Time is power in school life.
Those with the time to meet, plan, respond and organize during the day typically have more "power" over system decisions and direction. Whereas those without time, those who are in direct-care or service often have little say or "power" over direction and decisions simply because they are on task all the time and in a sense, unreachable with regard to discussions and decisions.
When auditing roles and responsibilities, it is important to notice who has time. That probably differs from school to school and community to community depending on organizational structure.
What else would you look at with regard to roles and responsibilities audits? I offer the following list.
1. Time: Direct service vs. planning, research and response time.
2. Responsibility for planning, implementing, assessing and analyzing teacher efforts that target and respond to individual, small group or whole class learning needs and interests.
3. Responsibility for parent communication via social media, email, websites, conferences, phone calls and meetings.
4. Responsibility for duties such as playground duties, lunch duty, bus duty and hall duty.
5. Curriculum planning and prep.
6. Professional Development.
As you know, I believe the time has come to re-look and revise roles and responsibilities in the school house to best effect learning and teaching for all students. I also believe that most professionals in a school should be responsible for direct service to students in targeted, meaningful ways that move students from knowing to unknowing with the "bridging the gap" process Hattie describes in Making Learning Visible for Teachers--a process that includes defining the success criteria (based on standards, assessments, student needs, interests and passion), utilizing a number of student-centered strategies to achieve that criteria (adapting along the way), assessing the outcome, analyzing and making next step decisions. This process creates an urgency and dedication to both the process and students which optimizes our professional time to maximize learning and engagement for all students.
Who has the time and how does he/she use that time is an important question when it comes to teaching students well. It's a question that leads me back to my own work and reflection on the time I have and the way I use it to best effect student learning.
