Are you Automating Everything you Can?
Do you know any teacher that was hired to do less this school year than last school year? Do you know any school where there is a directive for teachers to slow down, back off the stress level, and only do what is reasonable?
Is there a school district anywhere that recommends that teachers pace themselves, avoid stress and mental-physical-emotional strain, and do only what they are paid to do…within normal working hours?
Since work requirements are at less than sane, and since the needs of your students are open-ended and seem to be on a trajectory that approaches "bottomless" (and we are not talking about a lack of underwear), you have several choices:
- Plan better, more strategically, modularize instruction
- Prioritize, do the most important, highest-payoff tasks first
- Delegate -- Let students take up slack for you
- Drop essential, but low-priority tasks
- Automate all levels of tasks, from the important to the urgent
The tasks that you can automate include:
- Materials Creation
- Lesson Planning
- Research
- Grading and Grade Calculation
- Progress Tracking: Yours and Your Students'
- Parent Communication
- Centers and Center Development
- Software and Account Management
The tasks that you cannot automate include:
- Teaching: Your interaction with students cannot be replaced
- Supervising Student Progress
- Analysis of Individual Learning Styles of Each Student
- Communicating One-to-One with Students
- Counseling, Consulting with Students, Parents and Colleagues
- Communicating your Personal Caring and Commitment
- Creativity, Problem-Solving and Decision-Making
There will never be an automated replacement for teachers.
"Covering material" does not constitute teaching or learning.
Teachers apply themselves in a personal and professional relationship with their students. Students are "clients" in the sense of being in our care. As such, our decisions must be based upon their needs.
Teaching requires modeling of the qualities that we would have students adopt. And, teaching requires the development of habits: abilities, attitudes, knowledge and skills that become so practiced and proficient that they seem like automatic responses.
But, this is not automation in the sense that we are using it here, as a time saver. What you are doing by automation is freeing up time and energy so that you can apply and develop personal skills that make you a "genius-level" teacher.
Too Busy "Teaching to the Test" to Automate?
You say that you are too busy "teaching to the test" and scrambling for materials to automate anything.
If you are stressed for time, you are not automating enough.
The effort may require self-discipline at first, but the payback will be additional time for the future.
Sidebar
In a way, all of Classroom Toolkit is focused upon automation.
The process that we share is one of modularizing instructional materials so that teachers can mix and match materials to instructional goals.
Automation Goals
Goals (and payoffs) for automation include:
- Developing and Automating Presentations
- This is done with templates and fill-in-the-blank data merges
- Increase Efficiency
- Automation increases efficiency with instructional planning, and instructional delivery with such tools as E-mail, Web form submission, surveys, parent communication, data integration, and classroom management. The use of automation makes tasks that would otherwise have been performed manually more efficient and time-effective.
- Streamline Processes
- Automation streamlines processes, especially if you bend the process to conform to the technical requirements of the automation software. For example, what if filling out a the campus form for each student is automated. Create your own form that looks close enough to the original, then automate the fill-in. This can save you hours. And, share the form with your colleagues. You can save them hours of work, too
- Increase Cycle Time/ Reduce Time on Task
- Automation speeds up the time that you can develop assignments and projects by increasing your efficiency. By automating everything you can, you communicate with parents and supervisors, develop materials and lesson plans, calculate grades, submit reports…tasks that you have to repeat can be automated.
- Tracking and Documenting
- Developing a "step-by-step re-use process" instead of a "one off, one-time-use" treadmill creates time out of "thin air."
- Targeting Behavior and Learning
- Collecting data and reporting progress can be automated. This is done by creating check-off forms using a database management system (database). Most teachers have one of these in the Office Productivity application that is part of their professional office suite software
- Unfortunately, the learning curve for mastering a database management system is steep, and most teachers never develop the powerful uses that this software affords
- Creating Learning Profiles
- Sorting and grouping students into fluid and dynamic project and task groups
- Measuring Results
- Unless you can measure what you do, you cannot control what you do. Without measurement; situations, serendipity, fate, crisis and accident are in control. With measurement, you take control.
- Getting Back more Time than you Put in
- Automation is like a magic box. You put in a little time, and you get back a lot more time.
Automation Tools
Tools that you can use to automate instructional planning, management and delivery include:
- A professional Office Productivity Package with merge features (for document files, spreadsheet files and database files). This is your automation workhorse
- Text research storage with one-button capture
- Full page storage for online research
- Vocabulary Mapping
- Data Analysis and Display Program
- Mind Mapping Software
- Screen Capture
- Screen Video Capture
- A Phrase Expansion Tool
Remember: Academic versions of this software can be purchased for a fraction of the list price or street price.
Another trick is to purchase an older version on eBay™, then upgrade. This usually results in a huge cost savings.
Online Tools
Online tools that can streamline and automate your work include: Blogs, E-mail, Online Toolkits and Learning Management Systems
- Blogs
- E-mail Systems
- Online Toolkits
- Learning Management Systems
