Circles: Think-Pair-Share in Community Circles
On one of my first formal teacher evaluations, my principal noted that he wanted me to work on time management. Many years later, I still occasionally struggle with this. I tend to overplan my class periods and overestimate my students abilities to transition and complete activities. This challenge is especially apparent when I am leading community circles.
As I have previously mentioned, my classes begin with daily proactive restorative circles, also known as community circles. (If you missed the post, you can check it out here.) When planning my semester and weekly lesson plan, I reserve ten to fifteen minutes per period or block for the meetings. However, my students and I really enjoy these meetings and it is very easy for us to subconsciously to stretch them out, especially on days when we have challenging lessons, such drafting essays, or on days when the prompt evokes long-winded
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I used my phone to time the students’ responses, but I honestly almost immediately began to give each student twenty seconds of speaking time because I hated cutting them off mid-sentence. The year my school switched to block schedules, I discarded the timer completely. But, I soon realized that the meeting times kept extending--some could even take up to 25 or 30 instructional minutes if I was not careful!
Fortunately, my friend, Tracy Makings who was an Instructional Coach at the time, noticed this time management problem and made a suggestion that actually helped to speed up the circles. She suggested incorporating the think-pair-share strategy. In think-pair-share, all students take turns responding to the prompt with a partner.
Prompt: What would you do if you ran our school?
Student A to Student B: I would…..
Student B to Student A: I
Using some simple time management skills can give the student the ability to complete tasks without feeling overwhelmed. Insufficient communication between myself and the school also crippled my studies. Over this course, I’ve learned to excel as a student the importance of new time management skills. The transition although stressful is exciting and eye opening. It's a completely different experience versus the typical college classes I was involved in when I enrolled in traditional college after high school. I will admit I am disappointed in myself this course for falling behind, being side tracked I’m unsure how far behind I’ve become. There’s one thing this has taught me and that’s discipline with my schedule because I find it's easy to get
Macan et al. (1990) [1] done a study on 165 students to find out the effects of time management on students’ stress, self perception of performance and Grade Point Average (GPA). Their study revealed major findings. One of the most predictive independent factors of Time Management Behaviour scale was perceived control of time [1]. Students reported significantly higher evaluations of their performance, much work and life satisfaction, least role ambiguity, least role overload and fewer job caused tensions, who perceived control of their time [1].
Time-management is one of my core academic and employability skills I possess. This skill allows me to prioritise effectively, which includes planning workloads, alongside arriving in a timely manner to places such as work or university. Planning my time for university workloads ' is a strength I have, as I am able to organise and prepare myself, to meet coursework deadlines within the time period
Primarily, before I was able to use my time management skill to benefit my academic success as a student at Miami this term, I had to follow certain procedures. The first thing I did in the beginning of this semester was that I created a, To Do, list to help me identify a few items and the reasons for doing them. I create these lists every Sunday to guide me through my weeks of school. The first thing in the list is to make sure I go to sleep on time, so I can wake up on time and arrive on time in class every day. Another method I follow is the daily and weekly planner which helps me writing down my appointments, classes’ times, and meetings’ times on a
In order for the entire class to have the same experience I taught morning and afternoon labs on 6 different days. Each session lasted approximately two hours. The groups typically contained 8-10 students.
There are many aspects within my personal character in which have changed since entering grade nine. One of these aspects is my time management skills. When I first started out in grade nine, I used to rush home and rush
Communication with peers and even teachers or adults will also be helpful as it will help organize and speed up the time it will take to complete certain objectives.
As teammembers it is their responsibility to work together regardless and not let emotions hinder them from performing their responsibilities. Unfortunately there are time constraints such as different time zones and the inability for everyone to meet together at the same time in the classroom.
Teachers always say that they do not have enough time. As educators, we lack the appropriate amount of time to fully think, plan, communicate, teach, and learn with our students. However, the problem isn’t necessarily the lack of time, but the
First, initially creating a pacing guide deciding when to assess students involves collaboration. Teachers at an American urban elementary school brought samples of their students work to discuss. They compared their student’s work to students in other classes. They noticed similarities and
At Wesley Chapel High School, the principal has mandated that Thursday afternoons are when those PLC meetings must take place. Though the PLCs at the school are encouraged and incentivized to meet for at least an hour, the end of the contracted teacher workday means that some groups do not meet for more than 30 minutes, from 2:10 pm until 2:40 pm. When time for afternoon duties is taken into consideration, meeting time may be closer to 20 minutes. PLC meetings are also used to disseminate department level information as well as information that would usually be addressed in a faculty meeting which further limits the time teachers spend
For me, being able to manage my time wisely is a must. Every week I have a schedule that I try to stay as close too as possible. The problem is most of the time something happens to throw me off schedule and I find myself playing catch up. If I didn’t have the schedule already in place then I would never get anything done. “ the first step toward more effective time management is to increase awareness of its value” (Lucco, 1994). Time management is a lot easier in my private life because my family understands what I am trying to accomplish. Everyday I start my assignments at 4:30 and finish at 7:30 with no distractions. They understand that if I work during the week we can play on the weekends.
To help the ADD children in your class adapt to having a regular schedule, it makes it easier on you and them to have a daily task list. Having a list taped to the student?s desk creates a routine and ultimately helps the child focus on the work to be done. Eventually, the schedule will become a habit and that is the goal you are aiming for. Nonetheless, they may have a regular agenda, but that does not mean you will have their full attention at all times.
My teacher uses a timer for transitions. She announces to the students that it is time to change activities, then sets the timer for a specific time. The students are to clean up and prepare for the next activity in that time frame. It is usually anywhere from two to five minutes depending on what type of clean up and preparation is needed. The students respond very well to this method. The beeper is also loud enough for students to here. If needed, my CT is lenient and will give students more time if she notices they are on task and need more time. I have never witnessed her timer transition method fail yet. Her students generally abide by it and respect it.
After managing my issues, I needed to work on how to manage my time. Since elementary school, I struggled at managing my time. I would usually finish all my homework after midnight. As a result, I would either sleep in class or come to school late. My family was frustrated about this and did not want me making school harder for myself, so they taught me ways to manage my time. As a result, I managed to learn how to manage my time.