A Teacher’s Lament

If I were in charge of the world, which I’m not, I would earmark public money for public schools only.

I would make sure teachers had one day every month for planning with their grade level partners.

Report cards would happen at the end of the year.

Patent-Teacher conferences would happen four times a year. Families and students would have 15 minutes or more to talk with their teacher.

Everyone would get a copy of any agreements or Ahas! discussed.

Teachers would have 30 minutes, every day, to plan, create, dream. learn, explore – together or alone.

Class size would be capped at 20 or 22, no matter the grade.

Teachers would collaboratively design lessons and units.

Assessments would be mostly composed of observations and conversations and individualized to the needs of each child or group of children.

Teachers would have time to read professional literature and commit to try out something new in their classrooms and discuss it with each other later.

Teachers would have agency and make decisions based on research – self or other – and what makes sense and feels right. Intuition is underrated.

Even if some of these things were facts and not just wishes, students would learn more and better.

The classroom would be a more joyful place to be.

Teachers would have time to address individual student needs rather than feeling like it’s all too much.

There are other things I can add to this list, but I’ll stop here.

A girl can dream, can’t she?

Posted to: Two Writing Teachers Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge