Utilizing Extra Instruction Time

One common occurrence for even the most well prepared teachers is to finish a lesson with more class time left. Though this may seem to be a time to allow students to talk quietly or work on other classwork, this is not exactly the wisest decision; class time is precious and we as teachers must forgo the urge to take this time for relaxing or working on other things. It is especially unlikely for my class of 7th graders to have the ability to talk quietly or be productive on their own. To help with this unexpected additional class time, I like to keep a set of extra activities in my figurative back pocket that can be presented quickly and executed for any amount of time necessary. I personally believe that this extra class time is great for review of the previous day's lesson. For example, if the students recently defined new vocabulary words, this is a great time to quiz the class on those definitions. However, this does not work in all conditions; if the students recently came back from a break or a long weekend, there is usually not much to review or time for the teacher to prepare review materials. In times like these, being in a geography class with a map is very useful to me. My students began the year with lessons on latitude and longitude, learning intermediate directions, and reviewing the continents. During extra class time, I can call on random students to find a coordinate of my choice on the class map. I can then include another student by calling on someone to tell me what continent or ocean that coordinate is in. This activity is also useful for differentiation techniques because I can challenge higher ability students by having them tell me what country the coordinate is in. This activity was introduced to me by my current mentor teacher, and I feel that I will definitely keep this as a back-up plan of sorts for my future teaching.