Teaching students how to manage their workload

As educators, we have so many tasks to handle each and every school day. Student absences, assessments, phone calls, meetings — these can pile up on our plates. Classroom management is often considered one of the tasks we need to take on. While this is true to some extent, perhaps we can take some of the classroom management load off the teacher and put it on the students themselves. Management doesn’t have to be, nor should it be, something teachers decide or handle on their own. Students should be invited into the process of managing learning in the classroom. Here are some tools many teachers have used to empower students to self-manage.

Source: Tools for Student Self-Management

I’m a big fan of lists, both check and task, and agree that they are a school to be taught. I’m more productive with my lists, and less likely to forget to complete work.

Another management technique I’m working with is The Pomodoro Technique®. With Pomodoro, you focus on a task for 25 minutes, and then take 5 minutes off. I haven’t quite figured out how to put it into the classroom (especially if you have less than an hour for class), but it has been very useful for me.