Montague

This week I have noticed how little time we (my MT and I) have to get everything taught that we have planned in the day. We are supposed to have 20 minutes of independent reading, 30 minutes of math centers (after the math instruction) but a lot of times, we haven’t had time for either of these, which is very unfortunate. The whole morning is spent with the students either in specials, lunch or recess, which takes quite a chunk out of our instructional time. Don’t get me wrong, I think that specials are something very important for the students but the time that it falls is very inconvenient and puts more of a time constraint due to the timing of our schedule. I have never been placed in a school that has the students in specials for the most of the morning rather than in the afternoon. By the time we get the students in the afternoon, they are exhausted, several are falling asleep, they are riled up and not able to focus. I think that the instructional time would go much smoother if it were done in the morning (for math and reading) rather than in the afternoon.

I understand that scheduling is a difficult thing, especially when you have to share teachers that teach specials with different schools therefore I can understand why it fell this way to some extend. I think that this is a case of someone creating a schedule without keeping in mind the best times that most students learn and take in information (in the morning!) It is important because I think that if you are teaching students who are tired and not able to focus, they aren’t learning as much. I always try to put myself in my students’ shoes, would I like to be taught all of that academic stuff when I am sleepy or would it go better in the morning? No, I wouldn’t. I would want to be learning more in the morning when I am well rested and ready to learn.