ICTE SPEAK Session: Radical Routines

For years, I’ve been interested in the big picture of teacher mental health and what it takes to remain passionate throughout a career. This session is not about maintaining passion; this session is about maintaining sanity so you have space in your brain for passion.

There’s a Nancie Atwell story in In the Middle about Don Graves complimenting her organization. As the story goes, organization is not the notable quality she would have selected (and of course, she has so many more) because it seems so darn boring. But for many of us, it’s impossible to do the hard work if our space is a mess, or if we can’t remember if we sent the copies out, or if the new week arrives and we forgot to plan for it.

Several years ago, I started using FLYLady’s routines to keep my house in check, and it more or less works. It can be a little cheesy, but it's a lot helpful. Things are still a disaster at certain times of the week or day, but I overall feel pretty ready for company most of the time. FLYLady’s systems are all about automating your life routines so you don’t have to think about much. FLYLady’s systems are also all about baby steps and starting slow, which isn’t really conducive to a 10 minute session. So, take what you can, add one new routine a week, and see if it helps you keep your head above water. I know that it helps me.

First of all, FLYLady advocates for an important baby step of “shining your sink” each day. In the home, it’s your kitchen sink, a tangible reminder that you’ve at least got something under control. My “sink” at school is my teacher desk. Every day, I make sure it’s mostly clean and organized and a space I can actually use to do work. Once you have this under control, you can begin to work in other routines that will help you get through the day.

FLYLady’s system involves different routines at different parts of the day and also different tasks assigned to different days of the week. I’ve done the same. See my editable task list here.

On the right hand side of my task list, you can see my different downtimes in the day: before school, my study hall, and my prep period (which runs into after school time for me—it may not for you, so you may want to add an additional area for “after school”). These are the tasks I start with at each of my non-student time during the day, and if I have additional time left-over, I begin on my task list for that day of the week (found on the left hand side of the page). Now, let me be clear—not everything happens perfectly every single day, but I do generally adhere to these rules, and I don’t leave the building until I’ve either completed everything on my list or moved it to the following day’s task list.

Since I’ve implemented this system of routines, I find my room and space to be clearer and my daily work time to be more efficient. First of all, I don’t feel like I have to do EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME. I have the week scheduled so that Mondays and Tuesdays are heavy on planning and the end of the week is a little heavier on grading and catch-up. Of course I can change the week to fit my students’ needs that week, but this gives me a base document to modify so nothing gets lost in the shuffle.

If I were just starting out, I’d start with “shining your sink.” For most of us, I think that would be our teacher’s desk. If you don’t have a teacher’s desk, pick a different “surface” in your room that you’d like to look like it’s under control.

Once you’ve mastered that surface consistently, work on your daily routines. How do you need to start your day so that you feel centered? Add these items to your after school routine. Where do things organizationally fall apart during your day, and at what point in the day could you stop to regroup?

Once your daily routines are helping you function, then you can add in your weekly routines to help the week flow more smoothly. When designing your weekly routines, think both about when things need to get done AND you’re in the best position mentally to do them. I think this is a little like litter-training a rabbit. While rabbits will learn to use a litter box, the easiest way to do it is to observe where the rabbit tends to do his/her business, and place the litter box in that area. Make sure you’re not putting your litter box all the way across the cage. For example, I found that I originally had WAY too much on my Friday afternoon task list. I was just too tired to get through as much as I thought I could. Experiment. See what works.

Remember, FLYLady advocates for baby steps. If you feel guilty or bad about yourself at any time, you’re probably trying to add too much. Go back to “shining your sink,” remind yourself it’s a process, and try again with a set of routines the following week. This is not about perfection. It’s about automating some of your life so that you have thinking space to do the work that matters most: designing quality instruction for kids.

See my customizable weekly task list here. Make a copy and edit away to start working on your routines!