Questions from the Time Management Webinar – Part 1
Wow! That is really the only word I can use to describe how enthusiastically our Calvert parents and potential parents embraced our Time Management Webinar on the night of the 6th. I welcomed 199 people that evening, and the emails keep coming. As promised, I am going to answer the questions that were posed during the webinar.  So as not to overwhelm you, I am going to break them into a series of blogs – so if you don’t see your answer today, check back tomorrow. They will ALL be posted over the next week.
And – we are reprising the presentation on the 20th. Join me at 10AM. Here is the link to register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/331676184
Let’s get to the meat of the matter:
Q: Can you please explain how the time bank deposits work? If the student gets 15 minutes anytime the work duration is less than the estimated time, why wouldn’t the student just overestimate how long everything will take? How is this supposed to work?
Oh yes, I recognize this one, and every child will try it. As the parent, I reserve the right to call foul on an frank overestimation. Sometimes I will let it happen, but I am careful as we use the time bank to have knowledge of how long something should take. For instance, if Calvert says 30 minutes, and I know it usually take my student 40, I am ok with an estimation of 45 minutes. I am not OK with “doubling down” – Calvert says 30 minutes, so I will estimate an hour… There has to be a degree of accountability insofar as time spent. And you can use the accumulated times in the bank to more accurately hone your child’s estimates.
One thing that is VERY beneficial is to recap how the estimates went – for instance, if you have a time estimation for a task, and it takes twice as long, do a little “Why do you think” discovery. What I want here is for them to see whether they have managed their time well, or not.  Perhaps the conversation would go like this:
Time estimate for math – 1 hour. Actual time spent – more than 90 minutes…
Me: “Why do you think it took so long to complete this lesson?”
Child: The default answer will be “I don’t know”.
Me: “Well, let’s look at how you spent your time. We spent the first 10 minutes reviewing the concept and watching the online presentation of the lesson. We spent 20 minutes going through the lesson before we set you up for the problems. When you sat down to do the problems, you worked well on the first two, and then I saw you pick up the Lego man on your desk. Could that have caused you to waste time?”
Child: “Well, maybe a little…”
Me: “How would you prevent that from happening next time?”
Child: “Um, well, I guess I could take the Lego man off my desk.”
Bingo. Lesson learned – for today. Will this happen again? If you are a Roe kid, you betcha! But at least I will have a historical context.
More to come…
If you would like a model time bank, here is the one that we use at our house in a PDF.
