Katie Miller March/April Blog

Routman Chapter 12
You Only Have So Much Time

The title of this chapter immediately caught my attention.  I think it would be the perfect title to summarize this school year for me and so many other teachers.  I am so glad I chose this article for the last blog this school year.  With my caseload, number of meetings, and demands are increasing the time left in the school year is quickly decreasing.  I have said many times this year that I feel like to cannot catch up.  I have always been one to stay ahead of everything I have to do.  This chapter was refreshing and motivating to read at this time in the school year. 

With this being the toughest year as a teacher so far, I think I have learned and grown the most.  This chapter summarizes a lot of things I have learned to do this year.  I think I am beginning to master the skill of working smarter not harder.

This is my 4^th year of using the same scripted curriculum.  I am pretty sure I could teach the curriculum in my sleep.  Based on my experience over these few years, I have learned that supplementing this curriculum results in more student progress and independent readers.  I liked the part of this chapter when they talked about not over relying on teacher editions.  That is something that is especially true in my classroom.  My job is to teach students on their individual levels.  That is impossible to do with a scripted program.  There are so many extra things I have to include every day to meet my students’ needs.  My students have a variety of disabilities, background knowledge, and other variable that prevent a ‘cookie cutter’ program from being successful for all students.

I have conducted a lot more reading conferences this year that I have in the past.  As a results, I have learned more about my students’ reading than I thought I would.  I was surprised by how much some of my students were able to talk about their reading and the areas in which they need help.  This year, I have done a lot more partner reading.  This has also been a surprisingly successful addition.  I thought my students would have a really hard time communicating with their peers, but they have done a great job.  I did have to spend a lot of time teaching how to talk about what they are reading and provide conversation prompting cards.  Although that did take a lot of time in the beginning, it saves a lot of my time now.  I can conduct reading conferences and do other necessary tasks while students are actively engaged in a meaningful activity.

This chapter talked about reevaluating schedules.  I have had to do this so many times this year!  I have had so many additions to my caseload that it has made it difficult to have small groups.  Overall, I have changed my schedule 4-5 times this year and the amount of time I have without students has decreased to about 30 minutes.  On the plus side, my groups are smaller and more on a similar level.  I almost have been forced to fully embrace the title of this chapter and the idea to work smarter not harder.  I have had to be very creative in making time to plan and prepare for each day.

This chapter gave a lot of great suggestions to making the most of the small amount of time we have as teachers to do everything we need to do.  My favorite part of this article was when it talked about the importance of an interesting life outside of school.  I think it is so important for myself to keep my personal life and school life separate.  I try to not take work home (key word: try).  I keep myself busy and set goals outside of school.  I have found that this makes me more excited to come to school each day.  I have things to look forward to at school and things to look forwards to outside of school.

I do not think any teacher would say that they have plenty of time to do everything they need to do.  If he/she is out there, I would love to know their strategies.  This will be a great article to come back and read every year when I am stressed with a never ending to do list, if I have time.