“Time and tide wait for no man” (Chaucer) and “Rome was not built in a day” describe the plight of the professional teacher. There never is enough time to accomplish what takes inestimable time! Instruction that causes all children to learn, including children needing adjusted instruction, requires time for a teacher to reflect and determine how to clarify, correct, and teach anew. Reflection plus adjusted teaching improves learning for all students.
Form follows function – time is attached to what we prioritize
A teacher’s school day is dominated by the clock much like the chain driving an assembly line. Classes, meetings, lunch, prep, paperwork, work that goes on til midnight and then do it again the next day. The class bell does not wait for anyone – teacher or student – and a tardy teacher is worse than a tardy student. And being prepared for the continuing instruction and student learning is never-ending. Yet we know that significant accomplishments – Rome and student learning – require planning, careful work, and checking assurances for quality outcomes. When then, is a teacher able to reflect, really think about the effectiveness of her teaching in causing children to learn?
The easy answer for administrators has two parts.
- Every teacher has contract-guaranteed prep time as well as time before and after the school day.
- Professional teachers understand that their work is not limited by the school day and often requires more than eight hours per day.
Easy for an administrator is not easy for a teacher. A teacher’s school-assigned prep time is invaded without forethought. Urgent matters are a principal’s note to “see me during your prep” or a principal’s scheduling an IEP team meeting during a prep time. The “tapping into” teacher prep time happens with abandon in every school every day.
A teacher’s immediate needs must be met during “untapped” prep time. These include
- Bio needs in the restroom.
- Returning parent calls and e-mails.
- Assembling student work collected prior to the prep time for later inspection.
- Arranging materials for student instruction after the prep time.
If these are not accommodated during school day prep time, they don’t get done. Consequently, these tasks get done and instructional planning and reflection do not.
Before and after school time also is requisitioned by faculty meetings, grade level and departmental meetings, IEP team meetings, and professional development. Then, add the time needed by a student who “needs extra help” or has a question that could not be asked and answered in class and an eight-hour school day grows into nine and ten hours. The time crunch is exasperated for the many teachers who need to be home after school to take care of their own children.
The reality is that very few teachers use school day prep time for the planning and construction of instruction or the review of instructional effectiveness.
Automaton teaching is easy; informed teaching is hard
It is too easy for a teacher to be an automaton – a person who works in a mechanical, unthinking, and unemotional manner. I observed veteran teachers who had files of units and lesson plans and every year they literally taught through their file drawer. They used the same units and lessons year after year with the justification of “it seemed to work last year, so it will be just as good for this year.” When asked why they automatically repeated units and lessons, they told me “It took a lot of time to develop my units and lessons, and I don’t have time to develop ones or even to change why I have.”
Automaton teaching includes teachers who teach strictly from the publisher’s guide for curriculum their school has adopted. They do not make adjustments or modifications because “this is what my school board expects me to teach.”
Against this model, I observed veteran teachers who used their prep time for informed teaching. From her classroom doorway, I watched a kindergarten teacher using self-talk as she laid out materials on student desks. “Willie needs…, Jackie needs…, Aiden needs…”, and at the end of the lay out she reviewed exactly what each student needed to accomplish the objectives of their next lesson.
I watched a high school chemistry teacher use her whiteboard to review the results of a student quiz the day before. She used data to identify students who demonstrated clear learning and those who did not, and she listed the specific learning that needed to be clarified.
I talked with an ELA teacher as she shared the specific criteria, she had taught that she wanted students to demonstrate in a writing assignment. She used a holistic reading approach to identify assignments that met the requirements and those that did not and added post-a-notes to each writing sample telling the writer the detail that was missing or incorrect.
These teachers buck the pattern of automaton, same old/same old teaching by reflecting daily on the effectiveness of instruction and the adjusted teaching they will use to cause all students to achieve curricular success.
Break the pattern of same old/same old: protect time for instructional reflection
If a principal believes reflection is essential for ensuring high quality teaching and learning, the principal must assign and protect time for reflective work. The time does not need to be the same time of the school day for all teachers. If it is the same, it is too easy for that time to be stolen for other purposes. Ensured reflective planning time needs to be equitable, balanced and inviolate.
Second, the principal needs to “sit in” with teachers as they reflect. “Sitting in” is supportive not evaluative. Different teachers will reflect and plan differently; the just need the principal’s encouragement and affirmation that instructional reflection is a valued professional for improving teaching and learning.
Plan-teach-reflect-teach
I always smiled when told “Mr. Smith is a good teacher” without hearing the criteria for the statement. It was a cynical smile. Good teaching is hard work that requires curricular and pedagogical mastery and consistent use of best practices. Good teaching knows each child being taught and how to connect each child’s uniqueness with instruction. Good teaching requires planning, teaching, reflection, and adjusted teaching. When I heard any or all of these criteria, I gave a true smile.
To make the magic of teaching work, teachers need time to assess the quality of student learning after their initial instruction, provide appropriate next assignments for students who were successful, AND plan how to correct, clarify, and appropriately students who were not initially successful. The magic requires informed reflection and time to reflect.