Teacher planning time is already limited. Here's why schools should protect the time that remains for the work of planning and teaching.
By Kim Lester
Somebody's gotta say it.
Your planning period is not spare time.
I know that sounds simple. But I have watched planning periods disappear over 28 years in education. I have seen them carved away in small pieces until teachers no longer have meaningful time to do the actual work of planning. And Honestly... I have been the cause of teachers losing time in my role as admin.
And I want to be clear about something. I know every minute of planning time is not individual planning time. Most schools have weekly CLTs, PLCs, team planning, data conversations, and other collaborative work that teachers are expected to participate in. I believe that work can be important. Collaboration matters. Professional learning matters.
But that is exactly why protecting the planning time teachers have left becomes even more critical.
What Planning Time Actually Contains
Let me be direct about what happens in a teacher's planning time. Because I think schools and school leaders like me sometimes forget.
Lessons have to be planned. Not planned casually. Planned with intention. Thought through. Sequenced. Prepared so that when students walk in the next day, the learning is ready.
Student work has to be reviewed. Not just graded and checked off. Actually reviewed to see what students understood and what they missed. To determine what needs to happen next. To know whether to reteach or move forward.
Materials have to be prepared. Copies made. Resources gathered. Visuals created. The physical work of setting up for instruction.
Emails have to be answered. Not optional emails. Emails from parents who need information. From colleagues who need collaboration. From administration that requires response. Emails are not optional in schools.
Data has to be looked at. Assessments have to be analyzed. Trends have to be noticed. Progress has to be tracked. This is not something that happens by magic. It happens in planning time.
Lesson adjustments have to be made based on what happened today. Pacing has to be recalibrated. Confusion has to be addressed before it becomes a bigger problem.
And tomorrow still has to be ready. When students walk through the door, the teacher has to know what they are teaching and how they are teaching it. That preparation happens in planning time.
This is not optional work. This is not something that can be skipped. This is the work that makes teaching possible.
What Happens When Planning Time Disappears
Here is the part that I think schools do not see clearly enough. When you take the planning time, you do not make the work disappear. You take the time and move the work somewhere else.
It moves to before school. The teacher arrives early to do the work that should have happened during planning time.
It moves to after school. The teacher stays late because there was no time during the day.
It moves to lunch. The teacher eats at her desk while grading or planning because planning time was used for a meeting.
It moves home. The teacher works in the evening. On weekends. During summer break when she is not being paid.
And then we wonder why teachers say they cannot get their work done during their workday. Sometimes it is because the time that was supposed to be available for that work simply was not.
I remember as a principal noticing that one of my strongest teachers was always staying late. She was always working. I asked her why. And she said, "I have five planning periods a week, but two of them are taken by PLC meetings. My collaborative time is valuable. But I do not have time to actually plan anymore. So I plan at home."
She was not lazy. She was not inefficient. She was working twice. Once for the collaborative work that was required. And once for the individual planning work that was also required. There were not enough hours in the day for both, so she added hours at home.
That is not sustainable. And it is not what we should be asking of teachers.
The Difference Between Occasional and Routine
Now, I am not saying a planning period can never be interrupted. I spent years in schools. Things happen. Someone is absent. There is an emergency. A student has a crisis. Something genuinely cannot wait.
That is school. That is real.
But there is a critical difference between an occasional interruption and routinely treating whatever planning time remains as the easiest place to put something else.
When a principal says, "Can you meet during your planning?" once a year because something urgent came up, that is different from the teacher whose planning period is interrupted four times a month by requests.
When a teacher has to cover a class occasionally because of an emergency, that is different from the teacher who is regularly asked to cover during planning because no substitute is available.
When a parent calls and needs to meet during planning once in a while, that is different from the pattern of parent meetings being scheduled during the only time available for individual planning.
The difference is sustainability. The difference is whether a teacher can actually do her job within her work day.
And the difference matters because it determines whether teachers burn out or whether they can sustain this work.
What Actually Gets Protected
I watched something when I was in leadership. When a teacher had protected planning time, something shifted.
She was less frantic. Not because the work was less. The work was the same. But she knew she had time for it. She could think. She could prepare. She could review student work carefully instead of quickly. She could make adjustments. She could plan tomorrow.
And here is what else happened. She did not take the work home. The work stayed at school because there was time during the day for it. She left at a reasonable hour. She had her evening. She had her weekend.
The quality of her teaching did not change because she now had planning time. It had always been good. But the quality of her life changed. She was not exhausted all the time. She was not carrying school home with her constantly.
She was simply able to do her job within the time allotted for doing that job.
Compare that to teachers whose planning time is routinely interrupted or taken. They arrive early. They stay late. They work at home. And their capacity diminishes. Not because they are not capable. But because they are working twice as many hours as they should be.
And then we wonder why experienced teachers are leaving. Why good teachers are burned out. Why teachers say they cannot sustain this work.
Sometimes it is because we have not actually given them time to do the work we assigned them.
The Cumulative Effect
Here is what makes this tricky. No single request seems unreasonable. Can you meet during your planning? Sounds reasonable. Can you cover this class? Sounds reasonable. Can you make a quick parent call? Sounds reasonable.
But they are not separate things. They are cumulative.
A teacher has five planning periods a week. Two are taken by required collaborative work. That leaves three. Then one is taken by a meeting. That leaves two. Then one week she covers a class. That leaves one and a half. Then she has a parent meeting. That leaves one.
And that one remaining planning period is supposed to hold all of the individual work I listed above. All of it. All of the planning and grading and material preparation and data analysis and lesson adjustment.
One planning period for all of that work.
And then we are surprised that she is not doing it all. Surprised that she is overwhelmed. Surprised that she is taking it home.
The cumulative effect of small requests is the erosion of time. And the erosion of time is what makes teaching unsustainable.
What Administrators Can Do
I think administrators have to pay attention to this differently.
Before scheduling another meeting during planning time, ask: Does this really need to happen during the little planning time she has left?
Before asking a teacher to cover a class during planning, ask: Is there another option? Is this truly unavoidable?
Before scheduling parent conferences during the only individual planning period, ask: Can this happen before school? After school? On a different day?
I am not saying these things never happen. But I am saying they should be exceptions, not the pattern.
And I think administrators should know what is actually happening with planning time in their buildings. How much collaborative time is required? How much individual planning time actually remains? Are there standing weekly interruptions? Are there recurring requests?
Because if you add it all up and a teacher has one period a week for individual planning, you have to either reduce the required collaborative work or add more individual planning time. You cannot keep requiring all of it and expecting teachers to do it all in one period and one evening and one weekend.
Something has to give. And if you will not protect planning time, teachers will give themselves. They will add hours. They will work nights and weekends. They will try to do it all.
But they will also burn out. And then you lose them.
Where You Stand When You Walk Away From This
If you are a teacher and your planning time keeps disappearing, know this. It is not a personal failure that you cannot get everything done. It is a structural problem.
Your planning time is not spare time. It is not flexible time. It is not easily moveable time. It is the time allotted for you to do essential work.
If it keeps being taken, that work has to go somewhere. And if you do not protect it, it will move to your home. To your evenings. To your weekends. To your capacity.
Protect your planning time. Not because you are being difficult. But because the work of planning is part of your job. And if you do not have time for it, you will end up carrying it.
If you are a school leader and your teachers are working at home constantly, if they are arriving early and staying late, if they are taking work on weekends, look at planning time first.
Not their efficiency. Not their time management. Look at whether they actually have time during their workday for the work they have been assigned.
Because sometimes the problem is not the teacher. The problem is that the time is not actually there.
If this landed somewhere true for you, I want you to know something.
You can be a teacher who plans well, who prepares thoughtfully, who reviews student work carefully. And you can do it within your workday. You do not have to sacrifice your evening for it.
But that is only possible if planning time is actually protected. If it is treated as the essential work time it is, not as spare time that can be used for anything else.
You can care about your students and your work without carrying every task home with you. The Get-Out-the-Door Guide helps you create a simple end-of-day transition so school does not keep following you after you leave. It is completely free. It gives you concrete tools to help you end your day on your own terms and leave the work at school where it belongs.
https://afterthebells.org/pages/get-out-the-door-guide
Take care of yourself the way you take care of everyone else.
Kim 🩷🌿