I love technology. I also love teaching my students with technology. I feel it’s changed education for the better. But technology is a time thief and teachers need to be allowed to unplug from it.
One of the biggest complaints I hear from fellow teacher is that we all need more time. Asking for more time is like asking for more money. Easy to ask for, but not easy to get. So many factors are involved in making time for teachers, but when teachers are asking for more time, they’re not just talking about within the eight hour school day.
Teaching is one of the few professions where you bring your work home. A lot of people ask why that is? Simply because there isn’t time within the school day to get it all done. The average teacher gets approximately three hours a week for planning, grading, phone calls, and conferences. The other hours are devoted to meetings required by the administration and instructional coaches.
Three hours, or 180 minutes, a week is not enough time to get it all done. Teachers take home papers to grade, lessons to plan, reports to write, and all the other things that are leftover from their workday. As if this stress is not enough, teachers are bombarded with texts, emails and phone messages from parents, faculty, and administrators when they get home. As a teacher during the pandemic, I felt this shift happening almost immediately. With the push of technology, the teaching profession became an “always on” job. Our cell phones are constantly pinged with alerts, messages, email notifications, and reminders. It makes teachers feel like their workday never ends. This is another reason why time is an issue for teachers.
So how can we fix this? Other countries are already addressing this issue by giving teachers the right to unplug (Terada, 2021). Here in the U.S., some districts are allowing teachers to turn off emails after hours and allowing them a timeframe where they are expected to respond during the workday. This is definitely a step in the right direction. Teachers have to balance their family time with the work they bring home. Getting a late night email from an angry parent or text message from a disgruntled coworker creates a never ending cycle of work stress.
Giving teachers more time is tough. But giving them grace and freedom to have a personal life that is unplugged from their workday is more than a right, it’s a necessity.
References
Terada, Y. (2021, August 27). Defending a Teacher’s Right to Disconnect. Edutopia.org; Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/defending-teachers-right-disconnect/
Blended Elementary 