Time Hacks for Teachers - A - Always Coaching

Back when I played basketball, I loved game nights. There was always an air of excitement, a sense of comradery, and, for me, the hope I wouldn't do anything too embarrassing (if  I even got in the game - hey, I usually did). Coach Patterson would always give us some pep talk - "they put their pants on the same as you..." - before the game.

I want you to imagine for just a moment, Coach telling us, "You guys have practiced hard this week. I know you can beat this team. Good luck, and come talk to me after the game." Come talk to me after the game - what?

Maybe we would have still played our hearts out. Maybe Kyle or Keith would have led us to victory without the coach guiding us. Maybe not.

Can you imagine, the score is tied, ten seconds on the clock, we have the ball. Kyle calls a time out. We huddle up at the bench, and someone says, "Coach, what should we do?"

Then Coach Patterson crosses his arms over his dark blue sweater vest and says, "I can't help. This is the game."

That would be totally crazy, but let's take a similar situation in the classroom. I don't know how many times I told a student, "I can't help. This is a test." For many teachers, it doesn't sound crazy in this setting.

But I always hated saying to kids. Sometimes it would be a student like Josh, who would, for the first time the whole unit, actually be interested in knowing something (Perhaps it was the first time the whole unit held anything of value to him, but that's a different conversation.). Finally, Josh was receptive to my teaching, and I gave the standard teacher mantra - I can't help. This is a test.

Totally crazy!

I remember one test day, three students came up with very similar questions, and I told them I couldn't help. After the third student sat back down, looking defeated, a voice in my mind (yes, they're real) asked, "Why can't you help?" And, I answered it!

By the end of that conversation with myself (totally crazy???), I had come to the realization there was no rule saying I couldn't help students on test days. Tweet this Sure, if it is a State-mandated standardized test, but this was just me assessing a student in my classroom, and I'd missed a teachable moment.

What a doof! Three kids were struggling with the material it was MY job to teach, and I said, "No." On top of that, I had to give up time to tutor or reteach the material after the test, and then give a retest. And I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME FOR ALL THAT!

If I'm honest, no matter how masterfully I present that information a second time, those three students will not be as engaged as they might have been when it mattered to them. I decided my standard teacher reply was merely a bad teaching practice, and Mark Barnes (@markbarnes19) said, "Bad practice adds up to disengaged students, who hate you and your class." (via www.brilliantorinsane.com)

After that day, I began to relish those pleas for help on test day. It's even been reported that I've stopped the whole test to reteach some point kids seem to be missing. Coaches are always coaching, on practice days and game days. Release your inner coach, even on game test day.

In the next post, I'm going to show you my greatest time-saving grading hack. It will pull together the ideas of constantly assessing, oral responses and always coaching. It's the one thing that truly turned grading into something I enjoyed. Don't miss it.

Let me pass the ball to you
Have you been guilty of saying, "I can't help. This is a test."? Have you tried anything else< and if so, how did it work?