Buy these for your office! They are so fun and easy to use (once you look up the syllable configuration because it was only your favorite unit in MS because it was the easiest). I play with all different types of kids and they all get their artsy-mode on and love it!
Find them all over the interwebs or sometimes at Marshall’s!
Sooo…Today I had to start tallying my time for work, delineating how I spend my time (e.g. P/T Conferences, 504 meetings, one on one, group, department meetings, etc). It is sort of hard to break apart all of the components of such crazy, moving days. You sit down and start responding to parent e-mails, start to organize classroom student response forms, get called down for a registration, get stopped with a class change form on the way, get an impromptu lesson on departmental goals upon walking into the office, talk with a family about a student’s history and choose classes, stop in at the lunch room on your way back and discuss some friend drama-rama, offer consultation on a student with a teacher picking up their class, speak with a student in the hall who has been put out and reiterate behavioral goals, return to a ringing phone, and then try to remember what it was you were trying to do before you left your office 15 minutes ago. How in the world is it possible to outline the tasks that you do all day, every week, within a month, throughout an entire year? And when we don’t record everything, we feel as though on paper we look like we may not be doing enough to justify our profession.
But alas, it must be done. Recording what I do throughout the day has saved my butt plenty of times. In going over a student history, recalling why I made one decision over another, catching a student not living up to the things they agreed to; I refer to my notes all the time. But still, I find myself thinking, ‘wait, I remember talking to that parent, what was it that they called about? Or, I did talk to that kid, but I never agreed to change his class past the deadline, or did I?’ One thing I have learned through internship and counselor subbing has been to make my own worksheets for processes that help me get the job done. In Grad school, I remember professors encouraging having us make worksheets in class, and begging us to really get cozy with Microsoft applications that can be helpful. Well let me tell you, I spoon those puppies now- and Word and Excel are the big spoon.
This is the Daily Log Sheet I created to keep record of everything I do. It is based on a sheet one of the lovely ladies had made that I subbed for when I was on the maternity circuit. I keep it on a clip-board that I bring with me everywhere like a besty. Then I move it over to a Daily binder, and have a running log. This way, if I so happen to forget to record my goings ons daily like I am supposed to (which I typically do), I have a reference to go to. Between this, and appointments in my Outlook Calendar, I can usually get the majority of my time down. I love to hear how other people track there time though, and like to take bits and pieces as I alter things.
