Teacher: What will you do with the time?

We just got word yesterday...

Two weeks extension on our Spring Break.  As a student this would have been the best news!  I remember the anticipation and joy of a snowday, but this?  Students must be loosing their minds! (Not to mention all of the parents out there...this is going to be a different time, keep your heads up!)

But this post is for the teachers out there...

 What are you going to do with this time?  

Some of you have been away from the brick and mortar classroom for a while.  My friends and colleagues in China, Hong Kong, and the rest of Asia are almost partial experts in online learning.  In fact, I spread the news that my district in Texas is closing its doors and I was overwhelmed by the ideas and options that was shared with me.  For some, you may be working in the online environment to keep school moving in a semblance of a direction.  For others, you have not heard anything about what your next steps are.  In either case, there is something that hasn't hit your teacher desk in a while...Time.

My wife asked me, upon hearing about the closure, what hobby/craft/skill do you want to learn with this newfound time that we have.  I believe I am still physically feeling the shock that I am not going back into the office on Monday, but the question took me back.  There are so many things that I have said I would want to learn or try, when time came available.  This made me think of my teacher friends. 

When surveyed, the resource that teachers 90% of the time wish they had more of was TIME.  As an Edtech professional, that is the biggest excuse that I hear from teachers when I am training.  

Now is the time.  Breakdown your lesson plans, think about the ideas you have always wanted to do.  Invest time into developing that game around your least favorite unit.  Think about the tools that you have been curious about and play with them with the intent of bringing them to your classroom when you get back.  What about the strategies and buzzwords that you have chosen to ignore?  Flipped classroom, Blended Learning, Project Based Learning, Gamification, or getting your notes, files, and plans onto the cloud so you don't need to be at your classroom computer anymore. Dive into the Google or Microsoft Training that has been looming on your desk for months.  Make yourself a better teacher now for when you go back into the classroom later.  

Side-note: For those who are not online teaching...consider what it will look like to be an online teacher and how you can prepare.  

We are in an incredible time in history...as a teacher, the time has become abundant. What will you do with it?
​
Look for more blog posts, and possible Lunch and Learn webinars coming soon from Taylor!