What DO you do with your time?

Two weeks ago I was in our weekly Administrative Team Meeting at work with my boss, the Assistant Principal, the Math Coach, the Media Specialist, and the Technology Coach. And with that audience looking on, I had an interesting and quite unexpected interchange with my boss.

In my job, I am a Literacy Coach. This means that I do not have a classroom. My job is to go into teacher's classrooms and help them implement their Reading and/or Writing instruction. It is my job to be a resource to them when they are looking for materials or need help with a lesson. I also handle professional development and the textbook room at our school among other things.

Anyway, on this particular day I shared that one of the teams was asking that I devote all my time in January to them as they prepare for ONE small portion of our state test. The resource person who used to do that is no longer here and her job was "rolled" into mine. I stated that I simply cannot do that because there are almost 50 classrooms out there for me to support. Narrowing down to seven when over half of those will be testing in that first quarter doesn't seem to be a fair use of my time. I told my boss that there was no way I could commit to that much time with just one team. He said, "Why not?" Things escalated for both of us. Then he asked me the question that pierced my Literacy Coach heart, "What DO you do with your time?"

I was miffed. I work very hard. I am regularly here before and after my duty day working...and he knows it. Not only that I have to log in my hours bi-weekly and send them off to the state. One of my colleagues later told me that I should never play poker because my face and body language clearly spelled out exactly what I was thinking (and refraining from saying).

Before I go further, I should note that my boss and I have a wonderful working relationship. Sometimes I feel like I am working with a brother because we don't hesitate to push each other when we need to be pushed. We say what needs to be said. And occasionally we have these very frank "tug-o'-warish" verbal exchanges. There is a great deal of respect that goes both ways. It's a unique and special working relationship in my opinion.

But just like every good relationship, there are days like the one I described above where you just get cranky! Quite honestly, I stewed about it pretty much the rest of the day. I mean, HOW could he challenge me like that? WHY couldn't he see it the way I see it? And WHAT could I possibly do to get someone else to understand how I spend my time? HOW do you account for every minute of every day when much of it is putting out the unexpected fires that creep up? Still, we did not revisit the conversation. But the question has not stopped marinating in my heart and mind.

Three days later, he and I had a meeting with our local education channel. They are going to work with us to put a DVD together for parents. I had written scripts for five chapters of the DVD. I had arranged parents, conversations and filming schedules. When the TV reps left, my boss turned to me and said, "Wow...WHO decided we should do this? It's A LOT!" I smiled and said, "I'm pretty sure it was YOUR idea." He shut the door and said, "OK, I'm sorry for asking you what you do with your time." I thanked him for that.

First of all, I was thankful for his recognition that I am NOT sitting in an office eating bon bons all day. Oddly enough, however, I was strangely glad that he asked me the question to begin with...because it led to a great deal of reflection about my time and how it is spent. It brought the issue of my job performance, and how I can better serve those in my school, to a level of consciousness where it had not been for a while. I am quite content with how I do my job, BUT (and this is a big one) there is always room for improvement for every employee.

And as I really reflect on the whole situation, I KNOW this is something that has much deeper meaning than one exchange between a Literacy Coach and her Principal. I can almost hear others in my life asking, "How DO you spend your time?" And I can see places where I need to step it up and change priorities.

And then, the most difficult thing is picturing the ultimate Boss, God, saying, "How DO you spend your time?" And again, I see those areas where I fall seriously short and need to change.

And so, as painful as it may be, I'm sending the question out to you: How DO you spend your time?

I hope that, like me, you find areas where you are using it well as well as those places that are ready for a change.