There were days when I had no planning time due to scheduled parent conferences, caring for students who were ill or upset, meetings with specialists about students, or special events/ assemblies at school. Most days I had 40 minutes of individual planning time, which would seem a luxury in some districts today. They need time to process and integrate new information from professional development, review student data from multiple sources for decision making, and provide timely, constructive feedback for students on their learning.įrom my own teaching experience, I know that the time that I had each day for planning in my elementary classroom had a direct effect on the quality of my teaching. Teachers also have access to so much information about effective teaching strategies and interventions. Teaching is more complex in this decade than ever before as educators adapt to new curricular reforms and assessments, implement social and emotional learning programs, and plan learning for an increasingly diverse student population. Teachers also have listed lack of planning time as a reason for leaving the profession and as a barrier to successful implementation of curricular reforms or evidence-based practices (McGoey et al., 2014 Provasnik & Dorman, 2005). Another group of teachers ranked more planning time during the school day as the most important factor that would help them with their teaching (Rentner, Kober, & Frizzell, 2016). Teachers from Wisconsin were asked, “When all is said and done, which of the following do you believe would have the greatest positive impact on your ability to help your students learn and realize their potential?” They listed more planning time as their top choice, above more money or fewer disruptive students (Wood Communications Group, 2014, p. Any good teacher will tell you this, and they do, whenever they are asked. But a productive day of teaching requires substantial planning time to choose effective strategies, design lessons, prepare materials and collaborate with others. As a group, they have big hearts and are selfless in their efforts to teach and care for their students. When teachers are at school, most of their time is spent face-to-face with students, simultaneously playing the roles of instructor, counselor, coach and nurse. They teach several subjects or courses each day, review student work, plan differentiated lessons to meet the needs of diverse learners in their classroom, and strategize with parents and specialists about how to support individual students. Teachers accomplish so many important things with such little time. Students aren’t the only ones who need more time to learn teachers also need more and better time for learning and for planning.
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