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As far as unit plans mentioned earlier, my district pretty much has each one planned out with plenty of suggested lessons for each. It's nice. The Pacing Guides are very detailed and even have things such as suggested mentor texts, links to resources the district has developed such as foldables and exit tickets/assessments, links to videos, etc. I can't begin to explain how helpful they are.
The only time I ever experienced it was in my second year of teaching. In that high school teachers in their first 3 years had to submit a week's worth of lesson plans each quarter (so that was 4 weeks out of a year), and they were actually graded with a letter grade by the principal and department chair. The point was to see if young teachers had the ability to do lesson plans. However, that particular principal was a true dictator, and in a reality it was his way of being in control; as a former PE teacher, I doubt he ever wrote a lesson plan when he was teaching back in the 1950s and 1960s.
That's not easy at all. There are like 10 million things that will come for American History, and they will be at various levels for all different ages and types of students. You'd have to first sort through and find something appropriate for your own group. And then you need to find something that matches your own district's standards and whatever is in chapter 1 of your book. Even harder. Even if you sort through all of that and find some appropriate lessons, the chances of them actually being GOOD lessons, that you can actually understand, are pretty slim. If you just find a bunch of worksheets and think that is OK, then you're not really doing your job and certainly not doing it well. A teachers needs to be able to create a lesson on his or her own. That's one of the most basic parts of the job, and anyone who can't do it shouldn't be teaching in the first place.
That's not easy at all. There are like 10 million things that will come for American History, and they will be at various levels for all different ages and types of students. You'd have to first sort through and find something appropriate for your own group. And then you need to find something that matches your own district's standards and whatever is in chapter 1 of your book. Even harder. Even if you sort through all of that and find some appropriate lessons, the chances of them actually being GOOD lessons, that you can actually understand, are pretty slim. If you just find a bunch of worksheets and think that is OK, then you're not really doing your job and certainly not doing it well. A teachers needs to be able to create a lesson on his or her own. That's one of the most basic parts of the job, and anyone who can't do it shouldn't be teaching in the first place.
I am glad someone else posted about this, too.
And if I may expand just a bit. When my district (through me) hired a teacher, it was to teach our school district's curriculum based on the state curriculum. A lesson off the internet might not be doing that at all.
That's not easy at all. There are like 10 million things that will come for American History, and they will be at various levels for all different ages and types of students. You'd have to first sort through and find something appropriate for your own group. And then you need to find something that matches your own district's standards and whatever is in chapter 1 of your book. Even harder. Even if you sort through all of that and find some appropriate lessons, the chances of them actually being GOOD lessons, that you can actually understand, are pretty slim. If you just find a bunch of worksheets and think that is OK, then you're not really doing your job and certainly not doing it well. A teachers needs to be able to create a lesson on his or her own. That's one of the most basic parts of the job, and anyone who can't do it shouldn't be teaching in the first place.
I do all those things you describe and I don't really find it that difficult. It's really the bread and butter of what I do so it makes sense that I might enjoy it. A great lesson is a ton of fun to plan and teach
but you had better bet that I only occasionally try to reinvent the wheel.
And if I may expand just a bit. When my district (through me) hired a teacher, it was to teach our school district's curriculum based on the state curriculum. A lesson off the internet might not be doing that at all.
If you understand the content and standards it should not be hard to determine the quality of a lesson that you find. It usually takes one plan period to plan two preps for me.
At my old district, you had to have lesson plans for everything. Although there was no required format, you had to include the required amount of information-besides the usual stuff, objectives and so forth, you needed all of the common core standards for that lesson, whole group lesson, small group lesson (all with complete objectives, assessments, etc.), materials, next-steps, and differentiated instruction naming any student with specific issues and all of the above for that student (objectives, evaluation, next-steps, individualized lesson). It took hours and hours.
At my old district, you had to have lesson plans for everything. Although there was no required format, you had to include the required amount of information-besides the usual stuff, objectives and so forth, you needed all of the common core standards for that lesson, whole group lesson, small group lesson (all with complete objectives, assessments, etc.), materials, next-steps, and differentiated instruction naming any student with specific issues and all of the above for that student (objectives, evaluation, next-steps, individualized lesson). It took hours and hours.
That sounds like hell. I can just imagine how much time is spent checking boxes instead of creating actual engaging lessons.
Most district require lesson plans be turned in every week. More importantly, OP, with ASD, is not capable of just winging it. She needs more structure than a normally functioning person, not less.
Perhaps it is state by state as I know it actually law in Nj.
Also, the most common teacher evaluation systems require lesson plans for the observed lesson. I wonder if people just make them for that day?
As far as unit plans mentioned earlier, my district pretty much has each one planned out with plenty of suggested lessons for each. It's nice. The Pacing Guides are very detailed and even have things such as suggested mentor texts, links to resources the district has developed such as foldables and exit tickets/assessments, links to videos, etc. I can't begin to explain how helpful they are.
That's kind of cool. We have to write our own lesson plans top to bottom in my district.
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