Instruction? What Instruction? By William L. Austin, M.Ed, NBCT Where is our instructional time going? Across America teachers have less time to teach and higher expectations than ever before. So, where is all our time going? Well I can tell you we sure have less of it than before in large part because of so many non-instructional demands. Testing takes a huge bite out of the instructional day, with MAP Testing, Universal Screening, State Mandated Readiness Testing, District Benchmark testing, Guided reading assessments which include a reading surveys, comprehension exercises, as well as comprehensive reading evaluations, and let’s not forget PASS testing, PSAT, SAT, ACT, STAR, Work Keys, EOC testing etc. etc. etc. Now if we throw in Anti-Bullying instruction, suicide prevention, SNAP nutritional instruction, and district mandated discipline code training complete with a testing component, the loss of instruction starts to mount. Now lets add fire drills, intruder drills, earth quake drills, tornado drills, and shelter in place drills which are all important, but we are not done yet, we need to add in assemblies for fund raising, walk around the school events, bike safety, spirit days, clubs, teddy bear parades, Story Book Character Parade, puppet shows, Christmas (oops Winter festival) programs, Thanksgiving meals or feasts in the classroom, and other assorted activities. What really amuses me is with all of this going on, I see the poor classroom teacher getting lectured on loss of instructional time because they plan a classroom celebration, an educational field trip, or an unscheduled bathroom break. Somebody needs to look at this issue who understands the problem. While I understand that not every school participates in all the activities and testing I listed above there are so many things I didn’t list such as the amount of time teachers spend collecting money or rolling coins for whatever charity the district or principal wants to support be it Breast Cancer, March of Dimes, Walk-a-thon, Heart Walk, Penny for Patients, St. Jude Leukemia Fund, etc. etc. etc. and don’t forget we need to collect the money for all the fund raisers we are involved in as well. With all this non-instructional stuff going on it is hard to believe we have any time left for instruction at all. And every year the call for more testing gets louder, the demand to evaluate teachers gets heated, and all the while they lose more and more time to do what they are paid for, and that is teach. If you are going to hold teachers accountable then they should have a say in what activities they participate in and which they dont. Politicians love to compare schools to businesses, can you imagine if Wal-Mart closed it doors and stopped selling for employees to practice a fire drill, or for an employee puppet show, or to test all of their employees on their stocking skills, or the use of a cash register? Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers we will be closing the store for 45 minutes while we walk around the store to celebrate something or to raise awareness for something, or to raise money for something. This is just not going to happen anywhere but in public schools. Teachers are some pretty awesome folks, even under these conditions they continue to give 100% to their students and manage to provide a good education in spite such obstacles. I just wonder where we could take our students, the heights we could reach, if only teachers controlled their time instead of, politicians and so many other folks who spend their time outside of the classroom.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 17:40:59 +0000
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