101 Ways to Avoid Falling into a Lesson Plan Rut

It is really easy to fall into a lesson planning rut this time of year. After all, you know your students and what generally works to help them learn. The downside of that, however, is that it is all too easy to become complacent and boring. Here is a brief list of some quick ideas that can help you as you plan the most dynamic lessons possible. If you need a fresh look at what you are asking students to do, you should be able to find something in this little list to adapt for your own students. 

                  1.        Write a paragraph.

                  2.        Electronic flashcards

                  3.        Write a paragraph to defend you position on a topic we studied today.

                  4.        Look over your notes from yesterday’s lesson. Circle the key words.

                  5.        List what you already know about…

                  6.        Listen to a recording and take notes.

                  7.        Watch a brief video clip and take notes.

                  8.        List five things that you can recall we did in class yesterday.

                  9.        Create a rhyme to help you recall some of the key facts from class.

                10.      Summarize what you have learned in the last five minutes.

                11.      Pick a partner and play a quick game of “hangman” with your vocabulary words from this unit of study.

                12.      List the key ideas in today’s lesson.

                13.      Make quick flash cards to review the vocabulary words we have studied this week.

                14.      List the steps in…

                15.      Predict what caused…

                16.      Open your book and read the first three paragraphs from yesterday’s lesson. What is something new that you learned today that you hadn’t realized yesterday?

                17.      List ten words associated with the lesson we are currently studying.

                18.      What is your objective for this class today?

                19.      Write out a study skill that you have recently mastered.

                20.      Time a classmate while that person intently reviews yesterday’s lesson. Switch roles and repeat.

                21.      Scan your text and find… (Provide your students with specific facts or information to seek. This is an excellent review technique.)

                22.      Predict what will happen next.

                23.      Here’s your word of the day: ___________. Copy and define it and then use it correctly in a sentence.

                24.      What is the most important quality for a good student to have?

                25.      Provide another example of your own for…

                26.      Supply the missing words in this cloze exercise. (Find a reading assignment that is appropriate for your group and then cloze it.)

                27.      Unscramble these vocabulary words.

                28.      Match the items in column A with the items in column B.

                29.      Find the similarities in these two photographs.

                30.      What do you need to accomplish this week? Make a “To Do” list for this week’s activities.

                31.      Write a set of instructions for…

                32.      Looking back over this week, what did you really learn?

                33.      List ten things you learned in class today.

                34.      Read this short newspaper article and respond to it in your journal.

                35.      Practice the process of elimination on these multiple-choice questions.

                36.      Complete these analogies that relate to the lesson we are going to study today.

                37.      Tell why a change in ___ occurred.

                38.      Brainstorm every possible solution you can think of for…

                39.      Design a ___ to___.

                40.      Judge the value of…

                41.      Make a proposal to…

                42.      Describe what would happen if…

                43.      Look over the first three paragraphs of your homework reading last night. Write a brief paraphrase of them.

                44.      List the factors you would change if…

                45.      Describe the turning point in…

                46.      What are the underlying principles of the lesson we are studying?

                47.      What is the correct procedure for …?

                48.      Justify the rule about. …

                49.      Defend your position on. …

                50.      Defend your teacher’s position on the topic of .…

                51.      How can you modify ___________ so that it is more efficient?

                52.      Proofread this paragraph and make as many corrections as you can.

                53.      What solutions do you have for the problem of ___________?

                54.      Demonstrate the proper way to ___________.

                55.      How does what you learned in this lesson really apply to your life?

                56.      Why is it necessary for successful people to use time wisely?

                57.      Pick a partner and show that person how to use one fact from the lesson that you learned in this class yesterday.

                58.      There are seven errors in the reading passage you were given as you came into the classroom. Can you find them all?

                59.      Take two of the vocabulary words you have been studying this week and use them both in the same sentence.

                60.      Write one of the key words from this lesson on a scrap of paper. Pass it to a classmate. Time that person as he/she has only one minute to tell you five important things about it.

                61.      Why is it useful to learn the information in the unit we are now studying?

                62.      Pick a partner and brainstorm a list of all the ways you can use the information that you have learned in this class in the last three days.

                63.      What did you learn in another class this week that you can use in this class today?

                64.      What have you learned in this class lately that you can apply to another class?

                65.      Take the items on the board and group them according to a criteria that you devise based on the information in yesterday’s lesson.

                66.      What are some of the assumptions you had about today’s class?

                67.      Play an online game to benefit those less fortunate.

                68.      Create an online survey about…

                69.      Using what we learned in class today as proof, justify the reason for …

                70.      Create a word search puzzle that you will share with a friend tomorrow. Use the key words from today’s lesson.

                71.      Use all of your vocabulary words to create a quick short story.

                72.      Create a fair test question about the information you have learned today.

                73.      Take a list of words and create relationships among them.

                74.      Ask a classmate a question about the current lesson that will absolutely stump that person.

                75.      Make a 3-D graphic organizer.

                76.      Combine ideas with another student and…

                77.      Skim their homework and make predictions.

                78.      Brainstorm the causes of …

                79.      Create an inventory of…

                80.      List as many ways as you can that you are like the people we have studied in today’s lesson.

                81.      Find the cause of a crime in the news.

                82.      Write a review of your favorite television show.

                83.      Categorize the facts that you learned in class today.

                84.      Go through your notes and label the main ideas.

                85.      Read ahead to see if your predictions are correct.

                86.      Free associate as many ideas as you can about…

                87.      Use these terms in sentences…

                88.      Research a social problem that concerns you.

                89.      Make a set of electronic flashcards.

                90.      Invent a dialogue between ___ and ___.

                91.      Tell how a celebrity would use what you have learned today.

                92.      Record data related to…

                93.      Review your notes with your study buddy.

                94.      Evaluate your progress to date on this unit of study.

                95.      Annotate the selection for…

                96.      Skim the next chapter for facts and take notes.

                97.      Make a flow chart.

                98.      Prepare a monologue.

                99.      Fill in the blanks while listening.

              100.    Create a motto that expresses what you learned this week.

              101.    Set up your own art gallery.

Be Tough! You Can Resist Spring Fever!

Great Teachers Are Determined Teachers

Even the most stalwart of us finds it hard to be a consistent and dedicated professional when the weather outside is warm and flower are blooming and students are tired of being cooped up inside after a long winter. As tempting as it is to give into the lure of Spring Fever and just let students have a day or two or three off...to relax things a bit... now is not a good time to forget the importance of what we do. Here is a little checklist of reminders to help us all stay resolute in our desire to help students achieve their goals.

_____Today I will encourage and motivate my students to be self-disciplined rather than demand compliance.

_____Today I will provide my students with interesting, well-paced lessons that are designed to help as many of them learn as much as possible in the short time they are with me.

_____Today I will treat every student as a worthy individual whose contributions are important to the entire class.

_____Today I will be generous with praise and appreciation for the good things my students do.

_____Today I will be sure my students understand the immediate and future value of the material I teach.

_____Today I will be consistent in enforcing rules and in maintaining high standards

_____Today I will convince my students that I believe they can all be successful in my class.

_____Today I will give prompt feedback so that my students know what they have done well and what they still need to do to improve.

_____Today I will assume responsibility for the discipline climate in my classroom.

_____Today I will plan ways to prevent discipline problems from disrupting the successful atmosphere I want in my classroom.

_____Today I will take actions that will keep misbehavior from escalating into larger problems.

_____Today I will provide lessons that will use my students’ time wisely from the start to the end of class.

_____Today I will help my students set goals for themselves so that they have a larger reason for learning than just complying with my demands.

_____Today I will be organized and efficient because I know that a disorganized and inefficient teacher often creates academic and behavior failure.

Overcoming the Dreaded February Funk

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” ~Carl Sandburg

The signs of February Funk are obvious: you find yourself flipping calendar pages counting the days until Spring Break, petty workday annoyances multiply, routine paperwork turns into overwhelming stacks, and each school day threatens to become drudgery.

If February finds you struggling with February Funk, you are not alone! Many teachers agree that even though the calendar may say differently, February is really the longest month of the year. Winter’s gloom seems to last forever as leaving your warm, snug bed each morning to face a chilly classroom becomes a harder-than-ever challenge.

One of the best ways to overcome February Funk is to be proactive in how you spend your time at school. Gaining control of the time you spend on your school chores will enable you to be productive through the dreary winter days of February. When spring break finally arrives, you will be able to relax and fully enjoy your hard-earned vacation.


Tips for Managing Your Time at School

Overcome your February Funk with these tips for gaining control of the “coin of your life." (Most of them have been adapted from First-Year teacher’s Survival Guide.)

1. If a task will take less than three minutes, do it right away.

2. Plan how to manage routine tasks such as taking attendance or making lunch and other counts. While you may have to tweak your plan occasionally, routines will save time, increase accuracy, and decrease stress.

3. Keep you calendar or planner in an accessible spot so you can refer to it often. Use it to record tasks, appointments, and other information you’ll need to remember as you plan your workdays. Be diligent in writing down your tasks and you will soon be more efficient.

4. Use a “To Do” list to keep your days organized. If you would like a template of a list other teachers have found useful, please email Julia with your request.

5. When you plan a unit of study, make up the tests, quizzes, and other handouts as quickly as you can so that you can photocopy them well in advance of when they are needed.

6. Assign each student a number corresponding to the number on your class roster. Teach students to put this number beside their names when they head their papers. When you are ready to grade papers, just put them in numerical order so that recording grades is a simple task.

7. Remember to use your biological clock whenever you can. If you are not a morning person, don’t set aside time in the morning to accomplish detailed work. Do it later instead.

8. Create a template for parent contacts so that you can record the details of each contact right away. If you would like a template that other teachers have found useful, please email Julia with your request.

9. You don’t have to grade every single paper your students complete.

10. Deal efficiently with mail. Act immediately on items that require a written response. Throw away or recycle junk mail. File catalogues for later use.

11. Few things are as tempting and as time-consuming as checking email. Work out a schedule where you check email only at certain times of the day. Most teachers find that checking email three times a day is enough to stay informed without wasting time.

12. Set up equipment early just in case there are problems.

13. Share materials, handouts, tests, and other instructional resources. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Find instructional materials and lesson plans on the Web or talk with your colleagues about what they have used successfully.

14. When you need to distribute different types of materials, spend time before class begins filling containers (plastic bags, plastic cups, coffee cans…) with the materials so students can pick up a container with all the materials at once. They can then get started right away without fuss.

15. Be sure to use electronic files to save time and paper whenever you can. Being able to electronically edit and then reuse handouts and tests will save you hours of time.

16. Consider keeping a binder in which you store your hard copies of lesson plans, handouts, and other materials for each class. If you have this all together, you won’t have to waste time searching for missing papers among your scattered files.

17. If you have daily class routines that require verbal instructions, put the directions on a transparency so that you do not have to repeat them each day.

18. Delegate as much as you can. Even very young students can accomplish many routine tasks such as putting up posters, distributing materials, tidying the room, emptying pencil sharpeners, or keeping the supply area clean.

19. Use your planning time well. Group your tasks so that you do not have to make repeated trips to the copy room, office, media center, or other areas.

20. Reward yourself when you set and achieve your goals. Too often teachers are so busy taking care of their students that they overlook the importance of taking care of themselves. Celebrate your achievements!

If you have a time management tip that you would like to share with your colleagues everywhere, please feel free to submit it! Just click on the Discussion page to get started.


Use Small Blocks of Time Wisely

One of the frustrating aspects of a teacher’s life is that there is never enough time to accomplish everything. While the general shortage of extra time seems to be a problem, large blocks of time are in especially short supply. Interruptions and schedule changes fill a teacher’s days.

You can cope with this by learning to be an expert at accomplishing much in small moments. This is possible with determination, preparation, and practice. Those minutes add up.

Still not convinced? Here are just some of the things a focused teacher can accomplish in just a few minutes.

In fifteen minutes you can:

• Grade the objective portion of a set of test papers
• Create a quiz
• Create a review sheet
• Answer e-mail
• Create anticipatory sets for the entire week

In ten minutes you can:

• Call a parent
• Write a lesson plan
• Grade some essay questions
• Average grades
• Check homework papers

In five minutes you can:

• Create a dynamic closing exercise
• Write a positive note and send it home
• Use the hole punch on a set of papers
• Write a positive comment on at least five papers
• Review key points in a lesson

In three minutes you can:

• Record grades
• Drill your students with flashcards
• Put stickers on a set of papers
• Praise a class for good behavior
• Have students write an evaluation of the day’s lesson

In one minute you can:

• Erase the board
• Display a cartoon about the day’s lesson
• Have students tidy the room
• Select the student of the day or week
• Write an inspirational message on the board

Total Confusion? What to Do When No One Gets It

One of the most frustrating moments in a teacher’s school day can strike without warning. In the midst of a carefully planned lesson, it is possible for even the very best teachers in a school to experience the sinking feeling that happens as soon as they realize that no one is getting it. No one understands the lesson. Students are not learning. Everyone is confused.

This is a very different situation from the scenario where only one or two students appear to be lost. In this larger fiasco, there is a great deal that has gone wrong and that needs to be dealt with immediately. Savvy teachers do all that they can possibly foresee to prevent this, but inevitably it happens to even the most prepared teachers.

One thing is for sure. This is not a situation that can be overlooked. Things need to be fixed and fast.

One of the first mistakes to avoid is to blame students. Blaming will only waste time. Instead, be creative and calm and diagnose the situation as carefully and as accurately as possible. Ask for your students’ help. Taking a teamwork approach to the problem will convince students that they are capable learners and that the situation is manageable. A teamwork approach will also encourage student ownership of the problem and motivate them to solve it with you.

Here are some further suggestions to help you cope once you realize that many students in your class are struggling with an assignment. While some of these can be implemented at once, some will require a bit more planning. Having a quick back up plan or a change to another part of the day’s lesson may be in order to allow you enough time to think through what you need to do before you involve students.

• Offer a choice of assignments that can help students remediate their knowledge. A choice board with five or six different assignments can allow students extra practice without the stigma of feeling as if they failed.

• Rotate every student through kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learning assignments so that all students can use their preferred learning styles.

• Provide more examples, models, and demonstrations so that all students know exactly what they are to do and learn.

• Provide models or examples of the mistakes or missteps that are possible so that students can be aware of them and plan how to avoid them.

• Build on what your students already know by showing them how new material relates to what they have already learned. Ask them to share those connections with small group teammates and then with the entire class.

• Ask students to diagnose what they find difficult about the lesson. To obtain the specifics that you need, hand out small slips of paper or note cards and ask students to list the problems that they are having. This will usually be more productive than asking students to just share their complaints with the whole group.

• Allow students to work with peers in mixed ability groups. Often being able to discuss the work with a peer is all that is needed for understanding.

• Consider shortening the assignment so that the basics are covered, but frustrating extra work is not required.

• Supply students with support materials such as word banks, graphic organizers, and outlines to make the content more accessible.

• Handouts that help students translate parts of the lesson into their own words can be effective as students work through the material. If students have trouble articulating their learning, ask them to work together to express the ideas in other words.

• Ask students to draw diagrams, sketch concepts, or make charts of various types to translate the material into meaningful bits of information.

• Reteach small parts of the lesson while recording yourself using the video function on your cell phone. Post the video to your class website or to YouTube where students can access it from home. Try to keep these videos under five minutes and be sure that they are tightly focused on only small, manageable parts of the lesson.

• Ask students to pause in their work and list three things that they are absolutely sure of. You can share this information easily by first putting students into groups of four or five. Hand each group a sheet of paper and ask one student to record one thing about the lesson that he or she is absolutely sure of. That student passes the paper to the next who repeats the exercise. After the sheet has gone around the group several times, not only will you have a good idea of what they do and do not know, but students will have had an opportunity to share their learning with their peers and to possibly fill in any gaps that they have.

• Rethink the concepts that you expect your students to have as prior knowledge. Do they really have these concepts mastered? Check for the prerequisite concepts or skills if you notice students struggling.

• Sometimes all that is necessary is more time to complete an assignment.

How to Help Students Adjust to School after Winter Break

For many students, returning to school from the long winter break is not an easy transition. Staying up late, sleeping in, unstructured time, family stresses, or holiday travel can all make it hard for students to return to school ready to work productively. You can expect to see students who are tired, cranky, and just not as cooperative as usual because their normal schedules have been disrupted.

Experienced teachers know helping students readjust to their school routines requires understanding, patience, and a solid plan to make that first day back as pleasant as possible for everyone involved. Here are a few brief suggestions to smooth the reentry process for your students.

• If you have a class website or group email system so that you can contact your students, consider sending an upbeat message a day or two in advance of their return. Remind students about the materials that they will need to bring to class as well as other relevant information to make the transition back to school life easier.  

• Think back to the first day of school and the techniques you used then to make your students feel welcomed into your class. After all, returning after a long break is really just a mini-first day of school. Adjust as needed, but consider incorporating some of those same techniques to let your students know that you are glad to see them. Take the time to reconnect with each student so that they know that they are a valued member of the class and that their well-being is important to you.

• Have extra books, papers, pens, and other materials on hand for those students who lost the habits of organization during the break.

• If your students are old enough to communicate well by writing, pass out small slips of paper or note cards and ask students to tell you about their holiday in one hundred words or less. You can gain some valuable insights into their time away from school with this brief activity.

• Have students use a checklist to work through the normal class routines on the first day. This will not only remind them of what they need to do, but will also get them back into the habit of working in a purposeful manner. Delivering a flurry of verbal directions will only stress everyone out.

• Plan activities that are pleasant, but fairly low-key.  Brief games, review activities, pair shares, small group discussions, and other similar strategies are ones that can gradually and successfully reintroduce students to class routines without creating more stress.

• Photographing or videoing students on the first day of class in the new year is also a good way to celebrate the milestone together. Print on ordinary copy paper and display in the classroom or share on a class website or in a class newsletter. 

• Take advantage of the time of year as you plan the day’s lessons. Ask students to make predictions about the year ahead or to share their new resolutions. You could even develop class resolutions such as setting a goal for homework completion, improved study habits, or making sure the room is tidy at the end of the day. 

• Allow time for students to visit with each other and to catch up with each other’s personal news. While this can be done as a whole group activity, small groups really work best as students can engage meaningfully with each other. You could offer open-ended questions for everyone to discuss as conversation starters: What is your favorite memory of 2015? What do you want to do in 2016? If you could change the world in 2016, where would you begin?

How to Help Students Stay Organized

Disorganized students come in various guises: younger students, older students, male students, female students, well-mannered students, disruptive students, and, all too often, failing students. What these seemingly different students do share, however, is the tendency to be disorganized and overwhelmed. They are the ones still looking for their homework when everyone else has turned theirs in. They are the ones who never have a pencil or paper. They are the ones whose backpacks are stuffed with wadded up papers, broken pencils, and overdue assignments.  Fortunately, there is a great deal that caring teachers can do to help our students become more organized and successful. If you are currently teaching a student who needs help with organization, here are some simple strategies that may help.

 

Don’t let the problem grow. As soon as you notice that a student is disorganized, spend time working together to help that student become organized. Think in terms of small increments each day instead of an overwhelming clean out once in a while.

 

Make getting organized and staying that way part of the daily culture of your class. When students are aware of the expectations that their teachers have for them, then they are more likely to rise to those expectations. Good organization should be everybody’s business. The few minutes that you spend on this each day will reap big benefits when students can find work quickly.

 

Insist that students copy down their homework assignments in a planner. They should do this even if you allow them to photograph their assignments from the board or if it is posted on a class website. Using a planner encourages students to plan their work instead of just copying down homework in a rush.

 

Assign students to study teams or, at least, allow them to work on organization with a partner. Many students benefit from working with a study buddy so that they can check each other’s folders, binders, and book bags before leaving class. They can also take notes for each other and gather assignments when a team member is absent.

 

Keep the requirements for paper management as simple as possible. For example, ask students to use just one folder or binder for class instead of requiring them to several items to keep up with such as a binder, a spiral notebook, and folders with pockets.

 

Help students develop helpful routines for keeping belongings in good order. These routines should be as simple as possible so that they are easy to follow. Even simple steps such a packing up the night before will make a big difference for many students.

 

Make a point of checking in with disorganized students every class period to see that items are stowed away in a logical place where they can be easily retrieved. With frequent checks, the problems with disorganization can stay small.

 

 

Although creating methods of organization may seem obvious to you, be explicit in directing your students. For example, say “Clip this handout into the assessment section of your binder,” instead of “Put your papers away.”

 

Allow enough time at the end of class for students to pack away their belongings neatly. Insist that students clip their work into binders instead of stuffing them into a binder pocket or, even worse, into a book bag. Just two or three minutes of time with careful monitoring while everyone packs up will send the message that it’s important to be organized.

 

Provide students who struggle with organization problems with items that will help them stay organized. Calendars, planners, color-coded divider pages or notebooks, assignment notebooks, to-do lists, self-sticking notes, checklists, and pencil pouches will all help these students stay organized.

 

How to Manage a Successful Conference with Parents or Guardians

Now that we have had the opportunity to get to know our students, it may be time to schedule conferences to discuss some of the concerns that you may have about the academic or behavioral success (or problems) of your students. It is far easier to talk over problems and concerns early in the year when the solutions are still manageable rather than later when students are struggling under a huge burden of months of failures.

Teachers who want to communicate well with parents or guardians realize that what they want is to be reassured that their child is doing well and can succeed in school. Even though this may not be the current state of affairs with their child, families want teachers to work with them and with their children to make this happen. We need to connect solidly with the parents or guardians of our students if we intend to create a positive learning climate in our classrooms.

One way to have a beneficial conference is to make sure our goals for the conference are clear.

You should present yourself to parents or guardians as a friendly teacher who has their child’s best interests at heart and parents should leave with a sense of satisfaction because all of their questions have been answered and all of the points they wanted to cover were addressed. In addition to specific goals for a meeting with parents or guardians, there are lots of other steps that you can take to ensure that the conference is friendly and productive.

1. Be considerate. Meet the visitors in the school office and escort them to your room unless you are sure they know the way.
2. Be prompt.
3. Greet them cordially and express your appreciation for the fact that they came to the conference. This will create a tone of goodwill that you should strive to maintain throughout the conference.
4. Do not try to impress parents and guardians with your knowledge of educational terms and jargon. Use language that will make them comfortable.
5. Begin the conference with positive remarks about their child. Talk about the student’s potential, aptitude, special talents. Focus on strengths even if the reason for the conference is a serious breach of conduct. Do not lose sight of the fact that this child is very important to the parents.
6. Convey the attitude that the child’s welfare is your primary concern.
7. State the problem in simple, factual terms and express your desire to work together on a solution for the good of the child.
8. Allow upset or angry parents and guardians to speak first. After they have had the opportunity to say all of the things that they have probably been mentally rehearsing on the way to school, then and only then, can they listen to you or begin to work on a solution to the problem.
9. Show examples of the student’s work that illustrate the problem. If the problem is not directly work-related, be prepared to discuss specific examples of misbehavior.
10. If this is a problem that you have talked about before, perhaps informally or over the phone, share any improvement.
11. Be specific about what you have done to help correct the situation.
12. Listen to the parents and guardians. If you want a solution to the problem, give them your full attention throughout the conference. Your nonverbal language is crucial to the success of a conference. Be attentive, friendly, and positive.
13. Encourage parents and guardians to express their ideas. You need their insight and help.
14. Ask questions that will direct their thinking. These questions can also keep everyone focused on the problem at hand and on solutions to it.
15. Summarize the points of the conference at the end. Be sure to outline what you will do and what they will do to help their child be more successful in school.
16. Determine how you will follow up on the conference and keep them up to date.
17. Express appreciation again for their concern and the time they have spent with you in the conference.