Time-Saving Strategies for Busy Teachers: Class Time Edition 

As teachers, the vast majority of our day is spent with our students. 

However, we often look for time-saving strategies in our time alone. (Think lesson planning, grading, or during our plan time.) 

While finding ways to make those parts of your job faster is helpful, don’t forget your actual class time! There are many ways we can save ourselves time during the school day! 🙂

Morning Time-Savers 

Attendance Tracking  

Are there any other chronic attendance forgetters out there?

I’m always looking for ways to help make taking attendance quick, simple, and something I am less likely to forget. 😉

So, I created an In & Out magnetic board using our classroom numbers. 

Then, when students walk into the classroom each day, they move their number to the “In” side. This allows me to quickly glance and see who is present today as I take attendance. 

While it does take a little bit of teaching & helping my students remember to move their magnets over, it saves time in the long run!

Daily Schedule Cards 

A simple way to save yourself time (and Expo marker ink) is to use daily schedule cards. 

Rather than writing the schedule on the board each day, simply rearrange the schedule cards on your board with magnetic tape. 🙌

Read more about the benefits of visual schedules and how to set one up in your classroom in this blog post! 

I have created many schedule cards in various themes to fit classrooms of all shapes and sizes. One of my favorites is my calm colors theme. Check out the calm colors schedule cards on my Etsy store here. 

Classroom Jobs 

Introducing classroom jobs to your class is a HUGE time-saving strategy during your school day! 

I love being able to receive help from my students with different daily tasks and they LOVE being able to help. 

Some of my favorite jobs are: 

💫 Errand Runner → a student with the sole job of delivering messages or various items around the school (one of the student favorites too!)

💫 Folder Helper → a student (or two) to help me remember to get Friday Folders out on time! 

💫 Substitute → this job eliminates the question of “Can I have Emma’s job today?” 

Sometimes, the thought of implementing student jobs in your classroom can feel overwhelming. 

Although it does take some time to teach the jobs, and figure out your routine, it helps save you some time from organizing the classroom library, sorting papers, etc.

Displaying the classroom jobs is a great way to keep things organized and remind you who is in charge of which job. Check out my classroom jobs setup blog post describing how to get classroom jobs up and running in your classroom! 

If all you need is an editable classroom jobs display to keep things running smoothly in your classroom, grab my Happy Hues classroom jobs set here. 

Independent Work Time 

Leveraging independent work time can be a game-changing time-saving strategy! 

While this will not always be an option, there are often times when you can give your students an independent activity to be working on to allow yourself some time to tackle a few items on your to-do list. 

Here are some ideas for independent activities: 

• Practicing math facts 
• Reading to self
• Freckle, Prodigy, or any math / reading program on the computer
• Reading a passage and answering comprehension questions
• Review packet

Flip Calendars 

Instead of writing the day’s date on the board by hand, use this time-saving strategy to save a minute or two! 

Flip calendars are fantastic tools to keep you on track and make the date easy to read for your students. All it takes from you is a quick flip of a card daily. 

You can set up a flip calendar in 4 simple steps. I walk you through each step in this blog post! 

If you are on the hunt for a flip calendar for your own classroom, check out my Happy Hues flip calendar on TPT. (pictured above) 

Asking for Help with Prepping Materials  

Preparing materials is often the most time-consuming task for elementary teachers. 

There is always lamination to cut out, papers to cut in half, booklets to staple, and the list goes on. 

So, who can you ask for help to speed up this process? 

🌟 A trustworthy student 

Some students just love helping & would love the chance to cut out circles for an upcoming craft or science experiment 

🌟 A parent/guardian 

Sending cutting or stapling home with a student might be a great way for their parent to help in the classroom on their own time! 

🌟 An older student coming in to help your class 

Past students often LOVE coming back to help their previous teachers and sometimes it’s hard to know what to ask them to do. Having some lamination on hand is always a great way to involve those students! 

Friday Free Time

Friday afternoons were always a bit of chaos in our classroom. Folders needed to be stuffed with papers going home, announcements, and the like. 

I created a version of “extra recess” that students could earn by accomplishing assignments & various benchmarks throughout the week. 

➡️ If they had everything done by Friday afternoon, they had the chance to play games with other students
➡️ If they had chosen to not finish their work during the week, they had that time to wrap up those assignments. 

This gave me some time at the end of each Friday to make sure folders were ready to go home, tidy up my desk, and double-check there were no urgent emails from parents before dismissing my students. 

Creating a space where my students were able to work on their own & give me a second to accomplish some things in the classroom saved me time & sanity. 😊

Hopefully, these ideas have sparked some creative ways to save yourself time during your teaching day. 

For more time-saving strategies, check out my blog posts focused on saving time during lesson planning, grading, & your plan time.