Kelly Anderson's August Blog Post 1: Bench Guarding at its best

Honesty is the best policy...right? So I was sitting in bed the other night reading Section 1 of Miller's book and about the time I got to the analogy of the "wet paint guard" I was starting to doze. I knew I had to get this reading done so I continued reading through lazy eye lids. I got to "Calendar Activities" and I perked right up. Are you kidding me? My calendar time is precious, I love the morning announcements, transitions...who doesn't love a good poem/song to get students' attention, and lining up takes lots of practice! 

I started building imaginary walls around my classroom practices and started highlighting things I disagreed with in the chapter. I even interrupted Jacob's reading to share my distaste with him. The next day I talked to a few people about my precious calendar and began justifying how I use that chunk of time justly. It wasn't until after I re-read the chapter (after our meeting Tuesday) that I realized they weren't saying the practices I enjoy and love doing are wrong but that using them as an excuse to not give my students time to read was the issue. I began thinking about how I could pull away some of the time that I use for my precious calendar (which is very different from that in the book by the way), transitions, and "Extreme Line Up: School Edition". I found several times that I could use in a better way to make sure I am using every minute in a way that will benefit my students. 

We all have goals, mine after this chapter is, through all of the hubbub is that I will set my sights on using my time more wisely. The feeling that set the foundation for the invisible walls I put around some of my daily routines began when Miller started probing in a "dentist" like way at a sensitive spot in my instruction. I realize that in a defensive way I wanted to protect and justify the amount of time set aside for the things mentioned, that in a way are beneficial and do have purpose, but I am conscious enough of the  long career ahead of me and it is best to correct some of those areas now in order to best serve my students.