I have recently discovered the iTDi Blog with wonderful posts on teaching and great blog authors. At the moment I am reading about lesson planning and how important it is.
All bloggers do have a point. From what I see everybody agrees that we teachers do need a lesson plan, when we go into a class. We HAVE to be prepared. Prepared what to say, what activities to use, what we can do with our time with the students.
How detailed should a lesson plan be? Should we write every single activity, time, purpose?
Well, to tell you the truth, I have stopped doing that for years...
When I started teaching, I used to spend hours and hours preparing, writing, estimating time... And yes, it has helped me a lot. But from my experience I can say that none of my plans have been completed the way I wanted to. Why? The answer is simple: There will always be somebody who has a question, maybe you need more activities about a structure, because he students didn't quite get it the first time you've explained it, there is always the "entertainer" of the class who will say or do something to make the others laugh, or maybe you have to discuss something different with your class, such as discipline problems, evaluation, etc... Or the opposite happens an you do everything planned and you still have 5 minutes left....
What I do is keep notes of what I want to do every time, always more activities than needed. I always have extra stuff with me. Teacher's book does give me ideas, but I never stick to the plan.
Yes, lesson planning is important. You have to know what you are doing! But always be prepared to adapt to students needs....
All bloggers do have a point. From what I see everybody agrees that we teachers do need a lesson plan, when we go into a class. We HAVE to be prepared. Prepared what to say, what activities to use, what we can do with our time with the students.
How detailed should a lesson plan be? Should we write every single activity, time, purpose?
Well, to tell you the truth, I have stopped doing that for years...
When I started teaching, I used to spend hours and hours preparing, writing, estimating time... And yes, it has helped me a lot. But from my experience I can say that none of my plans have been completed the way I wanted to. Why? The answer is simple: There will always be somebody who has a question, maybe you need more activities about a structure, because he students didn't quite get it the first time you've explained it, there is always the "entertainer" of the class who will say or do something to make the others laugh, or maybe you have to discuss something different with your class, such as discipline problems, evaluation, etc... Or the opposite happens an you do everything planned and you still have 5 minutes left....
What I do is keep notes of what I want to do every time, always more activities than needed. I always have extra stuff with me. Teacher's book does give me ideas, but I never stick to the plan.
Yes, lesson planning is important. You have to know what you are doing! But always be prepared to adapt to students needs....