Quick update. No, I did not complete my goal of one month worth of lesson plans. I did go out to get the newspaper. but when I returned, I was not able to focus on lesson planning. I eventually fell asleep. I woke up about 5pm. I started stressing about not getting the lesson plans done. Then I accepted that I would not be able to do the monthly planning...yet. I believe that if I can finish my lesson plans for the whole week (at least), I will be able to start going to the gym next week. To at least try the gym goal, I knew that I needed to get started. So this evening I started lesson planning for next week. I thought about the third grade teacher who was able to do her plan in about an hour. I quickly realized that I just couldn't do that. When I am trying to fill in the boxes, I also have to do a quick mental "run through" of the lesson I am planning. I need to have a sense of flow of the lesson (timing, pacing, materials etc...). It also does not help when I work at a school that seems to want to throw too much into the pot. It looks impressive to say, "oh, look at all of the materials and programs we're using".

In my opinion, quantity is good, but quality is better.

Anyway, I managed about a half of my planning. I've completed Skills Lessons(5), Reading lessons(5), and Writing lessons(5). Aftter this blog entry, I will take a few minutes to write down the aims for math(5). Math should not take that long. Tomorrow, I will complete the math planning. And do the science planning for the new program we will be using. Science is now expected to be taught 4 times per week. Social Studies will be (unofficially) pushed aside, that is until admin receives a reminder (or BOE visitor), then the teachers will receive our "you should have been doing "this, that or the other". Sorry, I'm getting sidetracked. Yes, I know, if I know something coming down the pike, then of course, I should be prepared for it. I will try squeezing social studies in my lesson plan.

Back to lesson planning. The difficulty for me came with trying to intergrate all of the extras/different materials that are not related that admin want included. I was hoping to avoid this confusion and last minute planning. I wanted to have my classroom set up and completed, before teachers were supposed to return. If successful, I would have had a whole week to focus only on lesson planning (long and short term) planning. Unfortunately, the room changing did not get settled until the very last day before students were supposed to return. So, I am back doing what I was doing last (school) year, juggling classroom management, classroom organization, and curriculum management. Being someone who likes things in a particular way, and stresses out too easily when they are not, I think I might be in the wrong profession. I should take a minute to accept some of the blame for my short-comings. I can't put the blame only on admin. I have a lot to do with my situation. And as long as I look for blame instead of dealing with improving situations, I am not going to accomplish much.

Sorry, it's late, and I am starting to ramble. I better call it a night. Until next time...

Post Date - Sunday, September 30, 2007 1:52am