A response to September 20th, 2011 -Too Much Prep -Maryam

I agree with you when you mention that “ So teaching less content but relationally has more value than teaching a lot of content without understanding where the students are emotionally, socially and cognitively.” I believe that it is crucial that as educators we are teaching for a purpose and have a goal of how the content will be delivered. I also firmly believe that we need adequate time to plan for our students. I recall as an Early Childhood Educator, in one of my placements I had to document all of the spontaneous teaching that I did. At first I thought well if it is not planned, it’s not teaching. I later learned that I was able to teach a preschooler the concept of sink and float by being attuned to her interest in throwing pebbles, leaves and other things in a puddle on the playground. I have seen teachers not fully prepared and pull last minute lessons out of a hat; this is a dis-service to our students. I have also seen teachers spend all of their weekends writing lessons and are exhausted the rest of the week. This again is disservice to our students. I say this because if we are not fully energized and able to engage our students because we are swamped with work we are not able to meet the needs of our students. Just like everything else in life there must be a balance in planning and teaching authentically.