We all feel time pressure these days don't we? Especially in the classroom. This week Naomi thinks about what she can do differently with her year 5's and 6's after a math's session while Shona contemplates the importance of the first 20 days of a teaching year and having the time to connect with her students.
Naomi
This week I found myself really coming up against the limits of time. I spend one day a week each with two different classes. The gap between what I would like to be doing with these learners and what can fit in a day has started to feel huge.
Although Primary School teachers definitely have more flexibility within their day than Secondary, nearly all of us still have a timetable to stick to and whole school programs to honour. There is not much wiggle room for many of us.
Time limits can feel like the arch enemy of deep learning. The way to save time is to go straight to the most explicit, focussed teaching method, right?
Sometimes that method might be best. But at other times it’s an illusion: we are left feeling like we have “covered” something, but the learning has only really stuck with a few students. Exploring a concept hands-on often takes longer.
I ran two contrasting problem solving lessons this week. With the Year 6s I used a worksheet with open-ended questions; with the Year 5s I gave them a problem about nets (from NRICH) where they could cut out and match up different parts.
The Year 6s’ worksheet: a lot of students chose to answer it via the easiest possible route, rather than challenge themselves. The task fitted within its allotted time, but its value was middling.
With the Year 5s, I could see discovery taking place as the students experimented with putting together the nets. One downside was that the more reluctant students took so long cutting out, that they didn’t do much problem solving. The lesson would have been much more effective if I had an extra 30 minutes.
So, what can I do?
Be super-intentional about how I devote time in class. One big priority I have is building students’ skills around giving and receiving feedback and redrafting in response to it. This capability is so powerful and so transferable that any time spent on establishing it, is absolutely worth it.
Keep working on smooth transitions and routines to support students to maximise their learning time.
Shona
Time was also on my mind this week. The educational environment I work in isn’t bellbound, but it definitely needs structure. This has more challenges than you would expect and brought up some feelings about what it means to be a teacher in this day and age. I found that even though I believe wholeheartedly in slowing down and embracing everything that teaching for creativity brings with it, I’m still getting that uncomfortable niggling feeling of going against a system that values the planning of everything and packing in as much as possible from day one.
Students need routine, no doubt. It makes them feel safe as they predict what comes next in their day. It leaves headspace for more challenging thinking when things like transitions are an autopilot exercise. If you ask many educational neuroscientists they’ll tell you that the first month of teaching is an essential time to establish those routines to make way for the high quality learning that is to come. But it’s also hard not to indulge that control-happy part of yourself that just wants to get into the learning and start ticking off curriculum boxes right away. Who has the time to allow their students to find their own way into the learning that ignites their curiosity?
What I realised more fully last Friday afternoon was that this crucial time for connecting with the students can't be rushed. It has to follow their lead rather than my timetabled plan right now. When challenging learning is going on or when social issues pop up, they need to trust that they can go to the adult in the room for guidance without being judged.
This takes time.
And so, despite my guilty-teacher-feelings, I found myself playing Lego on the floor with the kids when the energy in the room was super low. I had the time to notice the little learning moments that were happening around me. The Lego robot that had a door in its chest where their heart fell out, just like in the book we read this morning. The response from another student as they used our musical instruments to create a song that captured the robot’s feelings about this. Valuable learning was still happening without my plan today. Priceless!
I know that many teachers may be thinking that they just don’t have the capacity for slowing down to this degree. This is often not their own choice. I hear you! But I am hoping you can carve out just a tiny space in the day to sit and work on something fun with your students, side by side, so you can catch a glimpse of who they are and start to build that relationship that will support the learning to come in the next 20 days of teaching.
Коментарі