Tick-Tock, Don't Stare at the Clock
My worst fear has come true—I have let the clock in the classroom eat me alive. In other words, I have thought about my own timing as I am teaching a little too much. When I planned lessons for college courses, I was taught to estimate the amount of time each part of my lesson might take.
At the start of my internship, I asked my mentor teacher about how much time she typically spends on different things during a class period. Of course, she has so much experience that it was difficult for her to attach a numerical value. A lot of the time, she just knows.
For the interns like me who might be struggling to get their timing just right, just know that you are not alone. Is it frustrating when you plan to get through specific material in one class period and it just doesn't pan out the way you wanted it to? Yes. Is it a worthwhile challenge to understand what your students are realistically capable of accomplishing during a class period? Absolutely.
Planning
Sticking to a plan helps to stay organized, but there are lessons to be learned from having everything planned down to the minute. In short, it just doesn't work that way in real life. Leaving room for error is crucial, and I think this idea requires a process of asking questions like these:
1. What's the plan if students aren't prepared? Is there an alternative option for them?
2. What's the plan if students finish the task early? What will they do with that extra time?
Then, on a separate (but related) note:
3. What is the plan to catch up students who were absent? Schools and teachers will approach this in varying ways.
So, the plan is to overplan. Help students learn how to use their time, and remind them of what their options are if they are ready for the next step in the lesson. Make sure it's a relevant step, and something the students can connect the rest of their learning to.
NOTE: Keep in mind that overplanning for a lesson is not synonymous with overcramming a lesson. While you want to have options for students, be aware that too much in one lesson is not necessarily the best way to learn. It can get confusing for both you and the students if there are too many things happening at once.
Transitions
My father had a loud voice, and I once watched him yell two words at the kids in my after school YMCA program (they weren't responding to the counselors). He bellowed, "QUIET, PLEASE!" to an entire cafeteria full of forty kids running and screaming. In the three seconds it took him to say the words, everyone was rendered silent and had stopped moving.
For a while, I worried about not having a loud voice like my father's. This characteristic is nowhere to be found in my DNA. My mentor teacher and I discussed different options for me to be a more powerful presence in the room and really focusing on commanding the space.
Something I am still working on in particular is transitioning smoothly during a lesson. If the students are working independently or in small groups, it can be tricky to get the attention and focus of the whole class. This is especially apparent when you have a softer voice.
When this takes longer, it slows the whole lesson down. Through lots of trial and error, I have learned that students need to be guided through transitions. If your class is busy working in small groups or individually on any task, it's necessary to think about these things:
1. What strategy will I use to get everyone's attention quickly and efficiently?
2. At what pace and in which order will I deliver my instructions?
3. What specific points do I want students to take away from this, and which questions will I ask to lead students to those points?
At this point, my mentor advised me to try a clapping strategy instead of verbally asking for attention. I clap three times in a row, then pause for the students to clap back, then I repeat this in a sequence until all students are clapping after me. Repetitive and different sounds seem to be effective so far.
Perspective
Sometimes, if I feel my lesson didn't go quite as planned, I remember that another educator might have taught the whole thing differently. If your mentor teacher is up for it, ask them to re-teach your lesson and watch them carefully.
This does not mean it's the only way to teach your lesson, but there are just some things that you weren't able to see while you were teaching. There are particular things that you might not be thinking about yet because you are so new to the whole being in a real classroom thing.
One major concept I hadn't thought of before is really pretty simple: when should I put the materials out for the students, and what's the best way to do this? For this lesson, I had students sit in groups and we were reading specific parts of a book individually.
The books were at the back of the room. I asked one person from each table group to get books for their table. When I asked my mentor teacher to re-teach this lesson, she made a simple, yet effective change. Before the next period class walked in, my mentor teacher placed copies in the center of tables.
This was a significant detail that I hadn't thought about. Having materials out and ready for students to immediately access helps the class run more efficiently. She also slightly rearranged the sequence of the lesson I made.
The way you chronologically arrange your lessons truly matters. During my version of the lesson, I first gave the students the handouts, then explained a concept the handouts referred to. My mentor teacher spent more time leading the students to the concept, and she later gave them the handouts.
My learning moment from this was: sometimes students need to make the connection themselves before they are handed a piece of paper. Otherwise, the paper might be rendered meaningless. It's a tricky balance.
Reconsidering Time
Someone once told my mentor teacher that running a classroom is a lot like conducting an orchestra. There are so many things happening at once that the teacher has to facilitate in order for students to be successful in that environment.
From my formal instruction in college, I have learned the basics of how to plan a lesson. What I didn't know before my internship was that time spent during a lesson is so much more than what's written on a lesson plan.
I had a conversation with my mentor teacher about this earth-shattering realization: I make so many small decisions during a lesson that impact the rest of the lesson without even realizing it. Maybe years down the road, I will realize the impact before it happens, but for now I'll have to learn.
When I said this to my mentor teacher, she smiled. She said that timing in a classroom is the art that no one ever sees. There are hundreds of decisions teachers make during one class period that students aren't even aware of! I certainly wasn't before now.
When it comes to timing, here's what I've learned so far:
1. Make sure you are invested in kids' learning, and not overly focused on the clock. It's wasted time anyway if you are rushing through things that they haven't grasped yet.
2. Don't hesitate to ask your mentor teacher for insight about what you could have done better. Even having your mentor teacher go through the same lesson again is helpful for examining techniques.
3. Be mindful of teaching kids how best to use their time during a class period. Make sure you give clear instructions and continue to enforce expectations.
4. You can never be too intentional about the way you deliver instructions to a room full of students. Your instructions should make sense, and kids should be able to follow them. Also, have them do one step at a time so you don't have to keep repeating yourself (but know that you will inevitably repeat yourself).
“Seize the day, then let it go.” ― Marty Rubin