As we prepare the enter the 7th week of the fall semester, I can’t help but reflect on how quickly time passes.

In fact, the summer seems both as though it was just yesterday and yet a lifetime away.

I’ve met new students and families, attended countless fall sports games, spent precious evening hours planning and grading, organized and completed a successful class fundraiser, booked guest speakers, began planning a spring play, packed dozens of lunches and show and tells and extra clothes for myself and my own children – and that’s not to mention helping to organize a community event, keeping up with my family, and building a new house.

Yet – that is the life we choose to live in rural America, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

As the summer becomes more distant and is pushed further back in my memories, there are a few things I choose to reflect upon often following my guest appearance at the 2023 Noyce Summit in Washington D.C. If you’re interested in a summary article about the Noyce Summit, click the button below.

STEM Teacher Retention

I loved being able to share my experiences as a rural teacher – but what I shared with the audience, and what I truly believe is overlooked in retention of educators today is something that isn’t limited to just rural or STEM education – it is a lack of time.

Time Restraints for Educators Today

I love my students. I spent most of my time as a teacher planning out daily, engaging activities that leave very little window for idle time. I only get so many hours per week with my students, and it hurts me to think of wasting any of it! I do not believe in assigning busy work to my students – if I ask them to do something, it is because I believe it is absolutely worth while.

However, planning those engaging activities leaves very little time for grading, and zero time for collaborating with other educators.

Teacher Collaboration

I am in my 7th year of teaching, and now more than ever do I realize the important of being able to collaborate, to observe, and to just sit and visit with teachers with more experience than I. Yet, we have very few hours scheduled in our entire year that allow for cross-curricular and cross-grade collaboration.

Personal Experience

I remember wondering why I had high school students who really struggled with adding and subtracting negative numbers (so I created this activity for them: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/45-Math-Warm-Up-Questions-Adding-and-Subtracting-Negative-Numbers-9599492) and it wasn’t until the spring of that year that I realized their introduction to the idea was during the spring of 2020 and they were trying to learn it remotely at home. A quick conversation at the beginning of school with their former teachers would have revealed that to me.

There were also years that I became so disillusioned with my students’ writing ability that I stopped having them write lab reports – even when the science information they were writing about was correct, I truly felt I couldn’t give them an A because many students’ grammar and spelling was so poor. I would have loved to collaborate with their English teacher, to schedule my lab report assignments concurrent to technical writing assignments in English.

Ideas similar to this constantly flow in my head, but I never feel as though I can give them the time they need without sacrificing personal time spent with my family. This is why I am constantly advocating for more paid professional days for teachers in schools.

Planned Professional Time

Recently, schools in our area began to implement planned late starts/early releases monthly into our schedules. I personally LOVE this time. We often meet as a faculty, occasionally do some professional development, then return to our classrooms to take advantage of the extra planning time. I see these as an absolute benefit and encourage all schools to do the same.

Sometimes I feel as though I get some crazy looks for suggesting this (how many weirdos actually want to work more), but I would love to see more paid planning days at the beginning of each school year and sprinkled throughout.

I know of teachers who spend all summer, using their own money, and on their own time, working in their classes to better prepare for the upcoming year. I just can’t do this. I absolutely admire it, but I cannot justify leaving my four young children to work without pay. I chose to be a teacher because I want to spend MORE time with my own children, and I choose to work to be able to provide them with more experiences than I would be able to if I didn’t.

Lack of Time To Fulfill Obligations

I truly believe a major cause of losing teachers is the growing amount of expectations and requirements all within the same work day. There are times when I feel I have to choose between planning a great classroom experience or grading past papers. Nine time out of 10, I will choose to plan a great classroom experience. The trade-off is that my students do not get their work turned back quickly, and my feedback written on their work is bare minimum. I truly do not know what the right answer is, or if I am choosing the right thing. I wish I had more professional time to complete everything I feel I need to complete in order to be a great teacher. That is what I advocated for during my time in Washington D.C. You can check out my panel discussion in the video below!