All Blog Posts Tagged 'efficiency' (4)

Classroom Management: Quick Student Groupings

Early in my teaching career, I learned that if I can manage classroom movements, I can manage behavior. If I can manage behavior, students learn better.

An earlier post discussed the importance of quick and easy transitions between activities. David Ginsburg discusses smooth transitions in terms of …

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Added by Janet Abercrombie on September 27, 2011 at 5:25am — 1 Comment

Transitions: Classroom Routines That Respect Instructional Time

I have pretty high expectations for student organization and transitions between activities. I don't want student to lose precious learning time. That said, I don't want students to be robots.

How do I show students I care about them, honor individual quirks, and still clarify my expectations for our learning time?

Clear instructions are written on the board as students arrive - and for each transition. In the past, I wrote steps for students on…

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Added by Janet Abercrombie on September 3, 2011 at 6:00am — 2 Comments

Last-Minute Classroom Purchases

I've never met a teacher who didn't spend personal time and money shopping for classroom resources. By contract, I begin work in two days. I spent the afternoon picking up some last-minute items.

In order to purchase items, they need to fulfill at least two of three criteria:

They must enhance student learning
They must increase classroom efficiency
They must be cheap (i.e. under US$1.50 per student)

Plain-Colored Cotton…

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Added by Janet Abercrombie on August 8, 2011 at 2:30am — No Comments

Are Checklists worth the effort? The Checklist and the Group Project

I don’t know about you, but I am the type of person that likes to get things quickly and not spend a lot of time debating or arguing. Case in point, whenever I go shopping I tend to buy things quickly with the goal of getting out of the store as soon as possible. This usually results in my forgetting to purchase a few items or my buying something which is overpriced or doesn’t fit right.

I have realized, the hard way, that whenever I spend a few moments and make a list of things I… Continue

Added by Sal P on January 28, 2010 at 1:21pm — No Comments