Needing a Plan

I am not always the most structured person (my husband is laughing right now..."are you even the least structured person?") I tend to appreciate the grey area a lot. I need goals and plans and schedules to keep myself on track, and even then I really treat them all as guidelines rather than rules.

I have been working on the same skills with Delaney for a few weeks...counting to 20, number recognition, abc order, etc...I had a busy weekend and did not write out what our plans were for the week. I assumed since we would be doing basically the same things that I could wing it and we would be fine.

Apparently, I need to write it down.

We only had "school" twice, and it was not the usual organized experience. We still had lots of fun, and she most likely learned something, and granted, it was a pretty crazy week since we were preparing for vacation, but that said, it reminded me that having a plan is absolutely necessary.

When I student taught, my best lessons were the ones I was completely prepared for. My worst were the ones that I looked at, thought "of course I know how to teach that" and went for it. Those experiences taught me that preparation is one of the best ways to be a good teacher, among other things.

We are back to a schedule now. :)

There are many, many options for writing lesson plans. I like this simple template from www.abcteach.com:


http://www.abcteach.com/free/l/lessonplan.pdf

They have many others, and if you Google "lesson plan template", you will find about a zillion more free downloadable templates.

I modify this simple one a bit and write the subject at the top of the column, and the lesson/activities in the boxes.

I am 100% better and following my plan when I use this. It is unbelievable how simply writing it down affects my efficiency.

Hailey is home for the summer now, and we will be working on math, Saxon 7/6, and improving her writing with Writing Strands 3 until school begins again. I am going to utilize this template to plan her lessons also, and she will be able to check her sheet and work independently. I think it will work well.