Last month I asked for requests for what you’d like to read about, and one response felt like a push I wanted to explore: tech.
The thing is, I don’t feel comfortable offering specific classroom tech tips given how variable school cultures and district policies are and given that I haven’t been a classroom teacher since 2013, eons ago in classroom tech.
So instead I’m going to respond to this request through the lens I always come back to in my coaching work and my writing: supporting educators in finding their own intersection of effectiveness and sustainability.
Today I’m sharing 5 practices that helped me find a relationship with technology–and my phone specifically–at my intersection of professional effectiveness and personal sustainability.
These practices aren’t original or innovative or headline-making. They’re just actual things I’ve chosen to do that have resulted in less distraction, time-suckage, and feeling bad about myself through comparison to other people while still allowing me to get shit done and generally enjoy my life.
Here goes:
Print books only: Reading is one of the primal touchstones of my identity, seeded in early childhood with $2.95 Bantam Books editions. Touching paper, turning pages, dog-earing, being told “that’s a great book” by a stranger on the subway: that’s reading to me. (“But my Kindle is so convenient! I can carry 1,000 books around with me!” someone said to me last weekend. “Yes,” I replied, “but I only read one book at a time.”)
Phone off in the kitchen overnight: Because I go through bouts of insomnia, if my phone is on and nearby I will be on it at 2am shopping for skin products. Instead, I have an actual analog alarm clock next to my bed that I also take with me when I travel.
Phone on after morning routine: My day starts with meditation, journaling, and pulling a card from an oracle deck (also rolling my eyes at myself). That routine takes about 30 minutes, which means my phone and all its attendant enragements and inanities isn’t the first thing I see when I wake up.
Phone out of sight: My work day can look like anything, anywhere, but when I’m sitting in front of my laptop working on something that requires focus, I put my phone where I can’t see it. At this very minute I’m at a coffee shop, and my phone is on silent in my backpack.
No notifications: I only get alerts for phone calls, text messages, and breaking news. I don’t want anything else to interrupt me, make me mad, or send me down a rabbit hole.
Want more? Here are 3 books I love about this:
24/6: Giving Up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection by Tiffany Shlain
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
Three ways to put these ideas into practice:
If you have 5 minutes: Share a comment. First draft thoughts are welcome!
If you have 10 minutes: Go find a print book, read it, and enjoy. That’s it. Best homework assignment ever.
If you have 30 minutes: Schedule time on my calendar to chat about how you might try one or more of these ideas to find your own intersection of effectiveness and sustainability. It’s a free half-hour of thought partnership!
Getting Schooled
What I’ve been seeing and thinking about in my recent work with educators
One of the principals I’m coaching this year had her instructional coaching team develop a coaching mission to guide them. I love this practice because it establishes a shared sense of purpose for the work. As Meredith Matson and I write in our book, having a clear idea of our purpose, whether for an individual, a team, or an organization, helps us make decisions about what we do and how we do it.
Earlier this month I went to England on a Wuthering Heights pilgrimage, and
now I finally understand what the moors, the setting of Emily Brontë’s novel and also where she grew up, actually are. Since a trans-Atlantic field trip would have been impossible, I’m now reflecting on how I could have done a better job helping my 12th graders gain a deeper understanding of the moors when we read Jane Eyre by Emily’s sister Charlotte.
Field Tripping
What I’ve been doing and experiencing on my weekly field trips (2 hours alone with my lifelong learner hat on)
I took 5 field trips in September:
I watched Cinnamon in the Wind and then read everything I could about Kate Berlant.
I wandered around Haworth, in West Yorkshire, England, including the church where the Brontës are buried, the graveyard next door to their home, and the museum in the parsonage where they lived.
I spent a 19-hour travel day immersing myself in the book Cast in Firelight by Dana Swift, podcast episodes of You Probably Think This Story’s About You and Where Should We Begin?, and The Idea of You, True Detective Season 4, and The Greatest Love Story Never Told.
I visited Vizcaya Museum and Gardens for the first time since I was a kid on a school field trip. My favorite parts were outside: the gardens, the barge, the boat landing, the swimming pool, and most of all the walk from the Metrorail through an old growth forest.
I went to see Empire Waist after hearing the screenwriter on the Burnt Toast podcast and her impassioned plea for opening-weekend support which is kind of akin to why it’s so important to pre-order books. I borrowed my dad’s car and drove to the only movie theater within a 20 mile radius where it was playing. I was the only person there, and you know what? It was fantastic and a much-needed corrective to The Substance, which I saw the night before with my sister and which we both hated. Warning: I’ve linked to both trailers here, but neither do justice to their respective films Empire Waist is much better and more subversive with much more intergenerational appeal than it looks, and The Substance is much, much, much worse, not to mention way more violent, sexist, and complicit in reinforcing the very beauty norms it thinks it’s critiquing. In short: Empire Waist is actually doing what The Substance only pretends to be doing.
Want to try a field trip of your own but not sure how to get started? Schedule time on my calendar and let’s brainstorm together.
Reading Recs
What I’ve been reading and ruminating about
I finished 6 books in September:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
This is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan
Cactus as Bad Boy by Susan Vespoli
We Are Too Many: A Memoir (Kind Of) by Hannah Pittard
Cast in Firelight by Dana Swift, the children’s book buyer at my local indie Books & Books and the leader of my writing group!
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
Already on pre-order: my friend Emily Hyland’s forthcoming book Divorced Business Partners: A Love Story. I’ll be at her NYC appearance on October 22 at Poets House in Tribeca. Please join me!
Let’s partner!
I help educators break through their blocks by finding the intersection of effectiveness and sustainability.
I believe educators need to stay connected to their passion and purpose to provide all students with joyful, enchanting, empowering learning experiences–without burning out.
I have more than 2 decades of experience as an educator with deep expertise in leadership and instructional coaching across grade bands and content areas, learner-centered professional development design and facilitation, and teacher team development.
Interested in learning more?
One more thing about cocoons
Thank you to everyone who has sent me private messages about the last few newsletters. I love hearing from you! And I would love it even more if you would share your thoughts, feelings, and requests in the comments too.
Here’s why that matters: comments create a sense of connection through conversation. I know some of you avoid social media and comment sections, but I guarantee the Cocoon community is a lovely, funny, inspiring, kind, thoughtful, supportive group of people, and you are safe sharing here.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.