Chapter Twelve

Planning is an interesting concept. As many teachers who have been in the field for some time will tell you, there is no time to make lesson plans in the detail which is required during the education process of becoming a teacher. Many of the teaching methods which I admire have little direct pre-planning and more of an exploration style where the lessons follow the route set forth by the student’s interests and what they are currently fascinated by. This cannot be pre planned but the teacher must be open to it and have an iron clad grasp of the curriculum to have both sides meet. Education is more meaningful when it is relevant to one’s life so (as an example) having resources available to the students who love motorcycles will make it more meaningful for them. This in particular could be done for learning to read and write, science in the objects in motion cluster and in math. With all of that being said, a teacher need to have a game plan and an idea of what they could teach for each area to start off with and work with if the students are not leading him/her in a viable direction. My planning would be a combination of the two approaches. I will have a ‘game plan’ but be open to (and looking for) ways to make learning personal for the students and incorporate as many of their interests into the lessons as possible.