The pity of a powerful computer is the panoply of choices a teacher faces when the students are no longer in the classroom. After a 7am-3pm maelstrom of inciting and putting out teenage fires, when we're left at last to "finally get some work done," we often face the inevitable Wheel of Tasks. Grade this. No, answer this parent's email. No, contact the counselor about special accommodations for that student. Wait, email that edtech company about the official spelling of one of your student's names.
For me, multi-tasking has been my bane. In the same way that students experience interrupted reading when they are Insta-ing, Tweeeting, watching Netflix, and all-the-while annotating Ben Franklin's autobiography, I too succumb to a lesser form of myself when I'm pulled in so many teacherly directions.
I tell my students I have a tab disorder (see image). If I expect them to hone in on a singular task (e.g., writing), I should model concentrated focus for them as well.
