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urnan beings find it very hard to get on well with time. They generally rush frorn one place to another, do two or even three things at the sarne time and sornetirnes, wish their days were 2S or 26-hour long. But, however hard they try, always beats thern up.
Ve, teachers of the 21st rnillenniurn, are no exception to the e, How often do we find ourselves saying "1 need to skip this '1 " because 1won't be able to finish the syllabus" or telling our ~dents things such as, "No, we can't do this activity because ---e-e is no time" when they, thernselves, have enthusiastically ,::-'oaested doing sornething they enjoy? _íore often than 1would like to adrnit, 1 have decided on =._~ 'ties according to how long they take to be conducted and
- - .?recisely on how prafitable they are for rny students. Again ... =:: rhe race against time! It's the need to finish a syllabus because ::::.:::' the rigid set of contents that the children are supposed to e-oIt's only now 1understand why we use the word "cover" ==:::: ot "learn", because the forrner refers to actual teaching -2c=-eas the latter involves rnonitoring whether the students are ~--::l- building the linguistic foundations of the language. It's ' e urge to finish the book and the workbook because -;.¿-O 1 have invested rnoney in thern and they rnust be used, = if they are rnainly resorted to as reading cornprehension ~ e- or quick vocabulary exercises here and there, which show -=- - a,'e, at least, done part of all the units. Both internal and =--.:::. al motivation trigger learning so if we, as prafessionals, ~,=c -z--e a certain activity produces a positive outcorne, we should == _'..li ir aside because we think it is time consurning; needless -- :-: this criterio n also applies to suggestions coming frarn as regards activities they would like to carry out or s;:e:2:. needs they may have.
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This race against time we are running these days is lost frarn rninute one. We rnay have the feeling we are winning at times, but in the long run, when the time carnes to see how rnuch our students have actually learnt, the result will be frustrating. It is true that time should be contralled and the dock keeps on tic~ no rnatter what we do. However, we cannot let it decide for uso My suggestion here is to start considering time as an ally and not as an enerny that has to be defeated and beaten to death. As the saying goes, "Ifyou cannot beat him, join him." This can an!, be done if we succeed in changing the focus frarn the syllabus and the books we are using to the students who attend our lessons and their acadernic or personal needs. Let me include sorne tips you rnay find useful to get time on your side.
Go over the syllabus carefully and analyse it with a realistic eye. ] have found out that, rnost often than not, the topics that have to be taught need to be narrawed down to half the nurnber becau e they are toa rnany for an acadernic year. Analyse your schedule carefully to see if the nurnber of lesson you have along a year are the necessary ones to teach and monitor your students' pragress. Consider it on a daily, weekly, rnonthly and yearly basis. Design a teaching planner which represents the acadernic year -a whole. It will allow you to divide and arrange the teaching points along the year, bearing in rnind that apart frarn the presentation, practice and praduction, there needs to be raom :•.. recycling, re-systernatisation of certain teaching points or incidental teaching of others.