I know the title of this series is to "Work Smarter, Not Harder," but it seems that I am SO in the summer mode (and after 9 days of rest and relaxation on vacation), I am finding it extremely hard to even think about working! Anyone else having this problem???
Good thing that I've made a list of items to discuss for this series or I would already be out of things to say! LOL
Anyways......
This coming school year, we are going to begin with a "Once Upon a Time in 2nd Grade" theme. (We are even having matching t-shirts made for the teachers to wear on the first day!) We are required to do "Instructional Read-Alouds" daily in our reading group. Each teacher has chosen a fairytale to begin the year. Each teacher will also complete a read aloud lesson plan for the fairytale with vocabulary words, writing activities, differentiation, etc. Then we plan to rotate our book each week. Voila'! 10 weeks of instructional read-aloud lesson plans for each teacher, with only 1 week's worth of work. Doesn't get much better than that! (I'm hoping this will work so well, that I can persuade everyone to continue with this plan...Just think...for the entire year I would only have to make FOUR lesson plans!) WOW!!! It couldn't get much smarter than that!
Hmmm...I'm wondering if I can talk each teacher into doing 1 week's worth of science lesson plans, social studies lesson plans.......hahaha!!!
Do you do anything along these lines that makes your school year smarter and not harder?
Now, I guess it's time to get out of vacation mode...I've got gardening to do, windows to wash, porches to sweep...
But, before I go...here's a FREEBIE for you!
Cynthia
My team does collaborative planning throughout the whole year, so we each have a subject to plan for the entire grade. This is definitely nicer than doing the whole week on your own, but there are some drawbacks...the biggest problem is that some teachers do not always plan with the most "enthusiasm" for finding engaging activities. I will spend HOURS trying to find fun activities for my subject, and they will just spend minutes typing a few workbook pages. So then...I have to go back and redo that specific subject if I don't like what that teacher planned. Another drawback is that you may not always get your plans and originals "on time" even though there is a set day that we all agreed upon at the beginning of the year. We also had issues with one teacher who was planning activities that were unreasonable for our grade level.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I liked collaborative planning, but we all knew that we didn't HAVE to use the plans if we didn't like them. It ultimately cut down on some of my weekend planning at home. I am hoping that this year will be a lot easier/better since it will be our second year of doing collaborative planning.
Sorry this is so long!!!
Sweeties in Second
I just found your blog. I like the design! I will be teaching 2nd this coming school year! Hopefully I will be working smarter too!
ReplyDeleteAmy
Where Seconds Count 2nd grade blog
ahh, I love your coversheet! That worm is great!
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