Transcript

  Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Teacher Support Network podcast. I'm your host, Antoine McCoy, and today we're going to dive into a topic every teacher can relate to, and it's how to be more productive throughout the school day. 

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever, ever gotten to the end of a school day and felt like you didn't get anything done?

Well, today I'm going to discuss and share five actionable ways to be more productive throughout the school day so you can feel more in control and less stressed and overwhelmed. 

But, first I want to look at two kinds of mindset shifts before I talk about these strategies, because I think it's going to really help us make the strategies more effective. 

The first mindset shift is to focus on what you can control. And then the second mindset shift that's closely related to it is to be intentional. Use the time that you have control over and be intentional with how you use it. Often we might have some time during our day to get things done, but we don't have a focus plan for that time and so we waste it and we don't get the time back or get things done.

I want you to be really intentional about how you use the time that you do have control over. That could be your prep periods and things like that. So after focusing on what you can control and being intentional let's talk about the first strategy to have a more productive teaching day.

So the first strategy is to plan your day. Why does this matter? Because sometimes we go into our teaching day without a plan, and you know what they say, failing to plan is planning to fail. A great day starts with a solid plan. Without it, you're always reacting instead of being proactive and responding. So take control of your day by having a schedule that you follow for that specific day.

And your plan can change from day to day depending on your teaching schedule. As teachers, many parts of our day are already scheduled because we are teaching classes. But other parts can have some flexibility, such as what we do during our prep time, which I talked about earlier. Or if you're a SpEd teacher, sometimes you might have some consultation times with students.

I want to give some specific things you can do to help you plan your day. Here's some specific tips to really consider. When you get into your classroom at the beginning of the day, before you start, you know, doing stuff, take five to ten minutes at the beginning of that day, sit at your desk, drink your coffee, whatever it might be, and identify your top three, realistic priorities for the day and jot them down in a planner, a notebook, or a journal.

When you think of these priorities, I want you to ask yourself this question. What are the top three tasks that if I accomplished it today, I would feel like I had a successful teaching day? The key is to be really realistic. 

So if you're a Gen Ed teacher and you say one of your top priorities is grading student writing samples or essays from an assignment you gave then grading the right writing samples for all of your students may be a bit much, and you could be setting yourself up for some disappointment.  A more realistic priority task may be to grade five to seven students writing samples or essays for that day.  And if you get more done, boom, that's a bonus.

 Let's say if you're a SPED teacher listening in and you might want to complete writing the whole IEP for an upcoming meeting as one of your top priorities. That may not be possible with the time you have available because it takes time to write a full IEP effectively..

So instead, consider writing the present level section of the IEP or just the annual goals as that priority for the day. Then, if you're able to get more done, fine, that's a bonus, but at least you've got the part that you prioritized for that day completed. The point I'm trying to make is this… 

 You get to control what success looks like for you on each given day.

That way it's not always based on other people or outside circumstances that have been determined for you. You know yourself in the seasons of life better than anyone else. So, you know what’s  reasonable and realistic for you, but always be open, you know to make adjustments to what you can get done on a particular day.

I'm guilty of this. I often need to give myself some grace and adjust my expectations on what I can accomplish on any given day, because I always think I can accomplish more. I'm sure some of you listening to this are the same. So, one key takeaway that I want you to consider is this: 

Set aside 10 minutes when you get to school, identify those priority tasks. I say three is a good number. Plan out your day based upon those priorities. Let's see what results you get from that and how it makes you feel at the end of the day. 

So, after planning your day, the second strategy to have a more productive teaching day would be task batching.

Task batching eliminates jumping from one task to another or  task switching as it's called. Research shows this doesn't really increase your productivity. It can actually take away from it and make you less focused.

So let's think about some tasks that you do throughout the day that may be some of your priority tasks that you can batch. You can do batch grading. Instead of grading one assignment here and there, pick a time to grade an entire stack of papers. Another area you can batch is returning phone calls to parents rather than doing it at random times here and there throughout the day.

You can batch reading and responding to emails rather than do it immediately, which I'm guilty of, when you hear that ding in your inbox and  you respond to it right away. So you may be working on something else and then all of a sudden you hear that and you go check it and then it just takes you off course. If you batch reading emails at a certain time, that can really help you be more effective in terms of maximizing that time.

You can do batch lesson planning. You can batch the prepping of the materials for the lesson plans that you've already written.

If you're a SPEd teacher, you can batch  IEP writing and complete certain sections like we talked about earlier because it's hard to get back to writing, for  example quality annual goals for a student if you're multitasking or you're constantly being interrupted.

One takeaway would be to identify tasks that you can batch this week and then block out time in your schedule to complete the task. So let's say you may have a 30 minute prep or planning period. Some of you might have more, but let's say 30 minutes as an example.

You decide for 15 minutes, I'm going to check and respond to my emails. So during that 15 minute time that's only what you're doing. All you're doing is checking emails and responding to emails. And then with that other 15 minutes, you might say, you know what, I'm going to take this last 15 minutes of my prep and I'm going to grade a few student papers. But you see, you're not going back and forth between checking emails, grading student papers, which can just get you unfocused.

Okay. But remember, it's your teaching practice and you decide what you do with your prep time. Just be intentional so you can maximize the time and task batching is one way to do that.

So moving on to strategy number three to have a more productive teaching day. This one is to prioritize important relationships.

So, what do I mean by prioritizing important relationships? Well, we all know that building relationships with your students, parents, and colleagues is extremely important, and it's the foundation of everything you do as a SpEd teacher, Gen Ed teacher, or just an educator in general.

However, each day, there are specific people that you serve that may need extra care, connection, and attention based upon their individual circumstances or needs. These specific relationships with students, parents, related service providers, and so forth, are the ones that you want to make these intentional connections with before you leave for the day.

What do I mean by that? So ask yourself this question. Who are the top two to three people I need to intentionally connect with today before I leave and go home? And that could be a student who has a difficult day.  It could be a parent that has been calling with a concern about their child.  It could be a colleague or an administrator that you need to collaborate with to get some support from. 

The key thing here is try your best to connect with those people who you've identified as being the priority for that day. And if you have time, you can always connect with others on your list because we always have many people that we need to get back to and things like that. But sometimes we can't get to them all throughout the school day and it can make us feel defeated when we say, oh, I have so much to do.

But if you identify those two or three people and connect with them today, that will be a big win and  that's what this strategy is for. So you get to decide who to prioritize for those relationships each and every day.

So now we're moving on to strategy four to a more productive teaching day, which is boost your energy. And why is this critical? Because it's difficult to be productive if you're running on empty, especially as you get towards the end of the day.

So some practical ways to really boost your energy would be staying hydrated by drinking water throughout the day. Eating breakfast in the morning. Taking your lunch. I was bad about this one. I would always feel drained by the end of the day because a lot of times I was always trying to do stuff on my lunch and I didn't eat, thinking that would be helpful, but it really wasn't. Because I didn't have the energy to really get through the day. 

Another tip is to have healthy snacks like fruits and nuts and things that you can eat throughout the day or in between classes. You can also try healthy energy drinks that don't give you a high but then make you crash.

So that's why the keyword is healthy here, you know, if you're going to be drinking energy drinks. Another thing is to do five to ten minute movement breaks between classes like walking or stretching. You could walk outside on a track if your school has one. It could be around the block, if you're in a city and you don't really have a track outside the school.  Or it could be just walking around the gym, for instance, to get in some movement. 

The key thing is you get to decide what works for you based on your circumstances. So, that's another way to have a more productive day because you are boosting your energy. 

Our last strategy number five to have a more productive teaching day is once you've planned your day, you've batched tasks, you've prioritized those important relationships, and you've gotten to them and connected with them, and you've done some things to boost your energy, now it's the end of the day. Just don't run out and go home. Evaluate your day. That's strategy number five.

Evaluating your day is super important. Pausing to review your day is extremely important. It allows you to celebrate the best parts of your day, reflect on the challenging parts, and just examine how you might reset and approach the next day for similar or better results.

So here's some key ways to do that.  I would say, just like at the beginning of the day when you set 5 to 10 minutes to plan your day. Before you leave, set 5 to 10 minutes at the end of your day and jot down in your planner, your journal, or notebook, one thing that went well for the day. What was one win?

Was it with your students? Was it another responsibility that you had in your teaching day? What was something that you found to be a success? Not only would you feel good leaving the day, but also it's important to celebrate our successes because we always, sometimes as teachers, we're really critical and hard on ourselves.

So after you say, what's one thing that went well, jot down one thing to improve your day because there might've been some challenges. You know what I mean? So what was one way you could probably improve your day? That helps you think about what to do differently, maybe tomorrow or the next day.

Then before you leave, while it's fresh in your head, write down your top two to three priorities for the next day. Not only would that give you a headstart in pre planning, but it would also make it easier the next day when you sit down to plan your day again. 

So to summarize the five ways to have a more productive teaching day:  number one, plan your day. Two, batch your task. Three, prioritize important relationships for that day. Four, boost your energy. Five, evaluate your day.

If you use these five productivity strategies to help you maximize your time and focus, it's really going to make a difference in how you are able to maximize your time throughout the day.

And as you rinse and repeat these five efficiency hacks, I hope you feel more empowered, effective, and in control of your school day, which sometimes we don't always get to feel that way and hopefully it will reduce some of the stress and overwhelming you may feel in the process. I know it's hard and it's challenging to get through our school day and feel productive, but you got this and I believe that trying some of these strategies will be really helpful.

So in closing, I encourage you to try one or all of these productivity strategies from this episode. Let me ask you a question. Which one will you start with or add to your teaching practice? Let me know which ones and how it works out for you by leaving a comment at the bottom of the show notes page, for this episode.

And also on the show notes page, you'll also find the link to my newsletter to stay updated on the latest episodes and resources while receiving a weekly dose of practical strategies, tips, and inspiration to support you on your teaching journey. Okay, that's it for today. I know I gave you a lot, but I really wanted you to have these strategies because for us to do the best work we can with our students, we need to feel like we can have some ways to really maximize the productivity of our day so we can get everything done because teachers have a lot to do.

If you found this episode helpful or you know anyone who could benefit from the message, please share with a fellow teacher.

Until next time, like always, take care of yourself.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram,