3 Cures to Top Teacher Peeves

by Guy E. White on 8 September, 2014

On my first day of teaching, I realized that I was answering hundreds more questions each day than I had previously. It was so tiring, making hundreds of decisions, based upon often painful, needlessly repeated questions. How does a teacher do his or her best while being able to curb the time-wasting, tiring moments of the day?

Few people realize how difficult it is to manage the bladders of 35 school-kids each day. Top this off with missed assignments from absences, forgotten homework, and varying degrees of listening and retention ability, the day of the average teacher can be quite tiring. Teachers don’t have to imagine the feeling of being asked, “Did I miss anything important yesterday?”

I’m a master of routines and systems. I can take three days’ worth of tasks for myself and hammer them out in about six hours. So, once I got my feet firmly planted in my classroom after a few weeks, I decided it was time to build systems and routines that would support the BEST of me and my students.

Here are the best routines, strategies, and systems that I use to save time, enhance learning, and give my best to my students:

1. Creative Curriculum; Repeating, Predictable Routine

First, I discovered that I could still bring the best, creative instructional strategies, activities, and curriculum to my students AND also do so within a repeating, predictable routine.

I use a sandwich method in my classroom every day. The bread never changes; that is, what we do first and last. What gets exciting is what’s inside the bread. The bread supports the creativity. Here’s my recipe:

Bread – Kids walk in, board work, writing on own. I take attendance. Hellos and agenda setting, goals and standards. Special sauce – The best story I can tell about today’s topic. I get them to tell me (or a partner): Lettuce – “Let us remember what we talked about yesterday.” Meat – The big learning for the day. I do it. We do it. Each student does it individually. Cheese – I tell another story to keep the energy up and/or we shift seating positions. More Meat – Same as above. Bread – Reflection. Recap. Review. Reset.

The repeating yet still “fresh” approach to my daily routine keeps spirits high and things well in order.

2. My Best Teaching Strategy: Self-Control

How many times a day do you check email? Social media? Do you answer the phone personally every time it rings? How do you handle a person that walks through the door while you are in the middle of the lesson?

Regarding email, unless there is an urgent message (about which I am told via phone, in person, or loudspeaker) I only check my email twice each day (at 10am and 2pm). Typically, these times fall into the last moments of self-guided student work. I give myself 60 seconds to delete all emails that I can. I have four more minutes to reply to any and all required. I get up to five minutes more for those one or two emails that need a lengthy reply, but this is quite rare

For the phone, a student always answers and has a phone-decision tree to reference next to the phone. I train my students to always ask (1) “Who’s calling?” and (2) “What specifically are you calling about?”, and say “Dr. White’s busy working with students. Does this require his immediate personal attention or shall I simply give him a message?” Colleagues don’t always like this, but it prevents 90% of needless phone calls.

I’ve trained students who repeatedly walk into my classroom during class time to wait on the sideline until I’m not instructing or taking questions from students. I’ll come to them. Otherwise, I will give them a hand-motion to return in 5 or 10 minutes.

3. Classroom Interruptions

For students who need to leave the classroom during class time (for the bathroom, a meeting, etc.), I instruct them to wait until we are transitioning between activities. The same goes for sharpening, nose blowing, etc.

For signatures, all forms must be 100% filled out (except my signature) and placed on my desk before the starting bell rings.

In the end, every person has their own priorities. Some priorities I make way for immediately; others can wait.

What do you think? How do you handle your classroom peeves?

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