2-Minute Mentor: Time Management

Managing your time for teaching

Can I manage the time I need for class preparation?
How do I control the time I spend communicating with students outside of class?
How do I score assignments efficiently?

Click below to watch CTE’s 2-Minute Mentor video on this topic:

Managing Your Time for Teaching video transcript (doc)

Three steps to teaching efficiently

A key aspect of efficiency is obtaining a high ratio of output to input. If we apply this to teaching, we need to make the most of the time we have for it. Here are three steps toward teaching efficiently:

Identify your goals as a teacher	Determine which goals are short term and which are long term. Identify which are easier and which are harder to achieve. Start with a relatively easy short-term goal.
Count your hours and plan their use	Look at your work week and identify the number of hours you plan to devote to your job. Be flexible and be realistic.
Identify the components of your teaching and distribute your time	Write down the components of your teaching work: preparing for class, reading and grading student work, etc. List the number of hours you engage in the required components. Decide which aspects of teaching you want to focus on and distribute your time.

For more detailed information about scheduling your time for teaching, see Dan Bernstein’s article, Make the most of your time for teaching (pdf), in CTE’s newsletter Teaching Matters.

More about managing your teaching time

The following links provide more information about time management:

Additional materials are available in CTE’s Essential Guide to Teaching.

These portfolios present examples of powerful assessment strategies that, among other things, allow for efficient and meaningful grading:

Some useful articles on time management and college teaching are:

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