THE THREE D'S TO MANAGE YOUR INBOX

No matter what your inbox system entails. A physical box on your desk, tasks in your calendar program, microsoft outlook, you name it. You can use a very simple rule of thumb to help tame it. The three D's of inbox management are DO IT, DELEGATE IT, DEFER IT. 

Now these only count for action items. If they are reference items, instructions, iteneraries, etc. Those you have to decide what to do based on your own system. I have evernote, and I have a system of notebooks and tags for those "notes."

Back to the action items.

if it takes less than two minutes to do DO IT. This does alot to clear out your inbox. Not to mention, it feels great to just get something done. One less thing on your to do list

 How many times has this happened to you: you have a task, its very simple; like responding to an e-mail, but you get so stuck in the weeds, it's been a week and you haven't gotten around to it? You feel bad, because, to the other person who may not be buried under deadlines, paperwork, etc, it seems like such an easy thing to do. Following the rule of thumb mentioned above saves you from that.

If it takes more than two minutes to do DEFER IT. That is to say, put it on your to do list, put it in your tasks, make a note of it, whatever, and if you have a good organizational system in place use it so that you'll come back to it in a timely manor, and it won't get eaten by the "desk monster" (If you don't have a good organizational system, I would like to recommend you read a book titled Getting Things Done by David Allen.)

DELEGATE IT. These days, I have a TA who sits in my office, files music, stuffs letters and addresses envelopes for my mailings. She also grades my papers. All I do is make a grading key. She makes copies, and scans important documents for me. These are all tasks that used to consume alot of time, but I realized I was doing these important urgent things that basically anyone with an 8th grade or better education could do, and I was not using my degree or my skill set to make my classroom better and better help my students.

Before I had a TA, I used to have my classes help me. I'd make an assembly line, and I'd have the kids go through it and stuff envelopes for my mailings. We could stuff and address 50 envelopes in just over 5 minutes. If I had a kid get in to trouble. They would meet me before or after school and file music. (I had  a cheat sheet for them to show them how to do it,) There is free labor out there. Harness it.

What urgent tasks are keeping you from what you really feel is important? How many great ideas have you ditched because you didn't have the time? If any of those tasks are able to be delegated. Do it! You'll be glad you did.

Tune in next time for tips and tricks to manage your E-Mail inbox. Every day I check my e-mail no more than 2 times, and I have 0 unread e-mails by the end of the day. If you are interested I'll share some tricks with you to help you zero out YOUR inbox too.

Take care mind shapers.

BEGINNING WITH THE END IN MIND. 

I'll lead off with the main point. Write your final exam before you teach your first day. Have a clear picture of what you want the kids to leave your class understanding. What are the essential learning outcomes of this class? What does every kid from Freddie 4.0 to Sally C-average to Donnie Delinquent HAVE to know in order to earn the credit for your class? Make sure that is all included in the final. Then work backwards from the final to the first day of class. Plan your benchmark assessments or projects along the path, make sure to build in extra time for the kids who don't get it the first time, and need to be taught, tutored and re-taught. Build in  a week or two for comprehensive review and assessment before the final. 

I like the idea of pacing guides. I put together a table for the 90 days of the semester (or the quarter if I have a quarter term class)  Then I include the "days off" in the school calendar for holidays, teacher workdays, etc. etc. I try to keep a few "blank days" to account for the surprise pep rally, or the field trip the yearbook teacher didn't tell anyone about until the day of, and any other events that you can't plan for.  Here's an example of this year's 4th quarter pacing guide

3/21-3/25				NO SCHOOL	NO SCHOOL
3/28 - 4/1
4/4 - 4/8					NO SCHOOL
4/11-4/15
4/18-4/22					SNOW MAKE UP DAY
4/25-4/29					SNOW MAKE UP DAY
5/2-5/6
5/9-5/13
5/16-5/20				12:30 dismissal	PLC
5/23-5/27	SNOW DAY	SNOW DAY	SNOW DAY	SNOW DAY	SNOW DAY

On my pacing guide I try my best to plan out when I'll teach each unit, and how much time allot for instruction. I keep them and tweak them every year. Here's a few weeks of my music appreciation pacing guide. 

2/22-2/26	https://prezi.com/wz6wppumx1hu/led-zeppelin/  led zeppelin prezi	PMRC PREZI https://prezi.com/dz2_b7bc3ann/the-pmrc/	STUDENT TEACHER LESSON	STUDENT TEACHER QUIZ	New Wave2.ppt revise me
2/29 - 3/4	EMO Core.ppt	LIstening day #6	EMO REVIEW.pptx	nirvana.ppt	EMO-NINETIES REVIEW
3/7-3/11	EMO CORE NOTES CHECK.docx	STUDENT TEACHER LESSON	STUDENT TEACHER LESSON	THIRD QUARTER ENDS	FOURTH QUARTER BEGINS
3/14-3/18	BASS PLAYERS PREZI	JAZZ IN THE 1920S PREZI	JAZZ IN THE 1920'S NOTES CHECK	JAZZ IN THE 30'S AND SWING PREZI	VICTOR WOOTEN TED TALK
3/21-3/25	Evaline Glenny TED TALK	reflections on the modern singer songwriter Johnson.pptx	REFLECTIONS NOTES CHECK	NO SCHOOL	NO SCHOOL
3/28 - 4/1	One Night in Los Angeles One night companion worksheet	One Night in Los Angeles One night companion worksheet

The first year I did a pacing guide, I greatly under-estimated the time I needed for some units and overestimated time for others, but I revised them a little each year, and gave myself some "wiggle room" by planning in a few "catch up days" between units in case we needed more time. I also planned a few "fun lessons" in case we wrapped up the semester a little early, and weren't quite ready for the final review phase. 

The bottom line is you may not be able to teach everything in the text, but if you have your essential learning outcomes clearly defined, you can feel confident about what you didn't teach. That's peace of mind that helps me sleep at night. Either way it beats working your way through the text book and just teaching units because "that's what's next!" That's a great way to stress yourself out at the end of a semester. 

Until next time! Stay well mind shapers. 

KEEPING THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING

I'll keep this short. The main thing is making connections with kids. Everything else is secondary. Now this assumes you know your way around your content area, but if you survived college and came out with a teaching degree (and your not a moron) you've probably got a pretty good handle on it. 

"Kids don't care what you know until they know that you care." Bring on the jeers. I know it's a cliche. I'm not an idiot.Cliche or not, it's been stuck in the teachers lexicon for decades for the simple reason that, more times than not, its true. 

Make connections with kids, that's the job. Thats the WORK. The rest should be fun. Unless you hate it, in which case you should get out of it all together. I think we all have met those teachers that stay in it for the summers off. They need to step down. We need teachers who have the heart for kids. If that is you, don't be afraid. Kids can be stand offish, but you have 180 chances to break the ice. (Bringing donuts never hurts)

Take care mind shapers.