WAYS BY WHICH TEACHERS CAN REDUCE THEIR WORKLOAD IN THE CLASSROOM

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Many teachers seem to be under pressure at work due to their job requirements. They look weak and tired at the end of the day because they want to fulfill their part of the agreement as teachers/facilitators. It appears that most teachers see the profession as a call to serve God and Mankind hence will go the extra mile to perform their responsibilities. Aside from all these beliefs, teachers must know that the human system may not be stretched beyond its capacity. Therefore, there is the need to put the necessary measures in place to reduce the workload in the classroom. The following are the ways by which teachers can save their energies in the classroom:

Firstly, plan your term or semester. Aside from the scheme of work and lesson note preparation,   it is expected of the teacher to have a personal plan for the term or the academic year. A personal plan will put your job description in your context. Everybody has issues to deal with. For example, teachers embark on personal development programs or deal with family raising issues. You must have a plan that will help you to allocate time to your activities. Also, establish a culture or routines in your classroom to ward off any unfamiliar responsibility. However, be flexible in the execution of your plan in order not to jeopardize your life with stress. The establishment of a classroom routine ensures that teaching and learning flow in an orderly manner. This reduces the teacher’s work because learning is a collective responsibility.

Secondly, you are not the epitome of knowledge. The teacher is not the reservoir of knowledge. Most teachers think that they are supposed to know everything in this world. Let your students know that you don’t know it all and that they have a lot to offer during lesson delivery because teaching and learning is a collaborative effort of both the students and the teacher. This will boost the confidence level of students and awaken their inquiry skills. If this happens, students will be feeding the class more information in a limited time. This will help the teacher to relinquish part of his burden to students to save energy for other works. NB. You are to guide students to discover knowledge by themselves. Give students group works, individual projects, and assignments and be the one that will summarize their ideas into substantial and credible knowledge.

Also, use peer assessment to check students’ understanding of lessons. Assessment of students may seem hectic at times. Therefore, if part of the assessment can be done through peer review, it will reduce the teacher’s workload. Develop an assessment guide for students to use to rate the works of their colleagues. Allow students to write down the comments on the work of their peers and summarize their comments into a report on students’ performance. Students will develop a good sense of judgment to make relevant contributions to ongoing discussions in the classroom which will make your work so easy and stress-free.

In addition to the above, use resource persons to assist you in lesson delivery. It is common knowledge that if you are not an expert in an area, you will struggle to deliver content in that area to the understanding of your students. Since each teacher has his/her strengths and weaknesses, don’t feel bossy to employ the services of resource persons to helps you with the area that you don’t have mastery over. For instance, a social studies teacher with a business background may struggle to teach the geography aspect of social studies. She/he must contact a colleague or anybody that has mastery over geography to help explain the concepts to students. It will help save energy and time.

Finally, record all the activities that went on in the classroom during the academic year. Compile these documents into a notebook and update them as the years go by. To make your work easier, it is imperative to reflect on what you did in the past. How effective were your plans and how do you think you can make them better. This will help you grow personally and professionally. A written record of your experiences will enable you to have a hands-on solution to future problems. This is in line with what Baldwin J., (1924-1987) said: “know from whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go”.

By:

Bright Damankah