Time management is my biggest challenge as a teacher. I used to stay after school every single day for 2 hours or more, as well as grade and lesson plan at home. I burned out. Work consumed my life.
I have done everything I can to make myself never feel like that again. A huge part of this career is managing your time. I have a very strict after school policy, as well as a personal philosophy about taking work home.
But
Kanban Boards
Kanban is extremely popular in the business world right now, especially in software development. This method helps to
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Last year, I had the idea that Kanban boards can be used for teachers. I decided to do lesson planning on the virtual platform, Trello. Trello is one of the most versatile productivity tools I have ever used – I have boards for my website, lesson plans, cooking, and home to-dos. I love my lesson planning board, but I also like to hand write my lesson plans. I enjoy having physically to-do lists. Additionally, I wanted students to be able to contribute to-dos. Like I said in an earlier post, I want my classroom to be student-driven.
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My New Board
I came up with a solution in a fit of frustration as my grading pile got larger and students kept reminding me of more to do. I made a physical Kanban board, put everything I needed to do on sticky notes, and invited students to add to it. Simple.
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It is messy – I will clean my board until it’s white again and redo the title cards. However, within minutes of setting this up, I felt my stress level decrease. If a student asked me to do something, I handed them a sticky note and put it in the to-do section. As I graded, I felt gratified as I got to move each sticky note to the “done” section.
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What do you think? Are you as unorganized as I was? Do you think this method will help keep you on track? I hope the idea of Kanban boards for teachers will help get you thinking on how to organize your teaching!