Monday, September 17, 2012
Lesson Planning and Preparedness
My lesson planning has been going well so far. I have only planned a few full lessons where I have taken the lead in teaching, but for the most part I have been pleased. The formal lesson plan template helps you to think through a lot of the lesson which makes me feel more prepared before I teach. Even if I don't always have a full write up I write out the objectives, the assessment, some of the instructional plan, including how I will close the lesson. I have found that if I think through these things and how I want to distribute materials and explain directions that my lessons go a lot smoother. I took more time preparing for the lesson I taught on Friday and I felt like it went pretty well. I noticed that I did not have as much time to prepare for the lesson that I taught today and I did not feel as confident about it. I knew the material, but I didn't get a chance to think through how I wanted to explain the activity to students very well and I should have been more direct and concise. We ended up running out of time to finish everything I had planned and I felt like the students didn't get everything out of it that they could have. I guess I will just take that as a learning experience and make things better the next time I teach. I hope things continue to improve this week!
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What you're describing about the reality of lesson planning remains true no matter how long you've been teaching. The lessons for which you've done the most planning will leave you feeling most confident; when you're pressed for time, or can't give a plan as much attention as you'd like, your sense of being comfortably prepared is compromised.
ReplyDeleteHere's the funny thing, though--and maybe you'll experience it this semester--sometimes you can plan your little heart out, feel great about what's coming, and then have it fall flat for one reason or another. And then there are days when you're going into a lesson less-prepared than you like to be, and the result is surprisingly good.
For me as a teacher, the bottom line is always knowing why I'm teaching something (I need to have that sense of meaningful purpose and be able to articulate it) and building in measures for evaluating whether or not kids learned what I taught. If I have those 2 pieces in my head, I have a good start. The ups and downs that follow are all part of the process, one that I can tell you're part of already!