Timing...

It's something of an irony to me that one of the things I was best at on my CELTA course- timing a lesson- is something I'm quite bad at now. Unless I really concentrate during the planning stage, things never take the time I think they will. Usually, they do the less terrifying thing- taking longer than anticipated. It's much simpler to choose something to leave out in a lesson that's over-running than to think of something to add in to a lesson where the class are racing through the work.

I underestimated the timings on the numeracy class today- though I did better than I usually do, and had fewer activities planned. The stop-the-clock game I played lasted about as long as I thought it would. The explanations would have lasted longer if I'd been more careful about drilling- this is something I need to work on. But I had underestimated the time taken by student-centred spelling feedback (as in, how long it would take them to mark one anothers' work, and then write down their corrections). That said, I feel like I'm getting better with that class, and I was very proud of the Smartboard Notebook that I used- this is something I want to do more of- all the work I needed, including blank screens, all ready to go, including flashcards, and a hyperlink to the flash game. It made my life considerably easier.

I would absolutely love timing to be something I was good at- both in terms of the class as a whole, and also in terms of being the kind of teacher who knows that an activity is going to take some students less time than others, and plans in differentiation accordingly.

Speaking of differentiation (did you see how neatly that segued?), it's something I find hard work. I don't want to be in a position where the reward for finishing work is more work. I do want to challenge the brighter students and not make the weaker students feel left behind. Pairing them up can work, but pairs/groups have (as I've said before) to be monitored closely to ensure they're actually working together. There must be a better way to do this.

On a brighter note, I've redesigned the lesson plan template that I use to divide up what the students are meant to be doing, and what I'm meant to be doing, at different points in the lesson. It brings the whole thing closer to the planning forms I used on my CELTA course, which I found very useful, and I've gone back to having my plan in front of me at all times so I know where I'm going with things. And that's an advantage to timing things well- you have less to write (if you're estimating accurately, rather than overestimating the amount of work), and thus you have less to remember in the classroom.