It is always the same at this time of year. I am sure that you are feeling it to. The change of pace. When we break up from school I know that I will immediately slow down and change into a different slower gear. It is just great.
One of the most important ways this affects my professional work is that it allows me thinking time. During the working term it is so difficult to find quality time to relax and think about the work you are doing, the projects you have had success with, the new tools you have used, the ones you yet still want to explore or the blog posts you have read! So little time. I feel a mental decluttering as soon as I am a few days into the break and it allows me the freedom to peruse some connections or projects I have had to ignore.
Changing current pedagogies in your classroom to embrace a powerful new tool requires quality connections to be made and this, in my opinion, demands quality time. I am lucky enough to have non contact time to plan, prepare and assess at school – we call it PPA time in England. But there is no T for Thinking in there. I would call it TAPPT – deliberately in that order too. Thinking, Assessment, Planning, Preparation and Thinking time.
Recently I went for a walk with my son, I love to just amble along at his pace. It’s great, there is no hurry. He came across a tree and just wandered around it a couple of times. Exploring the possibilities it held – feeding his curiosity. He stopped and continued to walk – but then he went back to the solitary trunk and went round again. Time was no issue.
There it was, exactly what I enjoy about the holidays during the year, no time constraint – a freedom to wander off but then return to a thought if you want to. For me that is what I want from a teaching job – built in reflective time to explore ideas. Not as a bolt on or rooted in the time away from school, but intrinsically part of your working routine. A routine that understands and values how important that time is.
I have always remembered a phrase Bill Watterson used in a Calvin and Hobbes strip:
There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
Do you find you slow down during the holidays? Does your school allow you quality time to develop ideas and make connections in your work?
During the holiday period do you find yourself thinking much more clearly about utilising technology in the classroom?
Hello Tom, I agree with your post “Round and Round the tree again”. It seems when we have little ones at home we can enjoy time and space and the world through their eyes, for a bit. However, we need to build in that time for ourselves and our work and our play! As long as schools look for students to give “one answer” to questions, and as long as teachers follow a “teacher’s manual” we in education continue to look down a tunnel with very few options. Like you, I value the walk in the woods, or park, looking for alternative paths. Enjoy your break! Following you on twitter now:-). Cheryl
Too true. As great as PPAP is, it always feels like there isn’t enough! I love the holidays when I get to ponder, think and scheme. I’ve often thought that teachers should get 20% time, like Google employees.
And then maybe, we could give it to the pupils as well…