The Minimalist Educator Podcast
The Minimalist Educator Podcast
Episode 040: The Power of Buffer Time with Tammy and Christine
Ever wondered why your meticulously planned day goes awry the moment an unexpected event occurs? Join us on the Minimalist Educator Podcast as we delve into the art of creating buffers in educational settings. In this episode, Tammy Musialski-Bornemann and Christine Arnold, co-authors of the Minimalist Teacher Book, share how building extra time into your schedule can transform your teaching experience. Drawing inspiration from Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers podcast, we discuss practical strategies to avoid the pitfalls of rigid planning and manage inevitable interruptions. From allowing extra time at the end of a unit to handling commuting delays, discover how realistic scheduling can alleviate frustration and enhance productivity.
But that's not all—buffer time isn't just about handling unexpected events; it's about preserving your mental well-being. Reflecting on personal experiences, we emphasize the importance of rest and reset moments to stave off burnout. Listen as we explore techniques like blocking more time than estimated for tasks and distinguishing between "must-haves" and "amazings" in lesson planning. Learn how focusing on key learning points can help meet essential objectives while leaving room for exceeding targets. Tune in to uncover how a structured yet flexible approach can lead to positive educational outcomes and a more balanced life.
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The Minimalist Educator Podcast is a Plan Z Professional Learning Services adventure.
Welcome to the Minimalist Educator Podcast, a podcast about paring down to refocus on the purpose and priorities in our roles with co-hosts and co-authors of the Minimalist Teacher Book, Tammy Musialski-Bornemann and Christine Arnold.
Speaker 2:On this week's episode we talk about buffers. What are they, how can we create them and why are they important to us in our work in education?
Speaker 3:Welcome to today's episode of the Minimalist Educator Podcast. Today, christine and I are going to be talking about creating buffers. Hey Christine, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm great, Tammy. How are you?
Speaker 3:I'm all right, I'm making it through. That's awesome. That's all we making it through.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. That's all we can ask for. That's all we can ask for. So, first of all, tammy, why don't you start us off? What do we mean when we say creating buffers? What is it all about?
Speaker 3:Well, a buffer is a chunk of time and it depends on what you're using it for.
Speaker 3:Chunk of time and it depends on what you're using it for.
Speaker 3:So it would be a bit of time where you set aside to deal with something that might come up unexpectedly or to give yourself a bit of padding. So, for example, if you have something going on where it's an expected event, right. So let's say, in the teaching context, you would be planning a unit and you have six weeks, right, and so we pace out our content, and the buffer would be having a bit of time at the end of that unit to make sure that you have enough time to cover what you need to. So you've planned in some extra days or blocks of time where you can make sure that you can reteach anything or revisit any skills, just to make sure that your students have learned what you need them to learn, because we know that we need that repetition of content sometimes more than others, and if we have some buffer time to do that, then we feel a little less stress at the end of a unit.
Speaker 3:Sometimes we need a buffer for during an unexpected event. So it might be like if you're driving to school or something and there's a car accident. You know those are things that we aren't expecting to happen, but you usually leave a little early so that in case something does happen. But that's generally what a buffer is, is a kind of a time padding for us, so that if we need that extra time, we've got it built into our schedule.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And it reminds me of an episode of the Truth for Teachers podcast with Angela Watson and she was talking about in that podcast episode. We'll put the link in the show notes for everybody if you want to tune in and see all of the good things she has to say there. She was talking about how, you know, teachers will look at our day and we'll say, you know, we have this many periods of this many minutes each and we will plan our lessons and our teaching and learning to fill that entire schedule. So we will go back to back. You know this should take about 45 minutes with a wrap up at the end. That's a period of work.
Speaker 2:But she was pointing out about how often do we actually have access to all of those minutes in our day? So often we are, you know, interrupted with things, or kids come back late from lunchtime, there's an announcement that comes over, or you know just all the different interruptions that we experience in the day. So when we do schedule out our day minute to, you know, minute to minute, pack it all in we're almost planning for frustration in our day. We're planning to get overwhelmed and stressed and frustrated because we don't give ourselves any of these time buffers to absorb some of those unforeseen things that come up. So I really loved what she said in that in that podcast episode.
Speaker 3:I think it kind of sort of goes against our grain, though, as teachers, because we're like over planners usually right, so we want to have make sure all the time's filled, because like oh, what if I like run out of things to do? But we know that we don't. There's always something to be done, and so I think we it comes from that mindset of like oh, over plan, so that you have so much, but then we don't need to cram it in, like be realistic about the content to be covered in 45 minutes or whatever. I feel like I got better with that over time while teaching, where I was just kind of like realistic with, like this is how long it takes us to come up from lunch, this is how long it takes them to get their things out, and then I would plan.
Speaker 3:You know, the teaching time planned is definitely shorter, but then I'm not annoyed at myself or the students because we haven't gotten everything done, but it just wasn't a realistic expectation. And I think that is where a lot of our frustration comes in, you know, because we do have this high expectation and we're in a rush all the time and we're just trying to cram it in, and that's really frustrating when we can't get everything in. So knowing that you've got a little bit of buffer time for like taking a little bit, like you know, if you pick up your kids from lunch and you stop at the water fountain or someone stops at the bathroom, then you're not so frustrated and annoyed that you haven't started on time because you have planned in the buffer, which is such a great idea.
Speaker 2:Exactly. I'm wondering about a potential obstacle that could come up here as you were talking now. Luckily, I've never worked in a school like this, but I know that they exist where you have to submit your lesson plans. Could be for the week, it could be for the term semester, I'm not. I'm not sure. I have heard year-long plans. I that that scares me, that you'd have to submit that in advance. It doesn't make sense, but could that be a potential obstacle? If you have to submit your week to a higher up and you have on your plan buffer time, do you think that could cause people issues? Would they have to explain it? Would they have to have a conversation? Would it be rejected? What do you think are the possible consequences of doing that?
Speaker 3:I think it depends on the administrators honestly right and like how strict people are, because I've been in the circumstance where our our schedule was super tight. So it was like I remember this one day we were supposed to start teaching writing, I think, at like 930. But we were still doing reading stuff Because, you know, my co teacher and I thought of things as like a block of time, right like literacy block, and we didn't always like adhere to those very tight times.
Speaker 3:But I remember the administrator at the time came in and was, like pointed to the board like you should be doing writing now it's 9.30. I'm like, yeah, but you know, like this is where we're at right now and we need to extend the reading time and you know we'll make up the writing in another way. It's not like we were not gonna do it, it's just that we needed that extra time.
Speaker 3:We have some buffer time planted, but we were trying to pack everything in. So I think it depends on, like, if you are submitting your plans, you might need to have like a little note written in there like buffer time is this and this is why we have it. But as professionals, I feel like you just shouldn't have to explain why you would have buffer time, because to me it seems logical right.
Speaker 3:Like things happen. So I want to make sure that there's this little padding of time just in case something. And if that thing doesn't happen, if we get back to class sooner or everybody's back sooner from PE or whatever, then we just start sooner and have a little more time. So yeah, I think it's. I think it might be context specific, but I would really hope that people wouldn't have to explain why they have it.
Speaker 2:I would hope so too, but just thought of that potential barrier there. Maybe we can go through some strategies for people to give them some places to start with creating these buffers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think a good place to start is to look at what you start with each day, right? So, like when you're looking at what your daily plan is, where you know that you're going to run into times where you're like okay, I do need to have just a little couple minutes on either side of this just to make sure we're all ready in the learning space and ready to go and then build out from that, like I had mentioned before, like the unit planners, where I remember, when we were unit planning in Singapore, just remembering to have like in Singapore, just remembering to have, like those days at the end where you're like okay, yes, like, ideally we will have covered all of this stuff in this time, but we know that's just not going to happen. We're going to have days where things come up or we need to reteach or revisit an activity or something, and so I always found that, though I used those buffer days because I needed to elongate some of the things that we were doing in units.
Speaker 3:but it just created such a sense of relief because I knew I had the time.
Speaker 2:So those I think those are two important places to start would be like daily and then look at your unit planning from a teaching perspective, obviously, for sure the one that I have been using for the last couple of years, which people are probably familiar with, but it's always good to remind people what strategies they have. So at the end of the week, on Friday afternoon, we always have ketchup and pickles time. Sometimes it's mustard ketchup and pickles time. So if you're new to that time, the ketchup is ketchup work, the mustard is you must do this, and then pickles is a free choice activity. So it's really helpful.
Speaker 2:Obviously, it's nice to have a little bit more of a relaxed Friday afternoon, but that's not why we're doing these buffers. That's not the sole reason why we're doing it, but it is really nice as a self-management thing for the kids to know I have a little bit of leeway here. I have that ketchup and pickles time on Friday. If I need to finish off some work, I have got that time there Friday. If I need to finish off some work, I have got that time there. But if I work, if I really focus and I stay on task and I get what I need to get done, I have some choice time at the end of the week. So it's really.
Speaker 2:I think it's really supporting kids to develop some self-management skills as well having that Friday afternoon ketchup and pickles time, but it does mean that you don't always you know if someone's absent for a day or if someone has to go out for a rehearsal or an extra session and they've missed a particular thing. You don't feel like you're constantly on the back foot trying to catch up because you know you have that Friday afternoon session. So that that's one strategy that I'm I've been using the last couple of years and the kids really enjoy it. They ask for it every week. They would they would get very upset if I took it away for some reason.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think another strategy that we can use is, like you said, it's skill, like self-management, right? So it's skill development is to talk about the purpose of why we have buffers, not just like so we remember the importance of like reducing our stress, but talking about that with your students too, right? So, yeah, your kids look forward to that time because they knew they had the time to like catch up or pick their choice. But it also is like it really is important to talk about why we do these things, because these are transferable life skills and so when we plan in, when we teach them to plan in the buffers at school, then maybe they do that at home with their busy after school lives, right? So because we know that they're on sports teams or, you know, have clubs and things like that, and so they know that they're busy after school lives, right? So because we know that they're on sports teams or, you know, have clubs and things like that, and so they know that they're going to need this amount of time to like, leave school and get home and have their snack and pack, or, you know, there's just all of those routines that get created and sometimes that is like it's built in buffer time.
Speaker 3:There is built in buffer time time, but they're not realizing that's what it is. So sometimes when we name the skill, we're more cognizant of it, and so it's something that then you can use in multiple situations. And we do have to make sure we're teaching those skills, helping students realize that they are life skills, because they're going to need them in every grade and the adults in their lives aren't always going to be there to help them. Remember this, because you know they just won't. And even as adults like we need to remind ourselves is this a realistic expectation for myself, for me to cram all of this in this amount of time? For sure that Even if I like it's, it's, you know, theoretically seems fine because I can go to bed at the normal time and I just get back in the routine, but the last couple of times like, no, I'm not doing that, I need to have a buffer day in between.
Speaker 3:I can catch up on the things and then I'll go the next day or even in the afternoon is fine, like just giving myself the morning to like look at the mail and check emails and you know, do those things and then go to the school. Or just like I was sharing with you how I might need to change a flight because of weather. Like you need some buffer time sometimes when you have life plans, whether you're driving or flying or taking a train or whatever because things like weather happens or accidents happen, and if you need to get somewhere at a certain time, you got to have that buffer time. And those are skills that we need to build. They really are. I think that, yeah, sometimes we think that you know we should just keep going and not. We think that you know we should just keep going and not what? What's this empty?
Speaker 2:block of time, for it's your buffer time Exactly. It reminds me a little bit this is really not to do with education, but still it reminds me of when I was a younger teacher and I book a flight out the last day of term, like the Friday night after school finishes or the Saturday morning, and then after a year or two, I was like no, you actually need a moment to like sleep and pack before you head off on a on a trip. So, yeah, a little buffer there between wrapping up school and then going somewhere. That is also a very helpful buffer.
Speaker 2:Another helpful buffer and we've talked about this before on the podcast is that buffer between work and home and whether that is like an active buffer of you know going doing something active before you go home and settle into real life, or if it's just you know five, ten minutes sitting in the car we have talked a bit about this before of just bringing yourself back and you know compartmentalizing your day at school before you go home yeah, yeah, and I know that people process in different ways too, right, so it's like some people don't need that buffer or that downtime they just want to keep going and then like, have it at the end of the day, but you got to do what works for you.
Speaker 3:But we do have to realize that we need to have some of those times built in for those things that just come up, and also to just know that we have to, like, be mentally sound. Yeah Right, absolutely. Because when our brain just keeps going and it's engaged like that all the time, we burn ourselves out. We sure do oh dear yeah, so schedule in those buffers it needs to be scheduled.
Speaker 2:You have to plan for it, otherwise you'll just keep moving and you won't do it. So yeah, absolutely that's right. Yeah, you have a pare down pointer. That's exactly what I was going to ask you. Do you have a pare down pointer today?
Speaker 3:well, yes, I think that just kind of sticking to what I was saying is just being realistic and looking at whether it's your teaching day or your personal day, just seeing where those moments are, where you're like, okay, because we know that when we think we're going to do something in a certain amount of time, it actually takes three times longer. So it's just important to like, if you're going to block something out on your calendar to do for an hour, you should block three hours, because then you have built in, you have built in buffer into that. And it's like, honestly, I was trying to do this task for the school the other day and I'm like, yeah, it'll probably take me like I don't know half a day. It literally took me like the entire day, starting from morning through evening.
Speaker 3:So, like I don't know what I was thinking, thinking it was going to be like three or four hours. Oh wow, because it was three times that long. So you know, but at least that day I didn't really like I just plan to work on that anyway, so it was kind of automatically booked in. But just be realistic with, like, how long things are going to take and just make sure that you're you're giving yourself a realistic amount of time, whether it's in your teaching day or your personal day. How about for you?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm thinking about the, you know that strategy that teaches you sometimes the must havesaves and the amazings. And I'm wondering if we could like leverage this with buffers. So in my lesson plan I must have x, y and z, but then, if I have the time still, these are the amazings. So that way you don't feel that pressure of doing the entire thing and I have to do all of these follow-up questions for independent practice or they have to complete x amount on their project before we move on. But we've got those certain must-haves, the key learning points that you want to achieve. I wonder if that would be a good strategy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think so, because then you're meeting your expectation and then, if you go beyond that, you're like, yes, look at us go.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly, okay, tammy. Thank you so much for chatting with us today about creating buffers. That was another lovely conversation.
Speaker 3:Thanks, Christine.
Speaker 2:Today's episode was brought to you by Plan Z Professional Learning Services forward-thinking educator support. Find out more at planzplservicescom.
Speaker 1:Be sure to join Tammy and Christine and guests for more episodes of the Minimalist Educator Podcast. They would love to hear about your journey with minimalism. Connect with them at PlanZPLS on Twitter or Instagram. The music for the podcast has been written and performed by Gaia Moretti.
