Blog 2 Is There Enough Time? And Is Time Enough to support Independent Reading?

If you find a problem, you have to find the solution.  Debbie Miller suggested that we as educators need to take a hard look at what we do each day.  Just because we have been doing our procedures the same way every day for eons does not make it practical or useful.  As an educator that is perusing my plus thirty, I am always changing by using researched based procedures. 

When the example of a school using the calendar from kindergarten to second were observed, I had to giggle.  A few years ago, I had an opportunity to sub in kindergarten, first, and second.  Mornings were never a concern, since a knew we would spend a good thirty minutes or more on calendar, season, weather, announcements, lunch count, attendance, etc… 

Wanting every second to count for my 4k special education students, I totally reevaluated my procedures.  None of my students had days of the week, months, seasons, or weather in their IEP goals.  Nor was this a skill addressed in DIAL or our districts 4k report card.  Having reevaluated my instruction time made it possible for many of my students last year to develop skills I had never thought we would master.