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End of the Year Crunch

Are you feeling it?
Summer is coming.
Time is up.
Seventeen more days.
We're making lists.  
Sharing data.
Using every last tick of instructional time.
She's moving?
Oh, they need to be separated.
Intensive.  Strategic?
Keep an eye on him.

We have all year to stress about our students and what we are teaching, yet it catches up to us in May.  We feel the push.  We want what is best for our students and prepare them for the next grade.  We plan extra mini-lessons.  We plan with big ideas.  Then the questions begin:  Did I do enough?  Is she ready?  What about this?  I still need to teach them that.  It feels like May is jammed and crammed.

We should be feeling this pressure all school year.  We should feel this concerned and aware of who is sitting in front of us.  We should be worried about what we need to teach them to move them forward.  All. Year.  With excitement and enthusiasm.

Let's teach every month as if it's always the last month of school.  I bet we'd be amazed at the results.

Are you feeling it?
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Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 17, 2011 at 12:53 PM

    Yep, I'm feeling it. :) Thanks for this post. You're right, we should teach with urgency every day of the year.
    Ruth

    ReplyDelete
  2. Linda BMay 17, 2011 at 12:54 PM

    I love the idea of teaching with such intention and thoughtfulness every month, but really believe that this final frantic work done in May is because of all the goodbyes and celebrations, i.e., the add-ons to closure. They take so much time and energy to do them well that teachers get very tired.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 17, 2011 at 12:57 PM

    I'm on the Board of Directors for the local Jewish Day School. When I hear about all of the end of the year activities they have planned, it brings me back to when I was teaching full-time. There's never enough time and it feels like the doors to the schoolhouse are closing as you're trying to pack everything in.

    Good luck in the last month of the school year!

    -Stacey

    ReplyDelete
  4. Deb DayMay 17, 2011 at 1:28 PM

    Feeling it here too, Michelle. Sometimes seems there aren't enough hours in the day. I like your thought about teaching with that intensity every month of the year--I think as a high school teacher who teaches a semester class, I have that feeling a little more because I don't have students all year long. The push to move them forward comes twice a year instead...

    Happy last days of school. The end will be here before you know it!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Elizabeth G.May 17, 2011 at 7:31 PM

    Good luck! I may not be teaching this year but my stomach got in a knot when May arrived. It's always felt like that procrastination moment when you try to pull it all together. I think continued intensity and purpose will be my moto next year.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMay 17, 2011 at 7:36 PM

    Kudos to you for keeping the push going through the end! Around here, teachers and students alike have slacked off with the end of the year rapidly approaching. It's so frustrating to me!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Diana MartinMay 17, 2011 at 7:56 PM

    I think you are right! It is good to feel that urgency. Kids can learn a lot in 17 days!

    ReplyDelete
  8. LynnMay 23, 2011 at 7:19 AM

    Once again you have inspired me! I'm loving this!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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