I want to start this blog with a post about a book that helped me greatly at the start of my teaching career and that I am returning to now as I move into a headship and my toughest challenge to date. The book is an excellent restatement of timeless values, skills and reasoning. It is written with extraordinary clarity and is short, at just 98 pocketbook sized pages with a size 14 font. Even or especially if you consider yourself a very busy educationalist, get this book now.
This book is part of a continuum series called ‘Classmates’ that was published in the early noughties. The author Michael Papworth was a teacher of 20 years and authored three books between 2003-2005, full details of the books he authored can be found at https://www.bloomsbury.com/author/michael-papworth . The book itself ‘Every Minute Counts’ was published in 2003. I have found it to be the most concise and helpful series of recommendations for teachers that I have ever come across. I can only assume that, as it has not become required reading for every teacher ever, that there is such a great variety of these books that teachers have been spoilt by the number of choices.
The book proceeds through three parts:
- The Time Management Mind-Set
- Essential Skills
- Quick Tips
The first part gives an easy to remember overview of how and why we manage our time. The ‘how’ of time management is packaged as ‘The 4 Secrets of Time’ but it really is the basics of planning, objectives, structure, values and execution and review. These timeless ideas are easy to remember as having excellent reasons and plans and doing the right thing the right way. The ‘why’ is a look at a philosophy of life aiming at the much-sought after 40-hour work week, which still executes all the key goals of a professional working environment.
The second part could really be called quick tips for essential skills as it takes a whistle stop tour through ideas current in 2003 for planning, lesson planning, report writing, paperwork and meetings. Doubtless since the book was published new ideas have emerged in these areas from those you can read in the book, however the book is at its strongest when restating timeless ideas in a way a teacher can relate to. The timeless idea in the ‘essential skills’ section is to have a reason why we are doing something and then to do that thing we have a reason to do very well indeed.
The final section of quick tips is what it says it is, but the concision and clarity of the writing along with the thematic lack of ambiguity about how the tips work in practice is still present. Papworth clearly used the ideas himself and had a very good reason for doing so. It is clear from the clarity of his writing that he was an exceptional teacher with clear values which work with the fundamental principles of education.
I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone interested in being an effective teacher.
Bibliography:
Papworth, M. (2003) Every Minute Counts: Classmates Series, Continuum, London, UK