Important Daily Teaching Tasks

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Almost every task that a teacher is expected to perform on a daily basis falls into one of six categories. Some of these duties—such as lesson planning, classroom management, and assessment—are so critical that they are used by teacher assessment tools to evaluate teacher effectiveness. Others are more basic organizational and operational chores.

If you are just starting out or considering teaching, it helps to know what your responsibilities will include. Find out whether there are any additional school-specific duties that you will be expected to take on as well.

Here are the six main categories of teaching duties.

01
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Planning, Developing, and Organizing Instruction

Lesson planning is a critical aspect of teaching that often happens days before a lesson is taught. Planning, developing and organizing instruction are some of the biggest duties of the job.

When you plan lessons effectively, day-to-day teaching tasks become much easier and more successful. Many teachers feel that they do not have time to dedicate to careful lesson planning. If this is true for you, know that lesson planning is worth the effort because it simplifies your teaching in the long run.

02
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Implementing Assessment

Assessment should take place in your classroom every day, whether it is formative or summative. You will not be able to tell if your instruction is working if you don't regularly test student comprehension. As you sit down to develop a lesson, you need to also include systems for measuring how well students have achieved its learning goals. Do the same for entire units and subjects.

Assessments are not only a measure of your success as a teacher but a tool to be used for exceptional planning. Reflect on your assessments and study their results to determine how you should proceed after a lesson—are there students you need to meet with? Is the whole class ready to move on?

03
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Researching the Newest Teaching Methods

An often-overlooked teaching task that makes all the difference between a good teacher and a great one is research. Teachers must make determinations about what will best suit their classroom in terms of lesson delivery, accommodations and modifications for differently-abled students, student work structures, and more.

In order to make informed decisions about these, effective teachers research often and remain open-minded. You must keep up on the latest developments and look for new tools for your teaching arsenal that will improve your teaching practice.

04
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Classroom Management

Many new teachers find this area of teaching most intimidating. But with a couple of tools and a little practice using them, you can create a practical classroom management policy to help you keep your classroom under control.

A firm discipline policy is a great place to start. Post rules for student conduct—and the consequences of breaking them—somewhere in the classroom for all to see. Fairly and consistently enforce these to establish a functional system of classroom management.

05
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Other Professional Obligations

Every teacher must meet certain professional obligations depending on their school, district, state, and area of certification. These range from menial tasks such as hall duty during a planning period or after school to more involved tasks like those needed to meet requirements for recertification (professional development, college courses, etc.).

Teachers can also go above and beyond to sponsor a club, chair a committee, or even host after-school study sessions in their classroom. While these are usually not required, they are often highly encouraged sacrifices.

06
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Paperwork

For many teachers, the abundance of paperwork that comes with the job is the most annoying part. To have to spend time taking attendance, recording grades, making copies, and documenting student progress are all necessary evils. These housekeeping and recordkeeping tasks are just part of the job description.

Regardless of how you feel about them, how you handle these tasks says a lot about your organizational skills. Put systems in place to make these tedious processes more efficient so that you will be able to spend more time teaching and interacting with students and less time doing paperwork.

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Kelly, Melissa. "Important Daily Teaching Tasks." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/top-teacher-tasks-8422. Kelly, Melissa. (2023, April 5). Important Daily Teaching Tasks. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/top-teacher-tasks-8422 Kelly, Melissa. "Important Daily Teaching Tasks." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/top-teacher-tasks-8422 (accessed March 19, 2024).