Episode: 377

Episode Title: What Can We Take Off Teachers’ Plates?

When students struggle, we tend to put more burdens on teachers. Here’s why that will never work and what we should do instead, next on The Perna Syndicate.

Ep 377 show:

You’re now in The Perna Syndicate—welcome! Understaffing has plagued education for years, but with the ongoing pandemic it has now become a truly massive problem. Something must change, before the exodus of resigning teachers cripples our education system beyond repair.

Yesterday we talked about asking educators what they need and not preaching self-care to them. Today, I want to propose another very simple strategy: we need to take stuff off teachers’ plates. 

What happens if teachers don’t do all the busy work they’re supposed to do? I mean, what really happens? Will it change anything in the classroom experience? 

In our current climate, it’s highly unlikely they’ll be fired for not checking all the boxes. So what if we take the busy work away and free teachers to focus solely on the mission-critical tasks? 

Administrators need to be asking themselves, how can we lighten the load for teachers—effective immediately? What can we take off their plate to give them more time to focus on the all-important task of connecting with students? 

Students will not move forward without a human connection with their teachers. Teachers need time and energy to forge that connection. As the pressure builds, something has to give—so let’s make it the non-essential tasks, rather than the teachers. 

Tomorrow: now that most schools are returning to in-person instruction, we’ll overcome the COVID learning slide pretty quickly—right? Wrong. On the next episode of The Perna Syndicate, we’ll talk about the reality of student achievement in the pandemic era. We’ll see you then!