Sarah Besand, a Teacher and Possip Reporter, shares ways to maximize planning time for teachers and administrators.
Helping teachers get – and maximize – planning time is more controversial than might be expected. The reality is time is a limited resource. So more time planning means less time with students.
Staff members share through their Pulse Checks that limited teacher prep time and extra meeting time can be exhausting as they try to drive student learning and achievement. Yet administrators are often under significant pressure for student achievement and have paperwork, meetings, and requirements–where teacher input and participation is vital!
With this dynamic, teachers feel at odds with their principals, principals have high stakes deadlines, and two people who share a goal – student achievement – can feel at odds.
So–what can we do about it?
Our first recommendation is not a groundbreaking solution, but rather a gentle reminder: compassion.
All of our jobs are challenging in different ways. Teachers: We see you making those quick copies, differentiating instruction for learners, attending two IEP meetings in a week and providing thoughtful input, and trying to preserve your lunch break. We also know how critical planning time is for your success as an educator as described in this Kappan article: “Time for teacher learning, planning critical for school reform”.
Administrators: Every day, we watch you balancing – attending to student behaviors, attending district meetings, building positive culture throughout your school, and hiring fantastic new talent. We know you want to preserve planning time for teachers, and we know how many competing priorities you have for that time.
To navigate this tension, here are four strategies for teachers and administrators:
1. Know your district’s policy
- Teachers: Knowing your district’s stated policy regarding planning time is essential. Do some research and find out how much protected planning time you are supposed to have each week. This information can often be found by checking your district or school’s handbook or contacting your local Teacher’s Association. Knowing this information can help you communicate more clearly to administration if you are not receiving this time.
- Administrators: You probably already know the stated planning time expectations from your district, and if that’s you, you are ahead of the game! However, it is still worth a double-check to make sure policies from previous years are the same. Additionally, knowing this information and abiding by it goes a long way in retaining teachers over the years.
2. Get insights from other districts and countries and models with planning time
Whether a teacher or administrator, having a vision for strong planning time and how it is used can inspire creativity for how you can create and support more planning time. Here are two resources that have data about different districts and countries:
- How much time do teachers spend teaching? | Education at a Glance 2019 : OECD Indicators | OECD iLibrary (oecd-ilibrary.org)
- Planning time may help mitigate teacher burnout—but how much planning time do teachers get? (nctq.org)
3. Use a script for a productive and compassionate conversation
- Teachers: You’ve done the first few steps of knowing how much planning time your district has set aside for you. You may see that you’re not currently getting that full time. Here is a potential conversation script:
- “Hey _________, is this a good time to talk? I am wondering if you are open to a conversation about teacher planning time. Our district sets aside ___ hours for daily planning time – which I appreciate. I know we have a number of meetings that matter to our success as a school. Unfortunately, that’s making it hard for teachers to get the full planning time. This means we have less time to plan the highest quality of lessons, to meet by subject or grade level, or to call parents or plan celebrations for students. Would you be open to brainstorming or chatting about ideas so we can both have the planning time we need – and meet the needs of admin?
- Administrators: Here’s a script for trickier conversations:
- “Hey ____________. Thank you for trusting me enough to share your feedback and worry. Thanks also for thinking not only about yourself, but other team members, and students. I can hear you are feeling ________ about your amount of planning time recently. I know how hard it is to juggle lots of demands as a teacher. I want to explore and brainstorm some of your ideas overall – so let’s plan some time to do that as well. Would you like to chat now? Or schedule some time separately? If you’re open to it now it would be helpful to look through what the past month has looked like from your perspective.
4. Maximize the planning time you have
- Teachers: Speaking from personal experience–this is hard! Planning time for so many teachers can feel like the only time throughout the school day to decompress. Taking a break can feel much better than powering through. Also, not only is planning time used for planning future lessons, it’s also easily taken up by grading, cleaning up your room from a recent class period, or making calls to parents–all important tasks as well, and the options are endless.
However, to stay committed to working inside contract hours as much as possible and respecting the time you do have, you must aim to maximize it. Often, I will create a daily list of “must do” and “may do” tasks for each day of the week I don’t have meetings, and this helps tremendously. Try it, and see how much time you save! - Administrators: If a teacher is getting the required amount of planning time and they still feel like they don’t have enough, offer to help problem solve or act as a sounding board as they create a strategy to maximize their time. Offering yourself as someone who is supportive, receptive, and willing to help problem-solve can go a long way in building trust with your teammates.
Teachers and administrator jobs are challenging in different ways. At Possip, we know people are doing their best to connect with and help students achieve their best–sometimes in very challenging situations. We’re always interested in improving communication and building trust within school communities; engaging in challenging conversations with compassion at the core can do just that.
The post Maximizing Planning Time: A Perspective for Teachers and Administrators appeared first on Possip | Engagement Platform | School Feedback Survey.
No comments:
Post a Comment