Many of us have been blogging about time management. It seems that there are not enough hours in the school day to accomplish all of the teaching and learning necessary! I like Routman's suggestions in Chapter 9. Conferencing is a wonderful tool to enhance learning and she has so many suggestions for ways to make conferencing time-efficient (see page 213).
One interesting point she makes is that we (teachers) should write suggestions for our students. I've seen many teachers emphasize the need for students to copy work into their own journals. I wonder if this is an effective way for the students to learn the material. After all, if they aren't subsequently taught study strategies, then what are they going to do with the information they took precious time to copy down?
The expert teacher will apply Routman's recommendation that we teach and demonstrate on the spot. I think that the swift and seamless integration of activities and being prepared to teach new concepts as they arise in discussion are very important skills to have. I hope to have more time to practice this in my student teaching.
My favorite one of Routman's suggestions is to prepare students for the ensuing activity. By preparing students for the task(s) ahead, they get to practice planning and organization skills. They are held responsible for having the proper materials available (their pencil, journals, rough drafts, etc.) so that transition time between activities is minimized. Also, students can spend their brainpower thinking about the day(s) ahead instead of moving through school task by task, disjointed lessons that may or may not seem to have a rhyme or reason. I will definitely take this bit of advice to the classroom. We need to give students the opportunity to practice preparing for the future!
What's even more fantastic about making processes time-efficient is that the students stay engaged because the process is less boring. There is significantly less down time/wait time where we need to wait for the whole class to reach a checkpoint. If we can expedite processes without detracting from the learning, shouldn't we do so? Think of all the other engaging learning experiences we can bring to the classroom with all the time saved!
Amen to the idea of increasing efficiency. I say this as I just spent 45 minutes looking for 1 picture...and NO, I did not find it. I too am trying to remember all of the tips that I find useful so I can apply them in my own classroom. I must admit, I find this a little frustrating because it would be easier to know what is the most helpful if I already had my own classroom...As I was reading the blog I started to realize that my method of tracking all of these fabulous ideas for my future use are not useful unless they are organized in an easy to find way. Hmmmmm, I think I am envisioning a new page for the wiki!
ReplyDeleteWalk into any classroom where student behavior is not up to par and ask the teacher and the students what is causing the misbehavior. While the teacher or outside adult observer might jump to “classroom management is lacking, where is the discipline?” Talking with the students a much simpler root cause might be uncovered “I am bored” or the classical “This stuff is boring”. Let’s face it, concentrating and paying full attention to something you don’t consider worthwhile and which is of little or no interest to you is very hard, even for us adults. Putting children or adolescents in this position and expecting them to muster interest where there is none is a losing fight (for all sides). I wholeheartedly agree with you that it is in everyone’s best interest to present engaging content in engaging form, of which time efficiency is a key element.
ReplyDeleteBy Gustaphina