I have only been in education for about 6 years. My wife has been teaching for over 20. I remember having discussions with her about "only" teaching 180 days, and how easy it was, and that she should try and teach (work) for twelve months. That was before I started teaching. Now I am in total agreement with her. Teachers need to be on their game always, or the kids will suffer, pick up on it, and the lesson would lose its effectiveness. A teacher needs that 2 month break to rejuvenate their batteries. Think about the added hours we work at home, preparing lessons, copying, just rethinking techniques and topics. ENOUGH SAID ABOUT A TEACHER........
Looking at the "180" opened my eyes to certain things: how little time we do have to teach. It is correct in showing the interruptions to daily lessons, some of which are necessary, but also, that we really have such a short window to present our lesson, and cover material. We have a mind set that we have plenty of time to cover all curriculum, but we really don't.
2 comments:
I always try to comfort newer teachers when they say they forgot to cover something in their class. I've also used the same line when someone doesn't want to call out sick because the kids will miss too much. I always used to say, "Don't worry - you have 180 days to cover the material." Now I'm not sure what I'll say - do we really have the 180 days....as Prof. Bachenheimer pointed out....we don't.
You used the words "cover the curriculum". As we know, just because we cover a curriculum doesn't mean the kids learn it. Maybe if we had less time (without any interuptions) the instruction and curriculum would be more meaningful.
Post a Comment