Notes from interview about productivity for teachers

Open Thinkering Imported from Posterous

Interview with Tim Bradburn (Connected Teaching)

1 March 2010

  • Brief background – what are you doing now and what is your past experience in education?

  • Currently employed as Director of E-Learning at The Northumberland Church of England Academy (10-site all-age Academy 3-19 set up at start of this academic year)

  • Sixth year of teaching
  • Previously E-Learning Staff Tutor as well as Teacher of History and ICT at Ridgewood School (High Achieving Specialist School in Doncaster)
  • Started career as Teacher of History in Worksop
  • Currently writing my Ed.D. thesis on the concept of ‘digital literacy’

  • Have a wife (Primary Teacher) and 3 year-old son (hard work – both grandfathers were PE teachers!)

  • Teaching staff always mention lack of time – 12 hour days as standard. Many of them are desperate to know how to work smarter, reduce workload and improve work-life balance. This seems particularly critical in primary. Why do you think this is?

  • 3 main reasons:

    • Immediate results – spending a little more time planning can have real results the next day
    • Hypocrisy of Ofsted – bar being continually raised because of what teachers can achieve over a short inspection (expected all year round)
    • No CPD on productivity/organization – expected to know how to use email effectively, manage time, prioritise, etc.

  • Could you outline your views on productivity being a virtuous circle?

  • Think about the opposite – how do we get into a vicious circle? When what we do negatively affects us so that we cannot perform well, and that then has an impact on the next thing, and so on.

  • For example, some form of ‘coping strategy’ (such as alcohol) or avoidance strategy (such as avoiding marking) leads to a problem building up
  • The opposite of that is a ‘virtuous circle’ – when what you do makes things easier or more manageable
  • For example, coping with stress with exercise rather than cigarettes and alcohol can help with creating a virtuous circle because it increases your energy levels.

  • You can check whether you’re involved in creating a virtuous circle for yourself by asking whether your actions are helping you increase your capacity. 

  • You talk about productivity being a learned behaviour, composed of serenity, reliability, focus. Could you explain that?

  • No-one is ‘born productive’ (all learned). Met a lot of people who’ve had to sink or swim because of a crisis.

    • Serenity = state free from stress and anxiety. People can perform under pressure (e.g. Olympic athletes) but can’t perform under stress and anxiety.
    • Stress and anxiety one of major causes of long-term illness.
    • Can learn to be serene – not by disengaging and not caring (quite the opposite)

    • 3 ways to become serene:

    • Have a system for everything (email, marking, where you put your keys)

    • Deal with stress positively (exercise, write, talk)
    • Talk positively about yourself (don’t say ‘I’m stressed’, ‘I can’t do this’, etc. – reification)
    • Reliability = being dependable. Seth Godin: this is a feature ‘Linchpins’ (the go-to people). Great for your career.
    • Quickest & easiest way to become reliable & dependable = to show up. In fact, Woody Allen is famously quoted as saying “80% of success is just showing up”.
    • To do this consistently you need a routine. Great believer: innovation = built upon standardization.
    • Focus = knowing what to concentrate your energy on.
    • Teachers faced with raft of initiatives all the time – need to know which ones to spend time on (can’t do it all!)
    • Write down your educational philosophy. Sounds grand, but really just the reason you came into profession.
    • Back in Sunday school – 3 seives: true, helpful, kind?
    • For teachers – 3 seives: does it fit in with my educational philosophy? does it help the kids in my classes? does it help my career?
    • If yes, spend time on it. If no, give it the attention it deserves.

  • What is the difference between generic productivity systems that lack context versus a personal system with feedback loops?

  • Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher: we become brave by pretending and practising being brave.

  • Likewise, learn to be productive by asking yourself what a productive person would do.
  • Problem with applying other people’s systems is that everyone has a different context.
  • Things like GTD assume that you work in an office and are just doing ‘stuff’. Teachers are doing more important things than that.
  • Feedback loops important as context can change – e.g. different class, new Ofsted system, move house, start a family.
  • Your system needs to be emergent and adaptable.
  • Never say that you do something because it’s always been done (or you’ve always done it) that way. 

  • Question everything.

  • What is the value of “Calling yourself into the office” and sharing commitments?

  • This is a great idea from Dan Pink’s book called ‘Drive’

  • Saw him at The Sage in Gateshead and he was inspiring
  • Idea is that performance reviews don’t happen very often – yearly or 6-monthly usually
  • Need more feedback (imagine if Serena Williams only given feedback that often?!)
  • Do it yourself
  • Set targets/commitments at start of a month or half-term
  • ‘Call yourself into the office’ at end of month/half-term
  • Review.

  • Set more targets/commitments.

  • Can you elaborate on the theory that unproductiveness can be down to:

  • A belief that the longer you spend on something the better it will be.

    • I’m a perfectionist
    • Sounds like a good thing, but it’s not.
    • Many teachers share similar qualities.
    • An asymptote is a line (usually a curve) that approaches, but never actually reaches another line
    • Imagine line = ‘perfection’ – never going to reach it (more effort you put in, the less you’re getting out)
    • Teachers tend to put effort into wrong things – the worksheet, the PowerPoint (instead of transitions and metaphors, for example)

  • An unbalanced lifestyle (for example, not exercising often).

    • We live in a binge culture – especially in the UK
    • I think it’s the Viking influence – fight then drink!
    • Unsustainable – Vikiings didn’t do that all the time…
    • Achieving ‘serenity, reliability and focus’ = sustainable productivity
    • An unbalanced lifestyle makes sustaining a virtuous circle very difficult
    • Not boring because more fulfilling overall – more in control

  • Some form of addiction.

    • Addicts aren’t in full control of their lives.
    • Easy to pick on drug-taking, alcohol, food and smoking, but some are more subtle
    • Perfectionism is a form of addiction – tweaking worksheets and PowerPoints.
    • Can also be addicted to checking email, Twitter and Facebook (BlackBerry/CrackBerry)

    • Ways of thinking can be addictive as well:

    • Negative thinking (e.g. body, health, career)

    • Avoidance (e.g. squeezing planning into tiny window)

    • Whinging (e.g. change, how someone’s treated you)

    • Addiction – in whatever form – means you lose focus.

  • A number of primary teachers have told us that primary has a greater workload than secondary – with substantially more paperwork.  Would you agree?  Is primary more challenging? What advice would you give to primary teachers?

  • My wife’s a Primary teacher.

  • Majority of Primary teachers are female (sure that’s a factor in some way – more conscientious?)
  • Advantage Secondary teachers have over Primary = teaching essentially same lesson more than once in a week.
  • Disadvantage for Secondary teachers = relationship with students.
  • If Primary teachers = productive themselves, can get their class into a productive, virtuous circle.
  • I sometimes wish I taught Primary.
  • R.e. paperwork, Secondary teachers work in depts. so can distribute and share paperwork.
  • Also, focus on that which is important – does this fit with my educational philosophy? will it benefit children? will it benefit my career?
  • Remember perfectionist argument above – be your own person. Focus, be reliable, be serene.
  • Talk to yourself. Big yourself up. Be your own biggest fan.
  • Not arrogance – productivity.