by Elizabeth Gilbert

Created on: February 14, 2009

Year long planning tips for high school teachers

"I never even got to the end of the text" many teachers confess. By planning ahead of time you won't be one of them. Planning is the key to a successful year for you and your students. Of course the best of plans will need adjusting as the year rolls along. Particularly in a high school setting there are many interruptions. You need to be sure you will get through the most important standards in your level and subject area by year's end. The students need to have a certain knowledge base before proceeding to the next grade level.

The first thing to do is get a school calendar that includes all of the major activities. Be sure to mark those dates in your lesson planner (find or make one with large writing spaces). By having the students' activities written on those dates you will avoid overloading work or lectures when the students will be less attentive.

For example, football or basketball homecoming week is almost worthless. The kids are campaigning for king, queen, and royalty court. They show their spirit by dressing up in different styles every day. There are lunch time activities to participate in and the kids are hyper. People are passing notes about who's going with whom and wondering if they will be asked or turned down by that special someone.

Not much academic learning takes place during this week no matter how determined teachers are to follow their lesson plans and push through. So plan a project that overlaps from the week before and possibly into the next week. Remember, if you have upper classmen, cheerleaders, athletes, or student council members in your classes they will be absent a lot throughout this week. It's better for everyone concerned to have something they know about ahead of time and can work on as they can during the week. It eliminates stress, poor grades, and parental grievances.

Here are the most common school activities throughout the year for teachers to consider depending on the grade level they teach. There is football homecoming, winter formal, basketball homecoming, prom, career day, and senior trip. Aside from this seniors are generally released a week early so their classes will need to be wrapped up and the final given a week prior to other classes.

Aside from school activities some schools have fall break, Thanksgiving break, holiday break, semester exams, spring break and a week off for state and national testing, final exams and non student days for inservice. All of these

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>