Lesson Planning On Vacation...What Am I Thinking?

Well today had been one of those productive yet I feel like I've done nothing kind of days. I started the day by cleaning out my email... the work one. 😥 Such a daunting task, considering I've neglected it all summer. Sure I've checked it for the important things (after all you can't exactly ignore your boss) but other than that it was pretty full. Oh the joys.

 

In my exciting mailbox clean up I stumbled upon the lesson plan schedule. I got very ambitious at this point and decided to work on some of my lesson plans.

(of course I had to use pretty pens)

 

Now at my school we have a rotating schedule where each teacher does 3 or 4 weeks of lessons at a time and then rest of the year you are given your lessons from the following teachers. I know what your thinking? Only 3 or 4 weeks. That's a dream! How are they able to do that? Well we just have that many preschool classes in our small school system. And yes I do mean small. Each graduating class has no more than 150 students. Being from the Detroit area that is pretty small for a district. Anyways...Its nice in many ways but it also has many disadvantages. First and for most for me its challenging because those other teachers don't know my kids, the supplies I have and my schedule. When I get a lesson plan it ends up getting a LOT of tweaking, or even being changed completely. I tend to just take the main theme and come up with my own ideas. Thankfully we don't have to turn in lesson plans but being in a GSRP (Great Start Readiness Program) I have to make sure that my lessons are at the ready for my PQA observer to view.

 

Which leads me to another issue I have with our lesson plans. In GSRP we HAVE to use the High Scope Curriculum. Which means planned two months in advance is not following the High Scope Curriculum. Two very contradicting concepts there. So like I said while it sounds like a fantastic plan over all not the biggest fan. Plus I really just like writing my own. I know my kids. I know what I have in the classroom to work with. Heading into only my second year in a brand new classroom (third year teaching) that was started from scratch means I really don't have much at all. Tough to do a lesson when you don't have the supplies saved up over the years.

 

But I'm working on my collection. Slowly but I am working on it. In fact found a few key items to my classroom at the Dollar General.

 

 (6x9 clip boards and mini dust pans with broom)

 

I was so excited to find the 6x9 clip boards with the kind of clip they have. The old school style clips are too hard for my little kiddo's to handle on their own and believe it or not these are not that easy to find... at least at a reasonable price. And the mini dust pans with broom are a steal! I seriously spent 7$ last year on a set that they broke in about a month. Mind you it had a longer handle but still...only one month!! A bit expensive you have it break and have to use it like the ones above.

 

Oh well, lesson learned. 1$ dust pans are the way to go. And I bought two one of each table. I like making my kiddo's accountable for their actions at all times. This includes breakfast, lunch and snack. All of which are eaten in the classroom.

 

Any Dollar Store finds you'd like to share? I'd love to hear what else is hiding on those shelves that I've yet to find.

 

~Katie