TM4T - The Admin Game - Getting Started

How this Exercise Works - Getting Started

First, you need to download the spreadsheet called 'Teacher-Summary'. You should allow 10 minutes for orientating yourself before starting the exercise.

Click the big red word 'Here' at the end of the next paragraph and you will see a screen like this one:

This spreadsheet is where you will record your actions. For each item-of-admin you will need to decide whether to

a) read something (there is a lot of stuff to read)

b) write something (for example a reply). If you do need to write anything, write it in the Write-What column of your spreadsheet. In the Write-What column, you should record exactly what you would write in real life. For example, don't put... “Get Jenny to do the photocopying”; instead put “Hi Jenny, 35 copies of this please”. In the Write-Where column, jot down whether you would do your writing in an e-mail reply, or your planner, or....

c) file something or move a piece of paper around. In the Filing column, you should mark (with an 'X') what you would do with the piece of paper/e-mail, for example: file it, dump it, put it in Jenny's In-tray, etc... There is also a comments question, but don't write essays here. The idea is that you should only write as much as you would write in real life, and the exercise should only take as long as it would in real life.

Note: The spreadsheet also contains YOUR class-lists, but not Rula's. You can therefore answer basic questions about students and their progress. It also contains examples of the worksheets used by some admin departments like Cleaning and Catering.

Hints

We are nice people here at TM4T and we think it's fair to offer some hints, because in this exercise you can go horribly wrong (and run out of time). This  mimics real life, of course, as many teachers relate that their real-life admin also goes horribly wrong. Hints here.

How this Exercise Works - You Decide the Order

You can tackle your admin in any order you want. Each item in the exercise has an item-number so it is easy to identify, but these numbers are just for convenience - it's up to you to decide which order to do things in.  The web-pages are intended to mimic a real-life school e-mail Inbox (which is in reverse chronological order) and a real staffroom pigeonhole (which is frequently entirely random). You are not obliged to do your work in that order, or in any other order apart from the one you choose.

In a similar way, the web-pages are intended to mimic the exhortations you can expect in your correspondence: Urgent, Reply Now, Important, etc. However, to restate: it is up to you how you deal with your admin, and in what order....

The admin is in four places (two pigeonholes in the staffroom, and two e-mail inboxes) which you can look at in any order:

Your e-mails. Click here.

Your pigeonhole. Click here.

Rula's e-mails. Click here.

Rula's pigeonhole. Click here.