Every teacher that I have EVER met struggles with one central component of our society: time.

Time is very important to us. In just one school day, parents, teachers, and students are all bustling to get to school on time, finish homework on time, eat lunch on time, get to the bus on time, and so on and so forth.

The biggest one for teachers, I feel, is that they need to teach all the required material on time.

After all, teachers only get one school year with these students, and if they don’t get the students to understand a certain number of concepts by the time the students take the State Tests, it looks like the teacher isn’t doing their job.

So what ends up happening is this:

• Students all face the teacher
• The teacher frantically teaches the concepts in bullet-train fashion, hoping that the students will all grasp it because of how simply he/she taught it
• The students all take notes, hoping that even though they don’t understand it right now, they magically will later when they review their notes
• The teacher gives homework to the students
• The students work on the homework, and turn in mediocre work
• The teacher teaches more, hoping that the students will improve by the time the test comes
• The students struggle to understand
• The test is given
• Less than half the class actually understands the material, but since enough of them scrape by and pass the test, the teacher moves on to the next subject

Have you experienced this? I know I have, on multiple occasions.

This is why we need to start caring a little less about time, and a little more about real learning.

Implications

Why do we care so much about time? What is driving this stigma? Well, let’s look at our culture a little deeper.

Let’s say, for example, that you have an appointment at 3:15 PM, but you get a call from your sister around 2:30. She tells you that she is stranded on the highway about an hour away from home, and she has locked her keys in the trunk by accident. What will you choose to do?

You have a few options:

1. Miss your appointment to bring them the spare key to their car.
2. Tell them that you’ll hurry out there as soon as you finish your appointment.
3. Make them call a locksmith to get themselves out of the situation, because they were the reason the keys got shut in the trunk in the first place.
4. [Your alternate option here]

(When I presented this to my husband, he said that he would call on a friend to take the key to his sister, so that he could still get her helped AND go to the appointment… but my husband always searches for a win-win. But if there ARE no other options.. what would you do?)

There are two types of people when it comes to this kind of dilemma: those who value relationships with others above all else, and those who value time and tasks above others.

If people and relationships are important to you, you’ll miss your appointment and help your sister. If keeping a schedule is more important to you, you’ll go to the appointment and help her afterwards, or have her call a locksmith.

Of course, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “But BOTH are important to me!”

If you said this, you’re in the same category as me. When presented with this dilemma, I would ultimately choose to go help my sister because I love her. However, I would feel incredibly guilty about missing the appointment.

This has happened a lot to me. Ultimately, I will choose people and relationships over the process of time. It is more important to me to connect with the person I’m talking to and make sure that their needs are met, than to adhere to any specific schedule.

When I teach, I usually go over-time, because I am teaching it thoroughly, to the understanding of the furthest behind in the class. After all, what is a good teacher if they don’t help the ones who struggle?

Personally, I feel that when I do have a classroom of my own, I will plan for the ones who are far behind, and how I will reach them, both through the lessons and conferencing. I will assess often and make sure that my lessons truly are catered to the group of students I have.

For more on how to use tests in the classroom effectively, see my post A Discussion on Assessment!

Leave a Comment!

• Which would you choose to do: go to the appointment or help your sister and miss your appointment?
• Why is time such a big deal to you? Is it a big deal?
• What will you do in your classroom to make sure that your students are effectively learning the material?

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