I am a new mathematics teacher and am looking for classroom or time management tips when setting up my first year lesson plans.

 I have found that have a strict time frame written out is helpful. I would write our daily schedule on the side board, this way the students knew what to expect, The daily schedule did not change daily, more weekly and depending on our topic/ unit coverage.

I had 6 physical science and 8 life science.  Each grade was on a different schedule obviously, but the same grade classes were all kept on the same schedule. As  teachers, we know to be flexible enough to bend with the class, so every particular class was slightly different.

I found that by using the student, teacher, parental contract in the beginning of the year helps me for the entire year. In this contract is a syllabus of some sort outlining what the students will be learning each quarter. In terms of preparing lesson plans, I have found that I had to plan lesson plans with a 15 minute leeway time. Meaning I did not do a lesson pan that filled the entire class period. this is becuase of the diverse students learning and where they were at in learning the new techniques. I also reccomend using a timer in class so that you are aware of the time during your lesson plans. I learned this in one of the classes I took on time managment. as corny as it sounds it actually helped me stay on trak when implementing the lesson plans. I would also do a form of KWL in the beginning of each new lesson to see where the studnets stood in terms of what they already know.

Organization is the key.  When you come it prepared to meet the day the students will take note and life will be a little easier for you.  This means having lesson plans ready and timed out.  You may even have to break down every minute of the class, but this will help give the class on task and will allow you to use class time as effective as possible.