Fitting It All In

Fitting It All In

And just like that, we enter January... where HAS the time gone? I truly cannot believe we have officially completed the first half of the school year with our students and I still have so much that I want to accomplish with them. If I drafted a TO-DO list for the remainder of the year, at the tippy-top, you would find two words, FORMAL WRITING.

As you may already know, each of our WONDERS Units outlines a writing genre that we should tackle for the duration of those six weeks. In a perfect world, our days would run smoothly and effortlessly, and we would complete every-single-thing on that suggested WONDERS pacing guide. But truth be told, that rarely happens. And unfortunately, the formal writing pieces that we so very much love (not kidding, I love writing with my kids) gets pushed aside in hopes that we will get to it... soon?

So How Does One Fit It All In?

I recently attended a professional development opportunity provided by OMSD, Providing A Balanced Literacy Diet, and I learned something which was so valuable that I had to share. In short, "It's all about the task." This phrase forced me to look at what I was accomplishing every day with my students and decide if the task was meaningful and if my students were engaged enough that they would master the standards through this task. 

Like most educators, I find writing to be one of the most powerful tools you can use as a life-long scholar, and I want to make sure my students master all of the writing genres before they leave me at the end of the year. So how did I tie together my love for writing, my new found knowledge of meaningful tasks, and fitting it all in? Here's how!

"YOU WILL NEVER 'FIND' TIME FOR ANYTHING. IF YOU WANT TIME, YOU MUST MAKE IT." -CHARLES BUXTON

My How-To Fit It All In

1. Decide if the task is important enough to master. I realized that I was trying to fit all of the WONDERS pieces into my day, that I was leaving behind something I loved and was truly important to me- WRITING. Like I mentioned before, writing is important, it is all around us, and mastering the art of writing is high on my priority list as a teacher. 

2. Make time for it. We know we cannot fit everything in, so I now take a closer look at the standards and decide which ones they NEED to master, versus which standards will spiral through down the line that I will get a second, or even third, chance to tackle. Really, if you are going to add something to our day, learn to take something else that perhaps was not giving you the results or engagement you were looking for.

3. Make the task meaningful. Find high-interest text/topics that your student population will connect with. You will find that by capturing their attention through high-interest text, the student engagement will naturally follow. 

4. Enjoy the process. Our students pick up on our attitudes towards these tasks. If they see that you are enjoying the process, the how-to, they will also adopt a positive mindset and produce work which demonstrates their passion for it as well.  

What now? I leave you with the promise of an update (soon) of how this worked for my students and me. To be continued....

-Yvonne Milian