Planning

As the end of summer is starting to peek over the horizon, I'm thinking it's about time to get my butt in gear and get started with the lesson planning. Don't get me wrong. I have been thinking about the coming school year. A lot. However, I haven't actually sat down and started to come up with any concrete ideas. I've been enjoying summer and focusing on my photography business. However, it is really time to kick it into gear now.

My first step was to print out all of my standards and curriculum. I'm a fan of planning backwards. If you start with what you HAVE to cover, you are sure you've done your job. Then it becomes about HOW you are going to cover it to make it meaningful, relevant, and engaging. In my opinion, this is the most important part.

So I've got my game plan down. Yet, it's hard to find a good starting place. Looking at all of the standards and curriculum makes my head spin. I only have how many days to cover all of this?! It reminds me of one of the many frustrations I've heard regarding the teaching profession....there is too much to cover and not enough time to cover it. So this leads me to my next opinion. It's better to cover less, thoroughly then it is to cover more but only scrape the surface. Quality vs. quantity.

There are two things that I am certain I will be implementing in my classroom. First, my students will begin each day with a daily writing prompt. If they don't like the prompt, they can write about something else. The key is that they must be writing daily. Second, every Friday will be dedicated to recreational reading. My students will spend the majority of the class reading, but we will end with book talks. Each student will be assigned a Friday to present one of the books they've been reading through a book talk.

Now that I have these thoughts written down, it'll be easier to stick to the game plan. Bottom line? It's time to plan.

P.S. Hope you all like the new blog layout. There is no resisting cute little owls :)