49 Time-saving hacks for teachers (part 1)
One of the hardest parts about being a teacher is the never-ending to-do list and limited amount of time. These time-saving hacks for teachers will help you maximise your time and productivity so that you can enjoy a healthy work-life balance. These time-saving hacks for teachers include tips for lesson planning, marking and assessment, communication and administration.
So grab a coffee and relax while we explore time-saving hacks for teachers that will work for you!
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Time-saving hacks for teachers infographic of the 5 top tips for time-saving hacks for teachers.
Time-saving hacks for teachers: lesson planning
1. Batch your lesson planning
This is definitely my favourite of all the time-saving hacks for teachers. Batching is the best way to streamline your approach to lesson planning. When done well, this approach can save you hours of time every week.
So what is it?
Batching your lesson planning refers to planning all of a week’s lessons for a particular topic or grade level at the one time.
So, a middle school maths teacher might plan all of their year 6 lessons for the week. Then year 7 and so on.
A primary teacher might plan all the history lessons, then english, then maths.
This approach saves you time as it allows your brain to focus on one topic rather than having to switch between topics. It will also help your lessons flow smoothly from one to the next.
impact of effective student engagement strategies
2. Plan learning intentions sequence first
If you aren’t able to batch plan your lessons in full, then the next best thing is to plan out the learning intentions for a batch of lessons. This also has the benefits of creating more streamlined lessons and when you do have time to sit and do some planning you already know the lesson you have to plan.
3. Have a lesson planning schedule
If you’re someone who sits down at your desk and doesn’t know where to start, then this is for you.
Have a schedule for what lessons you’re going to plan on what day. E.g. Mondays you plan your year 7 lessons, Tuesday you plan year 8 and so on. This schedule can be as detailed or as loose as you want it to be depending on the type of structure that you will find helpful.
4. Use templates
Templates are one of my favourite time-saving hacks for teachers. They can make a measurable difference in your day, particularly if you find one you like and will use often. You can use templates for worksheets, presentation slides, lab reports, – you name it and there is probably a template for it!
Canva is a great tool for whipping up quick templates and resources. Did you know they have some excellent FREE templates for worksheets and presentation slides?!
Slidescarnival also has beautiful FREE templates for presentations that are much nicer than the boring stock standard ones.
If you’re a science teacher then these editable science experiment templates (also FREE!) are perfect when you are planning an experiment or having students write up an experimental method.
I also love to use templates for activities like Tarsia puzzles and escape rooms. Enter your email below and I’ll send you my Tarsia Puzzle template for FREE!Time-saving hacks for teachers infographic of the 5 top tips for time-saving hacks for teachers.
Time-saving hacks for teachers infographic of the 5 top tips for time-saving hacks for teachers.
time-saving hacks for teachers
5. Use resources with teacher answers
If you’re shopping for resources, buy ones that come complete with teacher answers. There is nothing worse than buying a resource you want to use straight away but then realise you have to sit and work out all the answers. My favourite places to purchase teacher resources:
Likewise, make sure if you’re purchasing a textbook that it has fully worked answers for every set of questions. Yes you would think that all textbooks would have this – but actually I’ve found many don’t. It is worth checking before buying!
6. Buy no prep lessons
If you’re going to spend your hard earned money on purchasing some new activities – then make the most of it and purchase ones that don’t require any prep from you! From digital escape rooms to worksheets to quizzes, there are always no prep options around.
7. Have sub lessons ready to go
As a teacher it is often more work to take a sick day than to just go into work. And if you’re really sick, then the last thing you feel like doing is creating lesson plans for someone else to take. It is worth having a pack of ready to go lessons for days like this and it is worth putting them together when you aren’t sick!
Some ideas for sub lessons that can be used at any time of year include:
- Research task for a famous person related to your subject e.g. famous scientist, mathematician, architect, artist, etc
- Numeracy worksheets related to your subject e.g. significant figures in science, converting units in food tech, reading graphs in social studies or drawing timelines in history.
- Literacy activities revising key vocabulary.
- Quizlets and kahoots are also easy to leave for a sub and require minimal prep.
8. Share resources with colleagues
Be open in sharing your lesson resources with your colleagues and hopefully they will reciprocate. It also warms them up so that if you want to ask a colleague for a copy of a particular resource, they may be more willing to help you out.
9. Lesson plan with colleagues
To take the above point a bit further, why not plan a lesson with your colleagues? If you are teaching the same content as another teacher, then why not plan together?! There is no point in both of you trying to design an activity for the same thing. This is a great way to save time and build relationships with your colleagues at the same time.
10. Sometimes plan an ‘easy’ lesson
A textbook based lesson or an educational video can give you some prep time back which will allow you to make the next lesson more engaging. Don’t feel guilty about this.
11. Use a Google Doc for your lesson planning
I love using Google Docs for my lesson planning as it is easy to change and adapt quickly. I also use it to link in any worksheets, resources and videos so all of my resources are accessible at a click.
12. Video record your presentations
Recording your presentations can be done at a click of a button these days. Whether you use screen-cast-o-matic or zoom, recording may allow you to share it with students who missed the lesson, or to set it as flipped learning next year.
13. Use digital escape rooms (instead of paper ones)
Want to do a fun escape room but don’t have the time to set it up and buy all the bits and pieces you need to go along with it? Digital escape rooms are a fantastic alternative! They are cheaper than trying to buy a class set of padlocks and are generally zero prep.
Check out some of my digital escape rooms for middle and high school science.
Time-saving hacks for teachers infographic of the 5 top tips for time-saving hacks for teachers.
Time-saving hacks for teachers infographic of the 5 top tips for time-saving hacks for teachers
Time-saving hacks for teachers:
Have these handy in a folder on your desk
14. Lesson finishers
No one wants to constantly think of ideas for lesson finishers. Save yourself time and grab my free lesson finisher ideas here.
15. Easy research assignments or activities (for early finishers)
Having a list of easy research assignments students can do if they finish early is a great idea. To keep them relevant year round it could be something related to the subject as a whole such as researching something related to your subject area in industry or looking for news articles related to your subject.
16. Differentiation strategies
Need to differentiate on the fly? Or want a quick list of differentiation strategies you can pick and choose from during lesson prep? Visit my 53 EASY differentiation strategies post.
17. Engagement strategies
Keeping lessons engaging can be a battle. If you keep a list of engagement strategies handy then it is quick and easy to come up with ideas while lesson planning. Check out this list of 31 effective engagement strategies.
Using See-Think-Wonder to promote thinking in 4 steps
In just 15 minutes, with just 4 simple steps, you can promote engagement, deepen thinking skills and develop quality questioning in your students. Using an interesting visual image and combining it with the visible thinking routines of ‘See-Think-Wonder’ and ‘What...
Time-saving hacks for teachers: marking & assessment
18. Don’t set homework
There is very little research to support the use of homework for student learning. So why add to your workload by creating more marking and checking for yourself? Not to mention having to chase kids up who haven’t completed it (I hate this part the most!)
Save yourself some time and energy and don’t set homework!
If your school requires you to set homework then be kind to yourself. Try to set work that is short and easy to mark.
19. Mark one section at a time of an exam
Batching your marking process so you mark one section at a time helps you speed through your marking. This may be one question at a time or it could be a page or section.
Batching your marking speeds up the process as you know what you’re looking for. This also leads to you being more consistent, particularly when marking a whole class or grade.
20. Use self marking quizzes
Self marking quizzes can be so easily created (or purchased if you wish) using programs like google sheets. These save you time, not just from marking once, but as they can be used over and over, these save you time every year!
21. Have students peer mark
Have you ever had students mark each other’s work? Benefits of this are three fold:
- First, you don’t have to mark (woohoo!)
- Second, students tend to put extra effort in if they know a peer is going to see it
- Third, students are able to learn from each other as they see how their peers go about answering the same questions.
22. Use classroom time to give feedback
Assessing student understanding and providing feedback does not only have to happen with hand in tasks and homework. Classroom time is an excellent time to check student work and offer feedback without having to spend your non-class time marking.
23. Provide students answer sheet to mark their own work for homework
There is no reason students can’t mark their own work. Provide them with the answer key and away they go! You can still record their grades and help them with the questions they got incorrect.
24. Use digital stickers when marking online work
It can be so time consuming to write the same feedback on multiple pieces of student work. Using digital stickers for online work can save time and are easy to drag and drop onto google docs or slides.
25. Write your assessment tasks first (backwards by design)
Planning your assessment tasks ahead of planning your lesson sequences, ensures you know exactly where you are heading with your teaching. This aides in giving direction to your lesson planning and therefore helps save time.
26. Design concise assessment tasks
When designing your assessment tasks try to also think about you as the marker. Can you assess the same outcome with a question that is easier to mark? How long does that task need to be in order to assess the various outcomes? If it can be done in 30 questions then don’t add more just for the sake of it.
Time-saving hacks for teachers infographic of the 5 top tips for time-saving hacks for teachers.
Best time-saving hacks for teachers.
27. Have students write their own review questions
An activity I love to do with my students is have them all write one review question on a post-it note (with the answer). I then collect these and turn them into a review quiz. Allowing students to be involved helps them to buy into the task and it also assists me as I don’t have to think of all the questions myself!
28. Don’t mark every question / page
If you’re stuck for time and you’ve collected student workbooks or quizzes, you are not committed to marking the entire thing. Just pick a few key questions or pages to leave feedback on and leave the rest. Not every bit of student work needs to be marked. It will be of more value if you can give specific feedback on a few pieces instead of limited feedback on a lot of pieces.
Conclusion
Stay tuned for part 2 of my time-saving hacks for teachers!
Have you tried any of these time-saving hacks for teachers? Do you have any of your own? Drop them in the comments below!
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