Classroom and Behavior Management

F. Time Management

We have already discussed classroom practices that make optimal time available in the classroom for instruction; e.g., organizing space to eliminate confusion and bottlenecks when people move about and establishing procedures and routines. However, one of the frustrating aspects of teaching for both new and experienced teachers can be management of their own time. Good organization and classroom management techniques will increase the time available for instruction and teaching, but what you do to use your time effectively is just as important. Here are some tips:

1.	Determine which organizational papers (memos from the principal, etc.) need to be kept on a long-term basis, a short-term basis, or not at all.

2.	Try to handle each paper once. Have a generous supply of file folders (color coded if possible) and/or shallow boxes on hand so that a paper that is not immediately discarded can be appropriately disposed of after it has been read.

3.	Make a "to-do" list for the next school day before leaving school at the end of the day. This list should include appointments, assignments, and meetings - things other than the actual business of instructing students. List only the tasks that can reasonably be completed.

4.	Prioritize the tasks on your "to do" list to show the order in which you intend to do them, making sure that those that HAVE TO BE DONE are at the top of the list. If some tasks are not completed, they can be copied on the to-do list for the following day.

5.	Arrive at school at least 30 minutes before the students so you can organize the materials you will need for the day, check to make sure equipment is available and functioning, etc.

6.	Enlist volunteers from among parents and the community to help in the classroom. Be sure to give them specific tasks, so they don't feel they are wasting their time.

7.	Delegate when possible to students, paraprofessionals, or volunteers. If there is a paraprofessional or someone else who can duplicate assignments, make games, help with testing, etc., have them do so. Try not to do for students what they can do for themselves.

8.	Plan ahead for a specific length of time, perhaps a week, and photocopy materials at one time rather than daily. (Even machines sometimes stop working, so materials should be copied at least 24 hours before they will be used.)

9.	Write something on the board so that students will have something to respond to as soon as they enter the classroom. It could be something as simple as a journal question, a review question based on the previous day's material, or an assignment. Specifying a minimum number of sentences for the journal entry and having the same specified length of time each day can become one of the classroom procedures.

10.	Explore the Internet to find sites that contain lesson plans that are relevant to your content and style. Share what you find with fellow teachers, and ask about sites or other resources they have found.

11.	Utilize your computer by creating and storing as much as you can on disk for easy retrieval.

12.	Develop an orderly system for naming and storing the materials on disk so you can recognize (and find) what you want when you want it. Lesson plans, assignments and tests can be pulled up quickly, revised, and printed out.

13.	Create (or download) forms to meet recurring needs or situations, such as student certificates and parent communications.

14.	Schedule time on a regular basis to plan and organize. It is time well spent. (When you are looking for something that you know you have but can't find, it is DEFINITELY time for a time out to organize!)

15.	Develop a system for recording information needed by students who are absent. Examples might include:

Posting the assignment and/or other material on a classroom website.

Writing the assignment and other pertinent materials on a large calendar

Putting the name of the student at the top of any handouts and placing the papers in a designated folder or location

	Placing papers in an absent student's folder or desk, if each student has a folder or location for his or her materials.

	Having a student serve as secretary to take notes and place them in a designated folder or location at the end of class after you have reviewed them.

If students tend to misplace or lose papers that are distributed to them, one teacher places a copy of each paper in a folder. Students can borrow the copy and return it after having a photocopy made at their own expense.

16.	Learn to say "No" because what you are doing IS IMPORTANT.

17.	Plan time to do things OTHER THAN school activities, planning instruction and grading papers.

18.	Reward yourself when you complete each task or for completing everything on your list.

19.	At the beginning of the school year, develop procedures for students to follow for situations and activities that occur predictably on a daily basis. Be proactive by teaching the students the procedures you expect them to follow. Have the students practice them, and remind students frequently (prior to the event) so they can be successful. You won't have to spend so much of your precious time and theirs repeating directions for specific tasks over and over once students learn the procedures.

Grading Papers

Grading papers and record keeping tasks are inevitable. New teachers often feel the need to grade every paper completed by their students. They feel overwhelmed by the paperwork. Some ways to make the actual grading of papers less cumbersome are presented in the modules on developing various types of questions for assessment and the module on preparing and assembling the test. Teachers soon develop procedures to deal with these tasks. We include additional comments and suggestions about this activity here because your procedures for grading papers can, if carefully thought out, be a time saver.

Making sure the students know what they are to do and how the teacher will be scoring their work can make scoring less time consuming as students learn how to present their work in a more uniform manner that either does or does not demonstrate the knowledge and skill targeted in the assignment.

Decide whether it is important for students to have the correct answers on all assignments or if the important aspect of an assignment is that the students have completed the work. This decision will determine the extent to which it is necessary to have a grade or score reflecting quality of the work or simply a check or a specified number of points for completion.

One high school math teacher has two types of assignments: practice assignments and graded assignments. Students do practice assignments, which are reviewed the next day in class. The following day they turn in assignments to be graded. The practice problems are from the textbook and have the answers at the back of the book; the graded problems are also from the book but do not have the answers.

Students can exchange homework or assignment papers and grade them in class, although some frequent spot checking by the part of the teacher should be planned. The important decision here is determining what you need to know from these assignments.

Before having students submit written papers, have them critiqued by another student in the class. The feedback from the teacher should then be shared with both the student who submitted the paper and the one who reviewed it.

If assignments are a basis for discussion, students may be able to grade some in-class assignments themselves, either as a class activity or from an answer key provided by the teacher. Students can also be given the opportunity to improve their work before turning it in.

Develop a procedure for collecting student work that is helpful for you. Seating students alphabetically can result in papers being collected in the order in which you have them in your grade book.

An elementary school teacher has students leave their work on their desks when they go out for recess. The teacher checks the students' papers at each desk during recess for quick feedback when the students return. This way, the papers do not have to be collected. NOTE: This works only if someone else will be responsible for the students when they go out of the room.

This concludes Part 3 of the information on Classroom and Behavioral Management.

Go to the next section to check your knowledge (covering Section F).

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