A teacher’s planning period is one of the school day’s most coveted and greatly desired portions. It is a vital element of productive and successful teaching as it allows teachers to prepare lessons, create materials, examine student academic performance, and so much more. It also catalyzes impacting students positively and constructively.
In essence, it allows teachers to evaluate their practices and implement changes to instruction that are more tailored to meet student learning needs and close gaps. The teacher planning period is an essential time that empowers teachers to enhance their effectiveness and teaching practices; without it, teachers are simply spinning their wheels. That being said, teachers must utilize every second of their planning time. In this article, we will discover a few methods teachers can apply to improve the value and quality of their planning period.
Creating a Planning Schedule
Teachers must walk into their classrooms fully prepared for the day. Although this may seem difficult at the beginning of the school or present challenges for beginning teachers, most find it beneficial to plan lessons at least one week in advance. In creating a schedule such as this, teachers can begin to fully develop curriculum and resources to enhance learning for their students.
It also reduces stress throughout the school day, knowing that materials and lessons are ready and prepared. Scrambling to produce lessons the day before or even the day of is hazardous and an unorganized way to show up for our students, so it is imperative that teachers effectively plan in advance.
Minimize Distractions
Distractions and a teacher’s planning period do not go hand in hand. Distractions are an absolute waste of time when time is something that teachers simply cannot get enough of. To minimize distractions, teachers should prioritize tasks in order to accomplish the most necessary and pertinent tasks for the day.
Additionally, teachers can optimize their planning period by devoting their full attention to analyzing student progress, creating lesson plans, and evaluating curriculum and resources for effectiveness. It is also important to remove items from the planning area that serve as a distraction (i.e. cell phones, etc.) as it is sometimes all too tempting to jump on for a quick break that unintentionally turns into a more extended amount of time.
Prioritize Tasks
With minimizing distractions, it was mentioned that teachers should prioritize tasks. Prioritizing tasks during the planning period helps teachers to manage and maximize their time. This is crucial to improving the quality of planning time as it keeps the focus on what exactly needs to be completed.
It also forces the teacher to only complete other tasks that are pertinent in order to save time. Teachers have numerous responsibilities so prioritizing tasks can place their attention on the most critical items for completion. Prioritizing tasks prevents teachers from feeling overwhelmed and provides them with a structured process of getting things done in a timely manner.
Reflection
Educators must reflect upon past lessons in order to analyze their effectiveness. Why complete a lesson and never determine if it properly reached students? Reflection forces teachers to evaluate how well students received and applied lessons.
It also provides an element of data analysis as teachers can review student work to discover the retention level of the material. From this time of reflection, teachers can adjust their instruction to best meet student needs and improve or expand their teaching practices.
Setting Goals and Objectives
Another product of teacher reflection is the setting of goals and objectives. Although setting goals and objectives for the classroom are an integral part of creating and implementing lessons, reflection must direct the goals and objectives for the classroom as well. Learning goals and targets must cater to student needs and involve their progress directly.
Goals and objectives must change as necessary about the student’s progress within the curriculum and individual concepts. That being said, the planning period serves as an opportunity to review student learning and determine if shifts in the learning plan need to be made based on their results.
Using Technology
Technology is such an integral tool in today’s educational system. Teachers can use it to effectively build upon previous materials, allowing educators to allocate more time to curriculum development and other instructional needs. Within this, teachers could develop their templates to make curriculum and lesson planning much simpler and have all of their significant resources in one place.
Technology also facilitates collaboration among teachers and the exchange of ideas and resources. It is also apparent technology serves an excellent role in examining student performance data. From this information, teachers can determine student strengths and weaknesses to better prepare classroom instruction that is catered to their learning needs.
Collaborate
As with most professions, teamwork makes things easier for everyone! The same is true for teachers. Why reinvent the wheel, or do everything on your own? Teachers should utilize some of their planning periods to create lessons together, share ideas and materials, and support one another.
Teachers can also work together to analyze student performance data, discover performance trends, and implement changes to instruction to close learning gaps and beyond. This enhances learning for all students and optimizes the learning environment.
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