How to effectively manage your time in the classroom and brush of admin in a jiffy

Admin, the one word that all teachers absolutely despise. Most teachers spend the majority of their time in the classroom or preparing for classroom activities. The amount of time spent on admin is an integral part of being a teacher, but this can be quite redundant and enough to drive any educator up the wall. Classroom prep can take up to 30% of teachers’ time and admin makes up about 15%. In between, there still has to be grading, actual teaching time and don’t forget the countless parent-teacher evenings and the admin that goes hand in hand with that.

Here are some tips on how to be a successful administrator:

Take Thinking Time

While time is an inflexible resource, it’s still incredibly important to close your door and get the things you need to do, done. Yes, that’s right, we said close your door! Don’t be scared to lock yourself in and be unavailable to the world. At a scheduled, consistent time each week, introduce a closed-door policy. It could be for 15 minutes or an hour, whatever you need to collect yourself, think through things that require your attention and catch up on any work that you haven’t been able to. Great leaders are master time managers!

Always be for the Kids

No matter what, your number one priority should be the welfare and education of the learners you are responsible for. If you base your decision making off of anything other than this, it would be an epic fail. Remember, no matter how small or insignificant a task may be or how big the decision is that you have to make, it’s all about those little people that you have to face every day in front of the classroom.

Use Time Saving Techniques

As we have said before, time is an inflexible resource. There’s never enough of it in a day to get everything done that is required of you. Time-saving techniques will save your life. One such is to remember to delegate. If you’re struggling to manage your workload, or are a type-A personality that feels like they can get everything done and don’t want to hand off work to someone else, you will eventually down in your workload. Things that you feel you are comfortable with passing off, pass off to your competent and well-trained staff. But remember, don’t pass things off just because you don’t feel like doing them yourself. Be thoughtful about the process and it can do you a whole lot of good. That is the major success to admin 101.

Time is of the essence in any job, but as a teacher it is so important to find your groove when it comes to management and getting that horrid admin done.