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Re: Immediate help (I hope)
Posted by marjoryt on 9/02/08
About 3/4 of us handle this many preps or have done so in the
past. Here are my recommendations:
1) This year, you are going to teach to the book whenever
possible. Try, try, try to avoid re-inventing the wheel - just
teach to the book, in its order. Yes, that means using the
textbook's tests and teacher materials whenever possible.
2) Ask the principal if there are ANY lesson plan books
available from former teachers for the courses. These are
invaluable resources, as it will give you a firm idea of order
of units, length of time, sample writing assignments and tests,
activities.
3) Get the state department of education objectives for each
course - those will be your objectives. Match these to the
textbook - you will be inventing activities and tests ONLY to
objectives NOT in the textbook.
4) Two "evaluations" per week. One of those should be "instant
grade" - a Scantron test, or a 10-item quiz, or something
recited in class, or an instant "performance" item. This
should be something you do NOT take home. The other evaluation
for your writing class MUST be writing, and you can vary the
length of it according to your workload - anything from a
paragraph to a 3 page essay. For your literature classes, you
should alternative between "test" (with essay question)
and "essa" (again, vary the length). Homework for all classes -
reading (possibly with something the students exchanging
papers and check in class).
5) Set up one day/evening to grade papers (those essays). Do
NOTHING but grade. I personally like getting those papers on
Friday, then grading on Friday night, leaving my weekend
open). Return on Monday (students can correct them as Monday
homework, if you wish).
6) Set up 1 full day or 2 evenings for lesson planning. Get
your materials ready: textbook and instructor materials,
calendar, Bloom's Taxonomy printout, state objectives, lesson
plan form. Set a timer and divide up the time, then focus only
on one course for that period. I like Tuesday night for this.
7) Set up your lesson plan as a temmplate in word processing.
You can copy and paste to save time.
8) Use a gradebook software program (it will save you lots of
time at the end of the semester).
9) Make your tests easy to grade (put blocks on the right side
of the page for the answers), (make the questions worth whole
numbers for easy grading).
10) Set up a portable grading bag, and take some papers with
you. I like to grade papers while I'm waiting for something to
start, such as a meeting or a ball game.
I hope this helps.
Posts on this thread, including this one
- Completely Overwhelmed, 9/01/08, by Lisa.
- Re: Completely Overwhelmed, 9/01/08, by Robert F.
- Re: Completely Overwhelmed, 9/01/08, by Lauren.
- Re: Immediate help (I hope), 9/02/08, by marjoryt.
- Re: Completely Overwhelmed (HELP IS HERE), 9/04/08, by Raftery.
- Re: Completely Overwhelmed (HELP IS HERE), 9/12/08, by kookoo.
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