Educators are constantly racing against the clock. Trying to balance instruction, planning, grading, and administrative duties while maintaining best practices is a difficult task to meet. This week, we will explore research-based strategies that will make you more productive and efficient in your classroom while increasing your quality of teaching.
What is the Problem
We know that teachers are facing increasing time constraints each year—but how can we measure this impact? Research from ASCD reveals that teachers spend only about 25 hours per week on actual instruction, with the remaining time devoted to administrative duties and lesson planning. Complementing this, data from the Pew Research Center shows that 84% of teachers report not having enough time to complete all their responsibilities. With just an average of five hours a day spent directly educating students, it’s more important than ever to make every minute in the classroom count.
Activating Minds Before Teaching
Proper transitions are not only important for classroom management but also for preparing students’ brains to absorb the content. A typical student needs 2-5 minutes to fully engage in a new subject or cognitive task. This number grows to 8-10 minutes for subjects that are drastically different, such as reading to math. This time can be spent in multiple ways, but the best action would be to warm up brains with activities aligned to the upcoming subject.
Properly warming up students can not only make your students more ready to absorb content but it can also reduce your transition time drastically. Properly preparing your students’ brains provides benefits to academic performance as well as classroom management.
Workflow Design
Schools are busy places with needs that constantly pop up and change. This inevitable cause leads to constant task switching not only by teachers but also students. Research consistently points to how our brains are not designed for this fast-paced task switching. Studies from the American Psychological Association indicate that multitasking can reduce productivity by up to 40%. In schools, this leads to loss of time. So how can we combat this?
- Schedule Batching – When possible, group your projects into specific times. Create email response windows and communicate this with your families to ensure their expectations are aligned. Dedicate time to dive deep into batches of tasks to reduce your cognitive load.
- Cognitive Peaking – We all have times in the day when we are more productive and alert. Learn when you are at your most productive and use this time to complete your most demanding batch of tasks.
- Transition Rituals – As mentioned in the section above, transitions are important for students’ brains. They are also critical for teachers. When shifting to a new batch of tasks, first go for a quick walk or get a refreshing drink. Set your body and mind up for a new task with small changes that make large impacts.
Leverage Automation
The human elements of teaching are central to the best classrooms and will always be present, but there are certainly tasks that teachers do that can be shifted. Technology is an ever-enticing element of education. How can technology do some of the thinking for us and give back cognitive superpowers? A survey by EdWeek Research Center found that teachers spend an average of 13 hours weekly on non-instructional tasks, many of which could be automated. Here are some ways that technology can give teachers back time:
- Assignment Workflow – Many LMS tools allow for assigning tasks ahead of time. This scheduling makes prep time more efficient and allows for more time providing academic supports for students who need them.
- Communication Templates – Creating and saving communication templates allows for faster responses to common questions. These can be reminders, weekly messages, or even formal notices. Regardless of the use case, templates reduce the time spent crafting unique messages over and over again.
- Automatic Grading – Countless tools can complete this task. Regardless of the tool choice, the result is the same. Some teachers find automating multiple small tasks to be more effective than larger assessments. Try automating your exit tickets for a day to see how these fast results can lead to better classroom instruction.
- Reminder Systems – As mentioned earlier, batching tasks reduces cognitive load. This requires teachers to have good reminder systems. Digital tools allow for notes to be written and resurfaced at a time that fits your day best. Some teacher favorites include digital post-it tools or calendar reminders that are consistently added to.
Gain Your Time Back
These high level research based strategies are not the only ways to gain time back but they are a start. Your next week of school is a great opportunity to try something new. Test out batching your tasks, give a new automation tool a try, or warm up your classroom with a new math game. Regardless of what step you take, you are sure to see the results in less classroom disruptions, higher achievement, and being a more fresh teacher.
Ensure your cognitive load is spent doing what you love, teaching. Set up systems that make your administrative tasks easier to complete. Set up your classroom to be more efficient and increasing your quality of teaching!
