This article presents analyses based on an ethnographic investigation carried out at an elementary state school in the outskirts of Curitiba, PR (Brazil). The field material was obtained from observations of a third year class made along thirteen months, interviews with pupils and teacher, and from the exam of documentation. The focus is directed to the practices of a successful teacher and to the organization of time in the classroom. Three categories are at the root of the analyses conducted here: distribution of time, right moment, and rhythm. The results of this study advance the understanding of the relationships between time in school, teaching, and evaluation. They indicate the need to reflect upon the temporality of the classroom in terms of two dimensions - chronos and kairós - which in the case under study coordinate and adjust themselves in the teaching environment, making room for a work strategy that privileges the individual attention to pupils. These dimensions also reveal forms of employing time that establish important settings for the production of relationships in the school everyday life.
School time; Ethnography; School practices; Elementary school