Time Management

From New Teacher Handbook

Time management is a skill that develops over time.

See also: Wikipedia's entry on Time Management

Tips to Cut Writing Assignment Grading Time.

All teachers are teachers of writing. Teachers have many duties and the grading of written work can be time consuming. It is important to develop procedures that saves time for the teacher and that gives the students timely feedback.

Create a Rubric

Rubrics are guidelines that illustrate to the student what a good piece of writing will look like. (See sample rubrics) It allows a teacher to focus on one or two major areas of learning and helps students set goals.

Use Peer Evaluation

Pass out rubrics to students asking each to read and score three of his or her peers' essays in a determined length of time. After grading an essay, students should attach the rubric to the back of it and pass it along to the next evaluator. Collect the essays, check off that they were completed on time, and return them to be revised.

Use Portfolios

Have students create a portfolio of checked-off writing assignments from which they select the best to be graded. An alternative approach is to have the student select one of three consecutive essay assignments to be graded.

Grade Holistically

Use a single letter or number based on a rubric. To do this, read and sort assignments into piles according to score. When you are finished with a class, check each pile to see if they are consistent in quality, then write the score at the top. This allows you to grade a large number of papers quickly. It is best used with final drafts after students have used a rubric to grade one another's writing and made improvements.

Use Two Highlighters

Try grading some writing assignments using two colored highlighters, with one color for strengths, and the other for errors. If a paper has many errors, mark only a few that you think students should work on first so as not to discourage students.

Have Students Write in Journals Which Are Not Graded

Require only that they write either for a specified amount of time, that they fill a specified amount of space, or that they write a specified number of words.

Classroom Schedules

Each teacher should have a classroom schedule posted in the room. It needs to be large enough for all students to see and may include visual cues for primary and/or ELL students. The schedule should include the following:academics, lunch, recess, and specials.http://www.responsiveclassroom.orglink title