POOR TIME MANAGEMENT

[PMotlhabane]

I am a student-teacher at a Teachers' college I have been experiencing a problem of poor time management especially during my teaching practice where I would fail to stick to the time I allocated to my lesson activities during lesson planning. the problems is that sometimes leaners responds very differently to the planned activities which makes me fail to meet up to the set activity schedule in my lesson plans. please advice as to how I can address this problem as a Student-teacher.

Another observation that was made by my teaching practice assessors is that during session delivery I have had problems in my questioning skills that is, the questions used do not lead my learners to open up and share their experiences or learning difficulties. this has been a challenge to me as a student-teacher and I think I need professional help.

Finally I am teaching a group of students whom English is their second language and as a result have serious communication problems and this has affected their participation in classroom activities, like discussions, asking questions, or just organizing written materials. I In fact teach Automotive trades and needs help as to how I can help the poor learners to improve in their communications skills.

[Lucy]

Hello,

In answer to your question about time management: there will always be varying speeds in a classroom. Teachers need to go with the average speed: not too fast and not too slow.

I guess that you note time needed on your lesson plan; eg 10 minutes for a certain activity. I suggest that you note down the time that your students start that activity. 9 minutes later, you can take a quick look at the class. If it looks as if most of them are finishing up, you can end the activity at ten minutes. If nobody has finished, you can allow it to go over a couple of minutes, but not too long. You need to keep in mind the overall goals for the lesson and for the whole course.

Hope this helps!

Lucy