Time Savers

We all know that teaching is a demanding profession. One of the common problems raised by teachers is that they never seem to have enough time to do everything they have to do. Here are some simple ideas for saving time.

• Organize your teaching materials and keep them handy. This will help you to avoid losing time looking for things you need for your lesson.
• Take attendance once students have settled down and begun their work rather than at the very beginning of class. This will allow you to visually take attendance without the time involved in calling out students’ names one at a time. Creating a seating chart will make this easy to do.
• You don’t have to grade everything. For some assignments, all you need to do is note their completion.
• As a related point, you can allow students to self-grade or peer-grade assignments where appropriate.
• Have an area that contains basic school supplies such as paper and writing instruments. Students can access these supplies without interrupting you.
• Assign routine tasks to students. This has the double value of saving you time while teaching students about responsibility.