It was a great teaching/learning week, but a not so great paperwork week. It takes time to xerox, print, prep, and process the materials related to learning. I typically try to stay a week ahead, but this week due to numerous issues, that didn't happen. So I was at the xerox machine for an hour this morning and at the school phone for 30 minutes trying to catch up. It wasn't the way I hoped to spend the day.
In school life, there simply isn't much time for phone calls, copying, and room organization. All of that falls on your personal schedule. It's all work I don't mind doing, but once in a while it catches up all at once and that's what happened this week. Ideally as educators we'd have more prep time and/or administrative support to do all the administrative work we have to do, but as of now, almost all work related to our expectations is our work on our time.
That being said, it's time to move on to next week's plans. We'll continue to solidify multiplication skill and concept, and then we'll move forward to division study and a computation assessment prior to the holiday break.
It's also evident that students are a bit more tired than usual due to special family events, holiday celebrations, concerts, and more, so it's more important than ever to relax a bit and spend that extra time attending to students' needs and interests. After all they're still little kids who deserve lots of love and play.
This always happens at the big transitions in the school year. You gear up to teach deep and well, and the students demonstrate greater needs in the area of care and attention. Hence you reroute the path to meet their needs and respond to the special events and spirit of the time whether it's Halloween, the December holidays, test season, or the end of the year. Onward.
