Organization and Time Management for Teachers

Tips for Classroom Teachers Trying to Get Everything Done

Sep 11, 2008

Whether you are a new or veteran teacher, there is a lot of work to get done every day. Organization and time management will enable you to get more done in a day.

Some teachers leave as soon as they are allowed to and never have to do any work at home, while other teachers are being kicked out by the janitors at 8 pm every night and still taking home piles of work. Learn how to organize your work and prioritize your time in order to get more done in a day.

Organize Your Work

The more organized you are, the more you will be able to accomplish in a shorter amount of time.

You can opt to organize papers on your desk, or keep them in a file drawer. Some options for organization include: Papers to be graded, Papers to be copied, Things to do, Things to File, etc. Whatever you find to be common categories for your personal style of working will be useful in organizing your work.

Use file folders to keep yourself organized. Use one folder for each lesson plan or unit, and this will enable you to easily know what you need to copy, and what you need to create for the lesson, and easily file the lesson or unit when you are finished teaching it.

Use file folders for students' work. If you are saving copies of student work for your own records, keep a file for each student. Inside the file folder, you can write notes about the student, keep notes from parent teacher conferences, and keep copies of other important documents.

Use file folders for grading. Put each subject in a file folder. For example, math papers to be graded can be kept together in one folder, and language arts papers can be kept in a separate folder to be graded. As you grade each paper, place the papers in either a “to be filed” folder, or a “to be passed back out” folder.

Prioritize Your Time

When possible, spend your planning time at your desk, planning. If you must, take a few minutes to make copies and prepare for the remainder of the day, but try to consider your time before the students arrive in the morning as your opportunity for preparation.

Organize your time to include both lesson planning and grading as necessary. Lesson planning should be done on a computer when possible, saving plans in subject specific folders and with topic specific titles to enable easy access and reduced planning time for each subsequent year.

Utilize parent volunteers when available for lesson preparation including cutting, organizing, and copying materials.

Whenever there is not enough time in the day to accomplish everything that must be done, consider using your lunch time to plan or grade papers. Instead of taking the break at school, take the break when you get home to your family.

So, you have worked hard all day, and still brought home a pile of work to be done? Prioritize your time. Figure out what needs to be done for the very next day, and limit the work you bring home to that.

Organizing your work and prioritizing your time will help you catch up, keep up and even get ahead in your busy life as a teacher.

The copyright of the article Organization and Time Management for Teachers in Teacher Tips/Training is owned by Jennifer Wagaman. Permission to republish Organization and Time Management for Teachers in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.