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Now that you have a plan for your first three cycles of classroom visits, it’s time to schedule that plan on your calendar, so you’ll actually make it happen.
The first cycle should be pretty easy, because you just need to make a brief appearance in every classroom. If you can, try to knock it out in one day, or even one hour. Don’t overthink it. Just go. If today isn’t a school day, block out an hour or so on your calendar for the very next school day, and get around to everyone. If you don’t finish in one day, keep at it the next day, but under no circumstances should you take more than five days to get around to everyone. You can do it – simply get into every classroom for a minute or two.
Now, what about blocking off time on an ongoing basis for your three daily visits to classrooms in cycles two, three, and beyond? You’ve probably heard phrases like “What gets scheduled, gets done” and “Just block off time.” But what’s the best way to actually do that?
Most people think this is about making it a priority to be in classrooms. But on a day to day basis, it gets a bit more complicated than just prioritizing, because the reality is that you have to deal with emergencies, and interruptions, and other work that you can’t just ignore because being in classrooms is important. So there’s a bit of a trick to this, and I want to share some scheduling strategies with you that have helped many other people get into classrooms every day.
First, recognize that interruptions are going to happen, so don’t let yourself get frustrated. If you deal with discipline, or parents, or other emergencies, you may need to try six, eight, even ten times a day to actually get into classrooms three times. That’s fine. Figure out what’s realistic for you, and just plan for it.
Second, figure out when you’re already out of the office, and schedule your visits right before or right after those times.
Here’s what this can look like at the secondary level. If you’re in a middle or high school with a six- or seven-period day, you might just plan to visit one classroom briefly during every period, so you can see a variety of classes. You might already be in the habit of supervising the hallways during passing periods, so a great time to visit classrooms is at the beginning or end of the period. If you do this just a couple times a day, and stop by a class before the bell rings, then supervise in the hall, then pop into another class right as it’s starting, you’ll easily hit your goal of three visits a day, even if you get interrupted some of the time.
At the elementary level, you may not have class periods and bells, but you can use your personal schedule in the same way, taking advantage of anything that already gets you out of the office as a chance to get into classrooms. For example, if you supervise in the lunchroom, you might want to stop by a classroom on the way. Just leave a few minutes early, and walk down with the class. Or if you have afternoon recess duty, instead of heading back to the office when it’s over, stop by a classroom on the way.
Whatever your schedule is like, look for those natural opportunities to stop by classrooms when you’re already out of the office, and you’ll find that adding this habit to your day takes up a lot less time than you think. What I don’t want you to do is interrupt yourself, or block off the entire morning, when you could be getting other important work done. If you have uninterrupted work time in the office, use it! You already get interrupted enough; there’s no reason to interrupt yourself. Just take advantage of those times when you’re already out of the office.
Now, what about making sure you get a chance to talk with the teacher? Sometimes you can chat before you leave, but that’s not always possible, depending on what’s happening in the lesson. Often, you’ll need to come back during the teacher’s prep period, or after school, or even the next day. This adds a layer of difficulty that throws a lot of people off-track, but it’s actually very easy to prepare for. All you need is the teacher’s schedule, so you know when you can come back to talk.
Below this video, we’ve provided a template that you can print out to make index cards for planning and tracking your visits to each teacher’s classroom. This is a great thing to get your office staff to help with, because figuring out exactly when each teacher is teaching, and when they’re available to meet with you, is a lot of work – and that’s precisely why a lot of administrators drop the ball when it comes to those follow-up conversations. So don’t be afraid to ask your office staff to help you get set up with this. Print out those cards, and say to your secretary, or a volunteer, I need you to help me write out each teacher’s schedule on these cards.
Then, you’re in business. Grab the top three cards every day, write the date when you visit the teacher’s classroom, and put the card on the bottom of the stack. If the teacher is absent, or you don’t make it to their classroom for whatever reason, leave that card on top of the stack so you can get to them tomorrow.
So with that, you have everything you need to get started. Before we wrap up this module, I’ll address some frequently asked questions about getting started with classroom visits. I’m Justin Baeder, and I’ll see you in the next section.
Download Classroom Visit Index Cards »[/thrive_toggles][/thrive_toggles_group]
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