Finding Time When There Is No Time

How does one find time when there's no time to be found? Sounds super philosophical, I know. However, it's an honest question that many of us ask ourselves daily! Whether you're in the teaching profession, any other professional field, you're a parent, or a busy HUMAN in general, it's hard to find time when you can't seem to find it. Our lives are incredibly busy and packed with tasks, schedules and a whole list of to-dos. Unfortunately, we don't always get those things done, nor do we feel we have time to do it. You've most likely heard the phrase, "there's never enough time in the day." Man, isn't that just the TRUTH!? As a teacher, I feel myself repeating this quote all the time in my head. Honestly, it should be plastered on my forehead for whenever someone asks, "how are things going this school year?"

Our school district is creeping up on Fall Break, if you can believe that! With Fall Break comes the end of Quarter 1 of school and the start of Quarter 2. What does this mean for me, a Kindergarten teacher, you might ask? Well, I'll tell you....

REPORT CARD TIME.

For our Kindergarteners, we have a four page report card that we fill out throughout the year. Four pages, 19+ students, I'll let you do the math. I only teach basic addition now! This report card details all the skills taught and assessed in Kindergarten, showing development and growth from the start of the year to the end. It's a working document that we update and send out every quarter, adding comments and data for each individual student. To put it plain and simple, report cards take TIME. We have to assess our students first to get the data, and then we have to put all that data into their individual report card documents. The report cards require a lot of intention when inputting scores and academic information. For example, we mark off every letter of the alphabet that a student can identify, both upper & lowercase. There's also a section where we identify which of those 26 letters the students can sound out. Talk about meticulous!

You want to know another reason why report cards take a long time to complete? They have to be done interview style, 1:1, with every student in our class. See what I mean about not having time when you need time?

Now, let me get to the meat of my "time sandwich," which goes back to the big question of finding time when there's no time. When do we get all the assessing for report cards done during our school day? The big challenge we always find ourselves in every quarter is figuring out when to assess our students. During a regular day, we are booked back-to-back with academic blocks, related arts classes, lunch periods and recess. We are non-stop all day long until we put kids on the busses at the end of the day. In other words, we're doing our jobs and being effective teachers. Nowhere in our schedule does it say "Assessment Block," though I strongly wish it did. Imagine the time we would find!

I wish we could take a week of no teaching and just assess. In a perfect world, kids could stay occupied all day long with busy work and fun activities, completely independent. We could pull kids one at a time and do all our tests, checkpoints and assessments. We wouldn't have to stop what we were doing to entertain a group of kids, tell kids what to do or correct behavior (I hope you laugh at that like I did when I wrote it, as that's the most unrealistic view of being a teacher). Regardless, we don't have an actual part of the day where we can carve out time to solely assess academic skills. So, we have to create it. For my fellow teachers that may struggle to find time when there is no time, here's when I feel it's appropriate to get those assessments done:

• Morning Work: As kids come in every morning, there's either a morning work paper on their desk or they are doing an activity box. This is a quiet, soft-launch to the rest of the day, which is perfect for when you need to grab a kid or two to assess. You're not actively teaching during this morning routine, so it's appropriate to pull kids and get some of those assessments done.

• Station Work: I love station work, no matter if it's math, reading, science, you name it! Station work is engaging work! Kids are working in groups around the room, completing a task or doing a game together. I have 3 sets of stations throughout my school day, and they each focus on a different subject. Within each set there are 5 different activities going on, each with their own specific skill. My students are occupied and focused (most of the time, they're still five year olds, for pete's sake) on their station, so it's a comfortable time to pull kids and complete a checkpoint or do some informal observations on academic content.

• End of the Day, Pack Up & Dismissal: The end of the day can be a chaotic time for many teachers and their classrooms, but I also see the end of the day as a calm down opportunity. Kids can pack up, help clean up the room, do a quiet activity, there are so many options to do during this time. Pull kids to assess if you have a few minutes. Even if you only get to one child, it's still more than you would have gotten done if you didn't use that time.

While these parts of the day are definitely my preference and what I encourage teachers to do when they need time to assess, I also know you may have to go "off-script" and not follow your lesson plan/schedule for a brief period of time. I'll be completely honest and say that I've not done a lesson on a certain day, or I've cut a lesson short so I could find the time I needed to get stuff done. It doesn't make me any less of a teacher or a person, nor are the kids losing out on important academic content. It simply means I needed to find time when there wasn't time, and I made sure to make up for what I didn't get to on a different day.

For all my teacher friends who are reading this, you might be thinking about the big elephant in the room: what if I get observed by administrators while I'm assessing? Well, what if you do? IT HAPPENS. I've had observations done where I'm assessing a child or a group of students, and believe me when I tell you that it's okay, I lived through it, and you will too! Yes, ideally your administrator would rather see you "in action," teaching a new skill or working with a group of students. That's the point of being a teacher. But, you have to realize that assessing is also being "in action," and it's part of being a teacher as well. If you're observed assessing a student, it doesn't make you a bad teacher, rather it displays the reality of your day in your classroom. It can also be a test of your classroom management, where they see what the other kids are doing while you assess a student. You have to get the assessing done, and if that just so happens to be the time to do it, then it's okay. You have to find time when there isn't any time to be found.

Whether you teach Kindergarten or any other grade, it's okay to find and make time when you aren't given any. If you're not a teacher and you're struggling to find the time you need to get something done, it's okay to make adjustments or cut down on something. We have to encourage ourselves to find the time when we don't have it already. It's not always easy and sometimes it throws a wrench in our chaotic, life plans. As I said before, IT HAPPENS. I say this to myself as much as I say it to you, because I'm currently overwhelmed with the assessments I need to complete myself, and I'm wondering when the heck I'm going to get them done. I'm going to follow my own advice and create the time where I don't have any. I hope you can do the same and find your time when there is no time to be found.

Sharing Perspective. Encouraging Perseverance.

~Kendall