{"id":131436,"date":"2017-09-10T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2017-09-10T16:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/truthforteachers.com\/?post_type=podcasts&p=131436"},"modified":"2022-04-28T08:27:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T13:27:13","slug":"day-by-day-lesson-planning-trap","status":"publish","type":"podcasts","link":"https:\/\/truthforteachers.com\/truth-for-teachers-podcast\/day-by-day-lesson-planning-trap\/","title":{"rendered":"How to move out of the day-by-day lesson planning trap and think big picture"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week on the Truth for Teachers<\/a> podcast: Lesson planning tips to help teachers think long range and escape the daily lesson planning trap.<\/em><\/p>\n

Are you spending countless hours on lesson planning, yet still feel like you don\u2019t know what you’re doing from day to day?<\/p>\n

Are you prepping ahead of time, but still have to do more planning every night and aren\u2019t feeling prepared when it’s time to teach?<\/p>\n

This blog post is based on a coaching call I conducted with a graduate of the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club<\/a>. Her name is Rachel, and she\u2019s beginning her sixth year in the classroom. Currently she\u2019s teaching 5th grade.\u00a0Rachel and I talked about several different issues during the course of our call, but the one that I thought would be most helpful to share here on the podcast is where we examine her lesson planning process. That\u2019s because Rachel\u2019s dilemma mirrors that of countless teachers I\u2019ve heard from, all across the country.<\/p>\n

Many teachers are caught in this trap where even though they have a curriculum map or pacing guide, or they\u2019ve done some collaborative planning with team members, they\u2019re still planning every night for the following day. Like Rachel, these teachers are taking the time to document lesson plans but still feeling like they’re flying by the seat of their pants, forgetting to do certain things with students even though it\u2019s in the plan, and constantly running out of time before getting to finish the lesson.<\/p>\n

So what you\u2019re about to read (or hear) is a conversation between Rachel and I tackling all of these problems. Her lesson planning process is essentially done in several steps, and you\u2019ll hear me articulate each of those steps as we go through them, because I think it\u2019s a good model to follow. Certainly, it’s not the only way to plan lessons, but I think many teachers really have never heard another teacher explain exactly how she plans, and everyone\u2019s process is unique. It’s sort of fascinating to listen in on her process, which sounds great in theory and try to figure out where the breakdown is happening.<\/p>\n

You see, it’s not that Rachel is failing to plan ahead \u2026 she\u2019s NOT just showing up to school and saying, “Well, what should we do today?” She\u2019s prepping ahead of time, but somehow that\u2019s not translating to feeling prepared in the classroom. She\u2019s still having to do a lot of last minute work, particularly with going through all the resources she\u2019s accumulated and trying to decide which ones to use. That part gets overwhelming. Sometimes she\u2019s trying to do too much or just not following through and implementing each aspect of what she planned.<\/p>\n

Use the audio player below to listen in on the call (or read the summary below) and see if this can help you identify some places where you might be making missteps in your planning process and can streamline a bit like Rachel. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"lesson<\/p>\n