Last year I began thinking about how, after so many years of teaching, I should have the beginning of the year figured out. But I don’t. Each year I dig around looking for a file that I call “first week of school” or something. It has informational letters to parents, and it also has beginning of the year activities that I can do with kids while I’m getting to know them.
I decided to organize these files in a wiki that I installed on a subdomain next to this blog. I’ve been using this wiki as a personal data organizer, and last year I began keeping my lesson plans in it.
The way I set up the lesson plan scheme turned out to be not such a good idea, since I found out that Google indexed the pages and people were searching the site for lesson ideas that I either had only in my head, or were found in the teacher’s manual. The lesson plans were quite abbreviated, So I used one of the wonderful features that comes with the software, and limited access for those pages to me, only.
As the year went along I began to experiment with the style sheet, and I made a template page for the lesson plans that allowed me to use a CSS float class to keep two-column notes on what I was doing each week. In other words, one side of the page has plans, the other side has results. By the end of the year I had it mostly worked out, but there still wasn’t much of any substance there for me to come back to.
With the CSS style sheet, I’ve disabled comments and most of the wiki navigation features, except categories, so that I can frustrate anyone who wants to spam the site. It isn’t hard to find things if you know where to look, and anyone who reads this may want to check it out.
This year I returned to the same old problem of finding the things that I need for the first week of school. I’ve decided to include more lesson content in the site and hyperlink to it from my planning page. At this point, I have my last week’s plans accessible.
Items of interest that I have put in the wiki this week include:
- an article on Vocabulary lesson design;
- A great little vocabulary test for kids in grades 3-12, to give teachers a rough idea of their students’ reading ability;
- A tangram problem solving challenge that is fun all year, but especially good in the beginning for teaching about creative persistence with problems;
- A spelling inventory that uses feature analysis to give teachers of upper primary-level students a rationale for individualizing spelling assignments. There’s a reference cited for teachers of older students, who want to learn more about it.
A lot of ed bloggers have written about using wikis in the classroom. I thought I’d throw this idea out as an alternative suggestion. Wikis are not just for collaboration. They make good personal notebooks as well, and the information is shareable.
I’ll continue adding to the wiki this year and hyperlinking my planning pages. Maybe next year I won’t have to write so many lesson plans. I can’t find anything in my ancient metal file cabinet, anyway. I’m giving this a try.
Updated: For reasons I cannot discern, and won’t spend time worrying about, links to the wiki items listed above didn’t display in Bloglines, though they’re active on the page itself.
6 Comments
Doug,
Thanks for this. I always learn from seeing how others teach – and I very much like that you’ve included reflection space in your plans. I try to do this — and usually fail. Any secrets to your process?
Bud, thanks for the feedback. The process was one of the shortcomings of my effort last year, because I didn’t have one. This last week, as I was reflecting on the many procedures that have to be taught before the group coalesces and operates smoothly, I wrote the important stuff on the board, and on a scrap of paper I had in my pocket. During the odd moment at lunch or when I could quickly make an edit to the wiki page, I’d add a note. If I wait until the end of the day, all the good stuff is lost. I don’t know if that’s a process, but that’s how it worked the last few days.
I think this is great. It’s so important to see what other teachers think and do. Unfortunately, in our profession many of us don’t want to share specifics of what we do because we then run the risk of receiving criticism. I’ve posted a link to this blog on my own blog.
Andrew Pass
http://www.Pass-Ed.com/blogger.html
Doug, thank you so much for laying your world out there for everyone! This is, in my opinion, a huge offering. For a teacher to essentially lay open his planbook for the world to examine is, well,… I really can’t come up with a powerful enough adjective.
Two things strike me – first, your openness, your willingness to share is just plain remarkable, no matter what the century – congratulations and many thanks to you! Second, the fact that this is even a possibility fills me with wonder and amazement. I want to follow suit, but… I lack the confidence and organization to do so. We’ll see how the year goes…
From a fellow classroom teacher, about to start another year with the little ones – thank you! – Mark
The disorganization that’s found in the junction between planning and execution is critical for people to understand. My confidence in opening the book for others to see comes from my belief that my situation is no different from anyone else’s, and that there’s a legitimate distinction to be made between planning and execution. Things come up. I can’t precisely predict what will happen on a given day. Kids get bee stings. They throw up. They belch and make everyone laugh. They fight with each other and blow my whole prep trying to track down the counselor or a parent. A plan is only an estimate of what might be possible.
One of my colleagues once commented that I “teach to the whites of their eyes.” She was right. I’ll abandon a lesson plan at any point that I see promising ground to cover in a direction I hadn’t originally intended on going. I work like a bush pilot, flying by line of sight.
The wiki is a great tool for thinking because it’s so mutable.
Doug, I’m floundering in swamp of wiki software at the moment, trying to work out which one will be best for the teaching and learning wiki I’m planning to set up. I know you’ve customised the CSS, but what’s your base installation?
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[...] In the last couple of days I’ve been in contact with Doug Noon of the Borderland blog who recently set up truenorth.northernattitude.org where he shares both his planning and the outcomes of this planning side-by-side. I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who is using wikis in secondary education, either amongst teachers or with students. What tips, experiences and advice can you share with us? Bookmark:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
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