Annual Planning

Creating an annual plan may feel daunting at first. I mean, a WHOLE years worth of ideas and units!? I am sure I am feeling this way because it is the first time I have ever created one. Luckily, I have some wonderful peers to work with and learn from along the way. Mapping out the direction you hope to take through the discourse of the year is comforting and supportive. It keeps you on track, focused, and heading in the right direction. There are goals to accomplish all along the way and they are written out for you so you can easily refer to them and remind yourself. I know me, and I enjoy having a plan-I need to know when and what is going to take place, and exactly how it is going to play out. Once you have created an annual plan and made it through the year, it would be useful to go back and reflect on the plan. What worked? What needs to be changed? Should something be taken out/added in? These are all wonderful advantages of taking the time and thought to create an annual plan for your classroom.

What if students don't grasp the material as you had hoped? What if you have to spend more/less time on a topic or unit than you have planned for? Does this totally disrupt your plan for the remainder of the year? Teaching requires flexibility and the understanding that often times, things do not go according to plan. I may feel even more stressed if all the work I put into creating an annual plan goes to waste. Then again, it would be a learning experience and the following year's plan would be even better.
Chaos would take place in the classroom without a plan. Not just what is to take place today or next week, but next month, after winter break, and so on. There at least needs to be an idea-an ideal direction you hope to go in.

From the readings, I was under then impression that before anything, goals and essential questions need to be developed. Once these are established, the next task is to create assessment ideas. After deciding upon a topic/unit, look for resources. There are so many wonderful and awesome things out there for us teachers to use in our lesson planning and in our classroom. It is not always necessary to "reinvent the wheel." The library, the Internet, a magazine or book, your peers...everywhere! Keep an eye and a teacher's ear open to everything and you will surely discover useful ideas that you wouldn't have been able to come up with solo.