Noticing Blog 9
This week one of the prominent
issues I noticed was timing, and the lack of time. This week has been hectic
with GLT but also very exciting. I have found that keeping track of time, and
fitting all of my ideas into the given time limit can be somewhat of a circus
act. Even with the extended school day I am not sure how teachers find time to
fit in all given subject (for the most part they don’t.) It is almost
impossible to fit all core subjects into the time block allotted with preps,
specials, transitions, and bathroom breaks etc. I spoke with my MT about this
issue because when I was teaching I find that I have to speed through the end
of my lesson because the time is running out. I asked her if she finds problems
with this or if it was just because I am still figuring it all out. She
comforted me in saying that timing is always a struggle. She even admitted that’s
why it is so difficult to fit science and social studies into a day.
Since time is such an issue I do
find it interesting to see how teachers plan their little time. Clearly math
and language arts take priority since they are always scheduled. Sometimes I feel
that I am just racing with the clock to get through my lesson instead of
figuring out what the students are learning and absorbing from the lesson. I
find that is a balancing act between the two that I am still trying to work
out. Sometimes I feel that the students are grasping what I have planned and we
can move on, but other times it is the opposite. One of my biggest adjustments
that I need to make is not trying to fit everything I planned into the lesson.
Sometimes I over think or over plan (not always a bad thing) but then I feel
that I have to make time for it.
This week in particular I am noticing
the time more since I am doing most of the teaching. For my writing workshop
unit I am allotted 45 minutes to have my mini lesson, guided practice, writing
time, and author’s chair. In this subject in particular I feel that it is a
race to get through everything in the little time period I have. Before I know
it I am trying to quiet the students down so the author of the day has time to
share before racing off to lunch. I feel that sometimes there just are not
enough hours in a day. I need to work on condensing my mini lesson and guided
practice so the students have more time to go back and write before I am asking
them to pack up. It seems that working with the clock is a challenge but one
that I will attempt to master. I am very interested to see next semester when
we add social studies and science to our teaching because these subjects tend
to be put on the back burner. I feel that because of the time constraints it is
even more important to ensure that you try to encourage cross curriculum as
much as possible. For example having literacy work with social studies can
ensure that the students will be getting a little bit of both subject matters. In
my first grade classroom social studies is about our communities, rules, and
laws so far. These topics could be integrated into writing or reading lesson to
allow the students to learn about social studies while still covering the
literacy and writing workshop requirements. This may not be an everyday
solution to the issue but on days where time is pressing it could be helpful.
You are clearly thinking about an important and complex issue. There is no "solution" to this problem, but one that has to be constantly wrestled with. I would advise to think of planning not in terms of time but in terms of the learning objectives. Of course, this means that you might still run out of time, but if you know what you want to cover with students, you can make sure that you get done what you want to get done, and that superfluous things are cut out.
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