NAESP’s Mentor Center principal, Jessica Johnson, wants your advice! This month she’s looking to tackle time management. Here’s what she has to say:
During my first year as principal, I got into classrooms as much as possible. In my building, there was no previous practice of a principal presence in the classrooms other than the formal teacher observation on a three-year cycle. I made it a priority to get into classrooms to get to know teaching styles and the students, often just leaving a positive message on a Post-it note.
I started this year with the best intentions of not only getting into classrooms more, but leaving more meaningful feedback for teachers to promote further reflection and dialogue to improve student learning. At the start of the year, I met with each teacher to find out what teaching standard he or she would like me to focus on when I come into the classroom so I can tailor my feedback to each teacher’s goals.
To plan for this, my secretary and I came up with a strategy for her to manage my schedule so that both meeting and classroom time are marked on my calendar. I thought the plan was brilliant. However, I also took on additional duties this year as the district assessment coordinator (part of being in a small district). My plan did not account for how much time my new duties require. I am now ashamed to admit that I’m rarely in classrooms, to the point that a few kindergartners have mistaken the recess monitor as the principal.
I’d like to hear any time-management/organization tips that other principals have to make time for the classrooms and not stay in the office until 10 p.m. with paperwork.
re: Time Management 101
Jessica,
I feel your pain. I was an elementary principal with no assistant. When the district's curriculum coordinator left, the superintendent asked me handle many of those duties--in addition to my principalship. While the situation was "just a year," one year turned into four. Here are the things that helped me:
1. Being in the halls and walking throughout the building while teachers were arriving in the morning. If teachers knew they could have quick one-on-one time with me walking through the halls, they were less likely to interrupt later while I was in the middle of a project.
2. Have the administrative assistant screen phone calls and visitors. People often ask for the principal feeling he/she can handle anything. Often, someone else can handle the issue as well or better.
3. Put classroom time on the calendar. For me, if it was on the calendar, it happened. All else had to take a back seat. That may mean saying no to other requests for your time. By definition, saying "yes" to anything automatically means saying "no" to other options. We have to learn to say "no" to the right things.
4. Group tasks so they are handled as quickly as possible. Whenever I was waiting for a meeting to start, I had reading material handy. When I worked on e-mail, I made a decision on every piece and got the in-box back to empty daily. When I was out and about in the building, I was looking at a list of every repairs to inspect or anything else that needed to be done during those rounds.
5. Work ahead of deadlines. I identified all of the repeating tasks that had to be done, delegated as needed, and kept the ones that were best done by me. I never had to think through any of the routine tasks and never had to worry about someone breathing down my neck about one of them I had forgotten. It was all written down so that I could work through it quickly.
Getting a handle on our time is one of the paramount secrets of the principalship. Every good thing we do for our students, our teachers, our communities, our families, or ourselves is accomplished through the dimension of time.
re: Time Management 101
Jessica,
I am presently a retiree with 33 years of service for the CPS system and 15 years of principalship in the same school (identified as high achievement high poverty high enrollment with 1,350 students). The first 3 years of principalship were extremely difficulty as the school was very low achieving and there were no resources for leadership support. Time Management was a constant issue in my life. Thereafter, I wrote a proposal to University of Illinois at Chicago and my school was granted the opportunity to participate in the PARTNERSHIP READ which main focus was to create leaders within the teachers. We started out with a "Team" of six teachers and the principal receiving the first phase of "building capacity." These six leaders became my right hand to support the instructional focus. Very often in leadership the concept of delegating is suggested. However, it could be very counter-productive to delegate to individuals not being trained to exercise leadership amongst their colleagues which is not an easy task...It is a process..The leaders will acquire skills in the process of change as the initial step to establish "buy -in" climate to support the process of change. These leaders will set up the idea of working in collaboration and not in isolation. The idea is to provide support towards the "Best Practices" identified to move the school forward. Teachers will then visit one another classrooms with specific purpose based on the individual need aligned to one of the Best Practices. The host teacher reports possessing strengths in the particular Best Practice and invites colleagues to visit his/her classroom at a mutually agreed time and date. The Team Leaders share the minutes of the Team Meetings which are dedicated for instructional improvement and not to discuss other logistics...
Best wishes in your dynamic principalship.
re: Time Management 101
Jessica,
Our administrators do 5x5 walkthroughs based on Learning-Focused Schools. We spend 5 minutes in 5 classrooms per day. We decided in September what 4 things we would be looking for when we were in the classrooms (summarizing, collaborative pairs, direct vocabulary instruction and essential questions). I have a 4-square box where I make notes. I will often spend closer to 10 minutes in each classroom. Sometimes I do not see any of these focus points, but that is OK. I often make notes about other things I am seeing, or not seeing in the classroom. I don't know how much time you spend in the classroom, but this may be a way to help you still get into classrooms on a daily basis and not have to block out large chunks of time. At first I wondered about the value of just 5 minutes. But, I have found when looking back through my notes that there are patterns. I really like your idea of leaving a Post-it note for the teacher with a comment on it. I have struggled with trying to find time to talk with the teachers after each visit because we usually get into lengthy conversations. I see the Post-it note as a way to communicate and then have the lengthy conversations with those where I am seeing patterns (good or bad). I also set a time when I arrive at school and leave school (ie: 7:00 am-5:00 pm). I stick to this unless I have an evening event to attend, then I adjust the morning time. You have to have "me" or family time. It is very easy not to have a schedule when you are an educational administrator. But, you really have to make that schedule and stick to it. The paperwork, etc... will be there tomorrow. Use some of the techniques from the experts about mail, email and phone calls. One thing different for me is that my mailbox is in the workroom with the teacher's mailboxes. I take 5 minutes to sort and throw out. It has really helped the clutter in my office. I hope I have given you some ideas to help with getting into classrooms. Best wishes in your pursuit of being an excellent instructional leader.
re: Time Management 101
Jessica,
Time management is certainly a nice way to state, "How will I get all this done today?". We have so many initiatives on our plate, the key is always to figure out what takes priority...which of course is a challenge within itself. I encourage you to read "Get Organized! Time Management for School Leaders" by Frank Buck. It is a very easy read and offers quick key ideas that you can put into place very easily. And as we look to turn the corner for a new year, it will of course offer you great ideas to begin the new year. Congratulations Jessica, I am glad to see that you are well. Please drop me an email, would be nice to catch up.
re: Time Management 101
Great site!
Success comes to those people who can manage their time according to their priorities. It is due to the fact that they can finish doing important tasks at a certain period of time without rushing things and without becoming reckless.