Monthly Archives: January 2018

Productivity Pro Tip: Set a Timer

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I love learning about productivity and time management, through books, podcasts, blogs, conversations, whatever it may be. One time management tip that comes up a lot is to set a timer. This tip can be used in so many situations to help teachers. Here are some examples from my life:

  • When I am having a hard time starting to grade, I set a timer. Maybe for 30 minutes, then be done. Or even for just 15 minutes and then I can decide if I want to continue or switch tasks.
  • When I’m planning a new lesson I’ll often set a timer so I don’t get lost planning and spend 3 hours planning for a 45 minute lesson.
  • If I want to challenge myself to be super productive, I’ll set a 5 minute timer and see how many emails I can respond to in that short amount of time.
  • During lessons I often set timers (or have a student set a timer) for group time or individual work time. It’s amazing how off I can be if I just guess how long it’s been for an activity 🙂

Ideas for timers

I generally use my phone for a timer so I can set it and just leave it across the room or on a corner of my desk. If you like websites, two easy ones are:

e.ggtimer.com/

Egg Timer has a simple look to it that is clearly visible either on the page or in the title bar.

onlinestopwatch.com

More research

If you want to read more about the benefits of setting a timer, here are a couple blogs with great ideas:

Life Hacker: Use A Timer

Time Management Ninja: Set A Timer

Life Hack’s summary of a Pomodoro Timer

As you consider this productivity pro tip, when would setting a timer help you to be more productive? Have you tried this? Did it work for you?

Who ever is doing the talking is doing the learning

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When talking with a third-year teacher a while back, we were talking about the difference between a student-centered class and a teacher-centered class. I made the comment that I think whoever is doing the talking is doing the learning. She sat back and thought for a minute, then said, “my first year teaching I did so much talking, and I learned so much!” She wasn’t so sure the same was true for her students.

This idea of considering who is doing the most talking has helped me many times over the years. It is even a line in my Manifesto on Teaching.

It is easy to talk a lot as teachers. We have a built in audience. We (hopefully) have interesting things to share. We have objectives to teach.

And it can happen to all of us. In our first years we are working so hard to get by, that it can be easy to default to teacher-centered practices such as a lecture with a PowerPoint. As experienced teachers, we can fall behind and want to “get through” material that we may opt for the efficiency of teacher-centered practices.

However, if we are always the one doing the talking what does that mean for our students?

Ya, but…

You’re probably there are many ways to be an active learner besides talking. And we all know that just because someone is talking does not necessarily mean they are learning.

But I do think that if we step back and consider who is doing the talking in our classes it can give us insight about who is learning and what they are learning. It can help us to see if students are at the center of the learning. It can help us to consider how we are making space for students to share their knowledge, experience, and learning. It can remind us to step back and listen a bit more.

In your class, who does most of the talking? What does this mean for the learning and the environment?