The Do-Confirm Checklist: What great teachers do in every class, every day.
The concept that a checklist helps successful professionals focus on their top priorities is not a new idea. Charles Schwab valued this idea so much that the Ivy Lee Method is still heralded as a highly effective business strategy (Ballard, 2016). Ivy Lee met with Charles Schwab’s top executives to help them become more efficient and effective. He taught them to take time at the end of each workday to write down the six most important things to accomplish on the following day. Then rank each of these things and move through the list in order until they were all accomplished. This technique is still taught in many businesses and business schools. I even learned it in my training as a brand new Mary Kay Beauty Consultant (one of the side-gigs teachers do to make ends meet) and found it to be immediately applicable to my work in the classroom. Warren Buffett recommended a similar strategy to his then-pilot, Mike Flint (Weir, 2017). He advised Flint to make two lists: 25 career goals and then those 5 goals he selected as the most important. Then he told Flint to consider everything on the list that didn’t make the top 5 as “Avoid At All Cost Activities” because they would distract him from his priorities. Angela Duckworth also highlights Buffett’s strategy in her book Grit, where she describes why some people succeed and other very talented and intelligent individuals do not.
Time and energy are finite resources that successful people must prioritize. The Do-Confirm Checklist by Goodwin & Hubbell (2013) is a simple strategy, such as those used by Charles Schwab and Warren Buffett, to help educators focus on their most important goals and work consistently toward them. The consistency is what makes a Do-Confirm Checklist different from the typical to-do list. The tasks are not to be done and crossed off the list, as satisfying as that may be. These are the tasks that successful educators must focus on daily, revisit frequently, and perform consistently to ensure that they are prioritizing that which matters most. The three themes, Be Demanding, Be Supportive, and Be Intentional, add structure to the Do-Confirm Checklist and guide teacher decision-making. With the many demands on teacher’s time, this focus is truly critical. In the pages of 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching, you will find a closer look at the specific implementation of each element of the Do-Confirm Checklist in my high school chemistry classes. Since this checklist is not intended to be tasks done in sequential order or in isolation, many concepts overlap and cannot be separated from one another. My complete lesson plan incorporating the 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching is included below.
References: Ballard, M. (2016). The most profitable thing charles schwab ever learned. Las Vegas Business Press, 33(39), 1. Retrieved from https://csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/docview/1826877998?accountid=38569 Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Goodwin, B., & Hubbell, E. (2013). The 12 touchstones of good teaching: A checklist for staying focused every day. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Weir, T. (2017, Feb 13). Being a 'yes' person makes you prone to distractions. Gulf News. Retrieved from https://csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/docview/1867575121?accountid=38569