The first video I watched was Mary's. Her method of planning differed from what I originally thought in the fact that she mentioned that she takes into account the probability of snow days, fire drills, and hurricanes into her lesson plans. She allows wiggle room for these events. Other than that, her method of planning seemed very similar to what I would like to do. She said that she over plans at the start in order to make sure she doesn't leave anything out, and then she goes back and re-plans if things need tweaking. This method is great because it makes sure nothing is forgotten, and it also leaves room to be flexible and take the class' individual needs into consideration.
Seth mentioned a part of planning that hadn't even occurred to me, I am embarrassed to say. He said that he plans backwards, first looking at what questions he wants his students to be able to answer at the end of the semester, and then planning backwards from there what needs to be taught and in what order. I think this is very important, especially how he mentioned that you must look at your state's learning objectives. I was thinking planning started at the beginning and mapped itself forward through the semester, but it might be wiser to do this backwards.
Rachael mentioned two different situations that she has worked in: making her own plans for the semester, and being told what to teach and when and where. She also suggested working backwards like Seth did, with having the end goal lead you backwards through the semester. I can't imagine how to teach when you are told what activities to do at what time and in what way. One of the things I am most excited about in teaching is the creativity involved, and that situation seems to rob the teacher of creativity. I will have to learn more about this.
Kristie's post struck me as mildly depressing simply because it seemed to focus entirely on the assessments that need to happen with your students and the common core objectives that they must accomplish. This is very intimidating to me. In school, I didn't really notice this, but I may have just been unobservant. I was thinking that there was more flexibility in what you choose to teach and how than what there seems to be.
Overall, I was a lot less knowledgeable about the methods of planning than I thought I was. I came in with a "How hard can it be?" attitude, and this is way off. In addition to this, backwards planning never occurred to me, nor did core objectives or professional learning communities. I have work to do.
