Overview For Teachers

ORGANIZATION: The ability to manage both one’s self and one’s own time and the time of others; use resources effectively; plan and prioritize work and personal life to meet goals and deadlines; the ability to overcome procrastination.

​

PURPOSE: Upon completion of this module, the student will understand the importance of being organized in the classroom as well as the workplace. In addition, the objectives listed below should be met.

​

OBJECTIVES:

 Ability to recognize the importance of being organized

 Ability to realize how being organized affects all aspects of their life

 Ability to demonstrate organization at school, at home, and at work

​

OVERVIEW:

This module focuses on teaching students the importance of being organized and having good organizational skills. Students will come to realize how organization can affect their success in the future at school and at work . In addition, students will have an opportunity to gain an understanding of the importance of effectively managing time and resources by participating in various activities designed to stimulate thought and discussion.

​

TEACHERS: WHAT ARE YOU OBSERVING?

What does organization look like in the classroom or in school in general? A great way to answer this and get things going is through engagement with the students. Ask your students these questions:

1. What does organization look like in class?

2. How does your organization affect other students? Example: Homework, group projects, sports, etc.

3. What does being organized look like within your learning?

​

RELEVANCY OF ORGANIZATION:

Employers have stated that organization, including the ability to plan and prioritize work, is vital to the success of an individual. Good organizational skills are also important outside of the workplace in order to meet goals and deadlines.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

LESSON:

Prioritizing Your Life
Time Allocation: 20  minutes
Materials/Resources: pens/ pencils, paper , whiteboard, markers, sticky notes

 

WATCH THE VIDEO:

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

ANTICIPATORY SET IDEA:

 Read the following quote to the class:

     o “If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.” –Greg McKeown

 Give students a few minutes to think about the quote and then share their thoughts.

 What does this mean?

 Who would be the one to prioritize your life for you?

 How can you prevent this from happening?

DIRECT INSTRUCTION:

 Ask students the following questions and ask them to raise their hand in response to the questions:

     o How many of you have a passion in life?

     o How many of you have multiple hobbies?

     o How many of you are usually traveling on the weekend maybe for fun or with a sports team?

     o Who struggles to find time to complete all the homework you have?

     o Who has goals that they want t o start working towards but can’t find any spare time?

 Teenagers these days have some really busy schedules – and most of them don’t know how to prioritize between what needs to get done and what can wait.

 Prioritizing is not only important now, but will continue to become more important as you get older, go to college, and start your career. Use this article to help students prioritize. 

GUIDED ACTIVITY:

 Have students write down the following questions and their personal answers.

     o What are my obligations?

 What do you NEED to do and when do you need to do it? Homework, extracurricular activities, chores, family obligations, etc.

     o What are my goals?

 What will your future look like in five or ten years? What will you have accomplished by then? What do you want to do after that to build on those accomplishments?

     o What are my priorities?

 List and number your priorities from most important to least important. Think short term and long term!

     o What can I eliminate from my life?

 How are you spending your free time?

     o What do I need to do to pursue my passion?

 Where do you need to go? What do you need to do? What support do you need?

 Give students time to answer these questions and really reflect on how they are currently living their day -to -day life.

 When finished, give students a sticky note and have them write their passion and their goals associated with that passion on the sticky note. Then tell them to put this sticky note in a place where they will see it every day as a constant reminder of what they are working towards and what they want to accomplish.

CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING:

 Technology Use: Create a survey on Survey Monkey to send to students.

 Non-Technology: Students will pair up with another student to share their thoughts on the lesson. Then, they will report out to the class during the discussion one thing they learned from their partner about the lesson.

​

ETHICAL SCENARIO--Optional (if not using, skip  to "review and closing")

The Ethical Choice Scenarios have been developed to provide teachers with the ability to make the material applicable to real-life and relevant to the students. Within this guide, directions and prompts for the teacher will be in BLUE for ease of facilitation.

 

READ THE FOLLOWING SCENARIO OUT LOUD TO THE STUDENTS: 

THAT CAN WAIT

You know that being organized is important, especially now that you finally convinced your parents you could handle school, sports, and a job. You certainly don’t want to drop the ball. So far, you have been doing pretty well and you think you are on track with all of your obligations . You also know that you have a big game in the morning (Saturday) and your friends want to go out to the movies tonight (which you already said you would) . You have to work tomorrow night until 10:00PM and all day Sunday, since you promised your boss you would be there. Keeping all of these commitments though puts you in a place to procrastinate on a large homework assignment that is due on Monday . However, you know that you can work on it Sunday evening, right? That can wait…

ASK THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: (display them to the class if necessary)

1. How many of you have already been faced with this scenario in real life?

2. Think about what your actual options are here. What could you do?

3. What are possible positive or negative consequences for you, depending on your decision?

GUIDED DISCUSSION: ASK STUDENTS TO SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS ON THE SITUATION AND HOW THEY
ANSWERED THE QUESTIONS.

NOTE 1 : To help facilitate discussion, share any personal experiences you may have encountered with this same sort of issue.

NOTE 2 : Another option to foster further critical thinking is to then ask students , “ Have you ever waited on something like this before and ended up not finding the time and not completing the task ?” What happened?

NOTE 3 : Another option to foster further critical thinking is to then ask students, “ What values do you think are in tension here, why is it an ethical dilemma?”

CLOSING DISCUSSION: ASK THE STUDENTS, “ WHICH ACTIVITY IN THIS SCENARIO IS THE ONE THAT IS MOST FLEXIBLE ALLOWING YOU TO STAY ORGANIZED AND NOT PROCRASTINATE ?”

REVIEW AND CLOSING:

 Ask students the following questions:

     o Why is it important to prioritize tasks? How does this benefit us?

 Have students discuss these questions with a partner and then have volunteers share what they discussed with their partner and their answers.

​

CORRELATION TO OBSERVATION TOOL: The Frequency Observation Tool (FOT) has a category where students will be observed and rated on their ability to prioritize their tasks and avoid procrastinat ion. This lesson will give students the opportunity to think about their life and how they can prioritize things they are currently during to help reach the goals that they have and to support their passion.

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION IDEAS
-Visual: Visual learners will benefit from having the important information written down on the whiteboard or on a piece of paper.

-Auditory: Auditory learners will benefit from the group and class discussions.

-Kinesthetic: Kinesthetic learners would benefit from writing down important information. 

-ESL: ESL students will benefit from working with a partner in case they have questions or need clarification.

-At-risk: At -risk students would benefit from working with a partner for some extra interaction to keep them on task and focused.

-Advanced: Advanced learners could benefit from helping the other students who rated their understanding of the lesson on a low level. They could partner up with one of those students or get together a group of students who need help.