How to teach- Part II

Schalom and vee gehts!

Today I am going to continue my series on teaching. This week, I want to talk about time.
Time is a tricky element. Some teachers try to stretch to fill it all, and some are constantly trying to rush to fit everything they want to say in the limited time they have.

The first key to time management is in the preparation. When you prepare a lesson, you see that the whole thing can be divided into two major categories: parts that are completely under your control (like while you are explaining something) and parts that are mostly in the hands of the class (like when you ask questions). Managing the time during these two times requires different strategies.

Managing the time while you are in control is the easier of the two. It boils down to knowing how long things take. It helps me to practice my lesson out loud a few times to get a feel for how much time each part will take. It feels funny, but you should try it, why not?. Find a quiet room with a clock (so you can be watching your time), stand up in the front of the empty room, and give your whole lesson from start to finish. This is especially helpful for people who are intimidated by the thought of speaking in front of people, because having given your lesson out loud already, it is familiar territory.

Keeping control of time when you have asked for class participation comes only with lots of practice. When you ask a question, sometimes you will have 10 minutes of good discussion, and sometimes no one will have anything to say. When I am preparing my lessons, I try to estimate how much time will be spent on the various class-participation parts. Then, when I teach, I pay attention to how long they actually took. Over time, my wild guesses (a guess is better than nothing, eh?) have become more accurate. Doing this helps you to get a sense for how long things take, which helps you keep control of that time.

Because your estimations are only estimations, you should not count on the class taking as much time as you guess. I try to prepare more than I will have time to say. This helps deal with some of the uncertainty involved in class responses. You should have enough material to teach a good lesson even if no one makes a single comment.

If you do this, it is very important that you know that you have more to say than you can cover. While you are preparing your lesson, think of which things are the most important things to say so that your lesson makes sense, and which things are good but not essential. Then, during your lesson, be conscious of the time, and begin cutting things out early, instead of teaching straight through and cutting out the last half of your lesson. I have sat through too many lessons that have an elaborate set up to a point that the teacher doesn't have time to make. It would be much better to cut things out early, make a less elaborate set up, but get to the point.

It is vital to any lesson that you start and end on time. Starting on time commands respect. If you start late, the class thinks (and it is often true) that you are stalling because you have nothing important to say. Ending on time shows respect to your class. It means that you value their time. Anything you say after the class is supposed to end will be filtered out anyway, so you might as well end on time.

The trickiest part about time is that you have to be conscious of it, but not make mention of it. If you are running short on time and (in an effort to end on time) decide to cut part of your lesson, you can't mention that you are cutting it for time. If you do, it makes it look like a dumkop who didn't think through the lesson very well (which isn't true, but it seems that way).

So, start on time, end on time, and prepare to fill the middle with creamy nougat. Till next time, zay gezunt!

Herschel