How to Do It All & Fit It All In
(Secret: No One Does It All & Fits It All In)
Blog takeover by Kristi Mraz
“How do I do it all?”
That was a moving and motivating question I received from Becky, a teacher who wrote on behalf of herself and some of her colleagues in Washington, DC.
Becky’s question echoed roughly one million teachers - including myself.
We feel pulled in twenty different directions.
We feel like we can’t do one thing well.
We’re afraid to cut anything out of our lives in fear of hurting someone else’s feelings - or worse, letting ourselves down.
I don’t have a good answer to this question. I do have some lines in the metaphorical sand that I try to keep myself from crossing, despite the temptations all around me.
But first, a secret. (I am going to whisper it. So, lean in close here.)
No one fits it all in.
(Glances up and looks furtively from side to side.)
There is always something I feel I could do better on; something I have to cut out; something that bombs; something that nags me that I don’t have an answer for.
If there’s a lesson before the lesson, it’s this: of all the lines I have drawn for myself, perhaps the most important one of all is - be kind to yourself.
Here are a few of my other guiding principles to navigate the question of doing it all.
Have a Schedule - More Importantly, Have an Agenda
I posted a daily schedule in my room. It looked like many daily schedules in the world. Our day usually progressed along thusly:
8:45am: Morning Meeting
8:55am: Word Study: phonemic awareness, phonics, handwriting in Stations
9:25am: Writing Workshop
10:00am: Shared Reading
10:15am: Reading Work Choice
10:45am: Read Aloud (Sometimes in a content area, sometimes not)
11:00am: Afternoon Meeting (usually around social growth)
11:20am: Lunch/Recess
12:15pm: Inquiry - Social Studies/Science
12:45pm: Math
1:15pm: Choice Time
2:00pm: Special Class - Gym, Music, Etc
2:55pm: Pack and Snack
3:05pm: Dismissal
NOTEWORTHY COMMENT 1
If we as a class were “on” about something, then we stole minutes from something else. Sometimes, the afternoon meeting gets cut, sometimes word study is done for the whole group in 10 minutes. Sometimes, choice time and inquiry blend together. I don’t get caught up in specific minutes because I know we will get the time back another day. You don’t have one day to teach kids - you have a year.
NOTEWORTHY COMMENT 2
We have lost entire afternoons when the class gets caught up in something. More on that later; remember you have an entire year to teach - not one day.
So what does this schedule have to do with my agenda? Well, I am glad you asked. I see content as the byproduct of learning how to learn. For me, it was like I finally started to see the matrix. When you look at your curriculum and think, ‘OH MY, I HAVE 183 DAYS OF LESSONS. WHAT IF THERE IS A SNOW DAY? MY LIFE IS OVER.’ then, every day and every minute becomes fearfully guarded for your agenda.
But if your agenda is: ‘I have 183 days to help these munchkins become persistent and active problem solvers, flexible thinkers, and resilient and kind people,’ you change from watching your curriculum to watching your class.
You don’t really have 183 of anything to teach. You have, at best, ten. Now, they are not easy; but all the little things you teach are often part of a bigger thing. And, sometimes, it is just the little thing taught in lots of different ways. It becomes easier to be flexible to keep the big things in mind.
So you saw my schedule, this is my actual agenda:
8:45am: Develop persistence and flexibility around the work we do in the classroom; practice kindness and resilience; be active in each job you take on; be brave; trust that play is work
3:05pm: Pack and Snack
Trust that Play is Work
I don’t make time for play. The whole day is play. I still have the same goals and objectives that others might have. I follow the same standards, I change the journey there. A surprising amount of my brain power is spent studying and reflecting on my kids to find and furnish the path we will take.
Play is my top priority and when lessons bomb (and they do) I think: Was there another way to engage the class in this work?
Workshop Teaching is The Way to Go
I don’t think I could do any of this without teaching everything within workshop structures. (For this I owe a debt of gratitude to TCRWP for setting me on this path.)
Essentially, every subject starts with a whole class gathering that is five to seven minutes in length. Kids go off to pursue independent projects or work, and I hustle around pulling small groups and teaching one-on-one. We come back together for a reflective conversation and grow together.
I try to choose three to four big ideas to tackle across a study. In writing stories, it may be:
Structuring a story so it is a sequence of events;
Elaborating pictures (and words for those that are ready);
Writing lots and lots of books so each one gets better than the next.
A month is a reasonable amount of time to accomplish these things as long as I remember this: it is not always about what’s next; it’s about how can this child learn this “thing” in a deeper way or more independently?
Workshop teaching allows me to work with children in a way that values their personal goals and projects as well as support them as they move to do this “thing” better and more independently. (That “thing” could be one of many things, including [but not limited to]: sequencing, adding more thoughtful detail into pictures, writing words with the aid of tools.)
In Conclusion: Let’s Get Real for A Minute
I would be a horrible liar if I did not say that I have doubts all the time.
I would be a horrible liar if I said that there were days when a math lesson from the book never happens.
I would be a horrible liar if I said that sometimes I just don’t feel like playing.
I have to believe, and I do believe, that if I teach children to engage in playful learning, lead them to pursuing passions, and ditch the schedule every once in a while that they will meet the standards of the grade AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, they will become the type of citizens that we need in the world.
