Time Management

It seems to me that one of the greatest lessons that I am learning this term is that time doesn't move at a constant speed, it is indeed relative. I can prove this by the fact that the moment lunch time arrives, I suddenly discover that it is 3:00, and school is nearly done. Equally surprising is that by what feels like Monday afternoon, I need only look at the calendar to discover that it is in fact not Monday afternoon, but somehow we have arrived at Thursday.

Despite time's acceleration, I think that my previous terms of practicum work have prepared me well for my 'full time teaching', and that in turn, this term's student teaching will prepare me excellently for what will (hopefully) be my first year of teaching in the fall.

I find that I am finding a method that works for me to stay ahead of the game and prepared for each week of teaching, but not so planned out and set in stone that I cannot be flexible for the speed that the students are working/learning at.

Because I have all of the classes I teach on one day, and I only assist on the other day, I am fortunate to be able to do all of my prep at once. Depending on how the days fall, either Friday or Monday (whichever is an odd day), I plan the basic format for the week, deciding which investigations will be taught on which days, picking out the homework assignments, and deciding if there are any unusual materials that I will need to find. Then, on each odd day, I make sure that I have read through each investigation thoroughly and have planned how I want to approach it, especially identifying how I want to do a warm up (pre-teaching, or review) and trying to pre-identify any aspects of the investigation that might be confusing. I also make any photocopies I need to make (usually I try and make photocopies two days ahead, in case the students rush through an assignment and finish early). Odd days are also my opportunity to write any office hour requests slips. Office hours are the last fifteen minutes of each odd day, and it's a time I can call in students that have an over abundence of missing assignments, need to retake quizes etc.

In this way I have found a rhythm that allows me to feel prepared for each lesson, without spending hours and hours of grading and planning at home.

Though I will likely not be so lucky as to have on and off days as far as teaching, while still being 'full time', using this method to keep me organizedd this term will allow me to modify it in the future when I have even more classes to prepare for, and less time to do it in.