The Answer - A blog about Education, Preparation, and Commitment.

YES Prep teacher battles with Post-It Notes for Student Achievement

February 02, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

Friday 4:45pm

Location: Revolution Campus Hallway

I’m approached by a student for help on a homework assignment and like something out of an episode of Grey’s Anatomy; my mind begins time management triage.

Task: Student needs help on homework problems 

Subject: Student Achievement

Priority Level: High (Pink)

Estimated Time Commitment: 15 minutes

Decision/Status: Proceed and Complete

Being a first year teacher, it’s not an exaggeration that I treat my time outside of the classroom like a doctor in an Emergency Room.  Assess the tasks in front of me, assign a priority level, and put it on the to-do list. I mean sure, this is just good time management, but when you assign a priority level to petting your cat, calling your boyfriend, or getting the oil changed (which I STILL haven’t done) you’ve entered one of the biggest struggles of a first year teacher: Time Management with the never-ending to-do list.

Rewind my life eight months ago and I would have told you I was a time management ninja. With Jet-Li-like flair, I knocked out 15 hours of college classes, a 20-30 hour a week internship, a house, a cat, and still had time to fit in a clever one-liner and save the day. When asked about time management in interviews, I proudly explained my system of pink, yellow, and green post-it notes I used to organize tasks and due dates. My favorite feeling was when all the post-its were in the trash on Friday and I could bounce on in to the weekend worry-free.

Gone are the days of post-it free weekends. At my current purchase rate, I’m seriously surprised I don’t get a Christmas card from the CEO of 3-M for my customer loyalty. In education, you can meet every deadline, but there’s always one more thing you could be doing to ensure your students are meeting their potential.  So you’ve lesson planned out next week and printed everything for Monday? Gold Star for you, but you need to ensure you’ve integrated the new English Language Learner strategies, Luis needs a positive parent phone call, you STILL haven’t taken that survey for the home office, and if you don’t respond to that email soon your Instructional Coach is going to put out a hit on you. 

Wow, Heather, that sounds like a lot, but with a clever triage system haven’t you solved this problem already? The answer is…ok, too early to plug the system motto. No, because let’s face it, you can’t assign a priority level to every aspect of your personal life. If Mr. Whiskers wants attention, you can’t ask him to pencil you in next Thursday between lesson planning and tutorials. If you forget your mom’s birthday, you can’t schedule the apology call after TAKS. And at some point you HAVE to go to the doctor.

It took me three months of going non-stop to realize the to-do list won’t ever end. So I had to adjust my strategy. It is no longer about tossing all the post-its in the trash. It’s about making sure EACH post-it I toss, is giving me the biggest payoff. Great objective, but is it measureable? (Wait for it…)

The Answer is YES (and the crowd goes wild!).

 I became a teacher to do one thing and one thing only; improve the future for my students. I won’t get it all done, but if each thing I do has their achievement and understanding in mind I can make the biggest impact. Tutoring a student will always come before making my classroom pretty. Accommodations and Modifications will come before surveys. I have to meet my own personal needs so I can stay focused on the needs of my students. Simple things like, going for a jog so I’m focused on exponents and not on the seemingly exponential growth of my dress size.

 I still struggle to feel accomplished when facing down a wall of pink, yellow, and green sticky tasks. All I have to do is look at the student mastery quizzes on my wall and I know I made all the right choices. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a yellow post-it note labeled “Blog About My Biggest Struggle” to toss in the trash. 

Heather Kinkade teaches 8^th grade Algebra at YES Prep Gulfton. She is a 2009 TeachForAmerica Corps Member and a 2009 graduate from the University of Texas Austin where she studied Business and Psychology. 

--
4 Comments
leave a comment