Our words become our reality.
If we want to go even deeper, self-efficacy (the belief that we can do something) has had powerful results for the classroom. In their 2016 study, published in the article “Teacher Self-Efficacy and Its Effects on Classroom Processes, Student Academic Adjustment, and Teacher Well-Being: A Synthesis of 40 Years of Research,” Marjolein Zee and Helma M. Y. Koomen found that teachers with high self-efficacy:
◗ Have been demonstrated to perceive the implementation of new instructional methods as more important and congruent with their own practices
◗ Experience less self-survival, task, and impact concerns and more pedagogic conceptual change, irrespective of grade
◗ Effectively cope with a range of behaviors, regardless of grade
◗ Use proactive, student-centered classroom behavior strategies and practices
◗ Establish less conflictual relationships with students
◗ Become more sensitized to students’ signals, needs, and expectations and thereby are able to provide students with adequate supports in class
It all starts with our words. Our words can change our mindset and belief system. When we start to take steps to control our workload and think positively at the same time, something magical happens. You’ll start attracting teachers that have control of their workload and a sense of calm. Here are a few phrases you can practice saying to create a more positive mindset and gain more control of your workload.
Yes, okay, we get it. Some days you may just want to curl up into the fetal position after the last bell rings and cry. But no matter how much we have to do, we always have a choice about how we speak about our workload. Our words matter. The funny thing about people who don’t think positively is that they call themselves realists. Nobody ever really calls themselves a pessimist. Don’t fall for this. Optimists actually create their own reality. It’s just brighter. Change your language; change how you feel.
Your Turn
1 Think of a teacher or colleague who speaks positively and with a sense of empowerment about their workload. Have their words affected their reality?
2 Now think of a teacher or colleague who usually speaks negatively or with defeat about their workload. How do you think this has affected their teaching or relationships with students?
3 Which type of teacher do you want to be? Why?
Strategy #6 Am I Scraping the Right Car?
Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.
—Peter Drucker
There was once a Statoil commercial showing a man coming outside in the morning to find all of the cars on his street covered in snow. Approaching the car nearest his house, the man begins to painstakingly scrape snow off the windshield with his briefcase. He then clears off the side mirrors and, bracing himself against the cold, all four car windows. Despite the frigid temperature and slipping in the snow at least once, he even cleans off the windshield wipers with his gloved hands. Finally, he clicks his key fob to unlock the door only to find that the (still snow-covered) car in front of him is blinking its lights. He had spent an hour cleaning off the wrong car. You can watch Cleaning Snow off the Wrong Car on YouTube (Patel, 2013).
What would this misuse of time look like in the classroom? It could look like you spending way too much time on one student’s behavior issues in class. This is not going to drive your entire class forward. It could also look like spending hours finding the perfect article to read in class when the article takes up only twenty minutes of your lesson. Sometimes it’s okay to stop scraping because you are clearing the wrong car. It’s just not worth it. Here is a mantra to help you. Ask yourself: “Am I scraping the right car?”
The bottom line is this: We decide how we use our time at school. To assess whether you are using your time wisely, remind yourself that your time should be spent on tasks that result in the following outcomes:
◗ Students are engaged and on task.
◗ We are continuing to grow as teachers.
◗ We are creating healthy bonds with colleagues and administrators.
◗ We are forming relationships with students.
◗ We are keeping communication open with parents.
◗ We are staying organized in our classrooms.
◗ We are prepping curriculum (making copies, writing notes on board, getting supply baskets ready, etc.)
◗ We are completing paperwork.
Figure 6.1 shows how your time spent should look.
Figure 6.1 Ideal Allocation of Weekly Classroom Prep Time
Try to get yourself ahead so most everything you are doing is proactive. You’ll thank yourself later. It is possible. You are planning for the next week; using student data to inform instruction; sending a quick, positive e-mail to Amal’s mom; planning your learning presentations; making copies for following week; and so on. Once you hit this, you have found your teaching stride. You are scraping the right car, and now you’re using an ice scraper instead of just a credit card.
Here is a time-saver tip:
[Serena] If you dedicate more time to planning and being prepared to execute engaging curriculum, you will spend less time in long parent meetings. This is because, as you know from my first book, engaging and relevant curriculum is the mothership of classroom management. When you have better classroom management, your behavior issues start to disappear. Then you can focus one hour per week (max) on positive parent phone calls, positive parent e-mails, setting up parent volunteers, or quick in-person parent meetings.
Your Turn
1 Have you ever spent way too much time “scraping the wrong car?” If so, describe what happened.
2 How do you know when this is happening?
3 What is a strategy you can use next time you are “scraping the wrong car?”
Descriptions of Images and Figures
Back to Figure
The allocation of different tasks are as follows:
Planning engaging curriculum for following week, grading, feedback to students: 4 hours per week.
Prepping curriculum: 2 hours/week.
Forming relationships with students: 1 hour
