Okay, so I had an enlightening experience today and a reminder on just how much instruction has changed since I was in elementary school. (It was a long time ago, but we don't need to really discuss how long ago it was.)
In the district where my daughter goes to school, they allow parent volunteers to help in the classroom. This allows the teacher to be freed up from mundane tasks and clerical work for more instruction. My daughter is in 2nd grade. There are twenty-six students in her class.
Today, I got to sharpen pencils for the class. At first, I thought to myself, "Hmmmmm, these kids are old enough to do this!" However, I quickly learned that there is a much more provocative reason behind me taking the time to sharpen the pencils verses the students.
First, the instructional day is so packed, much more so then when I was in 2nd grade! Every minute is precious when trying to make sure you can get through each and every lesson while staying on task with 26 students each with different learning abilities. Children quickly become more involved in what the others are doing versus staying on task with their work. Now, that is going to happen on occasion with individual students, but when you have an entire classroom that become distracted the impact on instruction is huge.
Secondly, there are 26 students in this class and one teacher. A teacher without some strong classroom management skills can quickly become out-numbered by the masses. I am sure that the task of pencil sharpening can quickly become a big distraction when it comes to "monkey see - monkey do" - one child gets up from their desk to sharpen their pencil and then 25 more follow.
It took me approximately 8 minutes to sharpen 36 new pencils. Imagine 26 students all getting up to sharpen their pencils one after the other. I am sure it would take longer than 8 minutes, and in the process create a constant distraction for other students. Not to mention, I am sure that students need to sharpen their pencils more than once a day. Now, imagine teachers losing that much instruction time from their day!
It is amazing to me the ways that teachers have had to become creative and skilled in time management to stay on task with instruction…even in the time it takes to sharpen a pencil!
As a high school teacher, I don't have to worry about managing a 2nd grade classroom (thank god), but I think the teacher you are talking about is very proactive. I get annoyed when a single student goes to the pencil sharpener. It is so loud and I can't talk over it. I just wish that all students had mechanical pencils that have never-ending lead. Regardless of the number of times I tell students to get these tasks done between classes, there will always be someone who breaks their lead and needs to resharpen.
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