If you’ve just started out in your new teaching position, you may find that your lesson planning routine is extremely timely and consuming a lot of your downtime.
Here at Red Box, we understand that candidates have varying lessons planning methods, some of which work more effectively than others. We believe that good teaching comes from how well you deliver your lesson and not how long you spend on it.
We have listed our 5 top tips for teachers who find they are spending too much time on lesson planning. Follow these steps and you could find yourself with hours of extra free time per week to spend however you wish!
- Make Yourself a Clear Weekly Schedule
Organisation is key when it comes to teaching, and the same goes for lesson planning. If you’ve recently started a new primary or secondary teaching role, you may think it’s a waste of time setting aside an hour or so to create a detailed schedule, but in the long run it can be extremely beneficial.
With a detailed weekly schedule, you can plan out your entire week, working out exactly when lesson planning can be completed and any gaps in between tasks, allowing you to visualise your free time.
Having everything accounted for means you can easily reschedule tasks without anything being forgotten, which will make it easier for you to socialise without jeopardising your workload.
- Work Backwards Through Your Lesson Planning
When you have scheduled lesson planning into your routine, it is time to work out an affective method to ensure you are making best use of this time frame to reduce your chances of running into your downtime.
As teaching recruiters, we have worked with many successful candidates over the years, we have found that teachers that start at the lesson’s goal and work backwards from there don’t waste time trying to work out what the purpose of their lesson is.
Start at your lesson’s destination (the finish line) and design your lesson around reaching that point.
- Reuse and Repurpose Old Lesson Plans
It is likely that you have many old lesson plans. Whether you have taught them before in previous teaching roles or they were created during university, instead of starting new plans from scratch, make use of your previous work and repurpose old lesson plans.
Spring cleaning your old PowerPoints will make sure that all of your lesson content is up to date and personalised to your new class and school, but also save you a lot of time.
- Make Use of Interactive Resources
Whether its educational games, quizzes or videos, it goes without saying that these elements are great for engaging your class.
You may think you’ll be a ‘better teacher’ if you created these resources from scratch (which if you have time to, great!). However, if saving yourself time is one of your main objectives, there are many interactive elements out there available for you to use. If you need help finding any of these resources, contact World Class Teachers to point you in the right direction.
- Ask for Class Feedback
The best way to find out whether your lesson plans are being well-received is to simply ask, especially if you are in a new teaching position with a new class.
Whether you conduct a poll or handout a feedback form, you’ll be able to see which activities your pupils are enjoying most and keep the results in mind when you come to planning future lessons.
This will allow you to focus on lesson plans that you know are going to spark the students’ interests, meaning you won’t need to spend time on ones that won’t do as well.
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Choose Red Box teaching agency in London to help you find your next teaching job. Call 01932 247000 or use the online contact form to find out more.
