Kristin Roddy- Routman Ch. 4: Teach with a Sense of Urgency

After reading Miller Section 1 I realized just how many things I include in my day that take away from precious instructional time. So after reading that chapter I decided it would be my personal goal to eliminate as many of these "time suckers" as possible. Then I came across Routman Chapter 4. "Teach with a Sense of Urgency". This I believe is sometimes interpreted differently, and I believe the interpretation differs based on where we are in the school year. Come mid April teachers are running through units like their lives depend on it. We have reached that "urgent" time in the year where we all begin to panic and in turn we start piling on the work. This isn't a beneficial sense of urgency. You don't want to wait to come to that moment in the year where you feel like your are running a relay. Teaching with a sense of urgency is something you do from day one. You realize what is most important in the day, and you stick to the task. You make sure your days are full of quality lessons, and you focus on getting the "biggest bang for your buck". You eliminate all unnecessary things. Another way I looked at this was I felt that teaching with urgency could also mean spreading the feeling of importance and joy to your students. Making them see learning as joyful and important will have a positive impact on their experience.