How to Streamline your Lesson Planning

How to Streamline your Lesson Planning

I would like to suggest a few things:

• Start with a similar structure like a template not only for the lesson plan itself, but for your unit, so you know what sort of activity you're looking for to plug in there.  Here is a basic example, but obviously you would have to make it fit the structure that you prefer.
• It also may help to know what type of activity you are looking for. Are you looking for something hands-on? What skills do you need to address? Are you looking for something technology based? Are you looking for a writing assignment? You may want a mixture of those skills and types of assignments throughout the year.  It can be very helpful to make a grid, or even a list of the different types of skills and activities. Then you can track when you have used them, or check them off as you use them.  This allows you to see which type of activity you haven’t done in a while, or what you want to utilize more of.  Again, then you know what you are looking for in your upcoming assignments. This can narrow your search, and be better than staring at a blank screen. 
• It’s also a good idea to go back to your objectives and focus on what you're really trying to accomplish. What is the most important thing for students to know both in terms of skills and content?  How are you going to get this across in your lesson next? 
• Once you have some of these things narrowed down, absolutely don't be afraid to look at what's already out there!  I think it’s better to get a clear idea before you just start looking though. It helps you more efficiently find something that fits your needs. You don't need to reinvent the wheel!  If it already exists, or something very similar already exists, by all means use it!!  It’s also ok to start with something and modify a little bit. Maybe there is something that’s a reading and writing activity but you decide to use the reading, and make the response in the form of a presentation, go for it!
• These tips won’t take away your lesson planning, but perhaps will save you some time and make it a bit more efficient.

What are your tips and strategies to use your time more wisely when planning?

Why is it so important for teachers to have good time management skills?

Why is it so important for teachers to have good time management skills? 

I'm sure you already know some reasons, but I'm going to go a little bit different direction. It's extremely important for teachers to have good time management skills in order to protect their boundaries their own health and their families. Just today, another teacher said to me “you’ve got to find time to play, or this job will drive you crazy.” 

In other words, manage your time, so it doesn’t manage you! 

One of the drawbacks of teaching is that the job is never done. There's always more you could be doing, so it's important to manage your time and manage your boundaries. You have to make sure that teaching and teaching-related tasks don't take over your life.  So, when I say manage your time, yes, I mean productivity tips and working efficiently, but I also mean that it's important to manage when you're going to work, how much time do you have to allow for work?  What tasks do you have to complete? And how are going to fit those tasks into that window of time?

Grading

For example, think about the amount of time that you are willing to spend on grading, in order to have some balance with your own life.  Don't assign more than you can read.  Set up the assignment in a way that will be easier to grade, such as making a rubric, have some peer review first, or grade only a portion of the questions.

Lesson Planning

Lesson planning….Yes, there are perfect ideal lesson plans that are engaging and inquiry-based and project-based, but it has to be a balance! It's okay to do some packaged lesson plans.  Maybe not every day, but sometimes it’s totally fine.  Sometimes you and the students both need an easier day!  Choose carefully about where decide to spend your time.  Make sure you are spending time on the things that are really valuable to you and your students.  There may be things that you are good at, or you enjoy doing, but and they won't really have a benefit to your students.  If you are doing them for fun, that’s ok, but don’t get confused between the two. Do you see a difference because of the work you put in on that task?  Is it a good use of your time?  For example, it's very easy to get sucked into formatting documents, changing weights of assignments and adjusting the layout on the page, but those are probably not an efficient use of your time.

A different mindset

Think of it this way.  If you worked at an office job, in many cases your boss would manage your time for you. They want you to be accountable for the time that you're at the office and they allow you a certain number of hours off.  They may even have billable time for certain projects, and a budget or limit of hours for those projects.  Teaching is a little bit different. You have to manage your own time. You are (in a way) Your Own Boss. So manage it accordingly!  Be the boss of your time1 Make sure that the time you're spending on the right things and would be reasonable if you were accountable to someone.

How to Motivate Students in the Classroom

How to Motivate Students in the Classroom

Why are they unmotivated? 

How to motivate students in the classroom is such a difficult topic!  So many students that I see are very disengaged for a variety of reasons.  These reasons are discussed in depth here, along with some methods to address various reasons.  However, there are some general statements that can be made as well.  In order to get them motivated, I think it is really important to find out what those reasons are.  There can be many varied reasons within one classroom. Are they disengaged because there's something going on with them outside of school?  How can they focus on academics when they're concerned about where they're going to sleep or where their next meal is coming from? Are they disengaged simply because they don't understand and they have not been successful in school in the past? Are they disengaged just because it's not their topic of interest? And there are probably as many more reasons as there are individual students. 

What to do about it?? 

Lots of Encouragement

So what can you do about that? It can be difficult to get students motivated, for sure!  Again it's important to be positive with students.  Don't assume that their behavior is coming from a negative place, or is directed negatively towards you.  Telling them something like "you're doing a great job," or "you're off to a good start, let's see if we can finish this up" or event "do you need help getting started?" can go a lot further. Also, helping them see the bigger picture and see the progress and successes that they are making is so important.  This alone be motivating. Constant encouragement that they can do it and that they will be able to have success will also be so important. 

Bigger Conversations

Having those bigger conversations, if the opportunity arises, with students about their goals, and  about not following blindly what their friends are doing is important. They may not have someone else in their life often talking to them about what they want (graduation? College?) and how those goals fit into what's happening today.  I have seen quite a few students who don't make the connection between what's happening today, and their longer term goals. 

Engaging Lessons?

Of course, you will hear recommendations to motivate students by making a lesson more engaging.While it is absolutely true making a lesson engaging and relevant to students is absolutely key, this is not the only way.  Doing something that gets their attention right away is so important but then we don't want them to lose that motivation the minute that it's not as engaging. 

I'm now working in a program with students who are recovering credits.  They are all behind on credits to be in the program.   In fact, much of their coursework is pre-packaged and is not particularly motivating or engaging all the time.  It has been interesting for me to look at what keeps them motivated.  For many students it's simply a desire to earn credits, to graduate, to be at the appropriate grade level, or to catch up to their peers. They are willing to do what they need to do.  It's been an interesting lesson in making engaging curriculum vs. other motivating factors. 

Our students are successful when they build positive relationships with the teachers, when they feel that they can be successful, and when they have some flexibility to get the help that they need. 

Ultimately I think the motivation has to come from within the students. If that means taking the time to do some mindset/reflection type of work, build relationships and work on things that are not content specific I think it will pay off.  There are other articles that have researched and had similar findings about student motivation.