This is the 17th day in a 30 day challenge from Teach Thought.
Day 17: What do you think is the most challenging issue in education today?
The biggest challenge in education today is re-thinking the use of a teacher's time during the work day. In the fifteen years that I have been teaching, the workload has steadily increased, yet my workday hours have remained the same.
I typically spend 4.5 hours directly in front of students. There are 55 minutes of my day where I am required to supervise students through a prescribed activity (tardy duty, early/late duty, etc.). That leaves 80 minutes to plan lessons, grade work, check e-mail, conference with colleagues, or parents. Naturally, to keep up with all of the work, I have to work an additional 2-3 hours a day. Many times, those extra hours are just not enough to keep up. Sometimes, I have to take an entire Saturday or Sunday to plow through the work.
It's time we rethink a teacher's schedule. Teachers should spend half the day instructing students and the other half of the day should be used to support that instruction. The non-instructional time would allow teachers time to plan, research, grade, meet with parents or students, collaborate with other teaches, and observe other teachers, and attend trainings to improve instruction.
Of course, if we start to rethink a teacher's time that means we should also rethink a student's time. That would require us to blow up our obsession with the clock, but I will save that discussion for another post.
In the meantime, have you read Peter Greene's blog post Teacher Time?
I think the point about students' time makes your point extra urgent!
ReplyDeleteSherri, I found Peter Greene's blog but can't find the post that you're referring to?
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sra. Spanglish.
ReplyDeleteSandy, if you click on the words "Teacher Time", you should be taken to his post.
ReplyDelete