US News | LocknCharge
Saving up to 70 hours of instructional time over the course of an entire year is a big deal. In study after study, teachers indicate that time is one of the biggest challenges they face in the classroom. In a 2017 survey, for instance, only 53 percent of Arizona teachers said they had enough instructional time to meet the needs of all students.
Like many other schools, Coachella Valley Unified School District in Southern California was able to save 8 minutes each time they handed out tablet devices by switching to a LocknCharge Classroom Charging Cart. Mobile device deployment time fell from 10 minutes to only 2 minutes.
When we designed our laptop carts, every choice we made was based on the question: Will this make people’s lives easier? In the case of our unique baskets and our top-loading cart designs, the answer is: absolutely. By saving time in distributing and collecting devices, we’re giving teachers the most valuable commodity they could ask for in their classrooms: more time for teaching and learning.
Here are three things teachers are able to do with 70 extra hours of class time per year:
Allow students to engage with the content more deeply.
A common complaint among teachers is that they barely have enough time to cover all the curriculum they’re supposed to teach, never mind challenge students to think deeply about the material.
Education consultant Robert Kaplinsky, who helps educators design problems and challenges for students at a higher depth of knowledge, conducted an informal poll of teachers via Twitter and discovered that 82 percent of math teachers feel they don’t have enough time to cover all the Common Core math standards for their grade level in a year. Having even a few extra minutes per class period could mean the difference between teaching the basic content and taking students’ learning to a deeper level.
Assess students’ progress more frequently.
If teachers wait until the end of a unit to test students, they might find that some students don’t grasp key concepts. But if they’re routinely checking for understanding during the course of a lesson, they can adjust their instruction along the way to make sure all students understand the material. With a few extra minutes per class period, teachers would have a chance to give formative assessments without sacrificing any instructional time.
Help students who are struggling.
With as many as 30 or more students in a class, teachers can find it hard to spend time individually with every student who needs extra help. That’s unfortunate because research suggests that individualised instruction can be especially effective in helping at-risk students succeed. Having a few more minutes per period could give teachers an invaluable opportunity to spend more time with struggling students, helping them catch up with their peers.
Our main goal at LocknCharge is to empower teachers to find ways to meet their goals and objectives in the classroom–and gaining back valuable time each and every day is making a positive impact towards those goals. To learn more about how LocknCharge is making a difference in schools across the world, click here.