180 Days

This idea was very interesting to think about. It is also a major
complaint that most teachers seem to have. It is often said there is
just not enough time in the day to cover all of the material that needs
to be taught as well as dealing with scheduling conflicts and students
coming and going in and out of the room all day for pull out programs.
It is probably true that we should subtract a large portion of our
teaching time for these occurrences.

The problem is that I am not sure if it would be possible to do away with all of this. I think that this situation will always present itself as a complaint for
teachers. Maybe we need to be sure that some of what takes us away from
instructional time is still an educational experience for our students.
For example, making an effort to be sure that assembly programs are
worthwhile and supportive of our curriculum is a very good idea. It is
frustrating but some things are out of our control. If the district is
supportive of birthday parties in the room, then it is difficult for
the classroom teacher to make this change alone. I wonder what people
in the business world would do if they were told that their employees
should cease working for extended periods of time each day to pass out
cupcakes and juice boxes to the entire office? I don't think this would
go over well. Our profession is very different than theirs in that we have the lives of children in our hands and some of these things do brighten the day of a child. The problem is that we as teachers must always be aware of our
first responsibility, which is to educate children. Many times, especially in the primary grades, we are viewed similarly to cruise directors. I am not sure of what the answer is to this, but I agree that this is a problem.