If you get to the end of each term and wonder where the previous 10 weeks went, you're not the only one! If you keep finding yourself making the resolution to be more organised next term, here are some areas you can focus on to help your students and make your life easier.
It makes sense that if there is no prior knowledge, then there is nothing to activate. Students often study topics they know very little about (that is why, after all, that they attend school!) and therefore teachers must think of ways of providing the necessary background knowledge quickly and efficiently.
A popular activity as a warm-up or for early finishers is to find all the words using the letters of a long word. The letters can be mixed up. I would not recommend this activity unless it’s something to fill in time at the end of the term or year.
Some words may be easy to spell, but the meaning can take some time for students to understand.
Teachers were asked to predict how much time was wasted at the start of the lesson. From the predictions that teachers made, it was obvious that lost time is a recognised problem.
From my decades of being a teacher and teacher educator, I have learned many things. However, one thing that resonates very strongly is the importance of getting students engaged in learning from the opening minutes of a lesson.
