Soon I begin teaching the history course Crime and Punishment for the first time.
I really should read the textbook. I really should read the past papers and look at the mark scheme. I should read the history books sitting on my desk at home.
I know that if I did these things teaching this new course will go so much better.
My planning will faster and better. My Do Now quizzes tighter and more focused. My explanations crisper and more purposeful.
I know if I do these things, I’ll enjoy teaching this more and that my class will benefit.
Yet because there is no deadline, I find it hard to get to it, because also sitting on my desk are lots of other things that need to be done by a specified time.
Tests to mark. Data to enter and analyse.
Quality Assurance to collate and summarise. Lessons to plan and parents to call or email.
These and a thousand other things that must be ticked off if I am to do my job properly.
And so, the textbook, exam papers, mark schemes and history books sit there.
Because there is no deadline.
It’s silly. I know it is because know if I were to do this pre-work all the tasks I must that do have deadlines would be easier, faster and more meaningful.
It is an investment I know would pay off.
But just as I am about to start, I open my email or look at my diary, see something that feels more pressing and do that instead.
And still the stuff sits on my desk.
Because there is no deadline.
I’m thinking about how much of a problem this might be generally in schools which do so much that’s urgent, they often don’t have time to do fewer tangible things that might – if we had time – make stuff much easier to do and better, and how this might lead to us having to do less overall.
While much of what is urgent is unavoidable – more so in schools working in contexts of challenge – I also wonder whether it’s possible we sometimes get so accustomed to working at pace to produce things that we forget other forms of work are just as and sometimes more valuable.
If we – for example- took the time to properly read about and understand assessment in geography instead of bashing out tests ready for Week 5 of Half Term 2 then we might well end up with a teacher producing better tests for the next twenty years, and this might help them know their classes better, and this might result in them teaching more efficiently and having to do less intervention and catch up work.
But often we don’t– because for the reading there is no deadline and for the other stuff there is. At the end of all my reading and thinking there won’t be anything I can point to and say, “here is what I did.”
It is a problem.
When I look back over my career, I’m sure that everything I’ve got better at has been because I took the time to read something or attend a talk or try something out and none of this stuff ever had deadlines.
Every single truly exceptional teacher – those I know to be way better than me – I’ve asked about this has said the same thing.
And leaders too – those I rate the highest are those who’ve done the deep no deadline work – those who’ve taken the time to really understand.
Frustratingly it is usually those who have the most flexibility with their time who get the privilege to do this and even for them it is hard to do this when everyone you know needs you to reply to their email yesterday.
For classroom teachers on full timetables, it’s much harder. They are the colleagues who have most deadlines while also being the people who probably benefit most from having time to do the deeper deadline free strategic work.
What can be done about this? It isn’t easy.
An answer that seems to be picking up popularity is to structure planning in ways that make the deep thinking less necessary. to create banks of resources and plans that those without the time to read the exam specifications and the books can still deliver something of value.
Given the frightening state of recruitment and retention I’m open to the possibility this the least bad option in some contexts but it saddens me regardless.
Because while I know the stuff with deadline must be done, it is work without deadlines I have always loved the most. It’s the years of this that have made me the teacher I am, and I believe the pupils I have now do well by me because I did this work.
Ideally, I’d just like us to have more time. For there to be fewer deadlines. For us all to understand that work with no deadline isn’t of less value than the work that must be done for the date we are told it must be done by.
I get the irony in spending time writing this, so I’ll stop now. I have a curriculum and textbook to read. Past exam papers and mark schemes to look over, and Hallie Rubenfeld’s The Five to finish.
All this to do – work with no deadline – just my pupils who need me to be ready.
Ben Newmark 