The following blog was written by Ms. Sheelah Smith, a Science Teacher at Carson High School.
All new teachers have their share of struggles. I certainly am no different. Most of the books you read and the things you are taught in preparation for educating youth are along the lines of classroom management and how to love your students. For me, these things were not my struggle. My students responded well and I quickly established good rapport, as well as boundaries, in the classroom. Being blessed to have something come so easy that most new teachers struggle with came with a deficit that most do not struggle with- lesson planning. Not to say all teacher are rock star lesson planners, but I was bad, really bad. It has taken some hard work, late nights of being lost in the Google forest, and lets not forget tears… lots of tears. I still have lots to learn about tweaking and growing my lessons but I have come a long way by simply changing the way I think about my lessons. It was not nearly as drastic of an event as I expected and yielded a much more drastic result than I ever could have imagined.
In the beginning, most of my lessons looked like this: power point, activity, the end. Not too horrible, only I was missing the focus factor and my activities were just anything I could find that went with the material. Worksheet, video, read this, etc. Not that there is anything wrong with any of those activities if there is a goal. I was definitely lacking a goal. I had the overall “reinforcement and practice” thing going, but that was not enough. I would sometimes find really cool things for students, too; but got no results because I didn’t know what I wanted out of the activity. So, how could I expect students to know? It was a bit of a boring mess in my class, to be honest. I had no real idea of what I felt was the most important, or if I had even really prepared them for the activity I was asking them to complete. I wasn’t the worst teacher in the world, but I had no daily direction. Although I did not realize it at the time, Administration did.
I went in for my mid year review and I felt almost blind-sided. I had been doing what I was supposed to do; I was still new so I knew I still had lots of room to grow, but never imagined my classroom looked like such a mess to the outside world. Trust me, your principal is not the person you want to break that kind of news to you. So I did some (ok lots) of crying and self-reflecting and then I asked for help. Thankfully my administrative team is the kind that really wants to grow teachers and we began to change the structure of my lessons.
Warm-ups were the first thing I added. Not that I had never done them, I just was not really a fan, mostly because I was not using them correctly or putting much thought into them. Now, I not only have time to take roll and get my head straight before starting the class, but students have the opportunity to show me what they know, refresh an important concept, or, more importantly, get focused right away and into learning mode.
I still rely on PowerPoints just honestly because the information I am teaching I am still new at myself. I am ok with this but I try to read through them (not just overview them) and think about if there is “fluff” that I should take out, extra information that is above their level, or not helpful to understanding my goal for their learning for that day. This allows the notes to be shorter and, more importantly, more meaningful.
For my activities (where the biggest issue was) I first consider what the major concept is that I want to be reinforced long before searching or developing that days activity. This allows me to have direction and help the students master the information. I also am careful to be sure they are accountable for what was required that day. For example I was teaching the life cycle of a star and found a really awesome computer game that you must answer questions correctly to move on to the next stage. I was really excited to use it in class but had to figure out what to do other than simply say “play this game” as I would have at one time. I had students go though the game and also write out the steps in order. This way everyone got what they needed from the activity and students were accountable for completing it.
I have used exit slips as well; I feel, in conjunction with warm-ups, they are not necessary. I still occasionally use them, but I am sure they are meaningful when I do, and I make a point to refocus the class to me before the bell rings every period. This adds closure to the class and lets students know I will signal them when it is time to stop working. It adds a moment if further clarification is needed as well as to what is expected before the next class meeting.
These things may seem small and simple, that’s because they are. When Administration stepped in I was not sure what I could possibly do: I was already there until 5 every evening and stretched thin by getting the lessons together that were not up to par. Lucky for me, it was such a small change that made such a huge difference. It was the essential part of the puzzle I somehow missed. The structure of my classroom had greatly changed simply by me being more prepared. I am more prepared as a result of direction for my class. I still take a long time to plan, and have improvements to make but by simply changing the way that I think though my lesson plans I have become a much more successful teacher. Administration is happy, (which clearly makes me happy) and most importantly my students are learning the important concepts I set out to teach them.
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