A change, and a good lesson plan format.

It is hard to think that a few days have gone by since Wednesday. I was in absolute tears then, and more than completly under control now.

I spent a majority of this week at a dead run. I've been cleaning, organizing and other such activities as much as possible. I've had parents in and students working hard.

So far I've fixed the following problems:

• Students being able to see. (I went and retrieved an old transparency projector from the library)
• Having something to project onto. I put up news print on the wall. Not as good as white paper, but better than absolutly nothing at all.
• The above fixes a lot of my complaints about the white boards - though sadly, it means that my lights are off quite a bit.
• Girls Bathroom - seems like if you scare enough of them, you get quieter bathrooms. Interesting.
• Coming Home Too Late- Yesterday, I just left. Just said, "Tomorrow is planned, I'm done."
• Meetings Before and After School- Being 100% ready for a meeting helps it go smoothly and quickly. Very nice actually.

I also have the best team in the world. A co-teacher of mine gave me a solution to my too-big-of-desks. Apparently, she hates the small desks with the lift tops. I hate my large desks. Sadly, my classroom is about 3'-4' smaller than all of theirs, so I do not have the luxury of many of the things they have. If I could get smaller desks I would be so happy! The kids might be sad to lose some of their work space, but I would SING!

Since I feel like I ought to do more than ramble:
A teaching suggestion.

This is a format that my district (Madison Elementary School District #38) has set up for their lesson plans.

Subject:
Standards:
Lesson Objective: What are the students to be able to do by the end of the lesson?
Sub-Objective: What steps are you as a teacher going to take so that they meet that objective?
Aligned Activity: What are the kids going to do after you've taught them something to meet that objective?
(more as needed)
Assessment: How are you going to know if they learned it?
Differentiation: What special quirks do you need to make so that your students will be successful?

More than any other template this really makes me think about how I am going to teach my students the lesson. I love it. It takes some time, but I use it all the time now.