Productivity in the Classroom

Productivity to me means getting things accomplished during the time given.   For me, that is a problem.  There always seems to be too much to do and not enough time to get it accomplished.  During a given day we are given a single class period to prep for other classes, tutor struggling students, meet and hopefully collaborate with other teachers, grade, and hopefully relax long enough to pump yourself up for the rest of the day.  Time is something we obviously do not have enough time of in a given school day.  On a day like today, where we had a two hour late start, that time is an even greater commodity.  More things to accomplish and an even shorter prep period for it.  In exchange for that, I try to come in early and very rarely do I leave "on time" according to our contract.  Productivity is extremely important to the day and the more I can get accomplished at school, the more time it leave for me to do non-school things at home.  I have often admired those teachers who have the ability to do it all at school and leave school at school, because in nine years of teaching I haven't been able to do it.  School is always part of my nightly routine where I try to be as productive as possible with both school and home things.

Productivity of students has become a new focus for me.  It has always been a goal of mine to give students  a chance to be productive in the classroom when it comes to homework.  I really have always tried to give students an opportunity to get started on their homework in class and maybe even a chance to get it done, by giving them some work time at the end of class.  I know that many of them have other obligations in the evenings whether it be school or home related or they may just want a chance to get started and ask questions if need be.  Technology has really been a big assistance to me in this category.  All of my students use my Moodle site to download the daily notes where I have placed them with blanks in the lesson.  They fill in the missing words as I go through the PowerPoint during class.  It has enabled me to explain more material in a given class period in a shorter amount of time than I was previously able to do.  Students are able to fill in the missing words quickly and then listen to what I am explaining.  Previously, note required students to hand write all the information and it was a much longer process.  Technology has allowed me to give more homework/productivity time at the end of each class.

This end of the class period time does not always go as I plan.   During several of my classes, this homework time where I would like to see students get productive often will get used for talk time.  Groups of students will move around the room with their friends and work on the assignments.  Many times throughout the day I find myself having to hush them, break them up, or making them go back to their seats.  What I wanted to be productive time almost seem unproductive most days.  There are exceptions to the rules every now and then with the students that will always use their time or the occasional class that are all good workers, but more often the naught it isn't used as I want it to be.  This is a change that needs to be made in my daily classroom routine.