Frank Buck has served as a teacher, principal, and central office administrator during a career in education spanning almost 30 years. He has written two books for Eye On Education, Organization Made Easy! Tools for Today's Teachers and Get Organized! Time Management for School Leaders. Read below for Part Two of our Author Spotlight with Frank.

EOE: What is your new favorite time-saving online tool?

FB: Without a doubt, reQall is my favorite. When a thought occurs to me, I pull out my smartphone, hit one speed dial key, and talk for up to 30 seconds. In a few minutes, I receive an e-mail with everything I had said transcribed to text. I can forward that information to someone else, drag it to my to-do list, or do anything else I could do with other digital material. Best of all, it’s free!

EOE: At what time in your life were you the most unorganized? Were you ever a procrastinator?

I held five positions during my career—two as a band director, assistant principal, principal, and central office administrator. The transition between each presented the greatest organizational challenges. I could not be quite sure where the “land minds” were where someone else had let something slide that was about to bite me. Being left with someone else’s system, when they really don’t have much of a system, leads to a world of surprises. At the same time, turning chaos into order is a rewarding experience.

Procrastination is something I have to fight constantly. I think we all do what is easy, and I am no different. So, finding a way to make things easy is a huge key to overcoming procrastination. Taking the time to make my “to-dos” crystal clear removes the guesswork and encourages me to get started. Breaking down big projects into individual next steps lets me spend a little time here and there chipping away at what otherwise would be overwhelming.

EOE: Please describe a student who impacted your life as a teacher. Why did he/she have this effect on you?

FB: About a year ago, the Tales from a Teacher’s Heart series described Aaron and the lessons of students needing a place to belong, never giving up on student, and realizing success takes time. But when we talk about organization, I can’t help but think about Mandy. When Mandy signed up for beginning band, I was warned about how she “bounced off the walls” and how much she would try my patience. Mandy’s ADHD was so far off the scale that she was taking maximum dosage of medication allowable for her body weight.

Keeping Mandy’s attention could be a challenge, but when you had her attention, you realized she was smart and very interested. She became an incredible flute player. What I learned from her was that as teachers we have to keep things moving, vary the activities, and actively engage students. We all have limits to our attention span.  Mandy was just at one extreme of that continuum. If we can engage the most hard to engage, the techniques we use will also help our interaction with any audience.

The second thing I remember about Mandy is whenever I talked to the band about logistics—what time to arrive for the band concert, what to wear, what to bring, what to practice tonight, etc., while the other students sat and listened, Mandy always pulled out a memo pad. She knew five minutes later, she would have forgotten everything I said, so she had developed a tool to solve the problem. For her, that little memo pad spelled the difference between being on top of things and being totally lost.

Again, she was at one end of the continuum. We all forget, and at some point in our lives, the level of responsibility becomes such that memory alone is inadequate. If something as simple as a memo pad worked for her, it could surely be the answer for those with less challenged attention spans.