You hear it in almost any school you visit. Everybody has mandates, initiatives, papers to grade, and issues to attend to , but nobody has nearly enough time to accomplish them. How dare you attempt to set goals, provide meaningful professional development (that you also claim we never do enough of), or inform you of district happenings when I simply NEED to be left alone so I can work in MY classroom on any inservice day leading up to the start of school. I hear it and it makes me beg the question of whether or not any of our priorities are on straight. The first question I would ask anybody who complains about not having "enough time" is what have they done to make better use of their time? Have they eliminated any ineffective practices or unnecessary tasks that don't relate directly to raising student achievement that go into a teacher's everyday responsibilities. This is a hot button issue in my own household as my wife is dead set on having the "cutest, straight from Pinterest, pretty, organized, crafty classroom" on the planet. Then she will go and say "Man, we have so much to do this week!" And it begs the question, Do we really have that much to do compared to any other time in the year or do we really need to waste so much valuable time preparing meaningless junk that looks good on the outside, but may provide no real value to a child's educational experience. I am often ridiculed as one of the endangered species of a male in an elementary school and my inability to have cute bulletin board decorations/student craft projects. I probably could swallow my pride and work to have a "cuter classroom appearance", but is that really adding to my students learning experience? I would much rather use my time preparing activities and setting up the structure of my room that will allow for my students to be engaged throughout the school day. The cute bulletin board may hook their attention for a few initial seconds, but true buy in and student ownership occurs when a student values the meat of what is going on in a classroom. This takes me back to the original complaint that people claim they do not have enough time to do anything, when in reality it appears that many of us are terrible managers of our time and prioritize things that have no real impact on being a quality teacher. The next time you want to complain about all the time we don't have, first tally up the number of times you checked your phone, wasted time fraternizing with a colleague, ate food, checked your fantasy football team, spent too much time in the bathroom, or drove around the block to take a smoke break, spent time organizing your construction paper by color, or doing any task that a student could easily help manage themselves during the school day. I am not advocating being a hell bent robot who spends every second of the day working, but more so placing importance on what is truly meaningful in a child's educational experience. "Don't come to me with a complaint if you do not have a solution as to how to fix it" is a great leadership philosophy I have heard on a number of occasions and holds true to this scenario. Reflect on what you do and use your time to better provide a quality experience for your students and the other non-essential, but cute stuff my wife likes will fall into place eventually.
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AuthorRyan Huels is a 1st Grade teacher in Northern Illinois. A graduate of Northern Illinois University, Ryan places an emphasis on being a connected educator eager to put the needs of all students first! Archives
October 2015
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