In TM4T, we cannot talk about Disruptions without also talking about Routines.
Of course, teaching is full of surprises, but most of the events in a teacher's life are routine. 'Routine', in this context, means that they are pre-determined well in advance, following well-established cycles (see above). When we operate our TM4T system, we will be categorising every event in a teacher's life under three headings:
a) Routine - these are events whose timing can be pretty much determined at the beginning of term - for example, "checking the answerphone", or "emptying the pigeonhole" might happen around 08:00 every day. These tasks are - logically - exactly as predictable as a teacher's student contact, and should be timetabled in exactly the same way. These are cyclical , routine tasks which should happen at more or less the same time each day or week. These correspond to the 'Operations' which were discussed under Task Analysis here.
b) Schedulable (I know, I know, it's an ugly word) - these are tasks which come to our notice during the term, after we have already set up our TM4T system, which do not need to be done at once, but which can be scheduled at an appropriate time in the future. An example might be "reading the LEA report" which has appeared in the pigeonhole or "meeting the deputy head" to discuss the message left on the answerphone. Teacher's need to leave adequate uncommitted time in their daily life to schedule these additional tasks. These correspond to the 'Projects' which were discussed under Task Analysis here. A lot of the routines in TM4T (Ticklists, Tens, X-Time, etc) are explicitly designed to deal with these.
c) Disruptive - these are things which kind of just crop up, which must be dealt with straight away. The urgent message left in the pigeonhole, the 'phone me back asap' message on the answerphone. These are a key source of stress, and a sensible teacher - you - needs to develop a sensible strategy to deal with them:
i) Recognise that disruptions tend to have a pattern and reflect this in your daily routine. If you empty your pigeonhole at 08:00, recognise that there may be an urgent call for help, and don't schedule any other tasks at that time.
ii) Recognise disruptions for what they are - a curse on a teacher's life - and discourage them actively and assertively. Schedule some time to consider how to deal those people in your life who cause unnecessary interruptions. There are a range of approaches to choose from (downright rudeness is a personal favourite of mine) whose effectiveness will vary depending on who the other person is. TM4T does not explicitly cover these interpersonal techniques, for two reasons:
- there is already enough twaddle on the subject
- teachers have a specific issue which means these techniques are unreliable. Read more here.
iii) Make sure you have a bucket in your schedule to allow for things which you haven't been able to do because of interruptions. For many teachers this is a generic 'after school', but it is much more efficient to have an explicit X-time in your timetable. This means that you should review your schedule each day and vacuum up any tasks which have had to be delayed because of disruptions.