Planning ahead

Even though I can spend a good chunk of time planning out my lessons, activities and goals for a day of school, a tiny change in events can throw everything out of whack. At least I'm now a day ahead in my detailed planning.

The morning was supposed to look like this:
- A.M. Stuff (Morning warm ups, jobs, announcements, etc.)
- Music
- PE
- A birthday snack
- QuikWrite
- Reading Logs
- Blogs
- Social Studies Reading
- Interactive skits

I had everything planned out and I even checked in with my coteacher yesterday to solidify our plans. It was supposed to be such a great day with everything ready to go.

Then, the change of plans.

Now, I'm normally a pretty flexible guy, don't get me wrong. And I wasn't upset at all that our schedule had changed. It just proved to me that even though I can plan everything out, I also need to be MAJORLY flexible to the mood and state of my class in the moment. To the last minute changes that end up creating non-profitable teaching moments.

This year, I've decided that I am going to try something new. I am not going to plan more than a day or two out in advance. In the past, I've always planned out a whole week ahead, but this year, I find myself constantly rewriting plans and scrapping them anyway. What I've planned wasn't working.

I needed to throw out my plans and just prepare myself for options. Prepare myself for variety. That takes a lot more time, but in doing so, I'm being more available to my kids and I am able to find out where they want to go next and see how I can redirect them to their true learning target.

Anyways, after everything on the schedule, the only thing we missed out on was our Social Studies activities, and the kids didn't really mind that at all. Flexible. Me and the kids.

Also - check out my post on 'How to Post' from my Monroe5A blog.