Together Friends,
The Together Team is hopping over here with a full docket of both online and in-person classes this fall. We are excited to resume our Together Tours as the academic new year gets underway. This month we offer up a high school Together Teacher’s unique perspective on Togetherness. Take it away, AJ!
Together Tour: AJ Bute
Anna (aka AJ) and I first met sometime before the pandemic through BES, a school leader training organization. In fact, one of my final in-person trips prior to the pandemic was to her former school in Queens where she served as the Founding Director of Operations. She showed me all kinds of cool systems her team was using to keep the school humming. Fast forward 5+ years, and AJ is back in the classroom as a high school science teacher. I knew she would have some more systems to share, and indeed she did. Read on to see how AJ reduces decision-making, stays fueled, and keeps track of late student work! PS Looking for more Together Teacher Tour content? Check out MaryKate and Thomas!
How do you keep track of everything as a high school science teacher?
I use an app called Things. I love Things because it’s easy to use and is functional on all my devices. I can easily see what is coming up, what is personal versus professional, and I can use keyboard shortcuts to make my to-do list creation and maintenance even faster (part of the reason I swear by SuperHuman as well). I’ve tried ClickUp, Todist, GoogleDocs, Google Tasks, Google Keep, TeuxDeux, Omnifocus, literal post-it notes and probably ten other to-do list apps and I keep coming back to Things.
This is my Inbox where to-dos get dumped throughout the day and then sorted later in the day when I’m processing email and other tasks.
These are my check-ins—my list of kids I need to talk to at the end of the day. If they don’t come, I move them to the next day’s check-in list.
How do you support your students with Togetherness?
I teach two sections of chemistry and two sections of forensic science. And with my ADHD brain and the ups and downs of post-COVID student attendance, everything would get scrambled when students would hand me a piece of late work. Enter: The Chemistry Late Work slip!
I teach seniors, and I really wanted to think about WHY the student didn’t turn in the work – and also have them think about it themselves. Was it that they didn’t understand the content OR did they forget to turn it in OR did they have a personal issue at home? My hope is that this cover slip helps create a basis for conversation AND helps me keep my own head on straight with late work. I made like 300 copies and I keep the copies, and a stapler, in a Late Work bin for my students. This is a new system this year, so I will report back on how it is going. (Editor’s Note: As the parental figure to two high-schoolers, I love this level of self reflection. A few of my own kids’ teachers do something similar with a Google form.)
How do you stay fed and fueled at school?
Previously I drove to my school, so it didn’t matter if my lunch and containers were heavy. But, we changed things up in my household, and now I take the train. So, I chose to make Mondays my “heavy day” and I lug in lunches for the entire week (usually some combination of chicken, green beans, and rice), my Diet Cokes and so on. I can then put it all in the school fridge and have lunches for the entire week – and only carry home the empty containers each evening. While some people may find that level of meal planning and preparation on the weekend to be a drag, I personally use the time to call friends and family, or listen to podcasts or music. It is relaxing to me – and I feed myself and husband (a school principal) for the week!
When do you complete planning and grading, aka the other big parts of your job besides teaching?
I’ve been blessed with the best preps this year – first period and last period! However, our school handles sub coverage in-house, so a few times a week I’m pulled to cover other classes. I used to take a lot of grading home and then it would just stare at me (Editor’s Note: yes!), so now I try to crank on grading after school when the students are gone.
AJ, thanks for giving us a peek into your teaching and home life! Readers, any other Together Teacher Tips out there to share with us?
Together Treasure Box 
- Make Togetherness work on a grand scale. We often see how individuals, schools, and smaller nonprofits use our Together Tools, but larger organizations might need to scale Togetherness to make it work for them.
- Sweep the calendar, scrub the calendar. As you look ahead, be sure that you’re examining your calendar in the months and weeks ahead to plan and shuffle as needed.
- School calendars can get complicated. To avoid confusion for staff, families, and community members, clear the clutter by developing both internal and public-facing calendars.
