Frank Buck has served as a teacher, principal, and central office administrator during a career in education spanning almost 30 years. He realized early that getting organized and managing time well makes life easier. Frank adopted and perfected tools which have been with him throughout his career, and for over 10 years has shared those ideas in workshops designed for those in education. 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 One of our Author Spotlight with Frank.
Eye On Education: When did organization, technology, and education first begin to overlap in your career?
Frank Buck: I firmly believe that the early success I experienced in the classroom was a result of entering the profession already a pretty organized person. My senior year in high school presented any array of activities seemingly happening at once and the impending transition to college. That year is my first recollection of having a formal organizational “system.”
By the time my first day as a teacher rolled around, the habit of writing things down was firmly established. I never went anywhere without a memo pad and pen in my pocket. From that first day, the tickler files I talk so much about made sure that all of the little slips of paper from the memo pad resurfaced when they needed to be done. It did not take me long to realize that many of those reminders were parts of larger projects that come around about the same time every year, every month, or every grading period. Pretty soon, I had developed a system for handling those repeating tasks as well.
The overlap between technology and organization kicked in about the time lots of information started arriving digitally. My first year as a principal was also the first year to have e-mail at school and have high-speed Internet access from my desk. Printing e-mails and hand-copying long URLs into a paper planner seemed cumbersome. Having a system that took whatever arrived digitally and kept it digital just seemed to make much more sense. In 2001, I set aside my paper planner and started using Outlook and syncing it to a hand-held device daily. I won’t say it made me more organized. I will say it made organization easier and faster.
EOE: As a teacher of the 21st century, do you find digital organization tools or physical organization tools to be more useful? Is there still a need for both?
FB: Having spent a great deal of time in both camps, my preference is digital tools for three reasons. First, you can’t beat a smartphone for portability. The BlackBerry in my pocket can hold far more information than the biggest, heaviest paper planner. Secondly, when information is digital, it’s easy to share. I can copy and paste from Outlook to a Word document or vice-versa. I can drag an e-mail to my calendar or to-do list and have all of the details go with it. I can take any information in my digital system and e-mail it to someone else.
The third advantage is the ability to search. We live in a world where acquiring and saving information is easier than ever before. Retrieving the information when we need it becomes the challenge. Whether we are talking about a list of all of the tasks that I need to discuss when Jim walks in the door unexpectedly, a memo I stored on my computer, or an inspiring poem if I am asked to “say a few words” at the spur of the moment, a digital search beats looking through paper every time.
As digital as I am, there is one area where paper wins. Whenever I am in a meeting with a parent, on a phone call where I need to take notes, or attending a workshop, I am never without my paper journal. When a parent is talking to you about the needs of her child, taking notes on paper indicates what is being said is important. Taking notes on a smartphone is not only slow, but would come across as being rude.
My tickler files have been with me for 30 years and I don’t see the need for them going away any time soon. As long as other people are sending me information on paper and I am going to need to put my hands on that paper at some later date, the need for the tickler files is going to remain.
During my workshops, I like to ask for a show of hands as to how many people have a cell phone with them, and then ask how many would have responded the same way 10 years ago. Big difference! After several similar questions, I ask how many people keep their calendars and to-do lists on their phones. The numbers look much the same as when asked about having a cell phone a decade ago, although I am seeing those numbers growing. What will the answer to that same question look like 10 years from now? Will organizing digitally be as universal then as having a cell phone is now?
Check back tomorrow for part two!