{"id":3896,"date":"2021-08-14T04:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-14T04:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=3896"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:34:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:34:39","slug":"systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=3896","title":{"rendered":"SYSTEMS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I read Scott Adams’ book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big <\/i>about a year ago, I don’t know that I appreciated what he had to say about systems being more important than goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

But it has grown on me in such a way that I don’t even know now if this wording is his or mine: goals without systems are just wishful thinking. It is systems that will get you to your goal, and maybe even beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n

One of my goals for this school year is to be more organized. There is so much to keep track of – lesson planning, copying, attendance, late work, grading – and I am not a natural born multi-tasker.<\/p>\n\n\n

Here are three things I am learning about systems.<\/p>\n\n\n

Sometimes systems can be a quick, one-time fix.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n

I brought in a nice table that Melissa and I have had for years but we don’t currently have space for at home. It was in the shed in the backyard. Now it gives me a place to keep all my papers and supplies handy for class right up front where I need it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Sometimes good systems can easily be borrowed from others.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n

I hate having to deal with classroom discipline issues – doling out detentions is unpleasant and creates extra work for me. This year, I adopted the system some of my co-workers had already found successful – making the students give up their cellphones when they enter class. This results in dramatically fewer incidents of taboo cellphone use during class – texting, cheating, taping, gaming, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n

I put my own spin on this system with a retro-fitted classic Coke bottle box for collecting the phones just inside the classroom door.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Sometimes systems are daily habits that need to be created from scratch.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n

I have a real difficult time shifting gears between classes and between days. When a student walks in and asks, “What did I miss yesterday?”, my brain locks up. I have found “I have no idea!” is not an acceptable answer.<\/p>\n\n\n

I found cheap dry erase boards at Target and stuck magnets on the back. Each day I write a basic outline of classroom activities for my various preps. These I keep on the front board. At the end of the day I move them to the board at the back of the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

I have enough of these panels to keep track of an entire past week.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I read Scott Adams’ book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big about a year ago, I don’t know that I appreciated what he had to say about systems being more important than goals.\u00a0 But it has grown on me in such a way that I don’t even know now if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3901,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896\/revisions\/3901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}