I’ve just walked through the corridors of a couple of year levels and things are tense. Teachers are busy. Ridiculously busy at a time when they just want to be with their students and finish the year well. Busyness is counterproductive to good teaching because when things get busy, teachers lose site of their purpose; busyness kills the teacher star. (I hoped you sang that bit in your head.)
I am a prolific ‘to do list’ composer and I keep them in a notebook. (Insight into me, I keep them as a sense of accomplishment for those days when it all seems too much). So I looked back at this time of the year to my Term 4, Week 7, 2015 to do list, it read:
-reports – edit comments and enter tick boxes
-edit partner’s reports and return by Wednesday
-prepare handover files
-enter assessment data
-rehearse Christmas concert
-finalise end of year party
-organise parent interview with Sally’s parents
-follow up with Matthew – playground choices
-compile and send John’s new school reference
-finish running records
-mark writing samples
-choose award winners
-create farewell card for leaving staff member
-prepare lessons for week 8
How did it become that ‘prepare lessons for week 8’ was the last thing on my mind and my list? Yes, all of those other elements are part of the job, and all need to be done. But, at such a busy time of year, I think we all are guilty of losing site of what is important, of what is our purpose and allow the administration side of teaching to take over. It is becoming more and more apparent that as the administrational demands on teachers increase, the quality of teaching and learning decrease.
Teachers are time poor. We could work 24 hours a day and still find another activity to individualise, lesson to prepare, idea to pin. But sometimes we need to stop, regroup and reflect.
I once was in a curriculum-based meeting where a question was asked that changed my teaching and leadership mindset forever. A new initiative was being discussed when a wise voice asked, ‘how will this affect teaching and learning?’.
If the core business of a school is teaching and learning, why do we do half of the things that we do? Are we trying to look good for current and prospective families? Are we trying to keep up with other schools?
While I appreciate that change needs to happen, schools need to innovate to stay up to date with best practice and each teacher has an element of administration, I wonder when we lost the balance. I have sat in many meetings where important questions were asked, but for me, this was the most profound. If decision makers asked this question more often, perhaps our teachers may not be distracted from their core business quite so often.
I challenge you to look down your to-do list or the to-do lists of your teachers and ask yourself, which of these are adding and which are detracting from creating quality teaching and learning. Do you have the right balance?
While I don’t have all the answers, I certainly know the question to ask.
