Why is it important to pace everything when you are an Elementary Teacher?
When you teach young students they rely on you for practically everything. This makes it so important to pace everything when you are an Elementary Teacher. It is our job to teach them how to run the clock by a regular routine. Since they can’t yet tell time on the actual clock. Once you get your pacing down for your lesson plans life becomes far less stressful. Suddenly you aren’t left cleaning up the entire classroom on what is supposed to be your fifteen minute recess break. You know you need to stop them ten minutes before the bell to clean up their mess and then send them to the hall five to six minutes early to get on all their snow gear and be out the door for a successful and full fifteen minutes of well deserved play.
Helpful tip: set a timer, all day long. I love YouTube kids timers they are fun, have soothing music and keep us on track. I live my life in minutes, not hours or days. Ha ha! I know I have four more minutes left to sit on my couch at lunch and that it will take me three minutes to get to the washroom before the bell (as long as everyone else follows my plan and stays out of the way). 😉
But how do you get your timing right?
Practice. Live it, learn it. I know that I want to start with my math talk each lesson and that it will take us approximately five minutes to get out some good thinking. So I plan to follow that math talk with a coordinating song or two for the students. I know that I want everyone to have at least ten minutes of centres. So I follow my math songs with an open ended math game. That way I can stop with ten minutes left and tell them to go an have some play time. They get the math game for whatever amount of minutes remain in between those times. I will link my post on how to build a great math block below if you are interested in more information on how I plan that all out.
It all falls into a positive, regular sequence no matter the lesson plan or instructional block. Once you pay attention to, reflect upon and then implement your understanding of good pacing throughout your day. I don’t want to tell you to obsess over this, but yeah obsess until you have perfection, as there is no greater tool to implement in your day. It will automatically improve your classroom management. Your students will see the ease of their day improving with your instruction being on point. You will take on less jobs that your students should be learning as life skills and you will be less tired when you leave for the day.
Will your timing be perfection all the time?
Probably not, but honestly in year twelve it has become pretty easy. At a certain point I got on board with how to pace everything as an Elementary Teacher and made it my priority. Remembering back to years one and two and I was hours behind when leaving work. I never felt caught up. Always working through an endless list that left me turning in circles instead of going home to a much deserved dinner and time with my family. This was especially amplified when I was a new parent, adding that exhaustion to my plate. Not to mention my hour long commute each way. I don’t think there is anything wrong with grounding yourself. Staying the time you feel is needed to set yourself up for success, however, once you hit a certain level of tired you are no longer being productive to your day and you should just head home.
I personally love leaving with the bell. Leaving for my lunch and sitting in the quiet for my recess time. I utilize my planning time to its fullest and I broke up with the photocopier (it was such a toxic relationship 🙂 I have since formed a bond with whiteboards, markers and erasers, ha! No muss, no fuss. No time spent clearing someone else’s paper jams. But you do you, and remember you will always be more productive when less tired.
With Love, C.
Interested in getting my latest posts follow my page on Facebook here. Look for me on Instagram here. You might also enjoy my low prep activities on TPT here.
