Calling all teachers! Calling all teachers! School is just around the corner! It’s seriously only a few weeks away for some of us, so let’s get ready for an amazing, productive, exciting, and engaging year with our students!
So how do we do that? What’s our first step? Lesson Planning!!
Lesson planning is the first step in having an amazing, productive, and exciting year! Some teachers love it and some teachers hate it, but either way we all need it.
Personally? I love it! Lesson planning gives you perspective for your class’s future and gets you excited for new possibilities.
So let’s get started!
- Know Your School’s Expectations
All schools are different!! If you’re a new teacher or even an experienced teacher, know your school’s expectations and follow them!
What does your principal and administration expect from your lesson plans? What sections are they looking for? What objectives would they like to see?
Do they want it electronically or is it fine hand written? Many schools are moving towards the electronic layouts or have a system that they would prefer you input your lesson plans on, but some principals don’t mind simply receiving copies of the lesson plans that you’ve written out.
How many weeks do they want it ahead of time? Most schools prefers lesson plans turned in at least two weeks in advance, but find out when your principal and administration need your lesson plans from you, so that you can turn them in on time!
2. Know Your Personal Preferences
If you have the option, would you prefer writing your lesson plans down? If so, you can find some amazing teacher planners at Michael’s Arts and Crafts or Barns N Noble. Now, remember, writing down lesson plans by hand can cultivate creativity, but it does take more work for you to change your plans around last minute.
I wrote my lesson plans down for my first year and, although I enjoyed it, I realized that it simply wasn’t for me and switched to typing them out after that. It made it easy to change plans from day to day if needed, and I allowed me to easily email them to my principal instead of trying to make copies.
Now, don’t feel pressured either way. Writing vs typing is a personal preference and both have their profits and their drawbacks, so find what works best for you and your school.
3. Know Your Outline
I can’t emphasize enough how different each school is. If your school has a particular outline that they would like you to use, then please do so. But if you don’t have an outline given to you, then create your own. I use the following:
>Bait:something fun and exciting that will grab the student’s attention, pull them in, and make them excited for the lesson
>Review: go over concepts from the previous lesson
>Materials: things that the teacher needs to prepare ahead of time and have on hand
>Objective: always student focused and states what they should know by the end of the lesson
>Spiritual Application:what in this lesson teaches the students about God
>Homework/Seat work
An example of my lesson plan layout in action would look a bit like this:
- Bait: Teacher walks in eating apple pie. “How many of you like apple pie? What do you need to make apple pie?” (Apples)
- Review: alphabet
- Materials: apple pie, apples, flashcards with the short vowel sounds
- Objective: students will identify, read, and write words with the short value A
- Spiritual App: God made everything around us-our language and our fruits to use with wisdom.
- Homework: Language p.1
4. Know When and Where to Write
What do I mean by this? I simply mean, find a time and a place that works for you to sit down, focus, and plan. Perhaps you’re a busy parent and your when is at night while the children are asleep or maybe you’re a teacher with a roommate and your where is outside of the house.
Simply find a time and place where you can limit distractions and focus on creating your lesson plans.
5. Know that you can Start Right Now!
Now that you know what you need, get out there. Start now! Start ahead of time and get going! You’ll be thankful that you did.
The Bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish:”(Proverbs 29:18)
You hold the vision for your classroom. Use your lesson plans to make that vision a reality!
Teaching Creativity 