Always Running Out of Time? Apply Scarcity and Budgeting to Your Classroom
By Brian Rock
We’ve all been there. There was a cool project you wanted to do with your students, but you didn’t. Or there was a timely event going on, but you didn’t discuss it.
Because there’s so much to get through in one year, and there’s just not enough time.
Well I’ll let you in on a little secret. You’ll never make it through everything in that thick curriculum guide. The sooner you realize that, the better. You shouldn’t feel guilty about glossing over some things and skipping over others in order to spend time teaching what you really enjoy.
After all, that’s what your students are actually going to remember.
We’re Set Up to Fail by the Curriculum
When I first started teaching, I took a look at the curriculum guide for my course, Early U.S. History. It listed sixteen units, and we were supposed to cover everything from pre-colonization to the end of the 19th century.
It seemed daunting, but I tried. I moved as quickly as I could, but something always got in the way. There was an assembly or a fire drill, and I’d have to spend some time re-grouping. Or students bombed a CONTINUE READING: Always Running Out of Time? Apply Scarcity and Budgeting to Your Classroom - Teacher Habits