Time Management and Instructional Planning

Are you a positive or negative role model?

Cooperating teachers who are good managers of time and demonstrate effective planning skills are best
equipped to help student teachers. The amount of time involved in the process of teaching comes as a shock to
most student teachers. Making decisions about content, planning for instruction, managing of students,
communicating with parents and participating in professional development, along with having a life outside of
school, can be an overwhelming realization for those new to the profession. (This load needs to be seriously
taken into account by the cooperating teacher when making the decision to add on more responsibility by taking
on a student teacher.) Some areas of effective time management to consider and model for your student are:
Organization
o materials and resources are they easy to locate when needed
o commitments and schedules are they current and accessible for planning
o grades, etc. is there a system for recording and returning assessments
Precedence
o students are a teachers first priority how do you recognize and balance additional educational
duties and personal commitments
Paperwork
o the amount of paperwork that crosses a teachers desk how do you deal with it all
o alternative ways of assessment how do you assess students without creating more paperwork
for yourself yet keep it relevant and applicable for future lessons
o the amount of information received from schools, districts, regions, states or national
organizations how do you manage this
Deliberation
o both professional and personal reflection is beneficial for maintaining a constructive attitude -
demonstrate and foster this behavior
Leisure
o an essential aspect of avoiding burnout and maintaining focus and balance in teaching take
some time in your day to step back from the job; talk about how you achieve this balance

Time, or lack thereof, is not the only thing that takes student teachers by surprise. The amount of curricular
content, multilevel standards and diverse learning needs that must be considered when planning can be
overwhelming to the novice teacher.
Student teachers have little knowledge of or practice in long-range planning.
o Those students who are assigned to your classroom for the first quarter get the chance to see how
the beginning of the year decisions concerning curriculum, philosophy, rules, procedures and
organization are made; however, not all students have the opportunity to witness the thinking
process and decision making that goes on before students enter a classroom.
A cooperating teacher who takes the time to outline and describe reasons for these planning decisions
(unit timelines, room or personnel scheduling, necessary resources, testing schedules, etc.) will give a
student teacher a foundation to help them start their first year off successfully.
From the previously considered long-term plan, a cooperating teacher can sit with the student teacher and
identify what content and outcomes he/she will be responsible for during the placement and the timeline for
taking on and letting go of the teaching role.