As I began to think about the first part of this question I ask myself, would I take a trip without making a plan? Would I hope I could find a hotel when and where I would need it along the way? Would I wait until a few days before leaving to purchase a plane ticket for this trip? Would I pack my bags the day of my trip? Would I leave all of these important decisions to hope and fate? My response: of course not. Teaching in the classroom is no different. I cannot wake up every day and say, “Hey! What do I feel like teaching today?” I have to have a master plan. In order to see the “big” plan and know where I am going, I have to plan each lesson day-by-day in order to accomplish all of the goals and objectives I have set for my students to meet.
Making an annual plan is a necessity and has many benefits; yet, there are also some disadvantages of an annual plan as well. One major advantage of an annual plan is that it steers teachers in the right direction. There are many goals and objectives which teachers must teach their students. A teacher can look at an annual plan and say, “Okay I have 180 days to fit in all of these goals and objectives and this is how I am going to do it.” The annual plan helps teachers see the big picture (giving them directions) so they can break up this big picture into much smaller pictures and plan monthly lessons, weekly lessons and daily lessons. When you take a trip you first decide where you want to go, what you want to see, what types of things you want to do, and how long your trip will be. Creating an annual plan is no different than going on a trip. Teachers must decide where they want to take their students (goals and objectives), how they would like to go about helping them reach these goals, what types of activities they will perform and how many days it will take to teach a certain lesson.
Another advantage of an annual plan is that it helps teachers avoid panic. Again, teachers do not wake up every day and say, “Hey! What would l like to teach today?” Instead teachers must have a plan so that they do not find themselves sitting in the classroom before their students oblivious to what they want to teach. When teachers know what they will be teaching they can appear confident in themselves and their abilities. This avoids panic for themselves and for their students. If a student feels that a teacher is unsure of herself or her skills, this can cause the children to feel scared or unsure of themselves as well.
As with most things in life, there are disadvantages. One major disadvantage of an annual plan is time. Planning an annual plan is very time consuming. It requires lots of hours to “map out” a plan for the entire school year. Another disadvantage of an annual plan is that it can be overwhelming for first year teachers. First year teachers have so many things to learn such as what to teach, how to teach the content, how to control the behavior in the classroom, how to write lesson plans, etc. Although I feel that an annual plan will benefit the first year teacher, taking on such a challenging task can be overwhelming. Another disadvantage of an annual plan is that your co-workers might not support you in this endeavor. This may mean a teacher will have to design the annual plan on his/her own. Again, this can be time consuming. If supported by co-workers designing an annual plan can be much less stress and time consuming.
I have always wanted to go to Australia. I want to see the kangaroos, the beaches, the scenery, and experience the culture. One day I decide to plan my trip. I call my travel agent. I decide I want to stay for two weeks. I want to go the first month of August and I want to stay in Sydney. I give my travel agent all of the details and she plans my trip. Before finalizing my trip the agent asks for my credit card number to book my hotel. At this point I realize I don’t have the resources (ie. Money). After spending endless time, effort and energy I realize that I cannot afford the trip I have just spent the day planning. My whole day I realize has been wasted. This analogy can be applied to planning an annual lesson plan. When planning an annual lesson, no matter how great the lessons are you have planned or how many great ideas you have, if you do not have the proper resources the lesson cannot be implemented and you have just spent many hours planning something that is unattainable. To avoid this situation, it is important to look at the resources you will need for implementing your annual plan and making sure you have all these resources. When planning my trip to Australia I thought my “resources” were a very small part of the planning. Once I realized I didn’t have the money, my entire day was wasted on planning a trip that wasn’t feasible for me to take. For a teacher, it is important to look at your resources before designing an annual plan to know what you have to work with and design your “trip” around your resources.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
As stated in my first blog post I have never blogged before. As I began writing this entry two hours ago I was beginning to like blogging but two hours have past and I am beginning to dislike blogger. I wrote my response to the question what are the attributes of a meaningful, well-organized social studies lesson when all of a sudden the blogger page went blank on me and lost an hour’s worth of my work. Next, I took a deep breath and tried to remember the 5 paragraphs I just typed. I was sure to save my entry every couple of minutes but what do you know, an hour later when I went to submit my work the screen jumped back to the first entry page and again I lost all of my work. I checked in draft and nothing is there. So with that said, my patience is running low and at 11:30pm I am becoming very frustrated; therefore, I am writing this entry as a word document and then I will copy and paste my answers.
Well I had a great story that I had typed up earlier that related to the question what are the attributes of a meaningful, well-organized social studies lesson but for some reason I am really not as eager to elaborate as I sit here and know my alarm clock will be going off in seven hours for me to get up and begin a full day’s work followed by class; therefore, I will just simply answer the question.
What are the attributes of a meaningful, well-organized social studies lesson? First, a teacher must decide what to teach. Upon writing a meaningful lesson plan a teacher must decide what she would like the students to learn and/or be able to do after the lesson has been taught. It is equally important for a teacher to know exactly why he/she is teaching this lesson. Although I may think it is important for my students to learn about 9/11 if it is not in the NCSCOS unfortunately I must pick another lesson teach. As a teacher I must make sure the lesson corresponds to the state academic standards. So before writing a lesson I must decide what content I will teach.
In order to make a lesson meaningful to students it is important to explain why this lesson is relevant to them. How can this lesson benefit them? How can they apply it? How will this impact their lives? What will they be able to do after this lesson that they couldn’t do before this lesson? As with anything in life people want to know the why behind what they are doing. Why do I go to work? To have money so I can eat and survive. Why do I go to school? To get my degree so I can become a teacher. Why do I sleep 7-8 hours a night? So my body can function properly every day. You get the point. There is a why behind everything we do and as a teacher it is important and makes a lesson meaningful to students if we tell them the why behind the lesson.
Traditionally teachers, especially inexperienced teachers such as myself, open up a social studies book, read the planned lesson and instruct the students on what to do according to the lesson plan in the teacher’s book. This is what we call a teacher-centered classroom. To be honest this is very boring for students and meaningless. Usually they are instructed to read a passage, answer questions, and occasionally are tested on the materials. In order to have a meaningful lesson it is important to engage the students. Students learn best when they are involved in experiences where they actually manipulate something or are exploring something. There are many ways to engage students in a lesson in order to make it meaningful to them. First, students should be involved in hands-on learning. This is fascinating to them and they are able to learn with the methods of natural exploration. Another way to engage the students is by taking them on field trips. Field trips are a firsthand source of information. Plus, what student doesn’t like getting out of the classroom every once in a while? Other ways to engage the students are to invite classroom visitors. Classroom visitors can bring a specialized skill or knowledge to your students. Other ways to engage students are through projects, group work, thematic units and lots more creative ways.
Lastly, in order to ensure the lesson is meaningful to students, teachers must check students’ understanding of the lesson taught. Traditionally teachers do this by giving tests or quizzes. There are many other meaningful ways teachers can do this such as projects, journal entries, drawings, dramas, questioning games, etc. It is very important to check and make students understand the lesson taught. If not, a teacher must re-teach the skill/concept in a different way. She must do a self-evaluation and figure out why the lesson wasn’t successful the first time and decide how to make it better the next time. If the lesson was a success the first time, a teacher can move on to the next lesson. One important point I would like to make is this, just because the lesson is over doesn’t mean students shouldn’t be reminded of the lesson. I believe that constant reviewing is important in teaching. If a student really learned something and didn’t memorize the information, he/she will still remember it in the future.
There are a few very important attributes to a meaningful, well-organized social studies lesson. (I feel these attributes are actually important to almost any lesson such as math, reading, science, etc). First, the teacher must select the content carefully and meet the required standards. Next, she must explain to the students why this lesson is important. When teaching the lesson she must engage students. Lastly, she must check students’ understanding of the lesson being taught.
Okay here is goes attempt number three to submit this entry. Keep your fingers crossed it works….
Well I had a great story that I had typed up earlier that related to the question what are the attributes of a meaningful, well-organized social studies lesson but for some reason I am really not as eager to elaborate as I sit here and know my alarm clock will be going off in seven hours for me to get up and begin a full day’s work followed by class; therefore, I will just simply answer the question.
What are the attributes of a meaningful, well-organized social studies lesson? First, a teacher must decide what to teach. Upon writing a meaningful lesson plan a teacher must decide what she would like the students to learn and/or be able to do after the lesson has been taught. It is equally important for a teacher to know exactly why he/she is teaching this lesson. Although I may think it is important for my students to learn about 9/11 if it is not in the NCSCOS unfortunately I must pick another lesson teach. As a teacher I must make sure the lesson corresponds to the state academic standards. So before writing a lesson I must decide what content I will teach.
In order to make a lesson meaningful to students it is important to explain why this lesson is relevant to them. How can this lesson benefit them? How can they apply it? How will this impact their lives? What will they be able to do after this lesson that they couldn’t do before this lesson? As with anything in life people want to know the why behind what they are doing. Why do I go to work? To have money so I can eat and survive. Why do I go to school? To get my degree so I can become a teacher. Why do I sleep 7-8 hours a night? So my body can function properly every day. You get the point. There is a why behind everything we do and as a teacher it is important and makes a lesson meaningful to students if we tell them the why behind the lesson.
Traditionally teachers, especially inexperienced teachers such as myself, open up a social studies book, read the planned lesson and instruct the students on what to do according to the lesson plan in the teacher’s book. This is what we call a teacher-centered classroom. To be honest this is very boring for students and meaningless. Usually they are instructed to read a passage, answer questions, and occasionally are tested on the materials. In order to have a meaningful lesson it is important to engage the students. Students learn best when they are involved in experiences where they actually manipulate something or are exploring something. There are many ways to engage students in a lesson in order to make it meaningful to them. First, students should be involved in hands-on learning. This is fascinating to them and they are able to learn with the methods of natural exploration. Another way to engage the students is by taking them on field trips. Field trips are a firsthand source of information. Plus, what student doesn’t like getting out of the classroom every once in a while? Other ways to engage the students are to invite classroom visitors. Classroom visitors can bring a specialized skill or knowledge to your students. Other ways to engage students are through projects, group work, thematic units and lots more creative ways.
Lastly, in order to ensure the lesson is meaningful to students, teachers must check students’ understanding of the lesson taught. Traditionally teachers do this by giving tests or quizzes. There are many other meaningful ways teachers can do this such as projects, journal entries, drawings, dramas, questioning games, etc. It is very important to check and make students understand the lesson taught. If not, a teacher must re-teach the skill/concept in a different way. She must do a self-evaluation and figure out why the lesson wasn’t successful the first time and decide how to make it better the next time. If the lesson was a success the first time, a teacher can move on to the next lesson. One important point I would like to make is this, just because the lesson is over doesn’t mean students shouldn’t be reminded of the lesson. I believe that constant reviewing is important in teaching. If a student really learned something and didn’t memorize the information, he/she will still remember it in the future.
There are a few very important attributes to a meaningful, well-organized social studies lesson. (I feel these attributes are actually important to almost any lesson such as math, reading, science, etc). First, the teacher must select the content carefully and meet the required standards. Next, she must explain to the students why this lesson is important. When teaching the lesson she must engage students. Lastly, she must check students’ understanding of the lesson being taught.
Okay here is goes attempt number three to submit this entry. Keep your fingers crossed it works….
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
My First Time
This is my first time blogging. I have heard of blogging before but I have never explored blogging. By taking Dr. Duncan's summer class we are required to blog. I have no clue what to write at this time but I am sure as the class progresses so will my blog page. Sorry this is a very uninteresting blog but I'm sure they will become more interesting. Stay tuned for more!
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