My principal uses the phrase often with our later elementary students. “Your best effort takes time!” he reminds them again and again. I heard these words in my head during the hours I spent in my classroom this weekend. I let them roll over me and soak into my work acknowledging what I already believe to be true: in order to be the best teacher I can be, it takes time outside of the school day. This has always been true for me. I have always been at school long befor the students and I have spent time on many, many weekends in my classroom prepping materials and planning lessons. I rarely, if ever bring work home with me, but I do spend many hours beyond the 8-4 working on plans. In fact, the annual festival going on in my town this weekend was always one that I all but missed. So early in the school year, I have always spent much of my afterhours time in my classroom and so I rarely participated in the activities of the festival.
I know it’s not a choice every teacher can or wants to make. I know many have children and families to balance their time with but for me putting in this time is just part of the profession I chose. In order for me to be the best teacher I can be, I have to put in more time than the school day provides. It’s what I expected to do when I got my degree. It’s a truth about education that I saw my dad model during his years as a teacher and administrator. My best effort means I am doing everything I can to put best practices into my lessons as often as possible. It means using the right materials and the right groupings to maximize learning and growth and I have never found a way to make all that happen within the contractual hours of the day. I want my time in this profession to be more than just a way to pay my bills, I want to feel fulfilled following this calling, and to feel that sense of accomplishment, I have to invest more of myself and my time than one planning period a day.
So I spent much of this weekend, much of August and even parts of July putting together differentiated spelling and decoding lessons. I’ve known for years that my spelling fell short of what the research shows are best practices, but I was focused on creating better reading groups and so spelling and decoding had to wait until I could put all the pieces together and work the logistics out. The strides I made in the last two years differentiating reading made me even more eager to get the pieces in place for spelling and decoding work. This year I have more students and less in-room help, but I didn’t want that to be an excuse, just a challenge to work through.
When I left school this afternoon, passing through town where the festival was all but winding down, I didn’t feel like I missed out, instead I felt elated. I felt triumphant. I feel downright giddy that starting in just the third week of school this year, I have enough data to make meaningful learning groups and I have the resources created and in place to differentiate for all students in meaningful ways. I feel like my best effort is in place, even if it took time to get there.
And for the first time in a very long time, I’m excited to go to school tomorrow and see how it all falls into place. I know that I will still need to tweak and modify but I also know that no student is doing work beneath their ability or simply to keep them busy while I work with others. I know that the precious time I have with these students will be well spent for all of us. My best effort took a lot of time but my sense of accomplishment and pride is well worth it.
Teaching at 3am 