Time Saving Strategies for Teachers

Beat the Clock!

Strategies to Help You Be More Effective with Your Time

One of the biggest complaints of educators is that they just don’t have enough time. And, with Common Core and other standards being implemented and adjusted into your plans; that complaint is certainly a reality. But the good news is that you don’t have to struggle to beat the clock. Read on to learn about some time saving tips that allows you to maximize your instruction and complete your lessons in a timely manner.

1. Skip the Small Stuff

Many educators get hung up on the little stuff. A lot of time gets wasted taking whole group bathroom breaks or sharpening pencils, which interrupts your lesson. Don’t lose any time teaching! When your class is out at the bathroom, you can bring flash cards out to work with the students who are standing in the finished line. You can also set a timer during clean-up or transition times with the goal to beat the clock. If the class is finished before the timer goes off, they can get a sticker on an incentive chart, or work toward a large prize at the end of each week. You can also have a pencil bin filled with sharpened pencils. Take on a “Take a pencil, leave a pencil” motto. This way, there will be no interruptions during your teaching and students can silently get up and get a pencil at any point.

2. Don’t Go Overboard with Planning

Many teachers feel the need to over plan. They may set themselves up to fail because they simply have too much to do in a designated time frame. Start smaller next time. Focus on one main goal you wish to accomplish each lesson. Then, you can have supplemental materials that serve as a review to add into your lesson when you complete your day’s objective. Reviews can be skill games, centers, and even worksheets that you have prepared in advanced. While it may take more planning and preparation on your end, you will not feel as if you are rushing to get everything squeezed into your lesson.

3. Utilize Small Group Instruction

One of the best things you can do is teach a new strategy to a small group, while the rest of the class completes an independent review activity. You are able to complete twice as much work in the same amount of time and you can get a better sense of who is mastering skills taught and who needs more intervention. Once you get the ball rolling on the school year and several skills have been taught, split the class in half. One half of the class will work with you on something new for a predetermined amount of time. You can do this on a carpeted space in your room (like your reading corner) and the rest of the students can work at their seats. Be sure to take a few minutes to thoroughly go over the directions of the independent task so students will not be interrupting your direction instruction. Be patient-it can take a few tries to really master this time saving technique, but you are sure to see an improvement in how much you teach and how time effective the teaching strategy is.

4. Keep Everything ORGANIZED!

One of the biggest time wasters is searching through stacks and stacks of paper. Keep organized with digital files on your computer –also keeping your digital files organized too! Don’t be the teacher with countless desktop icons and 20 browser tabs running at the same time. Take care of your computer or it will slow you down later with lagging and freezing!! Decide on how you want to organize your file folders - Have a file folder for every subject or unit of study. Have file folders organized within your file folder.
Ex: Unit 1 >>>> Week 1, Week 2, Week 3

Tired of rushing and stressing? Stop! Try these tips today to improve the way you teach and the way that your students learn!