Teelah Harris-Routman Chapter 12- Blog #7

“You only have so much time” Time is something that all teachers wished we had more of.  In our profession we have the never ending battling of fighting time.  There are always papers to grade, lessons to plan, or projects to develop.  I like that at the beginning of this chapter Routman tells educators to live their lives.  We struggle with this because we allow our jobs to become our lives.  I honestly have figured out if I try to maximize my time here at school then devote my true free time to my life, I seem to be happier.  There are some days I have to force myself walk out of the building without papers to grade or my laptop to make lesson plans, but it makes me feel much better when I get home and can live my life.  As a teacher, I need to make sure I am always asking and evaluating myself with the question, “What do I want them to know and understand.”  I think if I focus on what the students need to know and understand then time could be used more wisely.  Have students only completing activities that are meaningful to their learning and not just time fillers.  My fifth grade team has worked hard at making sure we are creating meaningful activities especially in science for our students.  We have found that it makes us more effective teachers and our students seem to retain the information more.  We have found that we have had to rework our classroom structures to help our students.  Routman suggests creating a structure that will maximize participation and learning is best.  We have made more time for student collaboration and research to help with their learning.   Students who have met or exceeded the concept can work together while the teacher has more time for students who seem to struggle.  We as teachers have to learn to maximize the time we have with students instead of spending time wishing for more time.   As teachers, we expect our students to read, collaborate, then reflect on their learning, but we sometimes fail to do the same thing.  For us to be successful professionals, we also need to read professional materials, talk with our peers, and then take time to reflect.  Reflection is the key component because it gives us a time to correct and improve ourselves.  This was my favorite chapter.  It really hit home to some things for my teaching career.