{"id":3036,"date":"2012-03-28T19:44:36","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T18:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eltchat.com\/?p=3036"},"modified":"2012-03-28T19:44:36","modified_gmt":"2012-03-28T18:44:36","slug":"time-management-for-teachers-eltchat-summary-29022012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/2012\/03\/28\/time-management-for-teachers-eltchat-summary-29022012\/","title":{"rendered":"Time Management for Teachers – #ELTchat Summary 29\/02\/2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

The full title of this #ELTchat was ‘Time Management for teachers – in particular, how easy do people find it to juggle the various demands of the job?” and the summary was contributed by David Petrie, alias @teflgeek\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It is reposted here from his blog <\/span><\/a>with his kind permission. Thank you David!!!\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Summary<\/span><\/h1>\n

A long time ago, I suggested \u201cTime Management for Teachers\u201d as the #ELTchat topic \u2013 this was largely because I occasionally find it difficult to balance the varying demands of the job and I was keen to find out from everyone else how they felt about their jobs and basically \u2013 how everyone copes with it all.<\/p>\n

Predicatably, having volunteered to write up the summary, things then got a bit hectic at work and it\u2019s only now, about a month later, that I\u2019ve been able to find the time to get down to it.<\/p>\n

Day, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent.
\nAmbrose Bierce<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

So here it is \u2013 thanks to all those who took part, there were some great contributions made. \u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ve not directly attributed the ideas mentioned to the contributors as there were just so many of them\u2026 \u00a0\u00a0Possibly because the concept of time management is essentially a personal issue \u2013 which is to say we all have different skills, different responsibilities and different issues with time management \u2013 there were a large number of threads that ran through the chat.\u00a0 I\u2019ve tried to weave them together into a coherent whole, but apologies if I\u2019ve missed anything!<\/p>\n

TIME MANAGEMENT FOR TEACHERS<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Social Media:<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The irony of a group of educators getting together to chat for an hour on twitter about how little time they all had, was mentioned early and the amount of time that people spent using social media was definitely an issue for many.\u00a0 Managing social media use effectively can be difficult \u2013 the simplest solutions are usually the best and simply \u201cturning off\u201d twitter or facebook might be one approach, arranging \u201csocial media free time\u201d, taking a technology free weekend \u00a0\u2013 or limiting participation to more quality based interactions, taking advantage of the opportunities that social media afford us, rather than becoming a slave to it.\u00a0 So, using Twitter more to take part in events like #ELTchat, rather than attempting to spend every waking hour on it.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the key to managing social media use seems to be self-control\u2026<\/p>\n

What takes up all our time?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The problem of faffing about, seeking lesson planning inspiration, trying to decide on lesson content, selecting and preparing materials, creating documents and handouts seemed to be one of the biggest \u201cproblem\u201d areas.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t helped by the wealth of information and resources that are out there \u2013 both on the resource shelves in the teachers\u2019 room or in the list of bookmarks in your web browser \u2013 and quite possibly a predilection amongst teachers to always want to try and re-invent the wheel, or to build the better mousetrap.<\/p>\n

Another area of concern was with the administration that seems now to have become part and parcel of the teaching trade:\u00a0 registers, lesson summaries, feedback, assessments, form filling, reports on students, reports on teachers (a DoS issue?), marking and providing written\/writing \u00a0feedback were all mentioned here.<\/p>\n

It occurs to me as I write this now that the biggest time consuming area of a teacher\u2019s job seems, on the above evidence, to be the teacher\u2019s job\u2026\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what we can do about that!<\/p>\n

There are however, things that we can do to help streamline the tasks we encounter in our working lives:<\/p>\n

Prioritization:<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Most people felt that, by and large, the important stuff got done and that the problem was therefore in deciding what was important and what was not.\u00a0 What was qualified as important included the planning and preparation, marking and assessment and teacher development.\u00a0 What was given as not important was \u201cthe other stuff\u201d.\u00a0 Importance probably therefore depends on your role and your context, but people suggested a number of prioritization techniques that might be useful:<\/p>\n