Time management seems to be a HUGE, MASSIVE issue that I have been encountering all year. There seems to be never enough time in the day to cover everything that needs covered. I even make daily agendas that my students receive each day as a guide for how the class will go. Some days (very few), we will finish everything on our agenda in 1 day. Other days, it will take 2 days to complete 1 lesson. It all depends on the lesson that is being taught.
When it comes to my classroom, I feel that the reason we get behind certain days is that the skill that is being taught is a hard concept for them to grasp and they lack background knowledge to understand it immediately. If I feel that they aren't comprehending what is being taught, I use outside sources that aren't in the curriculum to further push their understanding. I teach 5th grade reading to 45 students. On the PSSA last year, only 13% of them were proficient. So most times I need to do more than just the curriculum to help my students. In knowing my students, I know that the more practice they get, the better they become and the more confident they are when taking their test.
When it comes to the school and district, I am finding that I am always frantically trying to get the Unit tests done on time. The problem with setting a time limit on the Unit tests is that if I need to spend more time on a particular lesson or module, the district and school don't account for that. Also, in doing the 4sights, that too has pushed me further behind in terms of teaching the curriculum.
I feel that a way to solve these issues is to not set time limits on when unit tests are due. Every class/student learns differently so I believe its unrealistic to say that every school needs to be done with a unit at the SAME time. It not only puts stress on the teacher, but then we place our stress on the students which in turn back fires on us!!
All I can say to this topic is AWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!. As a beginning teacher, I find that I do not have enough time to complete anything. I always feel as if I am playing catch up.
ReplyDeleteWhen I look over the teaching instruction and how I manage time in the classroom, I believe I would say I do a fair job. I feel that working with Kindergarten I probably do not have the same pressures as Ms. Ricci. The problem that I struggle with is the constant pressure I place on myself. I find that I want to teach the young students so much that I end up falling short.
As for the school, again I believe the pressure is quite different from Ms. Ricci as to me. I find that especially at King, if children are able to behave appropriately then that it looked at as a huge success.