Planning the Day - Research Paper Example

When and where do you plan your day?

I plan my day immediately after the students leave each day.  I have the success and setbacks of the day still fresh in my mind at this point.  I can see clearly what must be done and what plans need to be altered.  I usually take fifteen minutes to do this.  I put notes up on the board for the following day at this time and block out questions and objectives for the lesson that is to be taught the following day.

When and where do you do lesson planning?

Lesson planning is done in a block of time during the day.  I have a planning period and I use it for this purpose.  I close my door and turn off the classroom lights.  This gives the appearance that I am not in my room.  I love my colleagues, but they often distract me with gossip and stories about their personal lives.  I do not want to visit during my planning period.  Each day I try to make concrete lesson plans for the next several days.  I then review these plans and make adjustments at the end of each day.

When and where do you do grading?

I never take lesson planning home with me.  There is something about being in my classroom that actually helps me to visualize what will happen (or what is supposed to happen) with each lesson.  Conversely, I never grade at school.  Grading is kept for the end of the day.  I actually find it relaxing in some ways.  I will often put on soft background music and pour myself something refreshing to drink.  Scoring writing does take more of my concentration.  I usually will sit in my kitchen in silence to do this sort of grading.  Everything else is done at a lap desk curled up on the couch.  Grading is usually the last chore I do before going to bed.

When and where do you save your documents?

I same all of my documents directly to the hard drive of my computer.  I rarely back them up because my computer is synchronized with the servers at school each day.  I probably should have my own personal backup on a thumb drive of some sort.  This would be a good practice because the tech personnel at my school are not really all that good a retrieving lost information.  I know some teachers that have lost hundreds of documents and have never gotten them back because a server malfunctioned.  I think I’ll start using a thumb drive tomorrow.

After viewing the video and reading the documents, I can see that I have good time management skills but there is room for improvement.  I have a very good schedule for accomplishing all of the tasks required of a teacher, but I sometimes lack focus on those tasks.  I do not group tasks together very well.  For example, I answer e-mails as they arrive in my mailbox all day long.  This is not a good practice because it distracts me from teaching and is not an efficient use of time.  I am going to do all of my calling and e-mails during the first fifteen minutes of my planning period from now on.