A get-it-done attitude looks for the shortest route to completion. Sometimes this is the right thing to do--you simply have to clean it up, finish the task, and get it done. The downside of this perspective is that sometimes when we complete tasks too quickly we don't do them well and we make more work for ourselves later on. That happened to me recently when I got my car fixed. I got it fixed, picked up the car, and was on my way without adequately checking the work. Then when I went to get my inspection sticker, they noticed that an important part of the job was not done correctly and now I have to bring the car back in and take more time to make sure the car is fixed properly. This is an example of when a get-it-done attitude exemplifies the old adage, haste makes waste--waste of time and probably a waste of money too.
A do-it-well attitude seeks to complete tasks as well as possible. This attitude typically finds people taking the time to look deeply at a situation to understand it well, creating apt objectives/goals, and moving step by step towards completion in ways that matter. For most work, this, I believe is a better way. When we have a do-it-well attitude we tend to spiral up and develop well with regard to our investment of time, collaboration, and effort rather than rush to the finish line with speed rather than good, thoughtful work.
Recently our team met a challenge with field trips. We promote a fair amount of awesome field studies during the year--students and family feedback about the trips have been positive. As educators, we know that these trips enrich the curriculum program and build a strong team amongst all learners at the grade-level. But, the field studies challenge the existing systems since the systems and structures at school such as our collective educator/administrative time and procedures are not set up to support these field trips well. Hence we had to deconstruct the field trip process recently to look at ways to streamline and better the efforts.
One good idea offered by a colleague is to create a shared book of field trip paperwork and information. That will help us to track field trip correspondence, payments, and deposits. I'll start that book today since I have a notebook on hand and we already planned our first field trip for next year. Another process that we learned about is that we can get better print-outs of online payments which will help us to track payments better, and we learned more about tripships and looked at the specific steps of the field trip process from planning a field trip to ordering busses to creating and collecting field trip permission slips/money to paying the fees/bus costs and reviewing all deposit/payment information soon after the end of a field trip to make sure there are no unanswered questions, missing checks, or unexpected errors.
As I think more about the field trip book, some of the sections and information we'll want to place in that book include the following:
- Amount of money that follows the children--each year, money left over from field trips the year before follows the grade level. This is money I didn't fully know about before, but now that I know it will be helpful information as we plan for the field trips ahead.
- Specific information related to each trip including the following:
- Emails between the trip location and school
- Order and information forms required by the field trip location and school
- Copies of Invoices and receipts
- Copies of payment information (copies of checks, copies of online payment lists, copies of tripships)
- Permission slips
- Bus quote
- Final field trip request form
The specific process for field trips will include these steps:
- Contact field trip location and plan for a trip. Try to negotiate a one-time fee rather than a per-child fee since numbers of children change for all kinds of reasons. It's best to do this during the summer when there's time to make phone calls and consider all the factors that make for a great field study.
- Complete field trip request forms and send those forms to the office.
- Figure out cost per child once the bus quotes are known.
- Create permission slips. On permission slips add information that requires parents to tell how they plan to pay for the trip, and add a date by which the trip has to be paid for.
- Collect permission slips in a timely manner. In fact, I think it's best to make a space in the curriculum that allows you to write follow-up emails, check payment lists, and chart all related information.
- Confirm bus and field trip place one week prior to the trip.
- Go on the trip.
- One week after the trip review all trip information to see if there are any errors in the paperwork. Also write down suggestions related to future field trips to the same location.
Field trips add substantial work to a school's schedule and routine, however, I still believe these events enrich students' experience of learning in significant ways when well planned and executed. Our team is committed to bettering this work in ways that matter.