Three years of that thinking has shown me that one of two things is true:
1. Yes, it really is that hard. Basically, it's impossible.
2. No, it's not really that hard. I just don't prioritize it.
I choose to believe that the second is true. Those of you who know me, either online or in real life, probably know that one of my top three flaws, personal and professional, is time management. Once I learned the phrase "time optimist," I felt seen. A time optimist always thinks that something will take less time than it does - not because they are lazy or rude, but because they really believe that the thing they are doing (driving to work, getting ready to leave, writing a paper, grading a quiz) will take less time than it actually does. I am unsure if "time optimism" includes not building in extra time, but I absolutely do not do that, either. One minute of traffic will make me at least five minutes late. I don't understand the physics behind it, but it's true. I hate it. And I kind of hate myself for being like that.
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| A shirt I desperately wish I did not need but should wear everywhere (https://www.stereohype.com/t-shirt/3390-sorry-i-m-late.html) |
What I do not hate is that I believe this is changeable. I read somewhere that a habit takes 30 days to form (and way fewer to break, but that's another story). Sometimes - okay, a lot of the time - I get discouraged thinking about how long it takes to change a behavior and how many of them I want to change. But just like we tell our students, it is possible, and the only person who can decide to change me is me.
Last summer, I read Kate Roberts' A Novel Approach, and this past spring, I read Cornelius Minor's We Got This. Both of these books are written by people that I admire immensely, and both of them offered incredibly insightful ways to improve my teaching. Both of them also echoed a universal truth of teaching: if we say we value something, we have to spend time on it. We have to make the time in class to do the things that we ask our students to value: read, write, think, talk, and grow. We have to take the time to ensure that our schools and classrooms are bastions of safety and progress for ALL students. Optimism and hope have places here, but time optimism does not. Procrastination does not. Avoidance does not.
Let's do this.
