No matter what age group you teach, the classroom is a fast-paced environment where time is at a premium. Classroom management, giving out instructions and transitioning between periods can all eat into your teaching time and make your job more difficult than it needs to be.

Whether you’re decades into teaching or preparing to take your first class, we’ve developed a list of 5 low-prep classroom ideas to help you save valuable minutes during the school day.

Use warm-up routines

Getting students seated and engaged when they enter the classroom is the perfect way to win back valuable time in the morning and after recess.

Small and engaging activities help set expectations for your students and reduce the amount of time you spend instructing the class.

A warmup can be something as simple as:

• Leaving a prompt on the whiteboard to discuss with a partner (eases transition time)

• Having an educational video playing when they enter the classrooms (generates interest)

• 5 minutes of quiet reading every morning (promotes structure)

• Instructing students to write down 3 things they learned yesterday/that morning (reinforces information retrieval skills)

These tasks shouldn’t be tough on students. They’re designed to help your class ease back into education so you don’t waste valuable time helping them readjust after a break.

Tip: Students learn best when their routines are structured, so use the same warmup for a few weeks before changing to something fresh.

Make the most of “turn and talk” time

“Turn and talk” is a teacher’s best friend.

Having students share what they just learned with a partner or small group reinforces teaching points from your lesson and gives you time to prepare the next phase of their learning.

If you’re in need of some extra prep time:

• Call on a student to stand and share what they learned

• Diversify the theme: “what did you learn”, “what did you find difficult”, or “what would you like to learn more about?”

• Break students out into small groups for extended discussion

• Leave a set of questions on the whiteboard to prompt additional conversation

Sometimes known as “think, pair and share”, turn and talk gives you space to take attendance, quickly wrap up grading after recess or finish your last-minute prep for your next period.

Tip: Use turn and talk to strategically build the confidence of “shy sharer” students 

Reinforce and streamline transitions

Classrooms can be chaotic, but they don’t have to be.

Transitions include everything from the time between activities to moving from the playground to the classroom after recess. If managed properly, they will quickly eat into lesson time.

Making sure students know exactly where to go, how to find the supplies they need for each lesson and what’s expected of them next is the number one way to reduce time (and stress!) policing transitions.

If you’re looking to win back time while your students prepare for their next period:

• Ask questions: “After recess I need everyone to have a ruler and a calculator in front of them. Who can tell me where we find them?” (reinforces routine)

• Write their schedule on the whiteboard in the morning (saves time answering questions later)

• Reinforce the “after recess” routine (reduces input from you during noisy periods)

• Elect a “classroom helper” to distribute supplies to the class (reduces congestion during lessons)

Tip: Reward your class for successful transitions. Acknowledgment is the number one way to reinforce positive behavior in the future.

Find teaching stressful? Click here for 7 classroom management strategies for reducing teacher stress

Introduce “exit routines” after each period

How your students finish each period is just as important as how they start it. Use some of the ideas below to ease into the end of the lesson or school day.

Exit tickets

Exit tickets are small pieces of paper students hand in at the end of the lesson or day. Some teachers use them every day, while others save them for closing out the week.

They’re not just a great way to incentivize reflection and minimize disruption when wrapping up the afternoon. They’re a great way to help you learn more about your students. Trust us, they’ll save you time fact finding information about your students in the future!

You can customise yours to match your age group, but to start, try including:

• The most important thing you learned that day

• An area of a topic you’d like to learn more about

• Something you found difficult that day

• One thing you did well and one thing you want to improve

Quiet reflection

This can be anything from “30 seconds of quiet meditation” to “5 minutes writing down 3 things you learned and enjoyed that day”.

Clean and pack up

Ending your lesson with enough time to clean the room and pack supplies away saves you cleaning up after your students after class.

This is valuable time that could be spend grading papers or planning tomorrow’s classes.

Signals

It’s vital that students listen to your instructions and respect the signals you give them.

This might be you letting them know that class is over or the bell ringing at the end of a period.

Always keep one eye on the clock to avoid congestion and confusion ruining the end of your lesson.

 Tip: Use a different “exit routine” for each lesson to keep students engaged. Have a different row or table pack their things up first or allow students wearing a certain color that day to leave before the rest.

Delegate, delegate, delegate!

Students love taking on responsibility in the classroom and you’re going to love giving it to them.

Take every opportunity to award jobs to deserving students and those who could benefit from some extra responsibility.

It’s a great way to save you a few minutes and give a boost to students who may be lacking self-confidence.

If you’re unsure what to delegate, start with the small stuff that may be silently eating into your time:

• Handing out textbooks and classroom supplies

• Running small errands to other classrooms

• Tidying up certain areas of the classroom on a regular basis

• Collecting/handing out test papers or homework assignments

Tip: Avoid “doing the job for them”. Instead, promote independent problem solving, time management and critical thinking as part of their new responsibility.

Final thoughts

Remember to be flexible with your routine and your time.

There will be days where things don’t go to plan, and that’s okay. You’re a teacher and you can’t be superhero every day!

Focus on making small adjustments to your routine and always introduce adjustments one at a time. Keep in mind that change can be difficult for students and if something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to change it up.

Whatever your routine looks like, it should always revolve around building confidence in your students and giving you more time to focus on what you do best: teaching!

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