be as fluid as the nature of the job.

• Make tasks fun

or enjoyable; they are not tasks but just part of your life. Experience them.

An admirable goal. Experiencing and being mentally present and invested your life is vital. Without that, you are merely an empty vessel. That doesn’t mean, however, that everything should be fun or enjoyable.  Life doesn’t work that way.

• Put everything back into its place so you don’t have to hunt for it.

Some are much better at this than others.  I’m good at making piles, but less good at sorting through them unless, somehow, I miraculously whittle my “To-Do” list away.

4.   GIVE YOURSELF THE GIFT OF FREE TIME

Gifts are wonderful.  Everyone likes presents!  However, when you give yourself gifts, you have to purchase them or pay for them somehow.  Of course, you could just steal your gift. Stealing, though, is not a victim-less crime.

5.   LET GO OF THE SUNDAY NIGHT BLUES 

·         Write about her worries, then tear the paper up and throw it away every Sunday.

While I’m busy writing down my worries on Sunday night, I could be catching up on grading, planning, watching Sixty Minutes, or experiencing the tumultuous gymnastics of restless, stressful sleep.

“With the time hacks, I was able to provide a much higher level of academic rigor, differentiate my lessons more, spend more time analyzing student data, and finding activities that really focused on what they needed, rather than blanket fun activities for all students,” she said. “And all because I found more time in my day.”

I’m sorry that the teacher found these particular truths through time-hacking.  I had hoped that she would find time to practice the art of teaching.  I’m concerned by the whole premise of the article, however.  The 21-Day Timehacker Project, on which Schulte reports, seeks to find ways for the teacher to avoid burnout while continuing to meet unrealistic expectations. 

The real issues that must eventually be addressed are the unrealistic expectations and demands being heaped on the plates of already over-burdened educators.  Why is the American teacher rigorously burning-out and leaving the profession after five years?   How have austerity personnel cuts and ratcheted accountability measures affected the heaping job demands on today’s educators? 

When I retired in June, my third grade level colleagues and I sarcastically joked that I wouldn’t be replaced and that the grade level, which used to be served by four teachers and an assistant, would now only be served by two teachers and no assistant.

In part two, I will delve into specific, personal life hacks that I used which allowed me to stay in the elementary classroom for a full thirty-three year career.