As a teacher, I know how daunting & tricky it can be to schedule time for everything you want to do. Whether it's keeping up with emails, planning lessons, marking homework, or even just having lunch, time is always short. However, specific tasks take up so much of our precious time each week, and they are most certainly not the most important things we should be doing. We all know the feeling: 5 pm comes, and we're still stuck at our desk, checking off those last-minute things from the list. It's time to go home, but you don't feel like you've got everything done that you wanted to. To help out, here is a tidbit of time-saving tips for busy teachers.
Delegate
If you are ahead of the department or year group leader, certain things likely need doing but perhaps don't fall under your remit. Delegate some of this work to your colleague teachers or even parents. You will be surprised at how willing most people are to help if they know exactly what is expected of them.
Check emails only at specific times.
There is nothing worse than regularly checking your inbox and getting stressed out about all the unread emails you have. Try only to check them at certain times of the day, perhaps just twice a day, and leave it at that. If someone needs an urgent response, they will phone or text you.
Create Lesson Plan Templates for Bits of Work
If you teach the same subjects each year, you will soon notice that many bits of work require the same resources and materials every time. Save yourself some precious time by creating lesson plan templates that can be sent to students ahead of time to save you having to redo them come lesson time.
USE TECHNOLOGY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did you see how many exclamation points we put there? It was a lot! That is to emphasize the importance of using technology to make your life less stressful, more organized, and more engaging for your students. Everyone needs to learn how to use technology because it is for the benefit of our own good. It makes things easier. As a teacher, there would be nothing wrong with putting on a YouTube video to show students a lesson that you could have taught live. That is an extra 10-15 minutes where you can do something else. Find times like this in your class ro use technology in order to save your sanity.
Reference
Milken educators award. (2021). 10 Time-Saving Tricks for Teachers. Retrieved from:https://www.milkeneducatorawards.org/connections/articles/view/10-time-saving-tricks-for-teachers