How often have you, a preschool (or home/family day care) teacher, been in this situation? Your preschoolers have gone for the day; the collages they made today are on display; and you're ready to leave. You're a great preschool teacher - tomorrow's lesson plan is done. You've got a great preschool game and activity for your circle time.
This guide is not meant to be the one and only way to develop a lesson plan; however, it is going to provide you with at least some good methods to start with. A general overview highlights the key points of creating a useful and working lesson plan.
Are your students loathe to practice as much as they should? OK, you can stop laughing and pick yourself up off the floor now. I know it wasn't the brightest question. But I asked it to make a point, of course.
Understanding the phases of the moon can be a tricky concept for a child in elementary school. There are many different aspects of the phases of the moon that children should learn. A moon phase lesson plan should be educational, yet fun so the students can better understand the lesson they are taught.
First you found a killer science project idea, then you did a great science project. Now, you've got to write it all up to compete in your science fair. Your written report is the single most important part of any science fair project. A well-written report can make a pathetic project look pretty good, and a good project look exceptional.
New teachers often put in 12-16 hour days during their first year of teaching. Since so much of lesson planning depends on what happened during the previous lessons, it's difficult to plan a lesson too much in advance. But there are long and short term strategies that new teachers can easily use to help them cope in their first year before teaching takes over their lives.
Nine year-old Elizabeth sits quietly listening as her mother reads from a well-written book on natural science. Mother reads a paragraph or two, and then asks Elizabeth to tell in her own words what was just read. The child eagerly relates the content of the paragraphs, often using some of the same expressive language as she has just heard.
Among teachers, one particular group in this profession deserves to be recognized more than the others - they are the special education teachers - specialized teachers who work with students of special needs that not every teacher is able to teach. If you are one of these teachers this article is to help you create a lesson plan for your students.
If you are an ESL teacher you probably know how difficult it can be to write a good plan for your ESL class. Very often we come to class and soon get really frustrated because the plan that we have prepared does not seem to work. Or it doesn't work with this particular group of students.
Twenty years ago when my son was small, I would play English games with him in an attempt to raise him bilingually. He really liked those games, and when he outgrew them, I used them in my elementary school classes. I was amazed to see how enraptured Japanese youngsters were with English games.
If you're a teacher, trainer, or group facilitator of some sort, you probably know the value of a good icebreaker game or activity. It serves many purposes and yields valuable benefits for the group.
In January of 2008 I was asked by Lorelle van Fossen to write a post for Edublogs Magazine. I had a short humorous post about a broken copy machine and my frustration. I added a few touches here and there and had my guest post for the online mag.
Today the K12 education world has tons of experts analyzing and measuring infinite nuisances. There are plenty of learning theories old and new. Students face a raft of assessments to supposedly measure what they have learned or are capable of learning. Yet, every school day the fact remains, there is a teacher in a classroom - doing the trench work.
Project Based Learning (PBL) provides opportunities for students to collaborate on specific tasks to resolve one or more challenges. The effort is driven by asking questions that feed the investigative processes where students do some level of research to collect data and then draw conclusions by summarizing what they found.
Despite calls that the Scottish education system has slipped in recent times, thanks to the former Musselburgh deputy head teacher, Ollie Bray, the country is at the forefront of a move within schools to incorporate more video games and the internet as a means to make students learn better. So how does edutainment work?
One of the more common complaints about differentiating instruction is the amount of prep-time that is involved. Let's face it, teachers simply don't have enough time to prepare that many different lessons for each one of their classes. However, there are many low-prep differentiated instruction activities that teachers can use that will help teachers meet the needs of all of their students.
Websites like YouTube have given us the capability of quickly and easily embedding videos into our own sites, blogs and through links. A great way to make teaching English online more creative, is to use this resource with students of any level as an online teaching tool. There are lots of different ways to deliver an online lesson using video.
There are four stages in acquiriring new words:
The learner notices the new word (with help)
The learner learns to recognize it (with help)
The learner recognizes it on his/her own
The learner can both recognize and produce it
You hear snippets of student conversation in the hallways or perhaps during lessons. You chuckle with them or to yourself. Maybe you even make a comment to them that's agreeable. No doubt - this kind of scenario strengthens the teacher-student relationship and class dynamics.
Now that the new school year is fast approaching, it's important that teachers get to know their new students, students get to know their teacher and students get to know each other. During my 30 plus years of teaching I have used several classroom activities as a fun and non-stressful way to get the school year started on the right foot.
Preschool themes are not essential for a successful preschool lesson, but they do help bring everything together and keep students engaged in learning. For that reason, preschool themes are highly encouraged to help teachers save time and energy in their planning.
Activating, developing, and building upon students' background knowledge is essential for learning to take place. How do you develop and build upon your students' experience and previous learning? Considering this question is a key part of your unit planning.
An internet scavenger hunt is a fun way to get your kids and students learning while they are surfing the Web. Here are 5 easy steps to creating your own unique online hunt about a particular theme or state standard of your choosing.
Teaching that meets the learning needs of each student requires enormous amounts of reflection and being attuned to students. These lead to adjustments in lessons, modifications in strategies, a group approach with one student or one-on-one interaction with others.
You will be faced with censorship - if not this week, this month, or this year - then sometime during your teaching career. Depending on what subject or grade level you teach, you may have to deal with an individual concern regarding something in your curriculum or you may have to address an entire semi- or formally-organized group that is opposed to a book, learning activity, or visual image you are using.
Research is difficult, whether for academic, professional, or even personal use. Period. Most people find it a very tedious task to perform. With such a vast assortment of internet resources, it can cause a headache trying to distinguish between legitimate sources and those that are bogus.
This article describes the process of using consciousness-raising activities in your classroom, and gives a rationale for their use for all levels, particular in EFL.
When implemented effectively, diagnostic tests help guide instruction and areas of classroom planning in early literacy. On the level of lesson planning, diagnostic tests can be tailored and adapted to help teachers work with struggling learners.
Here are seven instant lessons ideas that use coloring pages to extend and engage your class. This is a terrific way to settle younger students - ten minutes coloring in will calm and focus them which opens up the opportunity to discuss and explore ideas further.
Specs, specs, and specs! It's quite common for international business negotiators to use lots of numerical details. Each of these details must be precisely communicated for both sides of the negotiation to make a good working deal. It makes sense that a business English class should have at least one such activity of working with lots of technical numbers. "The Tractor Deal" certainly gives this kind of practice.
Aside from the grade level, writing lesson plans generally follows a format much like the outline below. While different teachers - and curricula - alter the format somewhat, the basics are the same.
At least a few times during the school year, you will hear yourself or other teachers talk about how the lesson for your English language learners didn't go well. For ESL activities to be largely successful, a teacher needs to find ways to motivate the students since some students may not love learning English as much as you enjoy teaching it.
This guide is not meant to be the one and only way to develop a lesson plan; however, it is going to provide you with at least some good methods to start with. A general overview highlights the key points of creating a useful and working lesson plan.
One of my favourite parts of a vocal or instrumental music class usually happens in the first five minutes. Teaching time allotted for music is often at a premium, so whether the students are coming into your room on rotary or just changing over from another subject in the classroom, getting their attention quickly is important.
There are many ways to group students when you're preparing a group activity. Different types of groupings have different benefit sand challenges, so the type you choose depends on various factors. In some cases it might be suitable to allow pupils to pick their own groups but generally it will be up to the teacher to decide which groupings work best for the class and for particular projects.
Conducting a programme to develop the self esteem of children in a class at school is something teachers are often asked to do. Usually it is targeted at one or two particular children who seem to struggle with low self worth and a lot of negative thinking about themselves and teachers are asked to try to change this about the children.
Free character education lesson plans are the subject of much wishing by educators. It reminds me of the idiom: "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride." First recorded about 1628 in a collection of Scottish proverbs, that idiom suggests that if we could have what we want simply by wishing, our lives would be easy. It suggests, too, that wishing is useless; we are apt to get much better results with action.
Select an activity that can effectively achieve the desired learning level. To assist the SMEs with the first factor, provide them with some suggestions regarding the range of learning activities that can be effectively used to accomplish specific learning levels.
Why do subject matter experts (SMEs) immediately latch on to lecture as their instructional method of choice? Well, first of all, lecture is still the predominant method in most higher educational settings.
Why do subject matter experts (SMEs) immediately latch on to lecture as their instructional method of choice? Well, first of all, lecture is still the predominant method in most higher educational settings. Second, since the SMEs are the recognized experts, they believe that it is their job to present information to the learners. Third...
When you're sick the last thing you'll want when you return to school is more work fixing things after the substitute covers for you. Here's a quick guide to help you make great lesson plans for your sub.
Clear aims outline what it is that you hope to achieve in the lesson. If you are being observed by a supervisor or a Trainer on a training course or at school, you will be expected to provide a clear outline of your aims in your lesson plan.
I had the best classroom management plan in the world, a foolproof lesson plan and what I thought was a good teaching strategy. Yet I was totally unprepared for what happened next. Kids Logic. For example, did you know there is more than one way to cook a hamburger?
All ESL teachers--regardless of training, experience, or competency--need a carefully drawn lesson plan in order to assist their students in attaining learning objectives, both on a daily basis as well as the long-term. Having a lesson plan is like having a complete and clear visualization of how a learning session is to take place and how students are able to grasp and retain lesson concepts.
Remember, I teach English. If you are required to cite standards for every lesson, you may have to do some adapting for standards in other subject areas.
Rules Lesson Plan
Subject Area: Language Arts
