Much to the credit of our administration, the set up of our distance learning model this fall is much more workable than the one from last spring. Having a more formalized structure to our day with synchronous online classes has made things a little less chaotic this time around.
With that said, there is still a struggle (at least for me) to manage all of the moving parts of our schedule. It probably makes sense. Since it took me the better part of 30 years to figure out how to manage things with students in real life, I can’t expect to have everything figured out in this new environment in less than a few months.
One of the more challenging elements of this new model is how I schedule my day and allocate my time. I have found that without some type of structure (which is usually provided in the rhythm of bells and movement of students), I have become both inefficient and even negligent in certain areas. Considering this, I have had to manufacture a structure in order to be sure that I do not create a type of imbalance.
If I had to roughly guess the divide of my time under normal conditions, I would say that the largest segments of my time are devoted to planning and direct instruction. The next largest category would be the time set aside for correcting and assessing, and then the smallest category would be time for “other business” (answering emails, calls, meetings, help sessions, bathroom breaks etc). When we moved to distance learning, all of this got completely disrupted. Things had to change. For example, the planning phase took up a lot more time, since so much of the curriculum had to be re-designed for the digital environment. Things that might only take 30-40 minutes a day, now took 1-2 hours. Direct instruction time has dropped, but I spend a lot more time with students who come in for help beyond the school day. Correcting and assessing remained the same, but the “other business” category demanded a lot more attention. This was largely because my time spent talking with (or trying to reach) families grew considerably.
Unfortunately, this has also been the category that is most often neglected. When I go into survival mode, which unfortunately has been my predominant mode over the last eight months, I am not as good at managing my time. I focus more intently on the tasks and items that require immediate attention, which is important. But, doing so also comes at the cost of other important factors-- like getting the family involved or searching for and exploring new curriculum ideas, or even getting to know the students a little better. I go from planning to teaching to correcting, and then I simply repeat.
As of recently, I have made a more concerted effort to restore a little bit of the balance. It isn’t always pretty, but it allows me to invest more time into these other neglected areas. Here are some ideas for managing that workload balance in distance learning.
Set the Clock. When there are no bells, it's hard to stay on track. So I set the timer on tasks like planning. This brought a little more urgency to my time use and kept me from getting sucked into that rabbit hole where I end up overplanning (e.g. I make a video for how to understand the first video and then create a written version for everyone who doesn’t have video capabilities etc). Once you set the clock, abide by it. Neglecting other areas of teaching comes at a significant price. And if something like planning is taking up too much time, it might mean that I need to consider simplifying assignments or reducing expectations in the short term.
Prioritize. Within these blocks of time, designate tasks as high, medium, or low priority. Start from the top and work down. I will often write these out. I have found that it is really easy to get distracted when I work online. The list helps me in those moments when I realize that I have been pulled away from my original work and have forgotten what it was that I was supposed to be doing. This happens so easily. I will be working on a lesson, and a Schoology message comes in. I respond to that, and then find myself wondering, “What was I working on again?” Having the list next to me helps me to stay focused and to more easily pick up where I have left off.
Communicating with Students and Families. For distance learning, this has been my biggest challenge. Comparing my data at the end of last year to that of my colleagues, I discovered that my failure rate was a bit higher than theirs. In talking with them, I learned that I had been much less focused on reaching families. They had been much better at establishing lines of communication and contacting them when students began to slide. This is hard. Surviving on a daily basis means lesson planning. Surviving on a weekly basis means correcting. And surviving for the trimester means reaching the families. This fall (starting in week three), I devoted at least 30 minutes each day to contacting families. Instead of waiting until things got really bad, I just started calling, texting, and emailing families individually whenever a student missed one of the summatives. In addition to getting better results than last spring, I also feel less overwhelmed by undertaking the process each day. Making calls (or emailing or texting or contacting other stakeholders) for 30 minutes a day is simply a lot more manageable than trying to complete a week’s worth of communications on a Friday afternoon-- or worse yet, a Saturday morning.
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