CHOCOLATE-FUELLED THOUGHTS
Questions for Teachers to Consider When Planning
In between organizing my house, running kids to and fro, and writing my own projects, I’m taking lots of time this summer for “teacher in-service.” Curriculum is already pouring in for next year and I’m also prepping to teach a new subject at our local co-op. Hence, Mama needs some education.
We don’t become non-teachers in the summer. We take the time to think about things.
As I’ve studied, I wanted to condense my notes into something I could refer to quickly as I plan each subject we’ll be covering next year. Maybe you’re in the same boat and want to look over my shoulder? (Keep in mind, these aren’t my ideas, just a condensed version of the wisdom of others.)
First, understand where your students are coming from. What did they learn in previous years that prepared them for this year? What might I need to teach them in the beginning in order for them to feel ready for my class?
Who our students are becoming is much more important than what they can do.
Second, understand where your students are going. What is the scope and sequence of the subject you are teaching? What can you help make them ready for in their future studies? How can you lay a strong foundation that other teachers or future studies can build on?
Finally, consider your mission statement. This seems like a really broad concept for planning, but I think it’s important to keep at the forefront of my mind as I evaluate math programs or the syllabus for my lit students. We’ve recently simplified our family’s school mission statement and if I write it at the top of every page in every teacher’s manual, maybe it will help me keep my eyes on the Real Prize next year.
One thing I learned in my teaching last year was that, while my goals for my co-op class were good, I actually had two large objectives and only 50 minutes a week in which to achieve both of those. The consequence of having more objectives than I had time meant that, while we made progress, the progress wasn’t as great as I had hoped for my students in a single year. I felt like we barely scratched the surface. I gave them the tools to carry on themselves, but whether they will use them is up to them. I would have liked to walk beside them a little longer! In hindsight, I would have been better served teaching two separate classes for each objective (in a perfect world, obviously. I think my head would have exploded in reality!) Hence, picking a reasonable objective is important, too.
This leads me to a set of questions I think will really help me hone in on my objectives for my class next year.
Three Questions to Ask When Planning:
- What should my students love more at the end of this course? (This one hits me right between the eyes.)
- What should they be able to do? What skills will they develop?
- What concepts will they learn? What should they know?
We need to give students something higher to love than the grade. If the grade is the highest pleasure, then we have failed.
Once you’ve answered these, dive a little deeper. Make a list of 10 facts/essential ideas your students should carry with them when they leave. Not 50 terms, not 20 key dates, just 10 Essentials. Too many facts work against the idea of a student learning to love a subject. Fewer dates/facts will invite deeper understanding and let the students draw the connections themselves. One teacher suggests writing a catechism of these ten things for students to read/recite together at the beginning of each class. This bit of chanting puts the ideas in their mind and frees them from the temptation to cram, pass, and forget. In addition, it helps a teacher hone their focus and their plans and determine what the most important things are.
As you plan activities, ask:
- Does this activity equip my students?
- Does this activity inspire my students?
Activities should do one or the other, but the best is when they work in tandem to complement each other. For example, I practice piano more when I’ve just attended a beautiful concert. The inspiration is the concert, the equipping is knowing what scales I should practice and how. From my classroom last year, our study and analysis of a unique slam poem gave the students the tools to create their own slam poem, and the exciting performance we watched inspired them to jump in and give it a try. (The results were fantastic, by the way.)
Since I need this in a shorthand where I can remind myself often, here’s all the info condensed to be printed & stuck in my planner:
Consider your students.
Remember your MISSION.
What should students LOVE, DO, and KNOW at the end of the year?
Pick Just Ten Essentials.
Do my activities EQUIP and INSPIRE my students?
Happy planning, y’all!
*Most of these quotes and ideas are from a class on ClassicalU entitled “Essentials of Teaching” by Robyn Burlew with Christopher Perrin. It’s possible I’ve added some random ideas from one of the myriad of books I’m reading, but most of the credit goes to this particular class. I can’t recommend ClassicalU enough for teacher training.
Six Little Words
She stood before me holding poster board wrapped around her body, hoping I wouldn’t notice the unfinished blank spaces, her eyes wide and her chin high. She stared at some point behind my head, anxious not to meet my eyes. Her siblings raced out the door to load into the van for co-op. I repeated my question, “Why isn’t your history project finished?”
A long pause.
Then, slowly, haltingly, “I don’t… know.”
I raised one eyebrow and willed myself to keep smiling gently. “Why don’t you know?”
“I didn’t… know… what to write.”
“Do you remember when I helped you with it and we talked about the picture to color and what to say? When I left you, you were working on it. What happened?”
“I forgot the words.”
“Oh, I understand. I forget things a lot. Did you come and ask me for help and I didn’t answer?”
Longest pause. Here was the rub.
“No.”
Every word with this child is carefully thought out, weighed and measured. One must wait in patience, even when my teeth are ground to nubs in my mouth and the inside of my cheeks are bitten to pieces. I must wait… and smile. Gentle yet persistent. She will seek me out. She’s learning to. But it is a hard lesson to learn, to ask for help. She wants to do it herself, to be right on her own, to pretend that nothing is hard for her.
“Mommy?”
“Yes.”
She handed me a pen. “Will you help me write it?”
Six little words, but they were hard fought. I smiled as if this wasn’t the end of a long battle and settled down in front of the poster board. “Absolutely. What do you want to say about this picture?” I pointed.
She took a deep breath and rattled off fact after fact, proof that her struggle had never been in the understanding, but only in the asking.
Our time to save this little poster board was short, but when I finished writing and handed her the pen, I reached my arms open wide and welcomed her into a strong embrace. “I’m glad you asked me for help. I will always help you when you need it. Did you think I wouldn’t?”
She shook her head as she nuzzled her nose into my belly button. “I know you will.”
I waited, thoughtful, before I asked, “So why won’t you ask Mama for help?”
Now here came the wail, her own confusion at her behavior apparent. “I don’t knowwwwww.”
We hugged it out and she left me a few minutes later, only slightly late to co-op, with a smile on her face and a little skip in her step. I took a deep breath and shook my head. My prideful, perfectionist, independent little girl… why won’t she ask for help??
It was only later that I saw the mirror being held to my face that day. I had a secret wish, one I’d never even dared utter aloud because it seemed impossible. I’d only ever dared even speak it once to my husband, in a sort of, “maybe someday…” sort of voice. Because – only by a miracle would this desire come true. It was unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky, not at all practical.
As I waited and wished and struggled with this desire, it took me ages to whisper it to God, even though He knew it before I ever knew myself. And when I did begin to pray for it, I told God exactly how I wanted him to answer this prayer. It was the only answer I saw, the only way that would be possible, so surely He should do it my way, right?
I wonder if God bites his cheeks or grinds his teeth to nubs when his babies are willful and their vision is small?
A few days after the poster board incident, despite my pride, despite my resistance to seeking help, God proved Himself kind and oh-so-good. He answered my secret prayer in a totally unexpected way. And it was so good, y’all, I had to lie down on the floor just to take it all in. It wasn’t at all the way I had told Him to do it (Oh, my hubris!!). But it was a sweet gift.
The next Sunday, I stood in church and worshipped in gratefulness, humbled at how He had heard my tiny desire, the secret whisper, and, He didn’t have to, but He’d shown me kindness. A little hand reached into mine while we sang and I remembered her struggle to ask for help.
Then the mirror reflected back to me how our patterns were so similar. My trouble had not been in the understanding of God’s faithfulness. No, I have stones of remembrance in my own life and an entire Bible full of monuments to how God provides. Just like my daughter, my trouble was in the asking, in admitting I couldn’t fix something on my own. Even when I asked, I dared to tell God how he ought to fix it, as if my human solution was the only way.
Eugene Peterson paraphrases Romans 8:26-27 this way:
If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. [The Holy Spirit] does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God
So many times, I’m halfway through wrestling a problem to the ground before I remember to pray. I am too dependent on my own plan to fix things, my own solution strategy, too determined to pull myself up by the bootstraps and handle this on my own. Often, it is only when I am brought low, defeated, that I remember to look up, to beg for help.
I only wish I didn’t have to keep learning the hard way, hiding my half-empty poster board in front of a Holy Father who sees and knows what I need long before I ever stop striving enough to figure it out.
Yesterday, our pastor encouraged us to cultivate a healthy consciousness of the reality of the Holy Spirit. Just like I am always on call to answer my daughter’s requests for help, the Spirit is ready, willing, and way better at fixing things than I am. And when we don’t even know what to ask for, Pastor says we can simply ask the Holy Spirit to “Please give me what I need.”
Six little words.
The privilege to speak them was hard fought, bought by Jesus on the cross, gifted to me as a recipient of grace. May I learn not to take it for granted, to ignore and stubbornly reject the opportunity to seek Actual Heavenly Guidance throughout my days. And when I forget and go haring off in my own direction, I am grateful for the mercy that is offered, the arms flung wide to receive me back into the safe and loving embrace of my Father.