Annie Cherry , December Blog Post Chapter 4, Teach with a Sense of Urgency

In this chapter, Routman reminds of how important it is to utilize every moment that we have in the classroom with our students.  Of course, we all understand that this is an ideal, but when there are so many things required of us as educators this can easily become lost throughout the course of the day.  Be it paperwork, behavior issues, or a rushed schedule, things can get in the way of us remembering to "teach with a sense of urgency".  I appreciate that Routman gave many ideas to do this during our day.
As we are teaching our very youngest readers in kindergarten, the ultimate goal is independence.  And, what we tend to forget as we loom over every aspect of their learning, is that they WANT to be independent, they want to learn to do things for themselves.  I love the optimal teaching model, which is at its core, 1)I do it, 2) We do it, 3)We do it, and finally 4) You do it.  I think in my classroom, I was feeling such pressure to let them create their own writings and to let them have books in their hands, that I was losing the time to show them HOW to create their own writings and HOW to read the books in their hands.  Learning simply doesn't take place without some direct instruction.  While we need to let go and allow the children to have free choice in their texts, we also need to allow ourselves to teach, to take the time to give some direct instruction.  The children also need to time to understand this, to see that they are going to get to do this on their own, but I am going to support you first!
I also like the Routman reminds us that it is okay to instruct as a group!  We utilize the small group model in kindergarten in everything that we do.  However, somethings are easier and more practical to do as a group.  The learning is still taking place.  This reassured me that the way that I use groups in my classroom is working.  We do a large group mini lesson before we move into small groups.  Some of the children are going to be working independently and we have to give them some time to learn what is expected of them during that time.
As we move into the Spring, I am going to try to focus on using each moment in my classroom and be sure that I am teaching with a sense of urgency,