108. It's Never Too Late to Automate Your Classroom for Back to School

[0:00] If you are in the throes of back-to-school, I'm here to tell you it is not too late to automate. Last year, I did a free boot camp called the Back-to-School Automation Boot Camp, and I've had several requests for another. Unfortunately, this year, I wasn't able to do it live, but I pulled up the archive of the recorded version. And so I've decided to make this boot camp one that you can participate at any time of the year. This episode is going to be the recording of day one of this boot camp. And because this was a live event, you're going to hear me repeat things that I see in the comments. We're going to talk about the number one thing to automate at the beginning of the school year. And I'm going to give you a plug and play free automation that will make this super easy to do. So you'll definitely want to listen in.

[0:45] However, if you want the video version and days two and three, along with the free resources that I talk about, you can head over to teachingmindbodyandsoul.com slash bootcamp catch up. Or you can grab the links down in the show notes. That way you can get a head start on automating your classroom and reducing overwhelm the school year.

[1:05] So let's not waste any time and let's get into it.

[2:52] Welcome to day one of the Back to School Automation Boot Camp. If we've not met before, my name is Brittany Blackwell. I am the host of the Resilient Teacher Podcast and the founder of Teaching Mind, Body, and Soul, where I am a teacher burnout and sustainability strategist, which is just a really fancy way of saying that I help overwhelm teachers and I'm passionate about empowering educators to prioritize their mental health. I help you develop personalized sustainability and burnout recovery plans because I don't believe in cookie cutter solutions to help you reduce stress and create your best life inside and outside of the classroom. So I see a couple of people on here. Say hey, if you're here so that I can see you, let me know where you're from.

[3:38] I do this through a digital approach, which includes automation, digital planning, vision planning, and then evidence-based strategies. So in this three-day boot camp, my goal is to help you recognize your power and the power of automating your classroom and share with you some free tools that can support you in making this your best year yet. So each day we're going to cover one specific area that I think is really important for beginning automation this school year and then providing you with one plug and play automation per day that you can set up to make this year a little easier on you. And so, again, if you're joining us here today, please drop in the comments. Let me know where you're joining us from. Let me know that you're here. And if you're catching the replay, just say replay in the comments. So Miranda's here. Gigi's here. We have New York in the building. We have Wisconsin. We have Charlotte, North Carolina, which is really close to me. I am in upstate South Carolina and Orlando, Florida. And I'm actually from Tampa, Florida. So that's cool. I like to see people that I have seen before. I recognize a couple of names, so it's really good to see you all here today. I do want to let you know that there will be replays. So.

[4:57] If you head over to teachingmindbodyandsoul.com slash bootcamp dash catch up, you'll be able to watch all of these replays over there as well. So let's kind of outline everything that we're going to cover in day one.

[5:13] Number one, we're going to talk about what is automation. I want to make sure everybody is familiar with that, like a brief little introduction. We're going to talk about the four types of automation that I like to focus on. the number one thing that you need to automate before school starts, and then a free automation tool that can help you support you in that as well. And in day two, we will focus on harnessing the power of artificial intelligence in automating your classroom. And then in day three, we'll talk about systemizing your automations to maximize your workflow. So I hope that you are really excited about this. We've got Virginia, we've got Massachusetts. I'm really excited about everybody that is going to be participating in this. One of the main things that I want to start and talk to you about is that automating is just one component of handling what we experience every year as teachers, and that's job creep. So each year, regardless of what you teach, the scope of our job increases every year. And so we're expected to take on more responsibility, ability, more tasks. And we're not really compensated for that increase in expectation.

[6:24] Which leads us to feeling a little like, is this even worth it? Like, drop in the comments if you can relate to this. One person I watched on TikTok said, it's like a death by a million tiny cuts. And I don't believe that we should be given more and more to do when our jobs are to teach students and make those connections with them. So I.

[6:44] We want to see our students grow. We want to see them progress in our classrooms. But the fact of the matter is that the majority of us want to do our best. And I believe that automation is just one way that we can combat this and then have something taking care of those tasks in the background, freeing up our time, our energy to truly focus on what matters, our students and their learning experiences, right? So this automation really allows the reward center in our brains to light up. When we're experiencing those more positive neurochemicals that allow us to enjoy our jobs, right? When we can't get those hundreds of tasks done each day, we feel discouraged. And then those chemicals like cortisol and adrenaline, they kick in activating our stress response. So automation really just combats this overwhelm and then reduces that negative and compounding effect of stress. Miranda says, I teach special ed and more comes in every single day. And just so that you know, I am a special educator at heart. So I know the amount that we are expected to do. But I've also been a general education teacher. And I I know that over time I've seen more and more added to our plates and it really is. It's.

[8:10] This is just one way that we can combat that. Throughout this boot camp, we're going to explore how automation can kind of lift some of that burden off of your shoulders, giving you that space to really thrive as an educator without being overwhelmed. So let's dive in. Let's talk about what automation is really quickly if you've never heard that term. So automation is exactly what it sounds like. It's setting up things to be done automatically. It's where you're going to use technology or tools, and I'm specific when I say that because it's not all technology, to simplify and streamline routine tasks and processes. And it allows you to focus on those more important tasks like student growth, teaching, actually engaging with your students, and having time for yourself instead of all those other things that that gets put on our plates. Think of it like this, okay?

[9:07] Automation in education is like having a personal chef for teachers because it's going to prepare those basic ingredients. It's going to handle the cooking. And then it's leaving you free to add your own unique flavor and your own creativity to your final dish. It's like having a personal, techie teacher assistant to really do those tasks for you so that you can get those important things done. And somebody said, all for For reducing cortisol. Right. That's what we need as educators. So there are four types of automation tools that I like to look at. Number one is plug and play. So these automations are just those easy to use tools that require minimal setup. So these are often those websites, those applications that perform a very specific task, right? Then we talk about Google Automation.

[10:04] So this is basically utilizing your Google Workspace tools to streamline those tasks or those tasks are being completed together and they're working more efficiently. Now, I say Google because that's what I'm familiar with, but I also have been working through doing some Microsoft things as well, and they work very similarly. So if you use Microsoft, you can kind of interchange that with Google. But basically, those tools are working together to be able to work more efficiently. The third thing that I like to talk about is project management systems.

[10:39] So project management tools are like Asana, Airtable. Airtable is my favorite. Trello.

[10:46] Programs like that, that use a variety of different parts of the system to work in conjunction with things like Google Workspace. And it adds just another layer of organization to it. And so these kind of sound a little bit more advanced, and they are.

[11:03] I like to start with plug and play, and that's the majority of what we're going to be talking about in this boot camp. And then the last one is just advanced automations. These are pretty complex, but they're integrations for multi-step processes. And the ones that I look at don't include coding, because let's be real. Like I am not a computer teacher. I am not a coder. I'm a special educator. And so the types of automations that I look at work together to connect different applications together to work seamlessly. So you're not popping into different tabs or different applications. And they really allow for this robust and cohesive system. So those are the four types. But in this boot camp, I'm going to be focusing on those plug and play automations each day so that you don't have to have a whole lot of tech knowledge. And moving into using automation, on day three, I will be focusing on why having a system that works together is going to be the most efficient option. But the goal of this is to be as simple and as easy for you to implement immediately and can get a handle on that concept before I let you lose, okay?

[12:17] So quick little poll here. I want you to drop it in the comments. What is the one thing that we focus on with our students at the beginning of the school year? What's the one thing that we're teaching our students from day one and we review it over and over throughout the school year? Drop it in the chat.

[12:34] Routines. Routines. I got somebody saying routines, classroom expectations, procedures. Exactly. So if you said procedures or if you said routines, you'd be right. And that's typically the number one thing that we need to focus on with our students to ensure that our classroom runs smoothly, that it has, and it's a major component of classroom management. But here is an eye-opener.

[13:01] Procedures are not just for our students. We as teachers, we have to prioritize them for our classroom management as well for us. So streamlining and automating these procedures is really essential for a successful back-to-school season.

[13:17] So the one way that we can do this is through what in the business world is called standard operating procedures. So if you were part of the Summer Self-Care Conference, you may have heard that term used by Samantha Holcomb. But any factory, any company, they have this in place for their workers. So SOPs are essentially a well-defined group of steps or guidelines, just like the procedures that we establish for our students. So why do we need these SOPs? Well, imagine if every day we reinvented the wheel.

[13:53] And drop it in the chat if you have been that teacher who has reinvented the wheel over and over and over again. I know that I have experienced that and trying to do that is spending that valuable time on these repetitive tasks that could be easily managed with a clear set of procedures. teachers. So SOPs help us save time, they reduce our stress, and then they create a more productive space for everybody in the classroom. And what I see most commonly in the classroom is that teachers have a lot going on inside their head, right? A lot of mental to-dos. And so what happens is our brain is overloaded. So drop an overloaded emoji in the comments if you've experienced this. But this cognitive burden not only adds stress, but it's hindering our ability to make decisions in our classroom effectively, and then truly focus on what matters. Again, our students' growth, their learning experiences.

[15:00] Miranda says, No, I can't stand the anxiety of that. But when new kids come in, sometimes it happens. Yeah. Somebody said, I feel like I'm constantly working on them though. Yeah. Yeah. So what SOPs can do is the standard operating procedures, they're, basically coming to the rescue. So what you want to do is you want to be able to document and implement these SOPs so that we create a clear roadmap for ourselves or other people who might need to complete a task. So it's removing that mental clutter and allowing us to focus on teaching and connecting with our students. So SOPs can cover various aspects of our teaching practice from lesson planning to grading to communication to classroom organization. And if this sounds overwhelming, I'm going to give you something that's going to make it super easy. So don't stress.

[15:56] These can be used with our students too. We can use SOPs through pictures or screenshots. Pictures specifically are helpful for people like if they've never done something before or, you know, for our students who maybe aren't readers yet. So if you've ever created something to show students where to go for various things, maybe it's on your LMS, say you have Google Classroom, you want to show students where to find things, and you've screenshot that to kind of lay it out, that's one SOP that you maybe already created in the past. If you work with younger students, maybe you had guidelines to show them, you know, what to do once they finish using the restroom. Maybe they wash their hands. Maybe they get a paper towel. Maybe you have little graphics for that. In the special education world, I think of SOPs as like those, those schedules, those visual schedules for students. Those are SOPs for our students. But SOPs are basically used in businesses to be able to hand that off to a worker, and then that worker can jump right in to following the procedure and then taking on the job without a lot of explanation as to how. Which means these These things that these SOPs are going to come in handy when you need to hand something off to someone to do, or you have something to reference.

[17:18] To when you need to do a task that maybe you don't complete very often. And so the reason why I incorporated this idea into day one of this boot camp is to really help you to recognize that some of the work that you're doing, it can be delegated to other people. You don't have to be responsible for every little task, even if it's on your plate. So removing these things from your plate is a very important piece of avoiding and recovering from burnout. And I want you to feel empowered to do this. So by creating an SOP for some of these tasks that you do frequently or even infrequently, that's going to release some of that mental burden and then allow you to focus and function in your optimal brain space where you're using your brain for those more important or valuable tasks in your classroom.

[18:10] So there's 10 basic reasons why we need these SOPs. And Aranda said, yes, morning meeting can be ran by a para or a capable student. Exactly. Self-running classroom is what we want to accomplish. And so when we automate our classroom, that's what we're trying to accomplish. And so there's these steps that we have to take in order to be able to do that. So the 10 reasons why we need SOPs. Number one, task standardization. SOPs are defining these clear standardized steps for various classroom activities. Those morning routines, distributing materials, handling classroom disruptions. By making these SOPs, teachers are going to start to ensure that each task is executed consistently. It's going to reduce the confusion. It's going to save you time in the long run. Number two is for time management. So it's helping you prioritize your time effectively because you're automating those repetitive tasks through SOPs. And then you can focus on more lesson planning, personalized student interactions, professional development, if that's what you want to do. Ultimately, really improving your effectiveness.

[19:24] Number three, it's efficient and it helps you be more productive. So with SOPs in place, you're going to eliminate that redundancy, that inefficiency in those routines. And this is going to lead you to a more productive classroom environment, which is going to let you cover more material and engage students in meaningful learning experiences, right? The other one that I was talking about before is that delegation and substitution. All right. When you have a substitute in your class, you're going to need to be able to give them directions. So SOPs are allowing for that easier delegation of tasks to your teacher assistants, to substitute teachers. So when you have those clear procedures, you're going to be able to confidently entrust others to perform those specific tasks when it's needed, maintaining that consistency even when you're not there. It's going to give your students some independence. SOPs can empower even young students to take ownership of their learning. When you have these clear procedures for classroom organization.

[20:32] Assignment, submission, your students are going to be able to independently follow those guidelines, regardless of their age, which is going to give them that self-reliance and that responsibility because, again, we're wanting that self-run classroom, a classroom that's running itself self where you're able to do these things. It's going to help you with your classroom management because you're going to have these, you know, defined procedures for behavior expectations, responses to those situations. And that consistency is going to have that structured, positive learning environment. So it's going to be secure, and the engagement for your students is going to feel a little bit better.

[21:11] You can do this for communication streamlining. So So maybe you have automated communication processes with parents, with students, with colleagues. And if you have those SOPs for maybe even sending progress reports, newsletters, meeting invitations, this is going to ensure that important information is regularly shared without requiring that extra effort each individual time. The other thing that I like to bring up when I talk about SOPs is professional collaboration, because SOPs can be shared among teachers, really facilitating that collaboration and community and knowledge sharing. And so when you can adopt similar SOPs to your neighbor down the hallway, it's going to foster that consistency across the classrooms and then allow for that collective problem solving. and then.

[22:04] The last thing I'll say about this before we move on is SOPs are not rigid. They can be updated. They can be improved over time based on what you need as a teacher and what your students need. So this adaptability really ensures that your classroom procedures remain relevant, remain effective.

[22:24] You can accommodate changes in curriculum, technology, teaching methodologies. And automation through SOPs is a really powerful tool that empowers you to focus on what matters the most. So this is what I want you to be able to do with an SOP. I want you to be able to create an SOP for those procedures, those routines that you need initially at the beginning of the school year. So these might be where your students can find things in your classroom, specific tasks that are needed every year at the beginning of the school, those types of things. And these also might be what you want to hand off one day. Okay? I think a lot of teachers struggle with handing things off, especially to parents. Like, you have parent volunteers, or even trying to get those, and even handing them off to their students, because they're They're afraid that those people won't do it with the ability or the preciseness that they can do it if they did it on their own. And I want to share with you and help you with this mindset because automation is just one key component.

[23:39] Delegation is a huge component of having a self-run classroom. And I know that some of you are a little bit overwhelmed with creating these. So I want to provide you with a way to keep up with all of this, okay? Miranda said, perfectionism gets the best of me with delegating. I completely understand that. I get that 112%. And so what I want to do is I'm going to share this on the screen now.

[24:05] I have created an editable SOP list, okay? This is just one component. This is not the automation part. So don't let me lose you now. You can write this down or it's going to be in the replay. But teachingmindbodyandsoul.com slash SOPs, it's going to take you to a Google Doc. In that Google Doc, there are a list of classroom procedures that I have taken from various sources, and I put them into this document that you can make a copy of. You can edit it for your own class to make the organization of these SOPs really simple and really easy. Again, this is just a starting point for you. You can adapt it. You can edit it to make this unique for your individual classroom. Obviously, the things that I did, there's some of those in there. There's some from other teachers in there. But this is just kind of giving you that starting point that maybe you need, okay?

[25:02] So this is one part of this. Somebody said nice. Okay. So there's that. The other thing that I want to share with you is how you can automate, not automate some of these tasks within your SOPs, but you can also automate the creation of these SOPs specifically for those things that you do on your desktop. Maybe what your students will do on their computer. And so the tool that I want to share with you today is completely free up to a point.

[25:36] And I'm going to share that with you. Don't do this yet. Listen to what I have to say. But it's called Tango.us. It's right there for you to see in the link. And a Tango starter account is free forever. And you'll be able to store up to 25 workflows and even set up a basic shared workspace with your team. So you can share those things with your co-teachers or your team members. So let me show you how it works. I'm going to share my screen really quickly. So this is Tango.us and an overview of what this is. It's a software and it's going to capture your screenshots for you and create that guide or those how-to steps for you. So once you download this extension, you're going to click up here at the top of your toolbar to use it to start a capture. OK, so I don't know if you guys can see my I don't know if you can see where I've got the toolbar up here. But this is the website and there's two different parts to it, so you can create those lists of procedures, but then it also has the guides. So let me back out of this and stop sharing my screen and then share it again so that you can see the full window. And it's going to show you my screen really quick what it looks like.

[26:56] So what you'll do is you'll install the free extension, okay? This is what it looks like here. To start a capture, all you have to do is click this button here. So what it's going to do is it's going to go over to the side here. And let me make sure that you guys can see it. I don't think you can.

[27:15] There is a window that pops out to the side. So each step that I take, so say I want to go to product. I click on product. I go to customers. And then maybe I hit Login. Okay. Now what this is going to look like is it's going to create this list for me.

[27:42] So instead of me having to create these screenshots and write out all the steps, it's doing it for me. And what you can do is you can edit that. So right here, I'm in the Edit mode. I can change any of this information. Go to the product, link. Maybe I say link.

[28:02] Another part that's really important to share with you is you can edit the screenshot. So say you have some personally identifiable information inside of the screenshot, you can use the blur feature here to blur things out.

[28:17] And so you will be be able to share that information with, say, your coworkers or a parent or whoever you might be talking to. You can head over to, there's some other features here. Maybe you want to remove the screenshot. Maybe you don't really need customers. You want to show the login. You can also, in beta mode here, it has some AI features that you can generate an FAQ. So you could click that down here. What should I do after clicking on the product link? It's going to give that for you. This is super helpful for your students, but also for sharing this information or for even documenting what you need to do at specific times of the year. I can remember when I was teaching, I would forget how to complete the report cards every year. We had to finalize our report cards. I can never remember it. Tango is one way that you can really automate the creation of that SOP so that you could hand it off or you could use it for yourself. The other feature that I want to show you, and I don't get any kickback for this. I should have shared that before. I don't have an affiliate link. This is completely like just something that I use and I think can be helpful with creating those standard operating procedures, is you can use the Guide Me. So you can't see it over to the side, and I wish that you guys could. And I may share it really quickly.

[29:42] Let me see if I can do this. Stop screen. I'm going to share it, just my whole screen, and maybe that will allow you to see over to the side what's happening. All right.

[29:56] So over to the side, I can hit the Guide Me button, and it'll pull it up over on the side. This is really helpful for your students. It has the actual link over here, and it's going to guide me through what I need to do for each part of that standard operating procedure that I have. Okay, it's telling me what to do and showing me the highlights on what I need to complete with that. So this is just one way that you can do this. It is a free extension. It's for Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome. Chrome, I use Chrome, obviously, but all you have to do is create your account and it's free forever up to 25 workflows. So really cool option to being able to use your SOPs, create those SOPs. Hopefully those two different documents are going to be. So Tango is what I said was a plug and play automation. It's automatically creating that, but that's all that one feature or one application can do. It can only create those SOPs. It can only create those how-to guides for your students or for yourself. So just want to.

[31:16] Like I said, creating those SOPs and especially using a tool like Tango to automate this procedure and this task can really free up a lot of the time in the beginning of our school year, not to mention just having something to reference, you know, with your students or your coworkers or even yourself. So you're not wasting all of that brainpower, which is just adding to the stress and decision fatigue and all that not so fun stuff that really leads to teacher burnout. out. So what we want to see happen is that self-running classroom where we can focus on the reason that we became teachers.

[31:50] Another way that I will tell you to use Tango is to create any of those LMS things where to find specific things within your class online, maybe even logging into Kahoot or one of those other types of automated gamified systems. Those are going to really help you moving forward. But using that SOP list and then using the Tango app, that's kind of what we're working with today. Tomorrow, we're going to be diving into some artificial intelligence and mapping out what that looks like to harness the power of AI within our automations. Again, this is a very interactive experience. So just listening or just watching these videos, that's not going to do much good. What is really going to do a lot for you and support you is you actually taking that action to begin the automation process. So to complete day one's challenge in this bootcamp, you to review some of those SOPs that I compiled inside of the document. You are more than welcome to just use those or adjust them as you need, but create a common SOP using that Tango extension. You can catch the replays of the bootcamp anytime that you're not able to make it in the hub, if that's more convenient. It's teachingmindbodyandsoul.com slash bootcampcatchup.

[33:16] And you can do that there. Again, I hope you guys enjoyed day one and I cannot wait to see what all you guys do. Thank you guys for joining me today. I'll see you tomorrow.