Our national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal, has something to say about time: It goes: “Time lost is irretrievably lost.” on the other hand, let us see the value of a minute by way of this anecdote of Tony Castle:” When the ill- fated ocean liner Titanic streamed majestically on her maiden voyage to New York on April 14, 1912, there more than 2,000 people enjoying the ship’s song comfort. One of the tragic incidents of that night is recalled by the Washington Post. In the wheel Room, a uniformed officer could be bothered, he was busy … the third precious minute passed… the officer, his trivial task completed, picked up the phone, “ this is the look out at the bow of the ship… Iceberg straight ahead! Reverse engines!”
But it was too late. As he reached to the controls, “the pride of the seas crushed into the iceberg and a deafening roar”.
Three precious minutes, which could have saved 1,600 lives? Relating the importance of time in this anecdote of Castle to the actual time management of teachers, we can say that managing time in the classroom is important. Every teacher must utilize time-saving but useful visual aids, instructional time must be well_ budgeted. In the whole school year, more or less there are 50 days allotted for every grading period, there are four grading periods in a school year, so there is a total of more than 200 days every school year for students to learn every basic competencies of various learning areas. However, many hours for instruction are taken away from students for several reasons, like, disruption of classes due to some disciplinary problems to be settled urgently. Classes can be disrupted due to holding of problems or convocations. Another reason is brown out or power supply temporarily cut off. There are lot more reasons. You may suggest that class suspension be replaced by holding Saturday classes, but look at the attendance, almost one half are not around. Learning will be greatly affected. What can a teacher do to minimize useless time spending? There are various reasons that can be implemented, but meeting with the school principal, guidance counselor and with those who are concerned should be done first.
By: Ailene F. Sulangi | Master Taecher I | Panibatuhan Elementary School Morong District | Morong, Bataan
