Importance of a Schedule

It’s that time of year again. The time of year when parents are shouting, “Yes, school is starting!!” and students are shouting, “Oh no, school is starting!” Then its followed by parents shouting, “Oh no, back to school shopping!” and student shouting “Yes, back to school shopping!” I know there are also parents and students shouting, “Yes, school is starting!” but I am pretty sure that the second shouting scenario is the same. However it happens in your house, it is time for a new school year to begin.

The past two weeks for me have been a blur of training and meetings on both the district level and school level. Learning the “do’s” and “don’ts” from both areas has also been a blur. Going through this whole process has reminded me what the student we teach can go through each and every day with classes, homework, extracurricular activities and home activities. In the process of learning the “do’s” and “don’ts,” I did the biggest “don’t” ever - which was don’t forget the classes you are suppose to be in and don’t forget my room number…

Just before school started, I, as well as the other teachers, have been attending different professional training meetings. The theme focused on Captain Sullenberger, who rose to fame when he successfully ditched US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River off Manhattan, New York City, on January 15, 2009, saving the lives of all 155 people on the aircraft. The focus wasn’t on the crash, but on the training, preparation and experience he and his flight crew utilized as the events began to unfold.

How did the training, preparation and experience serve them and how could we as teachers facing a new year use these attributes to guide our actions this year? Well, you could say that each of the members of the flight crew had a schedule for what they needed to do. By following their training, preparation, and experience -- a schedule, if you will -- they were able to provide calmness in the face of chaos.  Once the plane was in the water, the flight crew’s schedule helped to control the chaos which so easily could have resulted in loss of life that was just avoided by the successful landing.

As the blur (panic) began to clear when I got home, I sat down and then began creating a schedule. The schedule included what meetings I had left to attend, what paperwork I still needed to turn in, and a partial schedule for my first day.  It’s amazing how the simple creation of a schedule can reduce fear, anxiety, self-doubt, and stress. Just knowing what I need to do and the order things are going to happen made it possible for me to calm down and relieve some of my self-doubt that had begun to overwhelm me.

Continuing to focus on schedules, I want to express my belief that your students will benefit from having a scheduled homework time. I’d like to share some ideas that can help during homework time and are fairly simple to use:

• Establish a homework time that is convenient for your student, such as right after school when it won’t interfere with the shows they like to watch. If they don’t do it then, the natural consequence would be that they have to do it when they would usually be watching television. If they insist they can only work if the television is on, then turn it on, but put it on a news channel. This way, they are learning about current events and it might make them choose to do their school work so they can watch something else.

• If they insist on music then allow it, but use classical music since it has been known to have a calming effect. It might also have the same effect as the news channel for TV. 

• Technology can be an aid or hindrance, but if you learn how to manipulate the electronics in your home, these too can become an aid during this hour. Cell phone in your possession until the hour is done. Computer usage for this hour only in an area where you can see it so you know they are doing homework.  If you get really good mastering your computer network you can turn off wireless access for the hour so only the wired computer works. Once again, if they insist on using their own computer in their room then most wireless modems can block access to different sites simply by entering the website address in the security area of your modem controls.

Most important to using a schedule is consistency. We all know life happens, so stick to the schedule to the best of your ability and plan for it in your own schedule. If your student claims not to have homework, then get online and check his teacher’s website to make sure or to see if there is a big paper or project coming up that could be worked on a little at a time instead of the night before it is due. I hope you found this to be useful information or, at the very least, entertaining.

Good luck to your student and to you as well this year.