COVID Keeps: How to be Together-ish
As we brace ourselves for another year of uncertainty: masks or no masks, virtual, fully in-person, hybrid or not, one thing is clear-organization is the key to teacher success. Hi all! I am Maghan Kirschner, an NC NTSP instructional coach from the Charlotte region. I keep asking myself what happened to summer? How did it become August already and how am I so unprepared for the return of August even though I KNOW IT COMES EVERY YEAR????? I hope that each of you had a beautiful, relaxing and rejuvenating summer. This post is intended to give you some tips for organizing your teacher life and teacher space and uses resources from The Together Teacher. Maia Heyck-Merlin wrote The Together Teacher and subsequent versions of the Together Leader, The Together From Home Teacher and has recently released The Together Teacher 2.0 with additional tips and tricks for organization. The Together Group has tons of resources for organizational tips and tricks beyond teaching linked HERE.
In her book, Maia outlines the first step in getting it together is determining if you are a “whater” or a “whener”. If you are a whater you typically like lists, you may have 1,000 unread emails or app updates on your phone, you may set several alarms and snooze through them to get up in the morning, etc. If you are a “whener “you use a calendar to organize every aspect of your life, you HATE those red alerts on your phone and often will only do things if it fits within your organizational structure. SPOILER ALERT: There is no “right” or “wrong” way to be. It is who you are and knowing your organizational preferences helps you be a better teacher!!!!
The 2nd tip is to determine if you truly are a paper and pen person or a tech person. I tried so hard to be a paper and pen person. I have purchased countless notebooks (most currently The Happy Planner) and I am just not that person. I need my google calendar handy. I need to check to see if I have scheduling conflicts digitally. If I write something on a post-it, it will be gone. Forever. My kids used to call my desk the “black hole”. Now that I have embraced that I am more tech driven than paper driven my life has become more organized.
So now your next step is finding resources to support if you are a “whater” or a “whener”, if you are “paper-pencil” or “techy”. Linked HERE is a Sutori my colleague, Patricia McRhoads and I created to help our teachers navigate organization for the upcoming school year. HAPPY PLANNING 🙂
Reference: The Together Teacher by Maia Heyck-Merlin @ The Together Group
Contributor: Maghan Kirschner, Charlotte Region