Too Tight Schedules Do Not Enrich Teaching/Learning

There was an attempt to add just one more thing to my teaching/learning plate, and the reality is that one more thing will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. In real life teaching, educators can't teach, teach, teach without time for activities that aren't tightly scheduled, activities such as conflict resolution, collecting notices, checking in on a child with special circumstances, discussing a current event and so many more. When we are planned so there's no time or space to take a breath, catch up with students, and reflect for a moment, the teaching and learning start to go down hill. While I do believe a good pattern of teaching well helps students, I don't believe that when schedules are wound so tight that there's no room to see, teach, or respond to individual students that we're able to do the best that we can do. I think that educators and leaders who work with only a few children at a time or no children at all sometimes forget about what it's like to lead a class of more than twenty students all day long.