We all let time go to waste, it's an impossible and unrealistic goal to be perfectly efficient. However, there seems to me that we can do something about a lot of wasted time that I see at school.
Here's the all too common routine: teacher waiting for quiet, lining up, waiting for quiet again, finally walking to destination, and repeat on exit. If we include all the time spent waiting for attention and perfect silence among our students throughout the day, I wonder how much time that amounts to over a year? How could that time be better spent? Or how about computer lab time where students may work on some program such as IXL for an allotted period. Now there is nothing wrong with IXL, however I rarely see teachers actually teaching useful skills anymore. For example, key boarding, how to research using a variety of browsers, or even basic functions of whichever operating system they are using. The worst culprit I see however is the ubiquitous "free time". I'm all for rewards but as if kids don't already get enough screen time at home.
There are many other examples of time that could be better put to use but instead we do calendar time, spelling time, and centres. Albeit rare, I once listened to a ten minute long morning announcement...
So what can we do instead? How about more time actually reading and writing especially for the early grades that need the extra time to practice. For some, the school day may be their only time to do so. Research supports the idea of actually reading and writing for as much as half the day because to actually get better one needs the time to practice (Allington, 2002). I'm sure this same principle applies to other skills.
Can we find a way to cut back on this time wasting by forgoing orderly lineups, sometimes noisy classrooms? I think so. A noisy classroom doesn't necessarily mean there is no learning going on, and usually it is the opposite.
Sources:
My professor: Shelley Beleznay
Allington, R. (2002). What I've Learned about Effective Reading Instruction: From a Decade of Studying Exemplary Elementary Classroom Teachers. Phi Delta Kappan, 740-747.
Here's the all too common routine: teacher waiting for quiet, lining up, waiting for quiet again, finally walking to destination, and repeat on exit. If we include all the time spent waiting for attention and perfect silence among our students throughout the day, I wonder how much time that amounts to over a year? How could that time be better spent? Or how about computer lab time where students may work on some program such as IXL for an allotted period. Now there is nothing wrong with IXL, however I rarely see teachers actually teaching useful skills anymore. For example, key boarding, how to research using a variety of browsers, or even basic functions of whichever operating system they are using. The worst culprit I see however is the ubiquitous "free time". I'm all for rewards but as if kids don't already get enough screen time at home.
There are many other examples of time that could be better put to use but instead we do calendar time, spelling time, and centres. Albeit rare, I once listened to a ten minute long morning announcement...
So what can we do instead? How about more time actually reading and writing especially for the early grades that need the extra time to practice. For some, the school day may be their only time to do so. Research supports the idea of actually reading and writing for as much as half the day because to actually get better one needs the time to practice (Allington, 2002). I'm sure this same principle applies to other skills.
Can we find a way to cut back on this time wasting by forgoing orderly lineups, sometimes noisy classrooms? I think so. A noisy classroom doesn't necessarily mean there is no learning going on, and usually it is the opposite.
Sources:
My professor: Shelley Beleznay
Allington, R. (2002). What I've Learned about Effective Reading Instruction: From a Decade of Studying Exemplary Elementary Classroom Teachers. Phi Delta Kappan, 740-747.