The idea of subtracting things from our lives in order to live more meaningfully is not a new concept. The concept of doing less to achieve more has been explored in education and beyond, yet we still continue to do SO much. Especially in schools. How can we do less in the classroom when there are so many expectations? Teachers spend their days talking, talking, moving, modeling, organizing, asking questions, answering questions, planning, repeating, grading, cleaning, telling, and repeating some more. Most days I think it's fair to say that teachers go home more tired than their students.
How can we change this? We have to change something because this hamster wheel of doing and doing isn't sustainable. Like all things in life, there are some things that are within our control in our work day, and there are some things out of our control. I want to focus on what's within our control that we might change to take back some of our time.
Clarify
First, we can need to get clear about what we are teaching in a lesson. In the Visible Learning way, we should lean into clarity - clarify what we are teaching, why we are teaching it, how to teach it, and then determine how students got it. In one lesson, we should teach one new concept or skill, not 3 or 4 or 5 different concepts or skills. Once you're clear on this part, let students show you what they know. A teacher talking more and more does not necessarily help students grasp the concept or skill better or faster, in fact, they might just start tuning out the teacher talk altogether. So after you teach the skill or concept, let them talk more! Turn and talk, think-pair-share, a fishbowl - there are so many ways to get them talking about what they are learning. This frees the teacher up to move around and individualize feedback. This is an opportunity to get the pulse on misconceptions and misunderstandings that may need to be addressed with the whole group. Getting clear on what we are doing, why we are doing it, and how we will do it, can free us up from doing too much that really doesn't help us or our students.
Prioritize
Next, get clear on your priorities - what must be done noon, by the end of today, by the end of the week, by the end of the month. I created a post about making lists for efficiency - you can read it here. Making lists helps us make decisions regarding the day and/or the week, while adding things to the calendar helps us plan ahead. It's important to know and believe, we do not have to do all of the grading, all of the talking, all of the repeating, all of the organizing, all of the modeling. Students can help with ALL of these! Set expectations, be clear, and show students how to do it. If you have to, you can incentive this, but if it's not always necessary. Using strategic language with students helps them recognize their effort as a benefit to whole class, which is incentive enough as students learn to see themselves as part of the classroom community. You really do not have to grade everything to know that you need to modify your instruction. Instead, keep notes as you confer with students to help streamline the feedback and teaching process. Let students self-assess and peer assess to provide feedback based on how they applied the skills and strategies they are learning. If your district requires a certain number of grades, plan these in advance if possible. Consider using rubrics and checklists for performance-based grading rather than grades for worksheet-type assignments. Prioritizing what truly needs to be done and by when, allows us to focus on what's important now.
Minimize
Minimize the tasks you have students do each day. This minimizes your workload, but it also maximizes instructional time! In order to do this, you will need to get clear on what you want students to do to demonstrate their understanding of newly taught skills and concepts. Overloading students with tasks places an emphasis on getting things done instead of reflecting on learning. They aren't in school to be task-rabbits and you aren't a teacher to assign to-do lists. Having a must-do/can-do list is ok, but really think about what's on it. How much of the tasks students complete create more work for you? Do they really need to visit 4 centers a day during ELA? Consider integrating phonics and writing (encoding) at one center. Or even reading and writing at one center when students read and then write about what they read using an essential question connected to the standard and skill you taught. Consider having students integrate 3 vocabulary words into their writing to determine their application and understanding of vocabulary words taught. It is possible to minimize the amount of work and get more information regarding what students know and can do! Another consideration to make this possible is to integrate disciplines into a project-based learning unit. This requires targeted instruction throughout an ongoing project where students are constantly reflecting on their learning to create a final product. Minimizing assignments, which lessons the amount of planning and grading you do, may end up providing students with more time to complete more meaningful assignments while you support them along the way!
Remove
While minimizing might be possible, a more difficult step in the doing less is simply removing things from the list of responsibilities. When adding something to a list, review the list, and if possible, remove something else. Removing something from the list might mean removing it entirely, giving it to someone else who can support, or just moving it to a different time. I do not mean removing the scheduled events that are part of your professional responsibilities, but the additional tasks we put on ourselves because we think they must be done. To make this decision, review the above recommendations to doing less: clarify, prioritize, and minimize. As a classroom teacher, I used to spend hours creating, preparing, organizing, and reorganizing centers. I would spend a lot of time (too much time) on Mondays explaining the new centers to students. It was too much. When I learned to remove those tasks and replace them with conferring and project-based learning, my world as a teacher was transformed. Not only was I more focused on my students' learning, but my students were more engaged and were learning MORE with less to do. Removing isn't always an option, but when it is, consider taking advantage of it to focus on what's most important.
Doing less to get more is possible. It is possible to achieve better results by focusing on essential tasks and responsibilities rather than spreading ourselves too thin. By narrowing our focus, we can dedicate more time and energy to high-quality instruction, assignments, and feedback. This can lead to deeper student understanding and better overall outcomes. Doing less creates a more impactful and meaningful educational experience for students while also improving the well-being and professional growth of teachers.
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