Here are five suggestions of things to do today from Jim Smith, the author of excellent teaching strategy books. You must check out his ‘Lazy Teacher Website‘ for these excellent books and other resources.
These suggestions are related to teaching. Please feel free to comment on them.
1) Remind yourself of all the successes you have had in the classroom last year
2) Remind yourself of all the times you felt ‘this isn’t good for learning’ so you don’t repeat the same mistakes
3) Challenge yourself to see how many different learning ideas can be generated from one single great resource
4) Plan a topic based on the three key questions to the class – ‘What do you know?, What do you want to know?, How are you going to find out’ – there you go, that’s some lessons planned already!
5) Make a pledge to ban the phrase, ‘If you are stuck, put your hand up and I will come and help you!’
If you would like to contribute your suggestions then please e-mail David on 5thingstodotoday@gmail.com.
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Thanks for these suggestions and the link. Jim Smith’s book looks interesting, but I can figure out his philosophy from looking at the cover! This is basically to give students a problem to solve together (in groups) instead of just “teaching” it to them. They will learn it better if they are engaged in the process and develop critical thinking skills.
I would add one more: Work with your grade-level (or same subject) colleagues in co-planning. It will save you a lot of time and aggravation and everyone works together!!