Hi there. In this short education post, I would like to talk about time constraints when it comes to teaching and even tutoring.

Note that I am not a teacher even though people in the past have suggested I would be a good teacher. The contents in this post is mainly theoretical based on experiences as a student, teaching assistant, math tutor and as a Mathnasium employee. Some information is based on what I have read and heard from colleagues who know some things of the education system (in Toronto).

<center><img src="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/10/30/05/43/school-1782427_960_720.jpg" /></center>
<center><a href="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/10/30/05/43/school-1782427_960_720.jpg">Pixabay Image Source</a></center>


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## Topics
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* Following A School Schedule
* Student Rate of Learning
* Some Things May Be Taught Too Fast

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## Following A School Schedule
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A lot of school courses do follow a schedule that lasts for a certain amount of weeks or months. Helpful teachers would provide a course syllabus with a schedule that includes a list of topics by week. These list of topics may change due to life events, interruptions and/or pacing in teaching.

As there is a course schedule, there are time constraints. Some topics in a course may be taught too slow as certain topics may be difficult or the pace is just slow. Some course topics may be taught fast to make up for topics being taught slow or for meeting time deadlines. There are some topics that cannot be taught in a course as there may not be enough time to teach such topics or those topics may not be as important compared to the chosen topics. Not everything can be taught from teachers and not everything can be learned from students. 

<center><img src="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/10/12/15/09/person-984236_960_720.jpg" /></center>
<center><a href="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/10/12/15/09/person-984236_960_720.jpg">Pixabay Image Source</a></center>


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## Student Rate of Learning
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The previous section looked at more of the teacher perspective in theory. This section covers the student rate of learning. 

Every student has their own way of learning, their own personalities, likes, dislikes and their own learning styles. They also have their own rate of learning. How students learn new ideas, skills, viewpoints, etc. is dependent on factors such as student motivation, student discipline, focus, habits, learning styles & preferences. 

When teachers are restricted in their teaching in terms of time constraints, location, and delivery of information, some of the lessons have to be adjusted accordingly. As one example, students cannot really do science lab exercises as the learning is from home under lockdown measures.  Science topics would be taught in a more theoretical manner from slides, textbooks and .pdf materials. Learning from home would involve a lot of slides and a lot of .pdf documents. Time constraints would have teachers teach some topics at a faster pace than normal along with possibly removing some topics.

<center><img src="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/12/03/02/21/child-1073638_960_720.jpg" /></center>
<center><a href="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/12/03/02/21/child-1073638_960_720.jpg">Pixabay Image Source</a></center>

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## Some Things May Be Taught Too Fast
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There are times when teachers have to teach faster than normal. Faster teaching could occur near the end of a course as the teacher/lecturer may realize they need to cover everything when it is too late. Fast teaching could also occur as there might be too much material to cover to meet expectations from a school board. There could also be a case where the teacher may be teaching at a normal speed but the student group may not be great learners. 

**Faster Pacing Under Toronto Quadmester System**

In a couple of previous education posts, I have mentioned [Toronto's quadmester system](https://www.tdsb.on.ca/About-Us/School-Year-Calendar) as a temporary replacement during the lockdown period. This quadmester system in the Toronto area and for many schools replaced traditional school schedule for elementary and middle school students and the traditional semester system for high schools students. 

In the quadmester system, the school year is divided into four periods where each period is called a quad. One quad would last for 2 months instead of the usual 4 months for one high school semester out of two semesters in a high school year. A semester would consist of four courses for a student while one quadmester would have two courses for a student. The two courses in the quadmester would be at a much faster pace as there are 2 months in the quad versus 4 months for a course in the semester.

This faster pace would not be suitable for students who either have learning disabilities, low focus or who are not disciplined. For subjects that require previous knowledge such as languages, science and mathematics, if you fall behind you pretty much stay behind. It is important to keep up with the speed of the teaching and the course. 

For some of the math students at my Mathnasium work, there is a bit of a demand from a few students to focus on the topic that they need help with in the immediate future. The faster paced courses in math pretty involve a test almost every week. Weaker math students may not do well as they may lack fundamental and prerequisite math skills to be able to handle the new math topics. 

<center><img src="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/10/22/18/02/teacher-3765909_960_720.jpg" /></center>
<center><a href="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/10/22/18/02/teacher-3765909_960_720.jpg">Pixabay Image Source</a></center>

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<center>Thank you for reading.</center>