Charging Lunch (and the Teachable Moment)

This morning I was reviewing a blog I maintained for my teachers during my final year as a principal. Just as I had suspected, I found a few gems that I want to share with teachers throughout our school system via a blog we have for that purpose. Here is one that I think speaks to students everywhere:

We are likely to have a Board policy which will limit the number of days a student may "charge" lunch for only one day. This really should not pose any student or family a problem, although we know that "should" and "do" are often two different things. Just as you and I put gas in the car when the needle approached empty rather when the tank is bone dry, the prudent thing for a family to do is regularly add money to the lunch account when it begins to get low. That way, if something happens and the plan doesn't go exactly as expected, they have a buffer of a few days before their child reaches a zero balance.

I realize this concept would not occur to some folks. After all, I am one who believes that the time to add "toothpaste" to the grocery list is when you pull the last unused one from under the counter, not when I realize I can't squeeze any more out of the very last tube in the house. That way, getting toothpaste never becomes a crisis. Buying toothpaste sometime within the next month will do instead of having to go to the store before I can brush my teeth again.

We can help students avoid the situation of having to charge lunches by doing two easy things:

1) Use analogies such as what I have listed above.

2) Stress to students that when they realize they are out of money, get that thought on paper ASAP. The student planner is the tool for that. Writing it down works. Trying to remember everything does not.

We need to teach students to handle routines rather than hop from crisis to crisis. Very few of us had anybody teach us these kinds of things as children, and as we grown up in the world that has become increasingly complex, far too many adults are eaten alive by the little details that tugs at their lives day after day. What do we think the world will be like for the children in our classrooms now? Less complex? Not a chance! We have the opportunity to do teach them the basic organizational skills that will spell major differences in what they are able to accomplish and their ability to avoid the plague of stress years down the road.

Photo Story

Nothing spreads a good idea like word of mouth. Two years ago, when Janet Taylor conducted a summer workshop on Photo Story for teachers in our school system, probably none of us had heard of it. After teachers were able to see the projects their colleagues who attended had created, last summer's workshop was nearly full.

This Christmas, several of us at the central office surprised close family members with projects we had created using Photo Story. I have no doubt that the interest in the program is going to exceed the capacity of the people available aroudn here to teach it. I have been able to find a pretty good tutorial on the internet, and that link is here.

A novice could use this tutorial and teach himself/herself the program, although half the fun is having someone guide you through the process and help you share in the joy of creating something meaningful and lasting. Whether the project is for your students or a project you create at home for loved ones, this free program is a winner.

Warning—Using this program may cause excessive use of Kleenex.

Organizing Your Gift Cards

Christmas day has passed, and if you are like me, you have your share of gift cards to your favorite restaurants and book stores. Figures I am seeing keep talking about $8 billion in gift cards going unspent because people lose or simply forget about their gift cards.

Wouldn't it be great if you had a place where you could put these little gems, a place where every so often they would hop up and say, "Remember me? Spend me."

For those who have adopted the "tickler file," that place already exists. Take all of those gift cards and put them in an envelope. Pick a date you would like to see them again. Drop the envelope in the tickler file for that date. The envelope with all of the gift cards magically appears on the desired date and serves as its own reminder to look at the cards. During that quick scan, you and your spouse can make decisions on what restaurants you might like to visit over the next week or two. (I like to see them once a week. The ones we plan to use over the next week go in the credit card case I carry at all times.) I throw the the envelope back in the tickler file to resurface a week later.

Examining the gift cards takes only a minute, and the process insures that the gifts given to me will be used and not become part of that $8 billion that is wasted.

Welcome to "Your Own Blog in 10 Minutes or Less"

This post is scheduled for Talladega City School teachers on January 2nd. During the workshop, we make reference to several blogs. Listed below are those blogs. Clicking on the links will allow you to view each of the blogs:

• Talladega City Schools Collaborative parent/community blog
• Teach Talladega Collaborative blog for school system employees
• Graham School Parent/community blog for a school
• Graham Staff Principal's blog for employees
• Dr. Jan's Blog Pricipal's blog offering general thoughts
• Alabama Black Belt Arts Education Initative Collaborative blog for schools in a particular region of Alabama
• Ala NB Seekers Blog for teachers seeking National Board Certification
• Stirring Up the Dust Initial post from a technology blog for teachers
• Get Organized! Blog on organization and time management

In addition to the blogs we discuss in the workshop, here are several created by teachers to use as communication tools with their classes:

• Brandi Caldwell, a teacher at Mountain Brook High School, composed Mrs. C's Senior English Blogs. From her last post there, it seems the school system began blocking Blogger, so you will see a link there to another venue she now uses. Here, you see Mrs. Caldwell composing the posts and her students responding with their comments.
• On Mrs. Myrmel's Classroom Blog, we see a blog used as a tool for a 3rd grade teacher to communicate with parents.
• At the Room 303 Blog, Mrs. Huff's students compose the posts. The most recent posts at present relate to student insights into The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Other students post comments where they respond to what their classmates have composed. This one is definitely worth a look.

Here is the link for ImageChef, the site which allows you to add your own text to a host of images and post them to your blog.
Do you know of other examples that would benefit teachers who are interested in using a blog in their classes? If you do, please leave a comment.

Doing the Best You Can With What You Have

Some people spend their time complaining about their lot in life and looking for someone else to solve their problems for them. Others look within themselves. One of the lessons life seems to have taught me is that when we do the best we can with what we have, the result is usually remarkably good. Of course, all too many people are all too quick to put a label of their "best" on an effort that is far from it.

While I had planned to write about this subject anyway, I read something earlier in the week which explains my point far more clearly that I ever could. Click here to read an account of how the students, parents, and faculty at Oklahoma City's Westwood Elementary School came together during a snow storm that Oklahoma rarely sees to display a spirit that I wish we could spread to every school in America. Once known for low student achievement, this school turned around in a very short time despite the incredibly high percentage of students coming from Spanish-speaking homes.

The story talks about their fund-raising project--coming together to make tamales to raise funds for a marquee. Despite a language barrier, they found joy through the universal language of music and demonstrate an understanding of each other which transcends the spoken word.

Perhaps the story of how this school coped with Mother Nature may be a clue as to how they approach the other challenges they face--looking at what they can control, working together, and enjoying the ride. Jan, thanks for using the story of a snowstorm in Oklahoma to spread sunshine all the way to Alabama.

When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or the life of another.
-Helen Keller

House of 1000 Mirrors

I feel especially privileged to work with some very positive people who make coming to work every day a joy. This is just one example of the something a co-worker shared with me. A simple story, yet it illustrates just how much the attitude we bring to the table impacts others, and ultimately impacts us in return. Pattie, thanks for sending this gem my way!

Long ago in a small, far away village, there was place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, "This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, "That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again."

All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?

by: Author Unknown, Japanese folktale

Who Do You Want to Jott?

"Jott" is my new toy, and it is so easy, I can't believe I haven't used it before. The idea is that you speak into a telephone and your message is transcribed into an e-mail which winds up in someone's Inbox.

To get started, go to http://www.jott.com and create an account. You will have the opportunity to add people to your Jott address book. You will also be asked the telephone number from which you want to "Jott." In my case, I chose my BlackBerry since it is with me all the time. That's all the setup that is required.

Now, when I am in traffic and want to sent someone an e-mail message, I pull out the BlackBerry and hit a speed dial key that I have programmed to call Jott. The next thing I hear is a voice saying, "Who do you want to Jott?" I reply by speaking the person's name. The voice repeats the name and asks if it is correct. Once I say, "Yes," I start recording my message. Jott will let me talk up to 30 seconds.

Once I have sent the first message, Jott will allow me to compose a second message to a different person. There is no limit to the number of messages I can send during that one phone call to Jott.

Best of all, Jott is absolutely free! Who do you want to Jott?

Where are My Holidays?

If you use Outlook 2003, you may notice you are missing your holidays for 2008. To download an update which will supply those dates through 2012, click here.

Time Out the Wazoo

Greg Farr has just posted a very thought-provoking post on LeaderTalk entitled Time Out the Wazoo. His post illustrates how many different inititatives have been put into our school day. Each initiative is good and has the best of intentions. After all, this one will only require 10 minutes a day. That one only requires 20 minutes twice-weekly. Every snowflake in the avalanche pleads "not guilty"!

I wish I had a quick and easy answer. I did wind up copying and saving the post and do intend to re-read it from time to time.

What's the answer to reclaiming time? Is it through the little decisions--saying "no" to the little requests for 30 minutes here and there? Is the answer to lay everything on the table and make decisions about what goes and what stays? Since so many of the decisions about what goes into our days are made at the state and national levels, how do we best approach the decision makers? Greg, thanks for starting the discussion.

Christmas Letters from the Future

Setting long-term goals has always been an important theme in time-management literature. Personally, I guess I have always had some individual goals. What has been missing seems to be having that total picture of what my life would look like a year, two years, or five years down the road. That missing link came into focus this year. It happened by added a new twist to a well-established practice.

In a recent post, you read about the Christmas Letter composed each year recapping the events of the past month and how the notes I have jotted to that point in the year resurface once each month.

This year, I sat down in January and wrote the Christmas Letters for 2007, 2008, and 2009. I wrote them as if those years had already passed and were now being recounted to friends. This act forced me to write with the same level of specificity I have always used to recount the past year.

I saved the letters in the note section of a single task on the BlackBerry and set the task to repeat each month. The outcome is that once a month, those thoughts are presented to me. Once a month, I am reminded of the direction in which I hope to be headed.

As I sit here and read what I write this past January, the similarity between what I wrote and what has happened is remarkably similar. Consciously, I have done nothing differently. Subconsciously, quite a bit has been different.

Every day presents little choices that move us either closer to our desired future or farther from it. That once-a-month reminder seems to be making a difference for me. I offer this one simple idea, "Christmas Letters from the Future" for your consideration.

The Book is Out!

For the past decade, I have had the privilege of sharing with teachers and administrators the organizational and time-management practices which have worked for me and for others I have coached. This book, Get Organized! Time Management for School Leaders presents these ideas in a easy-to-read nuts & bolts format.

The book is available for purchase through Eye on Education. A description of the book and samples is here. I hope that the ideas I have shared with others in state will now make a difference on a larger scale.

This book is for school leaders. A “school leader” can be found holding a number of positions. Superintendents, principals, assistant principals, and central office administrators are likely candidates. However, a school leader is also a department head who is balancing the roles of teaching with those of shaping the direction of a curricular area. A school leader is also a classroom teacher who assumes responsibility for sponsoring a club or activity that benefits the student body. Likewise, the person who is developing ideas and sharing them with colleagues wears the mantle of leadership.

In short, a “school leader” is someone who steps forward to help shape the direction of what happens in schools, regardless of the title on the job description. Once that first step is taken, the opportunities multiply. As the opportunities multiply, the tasks increase in number and complexity. Without intervention, the complexity can become overwhelming. The school leader needs the tools to make the complex simple, and this book is designed to help.

Thanks to Bob Sickles, President of Eye of Education, and to his staff. They have been wonderful in guiding me through some uncharted waters.

Happy reading!

Christmas Letters--Present

Like many of you, Davonia and I have friends scattered all over the country and our communication with them all too often happens through the Christmas cards we sent to each other. For this reason, part of our annual ritual is to compose the "Christmas Letter" to give friends a snapshot of our year.

For me to sit down just after Thanksgiving and mentally relive the events of the past year is a bit much for me. Therefore, "Add items for Christmas Newsletter" is a repeating task that appears on my BlackBerry the first day of the month. I mentally review the events of the past month, and in the note section of that task, I jot a phrase descriptive of whatever memorable had happened. By Thanksgiving, I have notes from the entire year all in one place. The job of composing the Christmas Letter become one of simply deciding what to include, what to omit, and put the ideas together into sentences.

For those who organize with pencil and paper, you could accomplish the same thing with one piece of paper. Label the top line "Christmas Letter" and throw it in the tickler file for the first day of the month. When that piece of paper resurfaces, jot down your ideas and refile the paper for the first day of the next month. That piece of paper will present itself to you as regular as clockwork 12 times during the year. When it appears on December 1, compose your letter!

Coming soon--Christmas Letters from the Future

Want a Little Privacy?

Do you find yourself spending too much time answering calls from telemarketers and wading through piles of junk mail? If you would like a little reprieve, World Privacy Forum's Top Ten Opt Outs is worth your time to read. The site gives an explanation on how to handle of the following:
1. National Do Not Call Registry
2. Prescreened offers of credit and insurance
3. DMA opt outs
4. Financial institution opt outs
5. CAN SPAM
6. Credit freeze
7. FERPA
8. Data broker opt outs
9. Internet portal opt outs
10. NAI opt out

The site is pretty thorough in its explanations. Bear in mind that even if you had called the National Do Not Call Registry at one point in time, that opt out is only good for 5 years, so if your suddenly are finding the calls coming in, it's time to opt out again.

I have a personal favorite trick that helps my mood when dealing with junk mail. You know all of those no-postage-needed business reply envelopes that come with the junk mail? I found out some years ago, that when returned, the postage on those is actually a good bit higher than if you simply put a stamp on the envelope. Since so few of the envelopes are ever returned, it's cheaper for the mass mailers to use them.

I will open the junk mail from a couple of mass mailing institutions, tear off anything that personally identifies me, and then stuff each reply envelope with all of the junk that came from the other company. (My wife really hates it when I do that, so please don't tell her I passed along this trick to you.) I don't know that it helps anything, but it does feed my sense of humor. And come to think of it, a little laugh every now and then is not a bad thing.

The Hoax that Almost Hooked Me

Recently, I received the following simple suggestion in an e-mail message:

When you are making out your Christmas card list this year,
please include the following:

A Recovering American soldier
C/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue,NW
Washington,D.C. 20307-5001

The e-mail had come to me from an official representative of a respected institution, and my first reaction was not only to follow the suggestion, but to forward this message to everyone in my e-mail contacts. I do not forward mass mails, a personal decision I made years ago, and usually delete them unread. This one was different, or so I thought.

I hit the forward button and was about to add my own sentence or two. At that moment, a still, small voice somewhere inside said, "Check your facts." The voice was that of teachers from days gone by, teachers who had so carefully taught me and my classmates to think for ourselves.

Instead of proceeding with the e-mail message, I used the same procedure that I have used and suggested to others for quite a few years:

1. I highlighted a portion of the text in that e-mail message and copied it (Control-C). In this case, the first three lines of the message looked like something which would return on-point hits.
2. I pulled up Google, clicked in the search window, used the "paste" command (Control-V), and hit "Enter."

Within seconds, the verdict was obvious. It was a hoax. The most compelling evidence was this link where Walter Reed addressed this topic, saying:

Walter Reed Army Medical Center officials want to remind those individuals who want to show their appreciation through mail to include packages, letters, and holiday cards addressed to 'Any Wounded Soldier' or 'A Recovering American Soldier' that Walter Reed cannot accept these packages in support of the decision by then Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Transportation Policy in 2001. This decision was made to ensure the safety and well being of patients and staff at medical centers throughout the Department of Defense.

In addition, the U.S. Postal Service is no longer accepting "Any Service Member" or "A Recovering American Soldier" letters or packages. Mail to "Any Service Member" that is deposited into a collection box will not be delivered.

The Walter Reed site goes to say:

Instead of sending an “Any Wounded Soldier” letter or package to Walter Reed, please consider making a donation to one of the more than 300 nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping our troops and their families listed on the "America Supports You" website, www.americasupportsyou.mil

Other organizations that offer means of showing your support for our troops or assist wounded service members and their families include:

http://www.usocares.org

http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/tooursoldiers

http://www.redcross.org

At a time of year when we are giving thanks for our many blessings and approaching a season of giving, perhaps the message from Walter Reed is the one worthy of spreading.

Had I simply forwarded the e-mail and sent a few cards, my cards would have never reached the eyes of any solider. Instead, my good intentions would have added an additional load to the personnel charged with disposing of the glut of mail which they currently receive. Rather than being part of something good, I would have only added to an already existing problem.

Why do I go to the trouble to determine the truth in an e-mail before I pass it on? The reason is simple: I am a teacher. Truth matters.

Our world has become one in which good information is only a few key strokes away. Unfortunately, the same holds true for bad information. If teaching young people how to distinguish fact from fiction was important for generations gone by, it becomes an absolute necessity today.

How can we teach our students to question what they read? (To give credit where credit is due, many of them do a much better job of this than we as adults.) I wish I had the complete answer. At least, as a start, I do feel this: Truth will only be important to them if first it is important to me.

Sample School Blogs, Current School System Blog

During my last final year as a principal, I discovered blogging to be an effective and terrifically easy way to keep both staff and parents informed. As the opening of school approached, I created two blogs. The audience for one consisted of my staff. The intended audience consisted of parents.

Neither of the blogs has been maintained since my departure. I do think they are valuable in that they can serve as models for other principals who may want to use this means of communication. These two models can be found at:

http://grahamstaff.blogspot.com/ Blog for employees
http://grahamschool.blogspot.com/ Blog for parents and community

When I move from the principalship to the central office, I began to miss my blogs immediately, How would I communicate with teachers in the various schools? How could we publicize the good works of schools? Immediately, blogs seemed to be the answer. Following the model established at Graham, we established two blogs at the central office. One of the blogs has as its audience out employees. The other has as its audience parents and community members. Both are alive and well a year and a half later:

http://teachtalladega.blogspot.com/
http://talladegacityschools.blogspot.com/

Our intent at the outset was that these two blogs would be a place where designated people from each school could post information pertaining to their school. The result would be one single place where news from all schools would appear. From the very beginning, I had the total support of our School Improvement Specialist, Pattie Thomas. Pattie is the best co-worker a person could hope for. Our vision of people from all school contributing has not worked out near to the extent we would like, so she and I shoulder the majority of the load.

The frontier we blazed at Graham did cause two other principals to create blogs of their own. Several teachers have also created their own.

Feel free to peruse the blogs mentioned here as you gain your own ideas. Happy blogging!

A Personal "Thank You"...

For me, American Education Week has always served as a time to devote some time to think about those teachers whose contributions have made a significant difference in my life. Over the years, I have actually picked up the phone to call someone whom I have not seen not talked to in decades, yet have thought about often, to tell him or her how thankful I am that our paths crossed.

During this American Education Week, I would like to use this space to thank three extremely special people:

Judy Stinnett was my English teacher during my junior year at Tuscaloosa County High School. She taught me to write. Her standards were a mile high, yet she had this incredible way of making them seem reachable. I have not seen her since graduation 30 years ago. Still, I think about her each and every time I sent down to write…whether the task at hand is a term paper, an article for publication, my dissertation, a book, or even the words you see right now.

As a high school student, I was known best for having an analytical mind. At the same time, I was an accomplished musician and wound up majoring in music. I credit Judy Stinnett with having connected the two seemingly opposite traits and allowing the result to come out through the written word.

I have no idea where Mrs. Stinnett is today and would love to be able to tell her what I am telling you. Perhaps by grace, the power of technology, and a little luck, she will wind up reading these words herself.

Harry Anderson was my first principal. I was all of 22 years old when I became band director at Montgomery’s Goodwyn Jr. High. Mr. Anderson had a knack for saying good things behind your back, and saying them to people he knew would pass along his words to you. I had been at the school for only a week or so when word got back to me about how pleased he was with his new band director. “He beats me to work and he always wears a tie,” was a memorable line that was reported back to me. Well, it’s barely 6:30 A.M. as I am writing this post from my office. I am wearing a tie. That’s just part of the influence Mr. Anderson had on me.

The band at Goodwyn flourished, and I credit Harry Anderson with a large part of that. I knew, as did every teacher in that school, that we could count on Harry Anderson for support. I could go about my job with confidence knowing that if things got rough, I wasn’t going to go through it alone. Right or wrong, I knew Harry Anderson would be there.

When I became an assistant principal and then later a principal, support for teachers was one of the things which seemed to stand out and to be appreciated. Little did my faculties know, I was doing it the only way I knew how…the way Harry Anderson did it. I still hear that voice from two decades ago, and have often found myself using the same phrases he used. Perhaps the support for teachers is in part my way of saying “thanks” to the one who made a tough job easy for me. I wish every first-year teacher could begin a career with someone like Harry Anderson.

Dr. Henry Clark can clearly be called my mentor as a school administrator. I had often said there was no way in the world I would ever want to be a principal…and then along came Henry Clark during my 5th year as band director at Pizitz Middle School. He opened my eyes as to the difference one person with a vision could make on the culture of a school. When I approached him about my own interest in venturing into school administration, he could not have been more encouraging.

Dr. Clark was only at Pizitz for two years before being to the central office. In those two years, I learned more about school administration that many learn in an entire career. He gave me projects to carry out, but mostly he imparted the advice that one simply does not find in textbooks. He was calm and composed, except for those calculated times when something else was needed to get a point across. He was a problem solver, and encouraged that in those around him.

From the outside, it seemed he had his finger on everything. The truth was, I never had more freedom to operate that I did with Dr. Clark. When I approached him with an idea, there was no talking him into letting me take the reins. The message was always clear: I was the expert, and if I had thought it through and it seems like a good idea to me, I should go forward. He was there to help, but had no intention of doing my job for me, so my having planned and thought the situation through was crucial then, and has been crucial during my days in school administration. We all knew we could approach Henry Clark with a problem, but at the same time, we were expected to also come with at least a partial solution. I don’t know if Dr. Clark is the smartest man I have ever known. I am quite sure he is the wisest. My career would have been very different had it not been for his influence.

Veteran's Day Salute

The message today comes from Elizabeth Messer whose husband, Lee, was my superintendent for four years. Each morning, she sends a quote to me and other friends. What she sent yesterday was a bit different...a marvelous reminder of exactly why it is that we celebrate Veteran's Day. I hope what she had to say means as much to you as it did to me:

Today (Sat.) I was in town and began to talk with an old gentleman. He was pleased that a local city was having a program to pay respect to the veterans. I asked if he was in the military to which he answered, "Yes ma'am. I was one of the fortunate ones that returned from the invasion of France."
This gentleman also said that as bad as the invasion was, the worst part was when they were pulled out, seeing the others go in. So many didn't get home from that invasion.... and others.

Then he told me about seeing two ex-military men in a restaurant and how he went over to thank them for their service to our country. Later, when they started to leave, they came to his table and said, "Sir, we would like to thank you. This is the first time in 50 years that anyone has bothered to say thank you to us."

I told the gentleman of one of the big regrets of my life. We had been to the Vietnam Memorial. As we were walking away up the sidewalk, a man in a military uniform and in a wheel chair, came up behind us. I moved all the children to one side so he could pass. "Thank you Ma'am" he said as he passed by.

I missed an opportunity that I have always regretted. If I could go back, I'd say "No Sir, I thank you!" so I ended by saying, "So let me thank you. "

The old gentleman cried and, though it may not be politically correct, I asked if I could give him a hug.

Remember, freedom isn't (and never has been) free. If you haven't done it lately, find a vet and thank them... or if you have, it want hurt to do it again.

And to you of my friends who served our country... I thank you for your service.

So this is your quote for this Veterans Day.

A Birthday Wish

Today's post is a very personal one, a Happy Birthday wish to my wife of 18 years, Davonia. She is truly the light of my life!

Proud to Be a Principal

The National Association of Elementary Principals is sponsoring a "Proud to Be a Principal" campaign which runs through November 15 of this year. NAESP had invited comment on its blog, and seeing none from anyone, could not resist the opportunity to comment on a job which brought so much joy to my life. Here is what I had to say:

Having been away from the principalship and at the central office for almost a year and a half, I am at a stage where I think I am close enough to remember what he job was like, and far enough from it to have gained some perspective. My mentor, Dr. Henry Clark, often remarked, “I enjoy being a principal.” During my nine years as an elementary principal, that same statement was often on my lips. 

Aside from being enjoyable, I honestly believe the principalship to be the most influential position in education. I began to realize in those early days that students, teachers, and other adults were hanging on my every word and looking to me for answers to the most perplexing problem.

I’ll never forget the day shortly following 9/11 when a mother recounted the day her daughter came home from school, a day on which I had to figure out how to explain a real-world tragedy to children who should never have to experience such. “Don’t worry, Mom,” she said. “Dr. Buck said we are going to be OK.”

I am proud of those nine years for the opportunity to make life a little better for the teacher in the classroom, for all of the times I tried to deflect the limelight away from me so that learning could be the star, and for the opportunity to be part of the magic of turning young boys and girls into young adults.

Managing school the easy way—Part V Get everything ready the night before

Forgotten items, missed school busses, and frazzled nerves can so often be traced back to one simple problem—assuming Rome can be built between the time the alarm clock goes off and the school bus pulls up. Morning is a terrible time to do that last bit of homework, finish that poster, or get those papers signed. Without fail, that book we just knew was on the coffee table is nowhere to be found and it’s already time to pull out of the driveway. Get it all ready the night before and mornings become more peaceful.

Students can make the decision on what they will wear the next day and have it already laid out. They can pack the book bag before going to bed. They can gather anything else going to school and place it beside the book bag. In the morning, leaving the house is a simple matter of grabbing the book bag and whatever is around it, and heading out the door.
Therefore, the fifth step towards managing school the easy way is to get everything ready the night before.

I hope you have enjoyed this “Managing School the Easy Way” series. A little organization can go a long way towards making school (and life) more stress-free and enjoyable!