My family’s “in-laws” always note that we never drive anywhere in my hometown taking the same route twice. The route changes entirely depending on who’s driving, but we still get to where we need to go. As a teacher and parent, I know this time of year is about change. Students are starting in new grades, schools, and classrooms. Families are shifting from summer schedules to school schedules. The fall sports and other extra-curricular activities are also getting rolling. In these times of transition, I find it helpful to pause occasionally to consider “who’s driving.”
Why consider “who’s driving”?
As a person setting the schedule, thinking about “who’s driving,” and perhaps also why they are driving, can be necessary for many reasons. First, I need to identify what I am trying to accomplish. This could be getting my family out of the house with everything they need and to school on time. In a classroom, it might be fitting in all of my core content and having enough time left over to give students the extra support they need. Next, I need to step back and evaluate if I have chosen the correct driver for the job. This means that the route or schedule is determined by someone who thoroughly understands the purpose, has considered all the options, and is willing to find a different route if there is a problem.
I recently had to evaluate “who’s driving” while working with one of my home instruction students. Oliver* and I worked two hours daily at a local library over the summer to catch up on instructional hours. The first week, I had a set schedule for Oliver that outlined the tasks we would do and when we would take breaks. Oliver and I took a few days to settle into the routine as usual. We started to stretch academics to include some new content and developed a nice rhythm for how using the library resources could fit into our breaks. The problem was the transition into those breaks.
If you are a parent or a teacher, I am sure you have encountered those moments when something doesn’t go as planning. The activity takes too long. Suddenly, frustration rises, and you realize that you need an extra break. Other times, kids zoom right through a new task quickly. Then, the realization sets in that you haven’t planned enough to fill your time. A combination of these scenarios led me to my “who’s driving” moment.
Consider the Goal
After a particularly rough session, I left the library and reflected on how I structured my time with Oliver. My goal was already defined for me by the school. Oliver and I needed to cover his goals to make up for a given amount of missed time. I knew what concepts and skills we needed to work on daily. When I looked at Oliver’s schedule, those were clearly evident in our daily schedule. The struggle, I realized, was in the timing of our breaks. I had a break listed after every two or three tasks. In my mind each task had a beginning, middle, and end, and it made the most sense to take a break between tasks. As I thought about “who’s driving,” I realized that while the content wasn’t flexible, the structure of our time and breaks was.
Consider the Driver
When working with Oliver, I was currently doing all the driving. It seemed logical at first. I knew the time we had and the academics we needed to cover. I realized that maybe I had not picked the perfect route for us. Oliver’s attention to the task, level of confidence and understanding, and, let’s be honest, his mood and motivation to do his work needed to be considered as I decided when we would take a break. With this new revelation, Oliver and I used a timer: 15 minutes of work followed by five minutes of break time. This meant that if a task was more challenging and took longer, we might take a break in the middle of it. It also meant that sometimes we did three tasks and other times only part of one task between breaks. With this new system, we got to all our academics most days. Nobody’s perfect, right? It also meant that Oliver’s attention span, not my activity, determined our breaks.
So, “who’s driving” in your house or classroom right now?
As a parent and a teacher, I know getting everything done in the limited time available is a constant struggle. In this very transitional time of year, I encourage you to think about “who’s driving” and ask yourself if the right person is driving. My realization that I could own planning our lessons for the day but also let Oliver drive when it came to when we took a break made our time together incredibly more productive. It was hard initially for me to stop in the middle of something, but I quickly saw that sometimes a break in the middle made our time more productive.
So, whether you are a parent trying to get everyone in your house up, dressed, fed, packed, and out the door or a teacher trying to fit all the content in with enough time to give students the extra support they need, make sure the right person is driving and that you are considering all possible routes that can get you there.
Written by LauraMarie Coleman
*The student’s name has been changed to protect his privacy.