EVERYONE NEEDS A PLAN
Whether it’s planning for the day, planning for a trip, planning a budget, or planning a meal, we need to plan.
Starting a new school year is no different. It’s no mistake that we begin the year with Student Learning Plans. SLPs give us a starting point for planning our year.
STEP ONE: RESOURCES
This year, I’m teaching two new courses in my part-time grade seven classes. Starting with a solid curriculum and a good set of resources is the critical first step.
STEP TWO: YEAR PLAN
My next step is to pull out a calendar. On it I mark all of the holidays, trips and the date that I’m hoping to finish everything. I break my year down by term and start to fit my units into those terms. For example: Science, three terms and three units, simple one unit per term.
STEP THREE: UNIT PLANS
Once the overview is done, it’s now time to break down the units so that they fit into the term timeline. There will be lessons that you will want to budget more time for and others that you choose to skip altogether. The goal is to get them to all fit inside the timeline so that things are completed. PLANNING FOR ONLINE COURSES
If your child has signed up for an online course you still need to do some planning.
My experience from the last two years is that students start strong and complete a lot the first two months. Then something happens…
I’m not sure if it’s that they feel like they are ahead of the game, or they get distracted, or the original excitement wears off and students begin to fall behind.
If you’re looking at a ten-month school year, September through June, then online students should be completing 10% per month.
That equates to 30% complete at first term, and 60-70% complete by second report card.
If it’s Christmas and your child only has 18% of the course completed then things NEED to be addressed.
Here is a link for a wonderful planning tool. Thank you Brenda Unruh.
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