Tricks and tools for time-blind ADHD teacher
May 24, 2024 9:05 PM Subscribe
I am a pre-service teacher on my professional placement. I am teaching students age 6-8 y.o., so imagine students who need very explicit guidance on daily routines and managing their time and resources. I am a highly motivated and thoughtful teacher. I also have ADHD. I need tricks, tools, routines, strategies and apps to improve the way I manage my time - and theirs.
I am a pre-service teacher on my professional placement. I am teaching students age 6-8 y.o., so imagine students who need very explicit guidance on daily routines and managing their time and resources.
My feedback so far is that, as a teacher, I am a thoughtful planner, I am alert to the students' different learning needs, and can effectively explain concepts and provide both encouragement and corrective feedback to students.
However, I have been told that my time management is an area I need to focus on improving, especially as I take on 90% of the teaching load and am expected to manage transitions between lessons, and ensure fairly basic things such as that students have been given sufficient time to eat their lunch before being sent outside. I have had issues giving students adequate time to finish tasks. I have noticed in hindsight that behaviour began to get rowdy because students needed a movement break from a overlong period of instruction/discussion.
I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and am fairly confident in saying that without Ritalin I would not have made it this far or been considered even baseline competent in this role. There is just too much cognitive load to manage in the form of managing behaviour, adapting to unforeseen problems, commanding their attention, etc. As it is, I manage quite well sometimes. But even with treatment I am still very "time blind". Even if I know that I shouldn't have the students on the floor explaining a task for any longer than 15 minutes at the absolute maximum, I am likely to keep them there for 20 minutes since the discussion has captured the entirety of my attention.
Simply knowing ahead of time that I need to have adequately modeled this lesson's task by 11:45, and checking my watch and observing that it has just gone 11:39, doesn't really work for me: I would basically have to also check my watch at 11:41, and 11:43, and each check would involve task switching in a way that might derail me from my instruction.
I think the best path forward, especially given my teaching load will be increased by Monday, is to find external ways of signalling that, e.g., in 5 minutes, I need to have moved students from carpet to their tables.
I'm thinking little alarms on a tablet (I am being observed, and so using my phone is out since it is associated with distraction and inattention no matter what my intent). I also have a SmartBoard available and can use web apps to set timers.
I am also thinking of breaking my lessons into large function parts: "instruction", "model task clearly with success criteria", and having it clearly presented visually on the tablet, as maybe coloured, tell-at-a-glance timeblocks? I plan each lesson as a fairly detailed Word document which usually includes a break down of time, but it is usually too detailed to be useful in the moment under high cognitive load.
I am basically interested in the advice of teachers, or people from professions with a high demand for proficiency under high cognitive load and time constraints, who can relate to my description of the experience of time blindness and who can advise what works for them. I am not really looking for ways to improve my executive function long term to alleviate this issue - I'd prefer tricks, tools, routines, strategies, and apps, that will help me right now.
I am a pre-service teacher on my professional placement. I am teaching students age 6-8 y.o., so imagine students who need very explicit guidance on daily routines and managing their time and resources.
My feedback so far is that, as a teacher, I am a thoughtful planner, I am alert to the students' different learning needs, and can effectively explain concepts and provide both encouragement and corrective feedback to students.
However, I have been told that my time management is an area I need to focus on improving, especially as I take on 90% of the teaching load and am expected to manage transitions between lessons, and ensure fairly basic things such as that students have been given sufficient time to eat their lunch before being sent outside. I have had issues giving students adequate time to finish tasks. I have noticed in hindsight that behaviour began to get rowdy because students needed a movement break from a overlong period of instruction/discussion.
I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and am fairly confident in saying that without Ritalin I would not have made it this far or been considered even baseline competent in this role. There is just too much cognitive load to manage in the form of managing behaviour, adapting to unforeseen problems, commanding their attention, etc. As it is, I manage quite well sometimes. But even with treatment I am still very "time blind". Even if I know that I shouldn't have the students on the floor explaining a task for any longer than 15 minutes at the absolute maximum, I am likely to keep them there for 20 minutes since the discussion has captured the entirety of my attention.
Simply knowing ahead of time that I need to have adequately modeled this lesson's task by 11:45, and checking my watch and observing that it has just gone 11:39, doesn't really work for me: I would basically have to also check my watch at 11:41, and 11:43, and each check would involve task switching in a way that might derail me from my instruction.
I think the best path forward, especially given my teaching load will be increased by Monday, is to find external ways of signalling that, e.g., in 5 minutes, I need to have moved students from carpet to their tables.
I'm thinking little alarms on a tablet (I am being observed, and so using my phone is out since it is associated with distraction and inattention no matter what my intent). I also have a SmartBoard available and can use web apps to set timers.
I am also thinking of breaking my lessons into large function parts: "instruction", "model task clearly with success criteria", and having it clearly presented visually on the tablet, as maybe coloured, tell-at-a-glance timeblocks? I plan each lesson as a fairly detailed Word document which usually includes a break down of time, but it is usually too detailed to be useful in the moment under high cognitive load.
I am basically interested in the advice of teachers, or people from professions with a high demand for proficiency under high cognitive load and time constraints, who can relate to my description of the experience of time blindness and who can advise what works for them. I am not really looking for ways to improve my executive function long term to alleviate this issue - I'd prefer tricks, tools, routines, strategies, and apps, that will help me right now.
Not a teacher and not AuDHD myself.
Would a visual interval timer be useful? I know someone for whom it helps make the planned time interval visible at a glance, without the cognitive task of dealing with time numbers and subtraction. The ones I've seen do not help at reminding after reaching zero, if that's part of the need.
I like your plan to break down the lesson parts into visual blocks, and think it will help a lot of your students, especially neurodiverse ones! Maybe a visual timer could be helpful to time each block, it depends on the mechanics of your class a bit.
Whatever tools and techniques you find, visibly modeling and noting how you use them is going to mean a lot to the time-blind students who are statistically in your classes.
posted by away for regrooving at 11:58 PM on May 24, 2024 [1 favorite]
Would a visual interval timer be useful? I know someone for whom it helps make the planned time interval visible at a glance, without the cognitive task of dealing with time numbers and subtraction. The ones I've seen do not help at reminding after reaching zero, if that's part of the need.
I like your plan to break down the lesson parts into visual blocks, and think it will help a lot of your students, especially neurodiverse ones! Maybe a visual timer could be helpful to time each block, it depends on the mechanics of your class a bit.
Whatever tools and techniques you find, visibly modeling and noting how you use them is going to mean a lot to the time-blind students who are statistically in your classes.
posted by away for regrooving at 11:58 PM on May 24, 2024 [1 favorite]
I have taught middle-school science, but mostly work with adults. Have a spicy brain as well. Would any of these help?
An iPhone in your back pocket with custom vibration alarms for specific *major* milestone times (not helpful every five min, but maybe for a scheduled Pomodoro-style wiggle break every X min)? Regular alarms might work, too, but I often find myself ignoring them because they are all the same, and my saucy brain decides they are ignorable. Or a Fitbit/Apple Watch?
A Big Post-It on the wall with color-coded post-its marking specific activity blocks, and you peel them off as you go? (This is how I design workshops for grown-ups, and it helps show other stakeholders how little time is actually available for instruction in an 8-hour day. An hour for lunch, an hour for other breaks, at least 2 hours for processing/practice activities and you’re down to less than half the day to be expected for maybe 2 1.5-hour workshop sessions and a fun 1-hour speaker-plus Q&A. Are there any opportunities to pare down the number of activities/transitions?)
Kid-friendly timers to facilitate timekeeping? A big hourglass, or a colored oil-drop timer?
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 12:58 AM on May 25, 2024 [1 favorite]
An iPhone in your back pocket with custom vibration alarms for specific *major* milestone times (not helpful every five min, but maybe for a scheduled Pomodoro-style wiggle break every X min)? Regular alarms might work, too, but I often find myself ignoring them because they are all the same, and my saucy brain decides they are ignorable. Or a Fitbit/Apple Watch?
A Big Post-It on the wall with color-coded post-its marking specific activity blocks, and you peel them off as you go? (This is how I design workshops for grown-ups, and it helps show other stakeholders how little time is actually available for instruction in an 8-hour day. An hour for lunch, an hour for other breaks, at least 2 hours for processing/practice activities and you’re down to less than half the day to be expected for maybe 2 1.5-hour workshop sessions and a fun 1-hour speaker-plus Q&A. Are there any opportunities to pare down the number of activities/transitions?)
Kid-friendly timers to facilitate timekeeping? A big hourglass, or a colored oil-drop timer?
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 12:58 AM on May 25, 2024 [1 favorite]
For things like circle time or anything that you'd be okay having the kids manage: get a cool, but non-distracting hourglass and appoint different children to be the timekeepers. Maybe get a set of different colours for five, ten, and twenty minutes. Sounds like you can ignore an alarm, but wouldn't ignore a kid. Bonus: it's very helpful for children of that age to get a feel of "x minutes".
For alarms that you need to be in charge of: maybe a vibrating watch would be more noticeable? Or, what if you got a simple alarm clock that changes colour? One of those "okay to wake" things. You don't need to pay attention to the light yourself. If you tell a group of young kids that the red light means lunch, and the green light means outside time, they will insist on that without fail.
posted by toucan at 2:23 AM on May 25, 2024 [5 favorites]
For alarms that you need to be in charge of: maybe a vibrating watch would be more noticeable? Or, what if you got a simple alarm clock that changes colour? One of those "okay to wake" things. You don't need to pay attention to the light yourself. If you tell a group of young kids that the red light means lunch, and the green light means outside time, they will insist on that without fail.
posted by toucan at 2:23 AM on May 25, 2024 [5 favorites]
Many smartwatches/fit trackers have haptic feedback. There's even a Dot Watch which communicates in braille. [review]
posted by HearHere at 5:45 AM on May 25, 2024
posted by HearHere at 5:45 AM on May 25, 2024
Visual timers are great. I also have a set of five minute sand timers (one for each table) that I use with my students, so they can manage their time as well.
Regarding kids getting too rowdy/restless because the lesson has been overly long - I think about this less in terms of time and more in terms of attention load. If I am overloading kids with information from me, rather than giving them opportunities to use/practice that knowledge, they burn out. I keep my instructions and direct explicit teaching as concise as possible and focus on one key point.
posted by mai at 7:10 AM on May 25, 2024
Regarding kids getting too rowdy/restless because the lesson has been overly long - I think about this less in terms of time and more in terms of attention load. If I am overloading kids with information from me, rather than giving them opportunities to use/practice that knowledge, they burn out. I keep my instructions and direct explicit teaching as concise as possible and focus on one key point.
posted by mai at 7:10 AM on May 25, 2024
Also I want to reassure you that time management as a teacher is challenging for all new teachers. It might always be more challenging for you than for others, but it will almost certainly get easier as you become more experienced.
posted by mai at 7:12 AM on May 25, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by mai at 7:12 AM on May 25, 2024 [3 favorites]
For on-the-fly timing and alerts, the physical Time Timer visual timers linked above are really great and useful (for both you and the students). My favorite form factor is the PLUS, but they are all good. They also have an app so you can also create visual timers on your computer or mobile device. The "original" timers and the "MOD education edition" timer come with the desktop app for free, or you can buy it separately. The mobile apps are currently free in beta.
For transitions that are predictable ahead of time, I personally find haptic alarms on my Apple Watch a million times more effective than any phone alarm. I find it really useful to set them up as events rather than as reminders. I do it like this:
(a) set up the (recurring) event in iCal with a useful name, at the time when it is actually supposed to happen. "Kids lunchtime" or whatever.
(b) set it to have two alerts: one at the time of the event, and one with the right amount of transition time before, whatever that may be.
This setup works really well for me.
posted by redfoxtail at 6:04 PM on May 25, 2024
For transitions that are predictable ahead of time, I personally find haptic alarms on my Apple Watch a million times more effective than any phone alarm. I find it really useful to set them up as events rather than as reminders. I do it like this:
(a) set up the (recurring) event in iCal with a useful name, at the time when it is actually supposed to happen. "Kids lunchtime" or whatever.
(b) set it to have two alerts: one at the time of the event, and one with the right amount of transition time before, whatever that may be.
This setup works really well for me.
posted by redfoxtail at 6:04 PM on May 25, 2024
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I think my question is hopefully sufficiently different. Mine is totally focused on real-time management of time-blindness and inattention under high cognitive load.
posted by bealtrimdernbluik at 9:07 PM on May 24, 2024