Picture this: You create a unit plan. It is filled with great lesson plans, and ideas for kids. You've looked at your state standards and you've got them covered- real depth with a few standards, or some breadth as you cover them over the course of the year. You start teaching and the first day or two goes great. Day three or four and you've lost your pacing (man that written response took a long time; gosh I forgot to build in time for those scaffolds so that they could ask effective questions while reading).
Soon enough you are looking at other content areas and going, "ummm how am I going to get to that?" You look ahead in your content area/time block and start to scratch your head. The same statement you were saying previously is running through your head again, particularly as you run the mental calculations regarding remaining time (total time, time per content area, time needed to effectively address units or standards...).
That definitely happens. At some point you need to exercise professional judgement regarding what needs to be covered in your standards (all of them- but some are more glaring with your kids than others), and where your kids are or what they are like. I just thought about that in light of issues regarding workload get voiced by peers and fellow teachers (in a myriad of districts). There really isn't any resolution to this post... just mere acknowledgement that it is there.
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