In the past, I really did not give much thought on my lesson planning. I had my textbooks and I just copied on the board what was on the textbook, gave quizzes from chapter summaries, and gave homework from the exercises in the workbooks. Teaching was so easy. But my students' results from benchmark assessments and spring testing were always below basic every year. I had a valid excuse, my students are diagnosed with learning disability, what do you expect? Well, low expectations lead to low achievement.
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For the first time in my 6 years as a teacher my lesson plans were reviewed by my instructional supervisor and Math Professional Developer this school year. I was told that my lessons were not aligned to the standards, I had too many goals, my students get lost in the activities (arrggh!). So I revised the template not just once, and I gave much thought and worked with the activities to make it more interesting this time. It took me at least 8 hours to finish my 12 page lesson plan that I didn't have time anymore to do my laundry and grocery and take care of my family during weekends! Teaching was a lot of paperwork! It was exhausting! It was stressful!
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But why do I have to stress myself? I shared my lesson plan to the lead teacher in my inclusion class and he exclaimed "this is a lot!" and I realized he was right. Where did I go wrong? I found a lesson plan template in my school district's website and used it. I discovered that it does not really restrict my creativity in lesson planning contrary to what one of my colleagues told me. Then I listened to my Math Coach and took into consideration the feedback of my instructional supervisor.
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Now I am only writing 3 page of a week's lesson plan, I can breathe better and have a restful weekend. I am now having quality products from my students targeted to the standards of the lesson. They are scoring better in their quizzes, and they are enjoying their homework. Teaching is more rigorous but is still fun.
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