Time Management in the Classroom
HOW and WHY!!

Tick, tock, tick , tock - effective time management in the classroom of a lesson is so crucial not only in keeping you on schedule, and planning a successful day, but is also crucial in keeping your students' interested and motivated.

How do you judge how long a lesson should take?

Effective time management in the classroom requires you to consider several variables:

1. Whether you're teaching a primary or junior grade.

2. The complexity of the subject matter in the lesson.

3. And especially the academic and social level of your students.

Determining classroom time management accurately is a skill that you will develop over time.

A short lesson (so you thought) may take an hour and some lessons you think will take 30 minutes to an hour actually take only 15 minutes .

You'll scratch your head or want to pull your hair out. When it happens, deal with it in a professional and perhaps fun way.

Only YOU know your students. As the days and months progress, you will know how much time your students will need to complete a lesson activity after you have taught the concept.

Tips on Effective Time Management for Teachers

Here's a list of some of the time management tips and teaching strategies that I have learned and developed over the past 30+ years of my career:

* Teaching a lesson to a primary grade class is so totally different than to a junior grade. Keep in mind when you teach a new concept to your class to always allow for more time - to demonstrate with additional examples and for students who "still don't understand".

* You will have students in your class who will be done their seat work before others have even put their name and date on their work.

* Always have back-up work for those students who are finished quickly, such as; finishing up other work, reading silently or quietly playing one of the fun classroom activities in your room.

* When giving students a time limit for tests, individual or group activities, use 3 different methods for indicating the time corresponding to the 3 different types of learners,i.e. Visual - Use your hands, Auditory - Use a timer (from the $ store), and Kinesthetic - write times on the blackboard.

* Countdown time remaining in intervals of 5 minutes from 20,15,10,5 and 1 minute warning (students want and need the time limits). You know how "time really flies" when you're preoccupied.

* If a lesson is too long, your students will lose interest, become restless and bored and then you will need to use some of the classroom behaviour management skills that I've talked about (read my classroom discipline page).

You have worked hard to develop a creative curriculum-based and fun lesson for your students, using the various teaching techniques and strategies for classroom management that you have learned through my website.

You don't want to lose them now, so keep in mind how crucial effective time management in the classroom is to a successful lesson, your students' learning and to you.

TICK, TOCK, TICK, TOCK!

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