Unit 2 Blog Response: Time Management

Unlike some of my peers, I have not met with my cooperating teacher as often as I would have liked. My placement got processed later and she has been out due to meetings and professional development events, which leads well into this blog discussion. In the time that we have spent together, I have noticed and discussed with her about a few areas that time is wasted in the classroom. Often times, the students in my classroom are working on different material and a lot of time is spent getting everyone on the same page. In this same way, a fair amount of time is spent changing lessons during the day to fit where the kids are on a day-to-day basis. My teacher wishes that she had more time and support to prepare lessons that would fit the needs of all students without leaving anyone out. It is difficult to keep up with an ever-changing curriculum that has the pull of many outside opinions. She also spends a significant portion of her week in meetings with the school board, coworkers and parents. The meetings are very effective, but it takes away from time that could have been used for classroom planning.


From a more personal observation, I have noted that quite a bit of time is wasted during transitions between or before class changes. My teacher and para-pro discuss a lot of how the lesson is going to go while the actual lesson is supposed to be happening. I don't think this is for lack of effort, both are very dedicated to the class and their students, however, I think that keeping up with the general education curriculum and up to date with all of the meetings that the school has set aside for them, they do not get much time to discuss what happens in the classroom before they are actually in the classroom. With all of this said, however, time management is something that all teachers have to struggle with and I continue to learn tips and tricks as I go through my student teaching journey.

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