As I have explained before, I try to deal with stressful situations by planning ahead, most often through checklists or automations.
Deciding to keep my sick kid home from school and communicating with his teacher(s) and the staff quickly is just such a situation. I have created two Drafts accounts to help me in those times.
Read more
Read moreRecently I have been talking to many struggling teachers and education professionals. Rightfully so, pandemic teaching is a beast!
— Mike Burke (@hearmikeburke) May 9, 2022
I was overwhelmed with teaching long before the pandemic; a book saved my career.
The Checklist Manifesto by @Atul_Gawande
Read it, seriously.
As powerful and fun as video content can be, written communication is the most reliable, accessible, and editable format that you can use to communicate with your students. Take it from a person who grew up hating writing assignments because I was so bad at them, the written word is powerful and deserves your effort. Improving your writing improves your lessons, emails, assessments, handouts, and more.
Read more
As I said before, Drafts is a deceptively simple but absurdly powerful app. Because of this, it is a slow burn. Even as a daily user and advocate for Drafts I did not really unlock the true power of the app until this past summer.
Read more
In my opinion, my school system was slow to adapt to instructional changes related to coronavirus shut down.
I don’t mention this as a slight against my school system. However, I do think this has given some teachers a sense of being behind in their instruction and having to catch up. This recovery mentality has resulted in students being overwhelmed by the amount of work they’re getting from some of their teachers.
I took a different approach.
Read more