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ESL forum >
Techniques and methods in Language Teaching > I cant stand making lesson plans! is it bad? :(
I cant stand making lesson plans! is it bad? :(
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MissMelissa12
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I cant stand making lesson plans! is it bad? :(
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�I love bringing games to class and updating my lessons so they don�t seem dull. I love creating materials, I write down on my notebook -which i call " Bright ideas"- what I�m gonna do in my class or ideas that just come to my mind or any activity I came across. But my problem is when the time to really sit down and write my WEEKLY LESSON PLAN for the Insitute I work at arrives. I get stressed,I dont know why. However, I always write down what I�m gonna do or use posts it on the book pages. What can I do?�
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21 Dec 2008
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Vickiii
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A suggestion to help you.
1) get a good template, with timetable and classes.
2) Make a learning intention for each class - this should come straight from your unit plan if you do this.
3) identify a warm-up activity, one teaching activity, one revision activity, one warm down activity.
In this way you can write your learning intention on the board at the beginning of each class, and check at the end of the class to see if the students have learnt it.
It is a very low stress yet extremely effective way of teaching. It follows all the advice of the experts, and people feel really good about achieving the learning intention therefore your student satisfaction rate will also go up.
Good luck
Vickiii
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21 Dec 2008
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alien boy
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Great ideas vickii! Just the sort of thing I was taught doing education at uni. A template makes the job a lot easier.
Remember, too, that a lesson plan is a guide & not set in concrete. If your plan runs under time you need to have something else �up your sleeve� to complete your lesson, but if your lesson plan is running behind time or something just isn�t working then you need to �think on your feet� and adapt things where necessary.
If you wnt a lesson plan template from my primary teaching coursework, just let me know & I�ll email it to you in a couple of days (I�ll need to find & scan one...)
Good luck!
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21 Dec 2008
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MissMelissa12
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such great ideas.... thank you all! But...I think I just hate the FORMAT they gave me at work ! :S |
21 Dec 2008
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alien boy
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Hahaha  ! Boy, bureaucracy sure can be a pain....
I know what you mean!!!
Keep your chin up & try to change your mindset - maybe turn it into your own personal game!
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21 Dec 2008
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MissMelissa12
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I know alien boy! Whatis it like in your countries? How do you usually make ypur lesson plans? and how often
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21 Dec 2008
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Vickiii
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hey Melissa,
I can�t stand bureaucracy myself, unless it has a damn good reason. The thing is that planning in advance improves your teaching out of sight, but sadly, many teachers do not do this unless mandated to do so.
In NZ, I had to have a unit plan for each topic I taught which included learning intentions, activities, and resources I needed. Many people find it bothersome - but it is actually extremely useful as it ensures you have planned properly and have everything ready for your students. I then add my assessment information to the unit and I am all prepared to write reports when the time comes around.
Teachers are also required to keep a weekly dairy. this has what you did in every period of the day with learning intentions for each group, activities for the whole class and special notes on things out of the ordinary.
Sounds tedious? sure does - but it is so valuable for me as a teacher to write this up at the beginning of each week, and then adjust it as the week progresses. I couldn�t teach effectively without this sort of thorough planning.
If you hate the template - why not create one that works for you and then approach the management about it.
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21 Dec 2008
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cheezels
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I have never come across as much paper work as in the UK. I was a general classroom teacher and we have to have HANDED IN at the beginning of each week a, A3 sheet with every lesson of english for the week (1 session/hour per day) detailed right down to page numbers, worksheets, phonic activities, special needs kids, levelled activities (in that the higher learners did not do the same work as the lower learners) children with esl what provisions were made for them.
An A3 sheet for mathematics in the same detail as above.
Then it was a A3 sheet listing the lessons (usually 1X per week) for science, geography, history, PE, art, Religious education, and anything else. A learning objectives had to be given for each with an outline of the lesson to be taught.
I used to spend ALL SUNDAY just writing out my planning... I tell you I�m so happy not to be a classroom teacher in the UK any more. It slowly but surely sucked the life out of me. I would have much rather have sent my time making resources, marking etc, but unfortunately the education system in the UK is just one huge paper trail. Not for the kids though... for the inspectors who can now turn up with a days notice and if you don�t have the paperwork in place they can fail your school. Not a great environment!
So good luck with your writing out! I know to make my life easier I made templates on the computer that had the usual stuff in it every week to save time writing it out yet again.
Its good to be organised and have a clear vision of where you re headed. Its just a shame that sometimes the paperwork can overtake the actual teaching bit!
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21 Dec 2008
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alien boy
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cheezels, be pleased you�re not a Japanese teacher. The teachers I work with have to account for every minute of every day and usually arrive at work before 7am & head home around 8:30 pm - usually because of all the stats & paperworkthat are required by boards of education in there districts, prefecture & central government... & then there�s the requirements from the parent associations too.
I`ll do a proper reply re my view tomorrow, when I have some time (it�s about midnight here now)
B-)
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21 Dec 2008
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cheezels
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Sweden have it so right in so many ways... I have been seriously impressed so far... no pandering to the paper gods... the focus is on teaching GASP!!!!! yes you heard that right... TEACHING... OMG!!!!!!
However.... they are starting to being in more paper trails and are trialling more stuff... The children here in the schools I have been around seem so content and happy! (Ok I am way up north and not a big city like Stockholm)... but I think because the teachers are chilled out and relaxed it filters right down through to the kids.
The Japanese system sounds like a nightmare... will be looking out for your story when you have time :-)
To the original poster!!!! You need to make a long term skeleton plan maybe for each term so that you can see where you are headed maybe with topics and grammar points, themes etc. Do this for each class/level etc
Once you have a broad skeleton plan going for the whole term, it is much easier then to break it down as you can see that X needs to be covered before you do Y.... Weekly planning becomes a little easier as you already have a general focus in your head rather then plucking something out of the air that doesnt follow on from the week before.
Do you have a curriculum that you MUST follow or are you given lots of freedom to cover what you wish according to students needs?
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21 Dec 2008
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cheezels
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hmmmm for some reason my other post has come BEFORE alien boy when I was replying after him.. :-)
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21 Dec 2008
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