Search results: printable

How to Time Block Your Week: A Productive Instructional Coach Habit!

Time Management

Every Sunday afternoon, I figure out in advance everything that I need to do for the week ahead and create a time blocked plan to work from. Instead of trying to be generally productive or working off a random task list, I thoughtfully organize my work according to what must be done this week, divide my open hours into blocks, and assign specific work to the blocks. This kind of planning takes some time up front (usually sixty to ninety minutes for me), but it returns much greater productivity for the week that follows.

To give you a better idea of what this looks like, I’ll walk you through how I created a recent time blocked weekly plan.

Everything that you need to do in the coming week, including all of the random thoughts and ideas floating around in your head, must be written down and captured. Go through your email (print, if needed to pull out actions), coaching notes, google docs, etc. Also look back at your past week….what needs to be carried over to the coming week? Look ahead…what is coming up that you need to get started on this week? What coaching communication needs to be sent out or completed such as confirming coaching debriefs and updating coaching logs. The more thoroughly you CAPTURE all of these items, the fewer open loops you will have and in turn the less stress you will feel.

Once you’ve thoroughly captured all of your to-dos, you can then start to organize. Sort everything into like groups, and for each task add an estimate for how long you think that task (or group of tasks) will take. This will give you a realistic picture of whether or not everything will “fit” into your coming week. And remember, you’re only focusing on what MUST get done this week. Everything else will need to wait.

Cal Newport (love him!) talks about the importance of controlling your time through daily and weekly plans. I use Google Calendar for all of my time specific meetings and appointments, but for my weekly time blocked plan, I ALWAYS write it out in my Time & ToDo Planner. Pen to paper in this step REALLY helps me visualize all the different parts and pieces of my week.

Once you’ve organized all of your to-dos for the week and assigned time estimates, you can begin to block out chunks of time throughout the week to complete your tasks. Below, I’ll give a further explanation of my common time blocks.

Here’s an overview of my different time blocks for this week:

I begin my weekly plan by time blocking anything on my Google Calendar. I use a green pen and a thicker line to indicate these blocks. With these times blocked off, I can now see what open hours I have to work with for the rest of my plan.

I group all of my email and smaller administrative tasks into a daily morning block, so I can “batch task” these items. I will also block out two additional email blocks each day, so that I’m not working from my inbox all day. This isn’t easy, but I’m getting better.

For projects and deep work, I think about my coachees, grade level planning, PD, or anything else currently on my plate. Right now that includes:

  • 5 coachees
  • 5th grade
  • Friday PD
  • CMAS prep

I’ll then figure out what needs to be done for each of the project categories and I’ll block off time accordingly in my weekly plan.

Don’t forget to schedule a lunch break for yourself! My lunch isn’t always at the same time every day, and depending on meetings/coaching, I might not get a lunch break, if I don’t plan it. I like taking 30 minutes to eat some lunch and take a quick walk outside, so I’ll time block it!

The Daily Shutdown Ritual is another tip I picked up from Cal Newport. This is an important piece of his time blocking strategy, and I’ve been working on incorporating it into my own. The idea is that once your daily shutdown is “complete” you can move into the rest of your afternoon or evening free of any worries or stress about what you didn’t get done or what you need to do tomorrow. 

I also like to time block and plan personal things like exercise and dinner. Additionally, I’ve been working on reading more, so that is something reflected in this weekly plan.

With a time blocked weekly plan, you’ll head into your week feeling confident and in control. 

Yes, unexpected things will come up and you’ll need to stay flexible. But the important thing is that you have a plan, and with a plan you’ll be able to make more informed decisions as to what you’re saying yes or no to. Revisions can then be made fairly stress free.

Thanks for reading, and I will talk to you soon!

Other Posts You May Like

My Instructional Coaching Kit Set-Up

Teaching Tips

As I was walking through Target the other day, I got all excited when I came across the “back to school” aisle. I’m pretty much like a little kid when it comes to back to school prep. I love it!

One of my back to school purchases for this year was a new discbound agenda to use for setting up my Coaching Kit.

I’ve been using an Instructional Coaching Planning Kit now for the past several years, and it’s one of the most important tools in my “stay organized” coaching system.

For the past few days, I’ve been working on getting mine set up for this year, and I thought I’d give you a little walk-through of how it’s coming along.

Let’s take a look!

As I mentioned, I highly recommend using a discbound notebook for your Coaching Kit over a clipboard, three ring binder, or really anything else. They lay flat, and fold over nicely which comes in so handy when I’m in classrooms taking notes, meeting with teachers, or need my PD agenda ready to reference.

I love discbound planners so much, I designed one for Time & ToDo Planner. These discbound planners are brand new for this year!

I made a customized cover for myself to place in the front. I chose Turquoise to compliment my Time & ToDo Planner. In the shop, I’m offering customized covers if you’d like one as well!

Customized Covers - Cover

The Coaching Kit’s table of contents has a suggested order for setting things up. However, feel free to identify and order your sections in whichever way makes the most sense to you. And remember, you can always tweak and adjust as the year goes on.

I have both “school” and “personal” tabs in my Kit, as I find that my school and personal lives overlap in many ways. For example, I like to keep my Weekly Meal Planning sheets as a section, so I can stay on track with my goals for the week.

For the tabs themselves, you can use something as simple as white Avery label dividers, or you can purchase discbound dividers. To add a bit more color, I also like to use Washi Tape for making my labels.

Here are the current sections I have:

  • Coaching
  • Meetings
  • Grade Levels
  • PD
  • Projects
  • Flylady
  • Biz
  • Meals
  • Notes
  • Reference

Behind my cover page, I have a Vertical Year at a Glance. While I do keep all of my appointments and dates in my Time & ToDo Planner (TTP), I find that it is also helpful for me to have this Year at a Glance in my Coaching Kit for those occasions that I may not have my TTP on me. I also like the friendly overview of the school year that this calendar provides.

On to the first tab of my Kit, “Coaching.” To start, I printed off a copy of my First 90 Days as a Instructional Coach printable. Even though I’ve been coaching for awhile now, I still find it nice to have this as a reference to help guide me through those first weeks/months.

I also plan to use this printable to help me establish goals for the 1st Quarter. Goal setting I feel, is a great practice for all of us to take on in both our personal and professional lives. Having clear goals helps me stay motivated and driven in my work.

Although I won’t be starting any official coaching cycles the first few weeks of school, I’ve printed off a copy of my Coaching Schedule printable so I’m ready to go when I meet with our principal to discuss teachers to work with.

The next section is reserved for Meetings. Whether for an after school staff meeting, our weekly coaches meeting, or an impromptu meeting with a teacher, I have printed off a few of my Meeting Notes forms so I’m ready to go.

In my PD section, I have a copy of the PD Year Plan from my PD Planning Kit. It helps me to have a visual of PD scheduled for the year, as well as any sessions I will be responsible for facilitating so that I can give myself plenty of time to plan and prep.

I also have my agenda printed and ready to go for our first PD with new teachers this week!

I decided to include a Projects section this year, as I often find myself taking on different kinds of projects throughout the year. I use this sheet to help me plan, set timelines, and keep track of the different tasks connected to that single project.

Next up, I have my Flylady section. I use this as part of my home management/cleaning system. There’s nothing better than coming home to a clean and orderly house at the end of a long day, and this is one of the tools I use to help me with this. I plan my zone cleaning tasks weekly, and complete them after school. If you’d like to learn more about how I use the Flylady system, leave me a note in the comments :)

As I mentioned earlier, I do keep my Weekly Meal Planning sheets in my Kit. I actually find I glance at my meal plan rather frequently, either to remind myself of what we’re having for dinner and what I need to do when I get home, or to quickly jot down an item I’ve remembered that I need to get at the store that week.

My Notes section is reserved for any free form planning or brainstorming I might do during the day.

And lastly, I have a Reference section. As of now, I have our school calendar for the year printed off, a Resource Checkout Form which I know I’ll soon need, and an Idea Tracker. I use my idea Tracker to capture all those random thoughts/ideas that come up during the day, which don’t need to be recorded as a to-do in my Time & ToDo Planner, yet I don’t want to loose sight of them either.

So there it is! Having this ready to go for school beginning this week, has helped me feel much more relaxed and confident in starting the school year. There will be a lot to do, but my Coaching Kit will work its magic as always in helping me to stay organized.

All of these printables can be found in either my Coaching Kit, or other listings in my shop. Check it out, and please let me know if you have any questions!

Talk soon, and thanks for reading!

PD Planning Kit

Details

  • Tell Us About Yourself teacher interest survey –> great for the beginning of the year to collect info on teacher interests that you can use to jazz up PD throughout the year
  • PD Sign In Sheet –> easily print and be ready for teachers to sign in at the start of PD
  • PD Year Plan –> use this to help you plan and organize PD topics throughout the year
  • PD Idea Tracker –> don’t let those great ideas for PD topics get away! This tool will help you collect and plan for where your ideas may fit into the bigger PD picture for your school
  • PD Interest Survey –> print this form, share with teachers, and use the gathered info to help you plan for Differentiated PD groups
  • PD Exit Ticket –> it’s important to collect teacher feedback for all of your PD sessions. Print and use this form to help you easily do so!
  • PD Annual Survey –> we use this 2-pg. form to help us collect teacher feedback on PD at the end of the year. It gives us a big picture understanding of what worked, and ideas for next year
  • PD Log –> don’t forget to track your PD progress throughout the year. This tool will give you an organized view of where you’ve been throughout the year, and will help you plan for next year
  • PD Planning Checklist –> great tool to print and use to keep you focused and well directed in the PD planning process. Just check-off as you go!
  • Example PD Email –> I included this as a sample of how you might communicate with staff regarding upcoming PD
  • PD Planner –> This is a one page planning tool to help you schedule logistics, materials, and create an agenda
  • PD Facilitation Skills –> I’ve been using this one a lot myself lately! It’s helps me with what to think about in becoming a better facilitator, and it’s also great to give someone else to provide you with feedback
  • Cover Page

**prints standard letter size, 8.5 x 11″

How to Use

Here a few fun tips/ideas for working with your PD Planning Kit:

  • Download your planner and save to your computer where you can easily access it
  • When printing, set your printer to fit the entire page
  • Use a color printer if you can!
  • Print on standard, letter size paper, 8.5 x 11″ (I like 98 bright, 32 lb)
  • To keep you planner organized, use a three ring binder or discbound notebook (there is plenty of margin space for punching!)

Delivery

Once your payment has been processed, you will receive an email with a link to download the planner. If you don’t see the email, check to make sure your junk mail didn’t grab it.

Terms of Use

I’m a hard working educator. This planner is for personal use only. You can print as many copies as you need, whenever you’d like. Please do not redistribute or sell.

Your First 90 Days as an Instructional Coach – Infographic & Poster

Details

Get the 36-item checklist showing all the things to do and when to do them.

  • Instant Download
  • Full color
  • Available in both letter size (8.5″ x 11″) and full poster (24″ x 36″, with and without bleeds for professional printing)

How to use

• Download your infographic and poster and save to your computer where you can easily access it
• Set your printer to fit the entire page
• Use a color printer if you can!
• Print on standard, letter size paper, 8.5 x 11″ (I like 98 bright, 32 lb)

Delivery

Once your payment has been processed, you will receive an email with a link to download the infographic.

Terms of use

I’m a hard working coach & teacher just like you. This infographic is for personal use only. You can print as many copies as you need, whenever you’d like. Please do not redistribute or sell.

Your First 90 Days as a Coach. Let’s Break It Down.

Teaching Tips

Ready or not…Back to School we go!

I’m not sure about you, but this time of year I always have a million thoughts swirling through my head.

So I decided to put together a list. A list to help guide me (and you!) through the start of a new school year.

All too often with the hecticness that is the beginning of a new year, we can find ourselves doing more scrambling forward rather than steady, purposeful stepping forward.

Don’t get overwhelmed, just take it one steady step at a time, and you’ll find yourself solidly on the path towards accomplishment and success in your work this year as a coach.

This list is by no means all-encompassing, but provides a good foundation for all of us, new and veteran alike, to build on.

Available as a Poster and Letter-sized Printable

Hope this helps set you off on the right foot!

And here are a few additional resources to help you along the way:

Happy Back to School!

4 Steps for Creating a Coaching Cycle Schedule

Goals and Motivation, Instructional Coaching, Organization

Earlier this week, I broke out the cool new pens I got for Christmas and got to work on putting together my coaching cycle schedule for this next quarter.

Creating new schedules throughout the year is a cool opportunity for us coaches. It’s kind of like having a mini beginning-of-school-year kick off more than just once :)

You get to reset and regroup for a new journey ahead with new “students” to motivate and move forward.

I know that sometimes creating a coaching cycle schedule can feel overwhelming, so I wanted to share the steps I use to simplify the process a bit and make it fun.

OK, now that we’ve got those steps and tips down, grab yourself a nice bright sheet of white paper and head over to the printer. I just designed a new Scheduling Tool I want to share with you.

It’s simple, fun, and includes space at the top to jot down a few goals for your upcoming coaching cycles. And because I think quotes are cool and inspiring, I included one of those too :)

Once you have it printed out, you can pop it in your Coaching Kit. I like to put mine front and center, along with a color coded index of the teachers I’ll be working with. You know me and color coding :) The colors help me quickly find the different “sections” for teachers. So when I head into a classroom, I can just whip my Kit right open to that color.

Want to learn more about how I work through coaching cycles? Check out the Walk Through a Coaching Cycle Workshop, where we walk through a full coaching cycle together.

I’ll also help answer some of those logistic questions that come up:

  • How many teachers do you work with during your coaching cycles?
  • How many observations and feedback meetings do you schedule x week?
  • Do you always set-up face-face feedback meetings, or do you use email at all?

Here’s what Nancy C. had to say about her Coaching Workshop experience:

“First of all, I want to tell you that I absolutely LOVE your documentation and your videos! What a fantastic package you’ve put together. This is only my second year as a Literacy Coach so I’m really just learning as I go along and your clear and concise way of explaining the coaching cycle is EXACTLY what I needed. I cannot thank you enough.

Here we go Coaching Cycles, here we go!! Whoop whoop.

Alright friend, I’m feeling really good about this second half of the school year. If there are any other topics or resources you’d like me to share heading into this year, be sure to let me know!

Thank You for Signing Up

Welcome to the Ms. Houser community. Please check your inbox for your requested resource.

Take a look at some of the most read pages:

8 Strategies for Scaffolding Instruction

Instructional Coaching Tools

DIY Teacher Planner/Binder

And be sure to check out the Simplified Coaching Planning Kit…

Simplified-Coaching-Planning-Kit-6-sections

6

Different Sections

5

Cover Options

21

Total Printables

Here is the full list of tools to help you get organized, plan and prepare to be an awesome coach:

  • Coaching Convo Plan
  • Coaching Log
  • Coaching Schedule
  • Debrief Tool
  • Coaching Workplan
  • Grade Level Notes
  • Idea Tracker
  • Kickoff Meeting
  • List It
  • Meeting Notes
  • Monthly Map
  • Notes
  • Observation Tool
  • Password Keeper
  • PD Planer
  • PD Goals
  • Project Planner
  • Resource Checkout
  • Small Group Observation Tool
  • Study Group Convo Log
  • Time Tracker

See the Coaching Planning Kit

DIY Creative School Welcome Wall

Goals and Motivation, Instructional Coaching

The kids have arrived! And it’s been fun, fun to see how excited everyone is to be back at school. The school is looking pretty good, and teachers are getting back into the routine and flow of our school days. But last week was a different story! Everyone was hustling to get classrooms set-up, first week plans figured out, and the school overall ready to greet kids for the first day.

One of the hustle projects I worked on was DIY-ing a Creative School Welcome Wall. It’s a project I’ve done for the past few years, and each year I think about how to do it a little differently. This year I was inspired to create a cool watercolor theme, and was super psyched about the result.

A school welcome wall is a terrific way to add some positivity and beauty to a school environment.

In case you’re thinking you might like to work on a School Welcome Wall yourself, here are the steps I took to create ours.

1. Choose a Space 

You can go big or small with the space you choose, but I’m always about bigger can be better when it comes to designing showcase boards/walls such as a Welcome Space. With this particular wall, I’m introducing our staff so I wanted to get as creative and artistic as I could in doing so. And for that, I needed a bigger space.

At first glance it was just a plain white wall, that I could have stuck a few photos to and called it good. But that just wouldn’t be my style.

So I fancied it up with some cool cabinet knobs that I found at Hobby Lobby. I asked our custodian to help me drill them in, then I had the perfect photo hanging accessory. A little black string tied from knob to knob, and voila! I’ve just created the perfect space to work with.

2. Take Some Photos

Next step – photos. I grabbed my camera, chose a consistent neutral background, and snapped away during a staff meeting break. That way, I had all 35+ staff members in the same location, and didn’t have to spend a ton of time tracking everyone down.

3. Gather Your Materials

Ooo, this was the fun part. I started by designing the watercolor “theme” I was going to go with, which included a Welcome sign, name frames, and small squares to serve as a backing for each teacher’s “fun fact.” (note – I printed all these materials on thick white paper both for better color and sturdiness)

And guess what?! I put together all the materials I created for the Welcome Wall in a downloadable kit just for you. Woo Hoo!

Sign up for blog updates and get the Free Watercolor Welcome Board Printables

4. Start Assembling

With the watercolor theme in mind, I chose black and kraft-colored card stock for the backing, and some fun washi tape for matting the photos.

I also asked teachers to write a “fun fact” about themselves on a post it note. These will be put on top of the watercolor squares.

5. Put It Up!

After each photo collage was assembled, I hung them up using more washi tape, and organized them by grade level/administration/specialist team. Teachers have been super busy with the first week of school, so I don’t have all the ‘fun facts’ up yet, but we’ll get there.

Once I had each photo hung, I stood back, admired my work, and gave myself a pat on the back for a job well done. It’s been fun to hear from teachers how excited they were to see the new staff Welcome Wall :)

And just for kicks, the glorious before and after of this fun and rewarding DIY project:

I hope you had some fun reading this post and thinking about what Welcome Space you may be able to create at your school for this year. If you do decide to DIY a Creative School Welcome Wall, send me a pic! I’d love to see it.

Happy School DIY-ing!