Leadership Styles for

Teachers

THROUGH THE INTEGRATION OF TIME MANAGEMENT

SKILLS

Dr. Dheeraj Mehrotrawww.sixsigmaineducation.com

As teachers, we have accepted a huge

responsibility- the education, nurturing, safety and welfare

of young people. Parents trust us, for six hours per day, with their children. There is

no greater

responsibility.

Our schedules are highly structured, not unlike the assembly line worker who must stop and

start at the whistle. But in our case, we're not assembling inanimate parts, we're working with enthusiastic, vulnerable, impressionable children. We are truly in the trenches all day.

As a teacher, you are the chief executive officer, chairman of

the board and president of your

own corporation of thirty employees. Your classroom is corporate headquarters and

your product is the education of your students.

Your time is booked every day. There is no

leeway in altering a class schedule,

so you must work within the very limited planning periods.

An important component of your job is to be available for students and parents beyond the

actual classroom sessions.

Yes,

kindness! Just because we

are in control and expect

appropriate behavior, does not mean that

teachers need to be cold or distant.

One very effective method for teachers to

save time is to group activities

as much as possible. With this process you can use to maximize those all-too-short blocks of time so that you can lessen the amount of work you drag home every evening.

TelephoneSet aside a time when you will make and

return non-urgent phone calls. It might be fifteen minutes in

the morning and another fifteen minutes in the afternoon. Work toward keeping routine calls within that block.

EmailElectronic messages can easily dominate your day. Turn off the sound or alert that advises

you of incoming messages. Just as with

telephone calls, set a block of time each day when you focus on just your email.

As teachers we need to

strive for positive relationships

with our students--one that has clear

expectations, but is based on mutual

respect, communication,

and kindness.

DiscussionsIf you confer several times a day with

certain colleagues,

set up a folder and collect items during the day so that you can cover all points during just one meeting. This limits interruptions for both of you. Encourage others to have a folder for you also

Grape wine stories

ReadingFor articles and publications

(circulars/ CCE Registers) that do not have an action date, keep them together and schedule time on your calendar to catch up on the reading. This reading block can include both paper and electronic information.

FilingEven if you have a terrific filing system and you know where to put all your reference papers, do not stop and file each individual item as it comes in. Wait until you have a folder of papers, and

then note on your calendar when you will file.

It will take practice to develop the habit of grouping your activities in order to limit multitasking, but the resulting increase in productivity is worth the effort.

Being friendly, disciplined by time and having a good rapport with students can go a long way towards creating

a positive classroom environment.

Write things down instead of keeping

them in your

head and

Manage Time.

Our role as a leader has much more importance that we sometimes realize in the overall classroom climate.

As a leader, we must guide, shape, teach, motivate, correct, direct, and encourage our

students!

Define your "collection points" and keep them to a

minimum – These are all the places where you get new information or

write things down. (for example, email, voicemail,

sticky notes, to-do list, etc.)

Realize that you can't do

EVERYTHING, so don't even try;

instead focus on a few key things that

will give you the most value and

satisfaction.

. Approach your job as a business manager and the critics outside of school will begin to understand that you face the same problems and

dilemmas that they face in their world.

You are in charge of more people, in a more volatile environment, with more supervisors (parents and

administration), than 95% of the managers in the world! This link to business is

unmistakable

Your classroom is your business.

Let parents and students know that you know how to run your business and that your business is successful!

Your first two hours each day are often your most productive. Instead

of wasting them by checking email or with

trivial busywork, use them for your most valuable,

most important, highest-leverage assignments/

lesson planning.

As you plan and structure your day and week, try to consolidate your time and intentionally create blocks of uninterrupted

time that you can use for your most important

projects.

Use specific times for processing – It's much better to have predefined times for processing your stuff (like email, notes, etc.) rather

than just doing it whenever new stuff arrives. Setting

up 2, 3 or even 4 processing times per day

works well for most people.

A week is a natural time period for effective planning because it's short enough to make realistic plans and long

enough to balance short-term urgency with long-term

importance. If you are not doing it already, think about planning your entire week

ahead of time.

Avoid multitasking and try to focus on a single project for a block of time. You'll

get much more done when you are able to work

this way.

Avoid multitasking and try to focus on a single project for a block of time. You'll get much more done when you are able to

work this way.

Remember that being busy and active is not

the same as being productive. Focus on projects and activities

that will move your closer to your goals.

If you can work on a single project for a

block of time, then only look at tasks related to that project, don't allow

tasks from other projects to distract you.

Interruptions and distractions

are two of the biggest time wasters in our modern society. Learn to handle

them effectively and then work proactively to reduce

them.

Remember Parkinson's law... "Work tends to expand so as to fill the time available for its

completion." Figure out a good enough

result for your project so you can decide when you are

done and can move to something else.

Explore Teaching as

Learning

Queries and Suggestions……….