Learning takes time, and there’s no way of changing that, not if you want your pupils to be secure with the ideas and information you teach. You can, however, save time in your lessons by following these techniques.
Circulation – moving through the classroom while pupils are working. By observing, listening, questioning, and reading their work, you’ll have the chance to find out a lot about their learning. Armed with this information, you can make timely interventions and adapt your lessons. In the long-run, this saves time, as your teaching becomes better-matched to the needs of your pupils.
Homework collection
When collecting homework, set pupils on a separate task, and ask them to place their homework on their desks. As the homework will be ready for you to pick up, you can begin collecting it while learning can commence without disruptions. It also gives you time in which you can individually speak to anyone who has not completed their homework.
Whole-class feedback techniques
If you can get information from the whole class at once, you’ll save yourself a lot of time. A simple way is to pose a question to which pupils respond with their thumbs – thumbs up, thumbs in the middle, and thumbs down should all indicate different answers. You’ll be able to see what everyone in the class thinks in an instant, placing yourself in a perfect position to take any steps in view of that.
Resource timing
It’s always a good idea to explain what you want your pupils to do before you start handing out the resource – if you do things the other way round, odds are they will pick up the handout and start trying to use it before you’ve had a chance to explain what needs to be done. It costs time, energy, and effort to win their attention back.
Student leaders
Appointing student leaders will not only help you with tasks during lessons and take some pressure off you, but also give pupils a sense of responsibility, empowering them. Share leadership around so that everyone can get a chance to learn a little bit about being a leader, so that it becomes a learning experience for everyone.