For those of us starting school after Labor Day, August
Anxiety is setting in. Those nights
where you are tossing and turning with new ideas, things you know you want to
do differently and the anticipation of being “back to school.” The week before school starts the idea pad
next to my bed has all sorts of scribbles on it (some of which I cannot
decipher!). Planning is the key to a successful
year. Most people think that teachers’
time is split between classroom and grading papers. The truth is, planning takes the most time. A
good plan has a diversity of activities, movement, student interaction, hands-on,
differentiation, accurate content, assessment, tech integration, etc. Most
people can’t even handle all the planning it takes to keep ten kids busy at a two
hour birthday party. What would they do
with double the amount of children, a tight budget and grandiose learning
objectives?
Getting Started
The first week of school is perhaps the most daunting as
both yours and your students’ routines have to be established. Not just school routines, but home routines
as well, sleeping, dressing and eating changes drastically for everyone! Throw in all those extra housekeeping tasks –
class lists, gradebooks, sub plans, and for many of us real housekeeping tasks….
it can be overwhelming!
Step one: Planning
your room out
I know a lot of teachers who have gone back to the building
to decorate their rooms. I have to
admit, that some of the rooms are a bit intimidating! My advice is to keep it simple and let the
student’s work be your décor. My best
bulletin board was a brick wall background and letters that said “Wall of Fame.”
On day one, I described how you could get on the wall of fame (it was not easy)
and when you achieved it, you could use whatever font you wanted, write your
name, print it out and post it. Kids
loved getting on the wall!
Step Two: Planning
your lessons: Expect the unexpected
There is no such thing as a perfect plan- there are just too
many variables in schools – if you were working with widgets or robots, you
might have a chance, but kids (adults too) and all the business (read
busy-ness) of a school, always has the potential wrench to throw in the works. Even if you teach the same lesson objectives
5 times in one day, you will see that what works with one class, student or
time of day, will not work with another.
Be flexible. All classes do not
have to be in the exact same place at the exact same time. And above all have a PLAN B.
Plan B
The most important lesson that I learned over the years was to
always have a plan B. I used a mini PBL
that I introduced at the beginning of the year for students. Each student had a folder with their
challenge check list in it – they worked on this challenge when they had extra
class time, when class was disrupted for assemblies, field trips, when a sub
was in, etc. They kept their work in the
folder and the folder in the room. My
mini-challenge was all about inventions – I had computer games, links, patent
info, Rube Goldberg activities, 20 ways to improve the pencil etc. Much more than a folder full of worksheets. Students could do the parts in any order. All challenge activities led to them coming
up with their own invention. The grand
finale was showing off their invention prototype and demonstrating it to the class. We have had some great ones!
We all know the importance of a great plan A, but having a
great plan B can insure that the learning continues no matter what the
circumstances
What’s your favorite plan B?
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