Teachers can drastically increase their productivity while reducing their stress through a system I call the M.A.P. Strategy. If you read much of my stuff online you’ll learn rather quickly I like to create acronyms. They stick in my head.
Monitor – The M in MAP stands for the time you analyze and place students. This can be through standardized test scores or results of local assessments. Once you see where you kids need to be and then learn they aren’t there, you can better move on to sections A, and P. Monitor can cover a whole slough of things teachers do when analyzing data for better instruction.
Assemble – Now don’t get that confused with assessment. This is not that at all. This is the step where you gather the curriculum you have to address the needs you discovered in “monitoring.” If you’ve been a teacher the last 10 years you will agree with me that teaching is changing to less of a “district hands down the holy grail to teach with” and more to a “go through the smorgasbord and take the stuff you need” kind of approach. The “A” represents that time to assemble the tools you need to address the need.
Prepare – The reason I created this methid was for P. My copier went out again and I had to time to get what I needed for the next day. Later I went to the copy machine and realized I had no idea what to copy for the next day! I created the 3 items in this acronym to keep myself aware of my students’ needs, the materuals I have, and to be prepared. The “P” is the copying, the getting it all together.
If you follow th M.A.P. strategy as a teacher (or another professional) I think you will find it to be helpful towards productivity and easing stress.
One Comment
I think preparation is the key (and for me Monitoring and Assembling is part of my preparation). I also think it is important to do this a few days in advance and not the day before. You also have to prepare for disasters such as: the copy machine is broken and may not be fixed within the next day; the material you thought you had can not be found; or you might get sick and have to have this stuff ready for a substitute.