Teacher tip of the week: Getting down, getting done

November 28, 10:17 AMOrlando Education ExaminerElizabeth Randall

           Teachers want to be slackers.

I know I do. I sat in my living room the other night, planning lessons, grading papers while my husband, mother-in-law and daughter watched Dodgeball. I don’t even have time to watch an inane movie. When I watch a film, it’s something like The Crucible, and it’s for school.

           The trouble with slacking is that it’s cumulative. If I slack on grading 150 papers, in a few days it’s 300 papers. Then 450 papers.  There is an impulse to throw up one’s hands and look for a simpler career such as sanitizing former meth labs. How does a teacher stay motivated when the daily grind erodes their motivation?

            First, I can tell you what NOT to do. Forget philosophical musings. Do not take that deep cleansing breath. Forego your mantra. What you need to address the boring mundane tasks associated with teaching, is energy and speed.

Let’s start with the stack of ungraded papers. Estimate how many minutes you need to spend on each page. If it’s a multiple choice, matching, or short answer test, it’s less than a minute. If it’s an essay or a research paper, the time may go up to five to six minutes per paper. That means you have anywhere from two to 15 hours of grading time every few days.

You make this a habit. You need to become compulsive about completing this daily task. Extending your work day, every day, an additional two to three hours to grade papers should become a routine, and not any more of a chore than brushing your teeth or taking out the garbage.

Planning for lessons is more complicated and more varied. If you are a veteran teacher with time tested curriculum, your planning time is obviously less. A first year or a returning teacher could spend as much as 10 to 15 hours a week on planning. Most of that work tends to fall on the weekend, and it tends to work better in broad uninterrupted chunks of time.

Just as a lawyer needs to accrue billable hours, new teachers and teachers with new curriculum have no choice except to put in the time. The extra hours don’t last forever; usually 10-12 months is the cut off for homework hamsters. The copying and filing portion can be done during school planning period. That should shave enough time so teachers only need to work one half day on the weekend.

Six or seven hours of sleep a night is enough for anyone. Anyone can find time for six to eight hours of leisure a week. When you need to relax, just do it. Watch something stupid on TV. Eat junk food. Sometimes we don’t want to be smart; we don’t care about being healthy. The epitome of the slack is the word lack with a slight hiss.

The rest of the time, don’t relax. Rev up with Brewers Yeast, caffeine and Red Bull. Attack your teaching duties with energy and zeal. A great athlete once said that:  Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity. Wimps don’t become teachers. Since you did, just get it down and get it done.