Are you looking for strategies to teach students to make efficient use of their time? If so, keep reading.

1. Make sure that tasks are scheduled to minimize free time.

2. Designate a peer for the learner to interact with during free time.

3. Connect with parents to disseminate information about the learner’s progress. The parents may reinforce the learner at home for making appropriate use of free time at school.

4. Create, with the learner, a list of high interest free-time learning activities that require varying amounts of time to perform.

5. Do not provide too much free time for the learner.

6. Urge the learner to assist younger peers in free-time learning activities.

7. Urge the learner to plan the use of free time in advance.

8. Urge the learner’s peers to include them in free-time learning activities.

9. Create centers of high interest learning activities at appropriate levels of difficulty for the learner’s use during free time.

10. Create free-time rules: • Find a learning experience. • Spend time quietly. • Remain in designated areas. • Put learning materials away when free time is over. Examine rules often. Praise students for following the rules.

11. Assess the appropriateness of free-time learning activities to ascertain whether the learner can be successful with the learning experience and the duration of time scheduled.

12. Find academically related free-time learning activities for the learner to perform (e.g., flash card learning activities with peers; math, reading, or spelling board games; etc.).

13. Give the learner a special responsibility during free time (e.g., grading papers, straightening books, feeding pets, etc.).

14. Give a quiet, reasonably private area where the learner can do anything during free time.

15. Provide the learner an individual schedule to follow so that when a learning experience is finished, they know what to do next.

16. Get the learner to be a peer tutor during free time.

17. Get the learner to act as a teacher’s assistant during free time.

18. Get the learner to begin an ongoing project during free time that will be a regular free-time learning experience.

19. Get the learner to question any directions, explanations, or instructions not grasped.

20. Select a peer to model appropriate use of free time for the learner.

21. Find a specific learning experience for the learner to take part in during free time.

22. Intervene early and often when there is a problem to prevent more severe problems from happening.

23. Consider using a classroom management app. Click here to view a list of apps that we recommend.

24. Consider using an adaptive behavior management app. Click here to view a list of apps that we recommend.

25. Consider using Alexa to help the student learn to behave appropriately. Click here to read an article that we wrote on the subject.

26. Click here to learn about six bonus strategies for challenging problem behaviors and mastering classroom management.