Sunday, January 19, 2014

Planning Week 3: Planning for the Long Term (Pacing Guides)



In this blog series, we will be working towards our 2014 vision: being a highly-effective teacher. This month, we will focus on the planning aspect of being effective educators. We will look at four areas of planning:
  1. Planning each day.
  2. Planning a unit.
  3. Planning for the long term.
  4. Planning for the unexpected.

It is my belief that proper planning can make all the difference in how smoothly your school year runs. We began our journey this month by looking at our daily practices, and then continued by looking at our unit plans. Today, I'm going to cheat a little bit because the best thing you can really do to plan for the long term is to create those pacing guides. I shared my step-by-step guide to creating pacing guides back in July and I'm going to send you back there again today.

Click here for the pacing guides post and then check out the challenge below!

This week's challenge:

  • Do you have a pacing guide established for this section of the school year (this nine weeks or six weeks or however your year is broken up)? If not, give it a try!
  • What about a pacing guide for the rest of the year? Maybe try that one if you don't have one yet.
  • If you're feeling ultra adventurous (and you live in a magical world where your school schedule never changes), you could always try making a pacing guide for next year. :)


Happy teaching!