Organising Yourself with a Little Help from Google.
Welcome to a new week. Mondays, set the pace for how you will go, the rest of the week. It can be tough, settling into school, knowing all the challenges ahead this week. However, you must set the internal environment for your own success. Letting others control how you feel throughout the week, is a no, no. You may have lots to do this week and dread how you will meet up with some of the arduous aspects, but never allow the outside environment or things outside of you, including, people, tasks, tedious routines, etc., to control how you feel. None of these will truly make you happy. This week, you must find your own motivation for teaching:
Your contribution to the lives of a new generation
The income you earn that is better than nothing
The joy of experiencing the laughter and joys of children and youth
Receiving some form of appreciation for your work; no matter how small and who from, etc.
Build up yourself and do not expect others to build you up, not even your school. Be independent minded and chart a path for yourself, because many beside you, do exactly that. Where will you be in 5 years? Perhaps you will still be a teacher but what is the difference that would have come to your life in 5 years. What new knowledge or experience would you have gotten, what additional contribution to your school, family or society would you have made? There are many things to accomplish within a five year window. If one does not plan for something, one tends to achieve nothing, except a vicious cycle of repetitive actions that show one is exactly where they were five years, before. As this new week begins, here are a few tips for self-organisation.
Clutter
I find, many times, that the mess around us is an expression of the state of our minds. By dealing with the clutter around, one can reset a mind that is scattered and generally ‘unkempt’- a mind that misses opportunity because it is covered up with many unfinished business or things. In this week therefore, what is the true state of your mind? Do you have lesson plans you should have written some time ago, attendance registers not fully marked, dairies not updated, classwork or homework still unmarked? If you do, your mind is probably not in the efficient state it should be. Here are things you can do to declutter your mind or your desk.
Write a list of things you NEED to do, including both past and pending tasks, rearrange them in order of priority and tick as you complete them during the week (and aim to do all). This gives you a sense of direction and as your list reduces, you will get less of the sense of being overwhelmed by work or things to do.
If you have a Gmail, create a Google form ( titled: ‘My to do list’) with the list of the things you need to do routinely, each week. This is a checklist and can be easily saved on your phone as a short-cut. For each item or task listed, put an option of yes or no to show if they have been completed or not. Ask your ICT colleague to do the settings so you can return to it and update the form if something has been completed. Tick yes, whenever, you have completed a task.
To learn how to bookmark a google form (make a short cut) on your phone or computer, watch any of these videos: Iphone | Other phones or computers.
Student Projects | Your Resources
Organise your lesson plans into a folder in your drive by creating a Google form to add the title of the lesson plan, subject and any key details and upload them in an organised order that you can return to through the forms. Each document will be saved in a folder on your drive and details will be captured on a spread sheet, including the link to the exact document. If you are a school leader with no organised way of saving documents or teachers’ resources, consider this method.
As teachers, we can also receive some of our student projects or assignments in the same organised way, through a Google form. Here’s a YouTube video to show you how. Click below, to access.
Upload documents through Google Forms
Create your Own Online Classroom
Whether your school uses blended learning or not, you should have your own Google classroom where you create duplicates of your own classroom every week. If you have a gmail account then you have two ways to go, either open the Google Classroom icon and start one or create a class website to upload videos, notices and activities for your students.
In your classroom, create topics by week and under each week, add any materials and assignments planned or used in class. Title each unit under the week, including the name of the topic. Add a few notes including learning objectives and instructions for your learners and then add any videos you made yourself. You can also search for a youtube video on that topic, to add to your classroom. If using Google sites create a class website and share the link with your students. There, they can go and watch any videos attached for them, download assignments, get updates of forthcoming lessons or any notices. Find a colleague to show you how, if you do not know how.
Educate Yourself
Finally, educate yourself. You can start by finding how to do the two items suggested above. You can Google for how, ask colleagues or use Youtube to find ‘how to’ videos. There are many ways to update your skills, especially in IT. Teachers all need to be comfortable with the use of internet enabled devices. In the past few years, I have taken many courses, carried out searches online, or watched self-help videos to make sure I am not behind in the best teaching technologies. I record my meetings and trainings for participants of my sessions and make them available to them for particular lengths of time. You can also build a catalogue of learning videos on every topic you teach. Your videos do not need to be more than 5 minutes (Google training videos are less than 5 minutes) and a lesson is made up of a few of these. So a max of 3 videos of less than 5 minutes each is what you need. Someone here may be saying you don’t know how difficult my topics are, and my response is you need to learn how to communicate better with your learners. All topics in primary or secondary schools can be presented in 10-15 minutes and every other thing is practice. If you are presenting to your students for longer and having little learner interaction or practice, I am sorry to say you are wasting unnecessary energy and resources. Look for that topic on Youtube and see how people present them in less than 15 minutes.
Cambridge TKT
Your development is essential. If you cannot spend some money on your own development, then you will most likely spend it on something that will not develop you. Whether for best teaching methods, how to use or adapt materials, knowledge of assessment, classroom management techniques or how to communicate with learners, Cambridge TKT Modules One, Two and Three have a lot you can learn from. We will be delivering Modules One and Two in Abuja on 28 and 29 October, 2022.
Each Module is an intensive 2 day training. Choose one to enhance your potential. Click the TKT Nigeria link, below for more information and contact us to register.
If you have learned something from this blog, subscribe or share with your colleagues. I wish you a very good week, and remember, your happiness and development is yours’ to secure.