Hello Friend :)
Try to remember these words of wisdom: "Time is about control. When you allow time to control you, you never seem to have enough of it. On the other hand, when you control your own time, you can effectively allocate your available time to complete your required tasks and duties."
Time management is difficult and overwhelming for all of us in the school system regardless of position or job title. Well, come to think of it, this is the case for any position within any organization both at work and at home! Look at the bright side... You are definitely not alone or truly inexperienced when it comes to this issue. However, it is a definite fact that some us are better time managers than others.
There is hope on the horizon! Take a peek at some of these ways to take control of your time while in the classroom:
1) Have a "working" schedule which can be viewed at a glance daily, weekly, monthly.(calendar)
2) Be sure to have a well thought out, thorough, and tested plan. (lesson plans)
3) Prioritize (by due date first, if given, then by importance, once determined) Make a list and cross things off as they are accomplished.
4) Allot reasonable amounts of time based on your schedule and plan.
5) Utilize all available resources. (includes delegating duties to others such as students, paraprofessionals, parents, co workers, etc.. when practical and possible)
6) Chunk tasks or assignments into smaller or related, more manageable pieces or parts.
7) Keep things flowing with little to no interruption or "overkill".
8) Teach and use transitions which are ways to move from one activity to the next.
9) Just say, "no!" Face it, some of our problems with time management come from taking on more than we can handle be it voluntarily or involuntarily. There are ways to say no with style and grace.
10) Recognize and accept that you are not perfect, nor anyone else for that matter! Therefore, things may and still will be difficult, overwhelming, or even out of your control at times.
Your primary goal as a classroom teacher is to engage your students in productive learning time. This is when students are engaged in meaningful and appropriate work. After all, the more productive learning time you have, the more your students will learn. There are things that will come up unexpectedly. Over time and with experience, you will learn to not only expect the unexpected, but to also accept the unexpected and do the best you can with what you have! Be realistic. Be patient. Be forgiving.
I will end with more words of wisdom: You can only change or affect those things over which you have control. You can only accept those things over which you have no control. Remember time management is about control. You have to control it otherwise, it will control you.
Let me know if you are in need of more assistance in this area. There is a wealth of resources available via internet, printed media, and personal assistance. I will be glad to help you further.
Foster :)
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1 comment:
Dear Colleague,
I would definitely suggest that efficient time management in the classroom will not only make life easier for the teacher, but the students as well. Where the challenge comes in, is in the facilitating of classroom activities in a way that maximizes classroom time. Specifically the transition from one activity to the next is often where minutes are stolen and many times during those periods, teachers must be sure that the transition does not take more time than it should.
One of my suggestions for this is to actually "teach" students your expectations of transition in the classroom. This will most effectively be taught by "modeling" with them the first few days of class. It is important for the students to know what comes next in the class period, and this would be easiest accomplished by having a place in the room (probably the board) with the schedule of activities for the day/class period, so that students know what comes next in the transition. When teaching this to the students, it is important to do it in the manner that you expect them to perform and put consequences in place so that student are aware of effects of them not being on task.
I use a timer in my room so that each activity has a certain amount of time alloted and when the timer goes off, the students know that it is time to transition. The transition time is usually 1-2 minutes and when there is less than 30 seconds left, a verbal que (countdown) should be given so that by the time the next activity is to begin, students are on task with you.
We as educators saw Kathi exercise this technique with us during our transitions, with the exception of the timers... :-) It is my experience, if we teach our children to value time and model this behavior with them, they will understand and comply. Furthermore, some students will implement these methods into other areas of there lives, helping them not only inside the classroom, but other places too!
Rod Hister
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