When it comes to time management as a teacher, I seem to always be trying to catch up, no matter how hard I attempt to plan. It appears that I always need to add one more thing to my “To do List”. My latest dilemma has been adding new students to my introductory technology classes in the middle of the semester. The CTE teachers in our county were told some numbers were low and adjustments needed to be made. To date I have added twenty new students since the beginning of the year. This amounts to a 22% increase of new students added my classes in the last three weeks and could go on for another several weeks until program objectives are met.
I have also had to create new logons and formulate plans to get the new students acclimated as quickly as possible in order to maintain the designated classroom flow we began with at the start of the semester. Starting with new students in the middle of the semester means teaching a different type of multi-level classes in the introductory phase of the program as well as teaching other multi-level advance classes, which requires more planning. By the way,we are also expected maintain the school's website. While, I am thrilled to get new students in my program, time and classroom management challenges continue to surface daily. This places my students and me in an at-risk situation. We are still expected to achieve and maintain quality results. I realize planning never stops, but now I have to really plan for the unexpected. Plan! Plan! Plan!
Hey I know it may be a bit difficult at times but try using what we learned in NTI last Saturday. The students that have been in there already can either work on a project that they need to be doing while the students that just came in can work on the novice material. Advanced students could work on a solo project monitored by you and then you can focus on the newer students with whatever. Another idea is have the more advanced students "train" the kids just coming into the class. Have them do a demo and a repeat performance and grade them on that as a higher level project. I have many levels of students - some have taken nutrition and wellness, but a lot have not, some work in a restaurant, a few do not. I do understand where you are coming from but I have been successful in my labs using these methods. I try to change them up a bit.
ReplyDeleteGreat suggestions! What are some other ways to tackle this issue?
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