Week 6: How Much Time Are We Already Wasting?

 With so much emphasis being put on how much students are losing during the pandemic, Mcleod speaks about how much time we lose in the class each year just in how we teach and students respond. "How regularly do students come to school anticipating that they will be discovering valuable information, practicing useful skills, and engaging in interesting activities and challenging conversations? And imagine viewing everything that hinders or prevents these kinds of engagements as potential time-wasters "(Mcleod, 2021). How much time were you spending before the pandemic quitting students, dealing with behavior problems, throwing down busy work because you were not prepared, or the technology did not work working the day you wanted to use it? 

With the onset of the pandemic, has your time management increased or do you feel that you are wasting more time just trying to get a class started or materials started and aligned for the day? Or the technology just is not cooperating and you have spent half the class trying to connect to the internet or helping kids connect to their devices? If there is one thing the pandemic has brought to education, it is the digital divide. While some districts were prepared, the majority of our education system was not ready for a full technology-infused system all at once. 

How prepared was your district for the pandemic and do you feel you are able to use your time efficiently?

http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/

Comments

  1. Karissa BachmanFebruary 9, 2021 at 10:27 PM

    Tara,

    I think about this quite a bit! Teachers do lose instructional time with so many outside factors impacting their classroom. This is why I spend so my time going over expectations early in the year.

    In regards to my district being prepared the short answer is no. My district was planning for in-person hybrid up until 2 weeks before school started. This left so many teachers and admin unprepared and stressed. So many teachers are making their own content. I feel very lucky that my team is working together, but I think about how much more efficient we could be if grades around the district were sharing resources.

    Correct me if I am wrong, but are you teaching both in-person and online students. Do you think that is the most efficient use of your time when supporting students?

    Thanks for sharing!

    - Karissa Bachman (Week 6 response)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tara ThompsonFebruary 10, 2021 at 4:27 AM

    Hi Karissa,
    I do not think the way my district has handle the pandemic has been efficient. Hybrid teaching, with both face to face and virtual students at the same instructional time, is horrible. Neither set of students fully has the teachers attention, especially in my classroom where I have to circulate frequently to help my students. Then when I come back to the computer to help the virtual students the face to face students lose out.
    I am ready to have everyone back, or go completely virtual. But Hybrid is too much!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousFebruary 11, 2021 at 11:41 AM

    This is such an interesting thing to think about! I am not virtual and have been F2F all year long but I have many friends who are virtual and have spoken to how behind they are due to how long it took to get over the 'technical difficulties' they experienced at the beginning of the year. That being said - at my school we spend a whole lot of time at the beginning of the year (especially in Kinder) navigating extreme behavior (chair throwing, screaming) so there is a significant loss as well. Interesting to ponder! - Mary Morgan (Week 6)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jessica GilkeyFebruary 11, 2021 at 2:58 PM

    Tara,
    I love your post. This definitely gave me a new perspective with distance learning. We have been virtual since March of 2020, and I feel like I have been so many times about how much my students have "lost" while being virtual. I read an interesting article a few weeks ago that we need to worry less about how much our students are losing and more about how our students are surviving a pandemic. My district struggled at the beginning of the year because we kept changing platforms for live lessons. However, we were able to bounce back! I feel like this pandemic has changed the way I view a normal school day. My school begins at 7:20, and after being virtual and beginning live lessons at 9am, I just can't imagine putting kids on buses at 5am anymore to have them at school by 7:20. (Week 6 response)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dr. ThomasFebruary 23, 2021 at 11:49 AM

    Tara,
    Your colleagues responded to your posts. How did you answer these questions?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tara ThompsonFebruary 23, 2021 at 1:03 PM

      sorry, I responded to the first one. However, I did not see the last two. We were starting to prepare for the storm.

      Delete

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