An Education Budget With No Class

As the School Year Gets Shorter, I Teach My Students Less and Less

As summer vacation wanes, I begin printing out blank calendar pages, August through June–one set for my sophomore English honors classes, another set for my print and broadcast journalism classes. I fill in the squares with cryptic reminder notes: “grading policy,” “writing a thesis,” “reading log,” “public speaking,” etc. But I no longer need to write up detailed daily lesson plans. With 23 years of experience, I know in my head what I’m going to teach, how I’m going to teach it, and how long each piece of each lesson …