This is the slide presentation that accompanied the Sept 23 CTE event, "Time Management for Teaching."

1. Dr. Julie Sievers, Director The Center for Teaching Excellence Managing Time for Teaching

2. Works Cited Robertson, Douglas Reimondo. Making Time, Making Change: Avoiding Overload in College Teaching. Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press, 2003. Boice, Robert. Advice for New Faculty Members. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2000.

3. First Things: Know Thyself How are you actually spending your time? Perception ≠ reality . . . go research yourself! Gather data.

5. calendar

6. Log or diary

7. Time map spreadsheet

9. When do you start and stop working?

10. Where do you work with greatest focus?

11. What time of day do you work best?

13. At its most fundamental level, managing time intentionally is about consciously choosing between two (or many more) good things. It is about making difficult choices and committing ourselves to those choices. Most profoundly, using time intentionally is about values conflict, discernment, and commitment. Time is a resource: we must learn to invest our time in what we value—and to say “no”– in correspondence with our deepest priorities. - Douglas Robertson

14. Reconcile Values with Realities Identify the Major Areas of Your Life Include areas you value but neglect Assign times for each area There are 168 hours in a week. Work: _____ hrs / wk Family: _____ hrs / wk Health / Exercise: _____ hrs / wk Community Work: _____ hrs/ wk Sleep: _____ hrs / wk

15. Identify the Major Areas of Your Faculty Work Assign a Weight to Each Area Do the Math (for weeks, months, semesters, or years) For example: Work: 52 hrs/week* Teaching and advising: 70% = 36.4 hrs/wk Service: 20% = 10.4 hrs/wk Professional development: 10% = 5.2 hrs/wk

16. Keep doing the math Teaching: 36.4 hrs/week -5 office hrs -12 class hours (4 courses x 3 contact hrs each) = 19.4 hrs for preparation and feedback / 4 courses = 4.9 prep & grading hrs / course / wk

17. Translate Values to Your Calendar Use a “Sunday Meeting” to block out your week. Kerry Ann Rockquemore, The Sunday Meeting Block your time commitments on weekly calendar (hard commitments + values) Create Your To-Do List Map Your Tasks Onto Your Time Realize that You have More Tasks than Time Make Hard (but Conscious) Decisions

19. If not: What’s your block? What prevents you?Write: Scribble your thoughts on a piece of paper. Think / Write

20. . . . with time to spare Preparing to Teach

21. Why Less is More Good teaching ≠ covering as much content as possible If your primary goal is to be comprehensive, you will probably: Generate more material than you can actually cover Present material at a pace too fast for student participation or deep engagement Spend lots of time in painstaking preparation

22. Some numbers, from the research: Faculty who focus primarily on providing comprehensive content tend to spend 10-15+ hrs / week per class (includes prep, teaching, ofc hrs) Or 40-60+ hrs / week for a 4-course load 3:1 - 4:1 ratio of prep time to classroom teaching time In spite of this hard work, these faculty often encounter: Unengaged students Poor student comprehension Mediocre student ratings Personal distress

23. Traitsof time-effective faculty According to Boice’s studies, successful new faculty achieve: 2:1 ratio of prep time to class time High levels of student involvement in class (taking notes, asking questions, engaging in discussions) Moderately paced lecturing that allows students to take notes and comprehend points Brief, tentative lecture notes Work without rushing and busyness

24. More time  better teaching In fact . . . Too much prep can diminish the quality of your teaching. Note to self: Conscientious teaching does not require constant exhaustion.

25. Strategy 1: Prepare Reflectively “A growing reflectiveness, especially in terms of audience awareness, helps simplify teaching materials to their most memorable and connectable essentials. As teachers grow more calm and contemplative, they more often organize lectures and discussions into a few central points they hope to make for the day. They replace the additional points they were tempted to make with more examples and applications of the central points.” (Boice, Advice for New Faculty, 23)

26. Distinguishing the essential from the inessential Draft clear goals for student learning (learning objectives) Reflect on your learning objectives Consider how they apply to the material at hand Consider ways to “cut to the chase”

27. Solve the “right problem” “Research distinguishes expert problem solvers as people who take time to pause and to consider alternatives, who make sure they are solving the right problem or answering the right question.” (Boice 24)

28. Bonuses: “A slower, more deliberate style of preparing and presenting leaves teaching materials less rigidly structured and more creative, exciting.” (Boice 24) Simpler teaching notes, organized around essential points and directions, lead faculty to spend less time looking at notes, and more time eliciting student involvement and comprehension. Reflective teaching can lead faculty to say things more directly , simply, or memorably.

29. Strategy 2: Prep early and informally Use pauses in other activities to think about teaching ideas Begin collecting and connecting materials long before formal planning begins: put notes into files, rearrange ideas and categories in files, look for illustrative cases, tentatively arrange materials for classroom presentation Do prewriting or preplanning activities, like creating rough drafts of conceptual outlines, then successively revising these Talk through their ideas with others or into a recorder Set early deadlines for completing preparations

30. Outcomes of early, informal starts “[efficient] participants translated their prewritten and pre-diagrammed notes into class notes well before the [inefficient] nonparticipants began preparing their classes of similar dates. [These] participants [spent] less total time [ . . .] getting ready for class, usually a savings of at least half the time spent preparing by matched nonparticipants.” (25)

31. Strategy 3: Prep in brief, regular sessions Do teaching work in brief, regular sessions “Initiating early work in sessions so brief they necessitate no major scheduling of days. Only later, when early preparations are habitual, are they more formally scheduled.” Starting “early, before feeling in the mood . . .. One common way of instilling momentum is freewriting; another is rewriting the last part of notes or conceptual outlines produced in the prior session.”

32. Brief, regular sessions . . . “. . . keep efforts unpressured, reflective, constant, and timely. “ . . . keep teaching prep limited to durations that do not interfere with other important activities during the rest of the day, such as exercising, social life, and scholarly writing.”

33. Avoid the costs of long, uninterrupted work sessions (1) “the scenario of working under pressure and excitement until hypomania and its sequelae of sadness and disinterest set in, (2) the inefficiencies of preparing materials beyond the point of diminishing returns, and (3) the inconstancy of working that bingers evidence” (Boice 40). How to fit them in? Allot daily time. Schedule them if necessary.

35. What is a challenge you face?Pair up with your neighbor. Share your success and your challenge. Think / Pair / Share

36. . . . while still being learner-centered Managing Student Interactions

37. Don’t Hoard Responsibility Use non-teacher instructional feedback – 32 Make students responsible for obtaining course materials – 41 Require students to monitor their own completion of course assignments - 42 Require students to prepare their own study guides

38. A Time and Place for Everything Create a place befitting each activity - 48 Be able to block access to you (leave the office!) -49

39. Stick to Your Knitting: Refer to Others You do not have to be a: Counselor – 67 Writing consultant Computer support desk Librarian

40. Short with Many, Long with Few Use asynchronous communication (email, voice mail) in ways that control your interactions with others. Don’t always be available by the door, phone, email : limit immediate access to you- 61 Teach your students your communication system - 62 Create a time and place to process asynchronous communication - 63 Limit emailing, etc to the time available - 64

42. What is a challenge you face?Pair up with your neighbor (the other neighbor). Share your success and your challenge. Think / Pair / Share

44. University of Michigan Sweetland Writing Center, “Responding to Student Writing: Principles and Practices”