Sunday, August 12, 2012

School Year 2012-2013: Nuts and Bolts

Similar to last year, it has been a summer of professional growth and thought, and now it's time for the nuts and bolts planning for the school year--the actual lessons I introduce each day.  Elementary educators teach a large myriad of lessons each day, and with differentiation those lessons span many levels of achievement and modalities of action.

Earlier this month, I outlined the emphasis for the first six weeks, and now I'm organizing the specific details and materials related to each learning endeavor, lesson and unit.   My lesson planning and organization is generally a fluid process. I keep a chart of the lessons to teach and as I have time, I prep and plan for those lessons.  Now that I am able to keep the chart online, I'll be better able to link each lesson to the best materials, films, links and activities.  I'll also be able to easily share and revise the list as I work with my colleagues in our PLC (professional learning community) to assess, plan and revise teaching points to best implement RTI (response to intervention) and help every child at our grade level achieve.

How do you plan specific learning events for your class?  In what ways do you organize and share the large amount of work you do to implement several lessons a day?  This is one of the many complex areas of teaching children well, and one where collaboration and shared ideas will boost our work and effort.

On Monday night from 8-9pmEST, #4thchat will discuss start of the year strategies and lessons. You may want to join us if you're an upper elementary school teacher as the chat will provide many great ideas by terrific educators.