My mentor teacher and her collaborator for a technology unit had come together to re-plan their unit because of a large number of snow days/half days. I didn't have much input into these because I was just observing. Knowing full well I will be planning my own lessons in the future I thought it a good idea to observe how teachers go about adjusting to different classrooms to meet their goals for a unit. The key I took away from this observation is that the size of the classroom along with the mentality of the class greatly affect the time it takes to teach a lesson and then let the students explore that lesson. There are three different sections of this class, each one different from the last.
One class is very large and the students can be unfocused and it requires a bit of maneuvering to answer questions and help students to learn. The second class is smaller but relatively well mannered and don’t fall off track so often. The third is a small class where there is little to no issue. Each class is about at the same point in the lesson but the smaller ones are a bit more ahead or in a more comfortable position.
When thinking about reworking the schedule for the lesson it seems best to compare what you original set up as the schedule to what has been accomplished and what needs to be accomplished. This let’s you see how long it took for certain activities. Once you have an idea of how long it took to do something like writing a reflection you can plan ahead to include that time in the new schedule.
I may not have had a huge part in the process but it was a good observation to reflect upon because it is an important part about teaching. You have to take the time to reflect on a lesson and see if the students are on track to meet the goals of the lesson. If they aren’t you need to adjust and move things around to meet those goals. It’s also a very good idea to have extra days where nothing is planned because you never know if there will be a snow day or early release because of bad weather.
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