Okay, so now you've almost made it through an entire semester. Whew! Are you feeling a little more confident in your classroom? Take those two wonderful weeks of quiet during Winter Break to plan ahead for Spring Semester.
Some things you need to know about Spring Semester
You will notice a distinct change in your students and may find yourself saying, "They didn't do that LAST semester!" You are correct. Last semester they were still scared of you and now they are not. hey have had a glorious two weeks of almost freedom and are not willing to give it up!
Every holiday you get from now on is NEEDED more than those during Fall semester. You will desperately need those days to rest & relax. Planning is not resting or relaxing!
AH! The season of testing is upon us. You will find that you have LESS actual teaching days during this semester. Why? Most of them are taken up with different tests, practicing for those tests, practicing some more and, of course, the various and sundry assembly programs.
Preparing Yourself for the Spring Semester
Use your vacation time to begin planning for next semester. Here are some tips for long term planning
Outline the overall topics/themes you want/need to cover by the end of the year. What topics will you do each six weeks? Keep this VERY GENERAL!!!
example:
4th six weeks: Middle Ages, Renaissance Poetry, "How To" essay, Body Systems, Fractions
Using that same calendar and pencil, mark out the days that are school holidays. Now insert DAILY activities. You are still being very general.
example:
Jan. 4: notes on simile, metaphor / practice
Jan. 5: notes on alliteration and rhyme / practice
Jan. 6: notes on personification and imagery / practice
Jan. 7: Hailstones & Halibut Bones - see figurative language at work!
Jan. 8: Test on figurative language
Now, get a blank calendar and a pencil. Using these tools, begin to sketch an outline of what you will cover each WEEK.
example:
Jan. 4-8: Figurative Language
Jan. 11-15: Personal Anthology of poems
Jan. 18-22: Types of poems
Jan. 25-29: Poetry Book
Now you are ready to begin writing your lesson plans with objectives, materials, procedures & assessment. Isn't it much easier when everything is already laid out for you?
I usually do these different steps on different days. That way I don't burn myself out all at once. One day I will outline the topics for the semester. Then the next day I will outline just the first six weeks - week by week. Either that day or the next I will outline the daily topics on the calendar. Lastly, I write out my detailed lesson plans for a couple of weeks. Now I'm ready! If anything changes, I simply change it on my calendar and rework the lesson plans. You don't have to spread this out over a couple of days. My team and I sometimes take one day and plan for the entire six weeks. Then, on the Tuesday before, we write out our lesson plans for the following week. This seems to work pretty well for us!
You may also want to use this time to reflect on last semester
What worked? What didn't work out so well? What could you do differently? What do you want to stay exactly the same?
It isn't really necessary to write any of this down, but it is a good idea to have most of this worked out in your head. Take a little time to daydream about the way you want your classroom to look & run.
Work out a way to re-establish the rules and expectations for your class
Be extra firm with them as you were at the beginning of the year. You may find students who are more "familiar" with you. Discourage this kind of camaraderie between you and your students. Set the tone of your classroom as that of a workplace, not a playpen. Unless you do so, you may find yourself more in a zoo than in a classroom!
