When I’ve talked with other school administrators about what the restrictions and limitations are to fulfilling our responsibilities for instructional leadership, lack of time is often cited as the culprit. I, too, feel a time crunch, but I wasn’t convinced that it was an absolute lack of time that was most profoundly affecting my ability to be the instructional leader I want to be. Toward that end I began tracking my time in 15 minutes increments in a number of different categories. I devised this simple time-tracking template to assist in my monitoring. I have used it to track how I use my time for a week or two over the course of the past 3 years. What I have discovered was surprising in some ways and unfortunately predictable in others.
More specifically, I found that, on average, my time is spent the following ways:
Task
|
Percentage Time (average of 1-2 week sample each year over 3 years)
|
Management and Administrivia (email, weekly communication to staff, maintain calendar and schedule, phone calls, etc.)
|
30%
|
Direct Student Contact
|
6%
|
Direct Parent Contact (not electronic)
|
2%
|
Informal Staff Interactions (staff room chats, hallway meetings, office drop-ins)
|
10%
|
Class visits, observations and direct instructional leadership
|
8%
|
Board Committee work
|
8%
|
School-based Meetings (e.g. Committee Meetings, administrative meetings)
|
12%
|
External Collaboration (presentations, hosting school visits, etc.)
|
3%
|
Other (e.g. lunch, supervision, facilities issues, reviewing job applicants, interviews, meetings that don’t fall into other categories, etc.)
|
19%
|
What I came to realize in my analysis was that there were many things that I didn’t designate as being instructional leadership practices 3 years ago when I began periodically tracking my time. For example, 3 years ago I didn’t necessarily attribute reviewing teacher resumes as instructional leadership, whereas now I would say this is one of the primary aspects of instructional leadership: ensuring that the right people are selected to teach and that they are deployed appropriately. Given the numbers above, I would estimate that approximately 20-30% of my time on any given day could be spent on instructional leadership. Of course, instructional leadership isn’t just an absolute number of hours spent in classrooms – it’s the effectiveness of that time and the impact that it has on student success and engagement. Stay tuned as I dig deeper into this and reflect back on what I’m learning.
I invite others to use my time tracking template, adapt it to suit your needs so that you can track your time and share it back.
Darrell, you share some insightful observations relating to the realities encountered by a school principal striving to serve as an instructional leader. The tracking template you share demonstrates the many demands on your time. Hopefully, your school administrator colleagues, especially those involved in the Alberta Charter School Administrators leadership development project in partnership with Alberta Education, will take up the challenge of recording and reflecting on how they use their time as school leaders. As you point out, it is important to develop an understanding of what instructional leadership involves. As you observe, there are aspects of your role such as recruitment and hiring exemplary teachers which may appear to be administrative in nature, but in reality are key elements of instructional leadership. I appreciate your commitment to making meaning of your role and maintaining a focus on positively impacting learner engagement and providing opportunities for each and every student to experience success.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the template, Darrell. I will take a closer look at this in the New Year. This has been an ongoing topic of discussion for us for years. The question is always the same: "How do I get out of my office and into hallways and classrooms?" Starting in January, I am going to have a go at living a timetable that I have constructed for myself that blocks time in classrooms and hallways, creates chunks of time for research and reading, answering emails, etc. It will be interesting to see how manageable it is to follow this timetable.
ReplyDeleteOften, at the end of the day, I will shut down my computer only to find that there is an unfinished email open that I started at some point in the morning. There are days that seem like one long and continuous thread of interruptions. I really relate to what you say about transitions. The constant need to focus and re-focus to complete a task can be disorienting. The luxury of the uninterrupted meditation on one thought or issue seems elusive. When I look at it, however, all of these "interruptions" are aspects of the job. I may tend to see them as "interruptions" because they prevent me from completing the tasks upon which I am currently focused.
As a new principal, I have been looking at books on the topic of management. Two of the first books I looked at both stated emphatically that successful managers put people before tasks. This, for me, held the key to both changing the way I saw "interruptions" and to answering the question: "How do I get out of the office and into classrooms and hallways?" Changing the paradigm is not so easy, however. More to follow.
Hi Darrell! Thanks for the template. It's an interesting way to see just where all that time goes.
ReplyDeleteAs a new administrator I found that there was such a steep learning curve at the beginning of the year. There were many aspects to the role that no one had ever explicitly outlined for me that I would just "discover" I was responsible for, and I felt pulled in many different directions.
I was spending a great deal of time in classrooms, as I knew that interacting with students and teachers was a valuable and essential part of my job, but I was missing out on the administrivia. Like Hal, I would often close down my computer at the end of the day and find half-finished emails, and other communication that slipped through the cracks.
So, I made a decision to spend more time in my office and completing what I call "seat-work"...well, that didn't work either. I found that the more time I spent in my office; the more student discipline seemed to come my way.
Finally, at the beginning of December, I found a way to balance the time spent working directly with students and teachers and the time spent doing "seat work". I started creating daily plans...and following them. (That is very important...you have to be committed to following them) I sit down at my desk at the end of each school day and plan what the next day will bring. I make sure that I have “face time” with students and teachers, and I record any essential communication that needs to happen or other deadlines, etc. that I am working towards.
So far, so good.
I think that if I used the template to track my day I would find that I’m still transitioning between tasks much more often than I probably should, but I’m not sure how that can be helped. I’m certainly feeling more productive and in better balance than I was earlier in the year. Only time will tell.