Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at eight small changes we can make today in our classroom that will make this new year the best one yet!
Plan at least 3 weeks out. Might sound crazy to some of you. Trust me. It. Is. Awesome. I should modify this goal a bit though...instead it should read: plan out your entire next unit at one time or at least 3 weeks, whichever is more. The point is to be able to breath easy for a few weeks, knowing that you've got the lessons covered.
WHY SHOULD I PLAN SO MUCH AT ONE TIME?
This gives you a chance to really think through a well-prepared and creative lesson instead of rushing to prepare something for the next day.
This gives you the chance to go home early at the end of the day instead of spending all your time locating resources and making last-minute copies.
This gives you the chance to copy everything all at once instead of making multiple trips to the copy room to run a copy here or a copy there.
This gives you the chance to stop stressing out over lessons. Ahhh, take a deep breath. Know what that feeling is? Teacher-bliss.
And finally, this gives you the chance to avoid that stomach dropping feeling you get around 3 pm on Sunday when you realize that you've procrastinated yet again on your lesson planning and you need to find something quick for Monday.
LET'S GET STARTED
I've actually shared a detailed way to plan out your lessons in the past, so feel free to take a look.
I would recommend choosing one night that you just do a marathon, stay-at-school night to plan. If this is the first year you've had to plan these particular units, it will take a bit of time to create your lessons. But it's well worth it...what might take you all evening to plan one year will take you an hour or two to plan the next year. Just keep in mind: that one late night will reap rewards over the next three weeks when you don't have to stay late or take work home.
What works for you when it comes to lesson planning?
__________________
Join us next week for the next New Year's Goal! Don't want to miss out on the fun? Subscribe to my blog or enter your email in the sidebar to receive updates.
Here are the goals we've done in this series:
No comments:
Post a Comment