I find it helpful to know what students will be studying ahead of time and have material prepared in advance, and have a plan for students that may miss that day of clinical so they can keep up with the class
I place a clock at the back of class , in view of the instructor , and I divided the lesson in minutes so I can best monitor time.
Tierra,
This is an excellent method for keeping track of time, during a class session. I am sure that this also serves as a great catalyst for your students' approach to time management.
Tremayne Simpson
I prepare 15-20 minute segments and mixed the delivery from lecture, video, discussion, Q and A and group. My classes are 2 hours or 4.5 hours.
This can sometimes be a challenge for the accelerated program I teach. I try to break up the course content in sections that allow time for introduction and discussion. I also have review days that allow students time to interact with games and activities to help them better understand the concept instead of just more new information.
I made a set goal on what is the most important info they need for that day that way if i cant finish all i have to teach that was not a waest of there time and finish the rest next day
Kelly,
Are you able to implement all of the mentioned delivery styles, into each class session? If so, what subject(s) do you teach?
Tremayne Simpson
Mike,
This is a simple, yet great time management strategy. Prioritizing daily class sessions goals is the most important part of outlining the agenda.
Tremayne Simpson
This is a great idea. I will have to try that next Mod.
I have become fairly adept over the years at embracing flexibility in the classroom, but it is nice to have a plan in case times runs over or under. I have several strategies I rely on to "get me out of a jam" should my course content run short. One is what I call "the whip" I did not invent it of course, but it is quick and handy. I do a "whip" around the room or have the students stand in a circle facing in and either review the day or the general course material or an upcoming quiz OR ask" tell me one thing you could do differently today to be more successful tomorrow" since we are often in the kitchen-there are no shortage of suggestions for improvement. I also do "high points" which are recapping the students best or proudest moments of the day-and they have to contribute something-even on a train wreck day there will be a little ray of sunshine-a perfect knife cut, a great looking uniform, an excellent vinaigrette. This also ends the day on a positive note. Lastly-a team of Chefs wrote 28 mini daily lesson plans (our courses are 28 days long). The topics are largely basic culinary and baking but also include sanitation and safety. These are on a shared drive-so on a moments notice an instructor can pull off a relevent mini lesson as a value add.
My classes run for 50 minutes and I may have a class of 7 students to a class of 23. The problem is a nummber of students are on one subjec, a couple of studnts may be on another and a number of student are on a totaly different subject. Because of this situatiion I spend most of my time one-on-one then teaching to an entire class. Time management is based more on giving everyone as much time as they need but not letting one individual use the entire class time which takes away from the other students.
Since I am presenting technical material, I will let the students know that we have a tight schedule and we will move through the easy material quickly so that we have a built in cussion for the more difficult topics. By having gone through the syllabus the first day and reviewing the difficulty levels of each topic, the students are prepared for when we are ahead of schedule and will hit on one of the tough areas so we can take more time. Student responses are fairly supportive of the concept and appreciate the slower pace when a tough topic is in progress.
I always like to have activities planned as more of a "bonus" than a time filler so to speak. If we do finish the lesson for the day early, I have a fun, friendly activities using technology, such as Poll Everywhere, to assess their retention and keep them engaged. This allows them to use their computers, phones, twitter, etc. to answer the review questions in real time.
I find that managing how much time spent lecturing in the classroom needs to be shortened as much as possible, but still be able to cover course content. As our lab time needs to be scheduled around other classes who may or may not be in the shop at the same time. communication between instructors become critical so that all students receive equal shop time.
Like Rodger I also have 15 – 20 mini lessons that I can add to any class if time permits. Prevents that award 10 or 20 minutes at the end of the class with nothing to do.
The contents of the day is the most important education. Having said that I have always made sure to create time for further illustrations and demonstrations to achieve better understanding of the content. This always provides the class with further knowledge and keeps it non stagnant
Tremayne,
I have 12 years of experience in my field, but this will be my first year teaching. My 2 hour courses will be taught twice a week and I will also have 4-8 hours of lab to teach each week. I am nervous about fitting all of the information in and have a habit of talking too fast.
Do you, or anyone else on the forum, have good pacing techiques or tricks to make sure I am not speaking too quickly?
Rebecca
I like to keep questions or scenarios for the students to discuss if we have extra time so they understand the subject matter and this way they also do not know I have finished before I planned.
I like to use an outline and make sure i have several resources to keep at a nice interesting pace.
My classes are 5 hours long. I have a lot different talking point to cover this block of time.
