Simple Time Management Ideas from Great Teachers

Handing out papers to students can teach lesson in time managementIt’s common for clients to tell me “It doesn’t take long” when we are discussing time management. If you ever wonder how much difference streamlining a few seconds from a process can make, here’s an example from the book Teach Like a Champion:

I often start my workshops with a great video of a teacher named Doug McCurry, teaching his students to pass out papers. And he has them pass them back and forth, and when they pass them out in 10 seconds, he says: Pretty good – back in in eight. And one of the interesting things about this is the kids are so happy. They’re really enjoying this. They love the challenge.

But people often respond to that video negatively at first, and they say, well, shouldn’t he why is he doing that in the classroom? Shouldn’t he be teaching the causes of the Civil War or adding fractions with unlike denominators?

And then you do the math on it. I ask them: How long does it take, in a typical classroom, for a group of kids to pass out, pass in or receive papers passed out from a teacher? And ordinarily, a group of teachers will say a minute, a minute and a half. Sometimes the numbers are higher.

So if Doug can do that in 20 seconds or 30 seconds and save a minute every time, and you pass out and collect papers 10 times a day in a typical student’s life, for 190 school days, 1,900 minutes, you know, divided by, let’s say, a seven-hour school day, it’s something like four-and-a-half days of additional instruction with which Doug can use to address the causes of a Civil War or adding fractions with unlike denominators.

Read the full transcript (or listen to a recording) of the interview with the author, Doug Lemov.

Comments

  1. Time management is very important.

  2. Sophie Bownssays

    Ah, I loved your tips. My Dad is a teacher!

  3. Great post

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