Slice of Life SOL Fridays

SOL Friday

It’s Friday. Kids are glad school is done for the week, and teachers are glad for a break. But is it a break?  Papers to grade, lessons to plan based on what students still need to know, groups to plan on those decisions, resources to find.

I look forward to Fridays so I have time to do things I want to do and time to plan for school so my students have the best resources and instructional guidance I can provide.

Teachers are expected to do so much, and yet don’t have the time during the day to do them. They’re in front of students, conferring with students, assessing students, and providing feedback on the spot for most of the day.

But there’s always so much more student work to look at and provide meaningful feedback so students know what to do next. And what resource, lesson, graphic would help this student, that student, and the student that’s ahead?

Did you know that teachers in high-achieving countries deliver instruction sixty per cent of the day whereas American teachers spend eighty per cent of their day in front of students? Did you know that in Korea, Japan, and Singapore, teachers deliver instruction thirty-five percent of the time. The rest of the time, the teachers are collaborating, planning, studying. Read more about this discrepancy of expectations for teachers here, at Cult of Pedagogy.

One change to improve education would be to increase the time during the day that teachers have to collaborate, assess, plan, and personalize learning. That would increase the quality of that work. Right now, I do assessment, planning, and personalizing on my own time, squished in between and among my family responsibilities. There just isn’t time during the teaching day.

Even so, Fridays are a good thing. I look forward to the break and the next week because teaching is a life worth living.

If you are a teacher, how is your instructional time spent? Do you have the time needed to do and plan instructional decisions?

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Writing Strategies

Details: Papers to grade, lessons to plan based on what students still need to know, groups to plan on those decisions, resources to find.

Details: facts and questions: Did you know that teachers in high-achieving countries deliver instruction sixty per cent of the day whereas American teachers spend eighty per cent of their day in front of students? Did you know that in Korea, Japan, and Singapore, teachers deliver instruction thirty-five percent of the time.

Transition / Connecting Words: but, and yet, one change… that. even so

Question at end: Asking for teachers’ ideas.

Sources: Read more about this discrepancy of expectations for teachers here, at Cult of Pedagogy.

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Image Source:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2859/9994414755_027ae33696.jpg

Image: by Florin Rosoga Fridays