All Star Planning Podcast for Teachers: Recent Episodes
Kelsey Reavy
The All Star Planning Podcast for teachers is hosted by Kelsey Reavy gives all of my tips for writing your curriculum and lesson plans. Using the All Star Planning method you can get a better handle on your lessons plans so aren't writing them as your students are walking in your classroom door.
What you teach likely doesn't actually matter. I mean, sure, some of what we teach matters, but most of it can be found within a few minutes and a Google search.
Our job isn't to teach content anymore. It's to use our content to get the kids to build skills. Skills like: analyzing data, reading subtext, literacy, problem solving, spatial thinking and so much more!
There's really no point in lying to the kids, and you'll get a lot more respect if you're straight up and honest with them.
Check out my "Why Are We Learning This?" posters to download for yourself or use as inspiration to create your own.
There are so many reasons you should be taking the notes that your students do.
It is 100% worth the amount of time it takes you, I pinky promise.
It will make your lesson plans easier, both this year and next year. Listen to this episode and learn how!
For more on saving time on your lesson plans, check out episode 49 or the All Star Planning Masterclass!
Parents are an asset! Make sure you are using them! There are so many ways to stay in contact with parents, and a bunch of reasons to do so!
In this episode I will also share my tips for what to say and do while and after talking with parents and families.
Learn more about Parent Teacher Conferences in episode 38!
Grab the positive postcards!
Check out the All Star Planning Masterclass!
Getting these few things in place has definitely helped me to get out the door each day right around the bell. For years I've been getting out within 30 minutes of the bell, usually sooner. And I don't work at all at home.
Everything that gets done needs to get done on the clock - and that's my goal for you too.
Implementing these few things really helped me to get ahead of my plans and STAY ahead of my plans each week.
And even though I've been at this for five years, each year I get something new added to my plate (and I'm sure it's the same for you!)
Listen to episode 44 for more information on my favorite project management system, To Do Ist.
Check out the All Star Planning Masterclass.
Getting to know your students makes all the difference in your classroom and in your planning. Here's how I recommend you get to know your students.
- Let the kids get to know you.
- Get to know you questions. Grab your copy of my 180 questions of the day.
- Take an interest in what the kids do.
- Attend school events.
- Get to know the families and the community.
Reasons getting to know the students is beneficial to you:
- It's not miserable.
- Parent contact is easier.
- Kids care about you and will let you be a human being.
- Kids root for you.
- Kids appreciate what you do for them because they know it comes from the heart.
- Kids work hard (listen for more details - this is important)
- Your classroom is a happy & safe place.
- You become a person that kids trust and can go to for help.
Listen to more on my unlimited test retake policy.
Every year for my first five years of teaching have had some kind of a curveball that made me feel like a first year teacher all over again. So to help you with that (very steep) learning curve, I've collected the things I wish I had known into a list of first year teacher tips for you!
- Get the Pinterest and Instagram classroom off to do list.
- You need a solid syllabus. (Episode 57)
- You teach humans.
- Be firm but fair.
- You need a lesson planning method. (Episode 50)
- Call parents before you need to.
- Set boundaries, say no, leave on time.
- Never ever yell at kids.
- Delegate to the kids. (Episode 27)
- Take notes alongside kids. (Lesson Reflection Episode 16)
- Teaching should be fun. If it's not, there's something wrong.
Listen to the Classroom Set Up Episode!
Get my free syllabus template!
Check out the All Star Planning Masterclass.
There's no correct way to set up a classroom, but there are some things that simply aren't worth the time. Whether you're setting up for the first time or the fifth, these tips will help you to set up a FUNCTIONAL classroom.
Grab the Printable Periodic Table.
Grab the shopping list of classroom materials I recommend!
Updating your curriculum can feel like taming a beast, but it's not so bad. I promise! Check on these few things and I'm sure you'll quickly figure out what to adjust and how:
- I'm a big proponent of lesson reflection. Listen to that episode to learn more about lesson reflection.
- Don't forget to reflect on final exam data.
- Check out the End of the Year Student Survey.
- Check on the unit order.
- Check on the lesson order.
- Check on your observations.
Get the unit order planning pages.
Planning your curriculum from scratch is both a blessing and a curse. You have a lot on your plate, because you have to plan it all, but, you also have the ability to make this course exactly what you feel is right.
But planning with no input from the students and how they're doing and the adjustments that need to be made makes it tough.
I have some places you can go to get at least a starting point for your new curriculum:
- Other Teachers
- Textbooks: Table of Contents
- Free Resources from the Textbook Company
- Final Exam
- Cheap Workbook
- Teachers Pay Teachers
Check out the All Star Planning Masterclass!
If you've ever had a student like me, then you know how brutal it is to have your syllabus picked apart for loopholes for grades and policies.
Now being on the other side of the syllabus situation, I know exactly how important it is to start off the year with everyone, teacher, students and parents, having a complete understanding of what to expect during the year.
Get the free syllabus template.
Learn about the multiple lesson plan templates I have and how I use them in this episode. The templates are really how this all works. Make a specific template for each activity you use in your classroom and see how fast your lesson plans are finished.
I can get mine done in around five minutes.
Get the list of templates I recommend.
Check out the All Star Planning Masterclass.
What about those standards that need to be taught again, and again, and again. How do you deal with those?
In this episode I tell you about the two types of recurring standards and how to teach them in your school year.
Get the standards sorting pages.
Check out the All Star Planning Masterclass.
When I rearranged my units, I found that my course was actually being taught thematically. And when I really leaned into that idea, I realized that my students were learning things more easily. It was much easier for them to see the connections between each of my lessons and units. The course had a type of flow that made it predictable and easy to learn.
Grab the free thematic sorting pages.
Check out the All Star Planning Masterclass.
Uhhh, in short, no.
The standards are made for teachers. This episode is my hot take on whether or not kids need to know the standards.
Check out the All Star Planning Masterclass.
Does your unit order actually serve you and your students?
When I rearranged my units, I went from having 5 days of final exam review, to 5 WEEKS of final exam review. The sequence of my course units gave my course so much flow that my students were able to learn more efficiently.
Check out episode 6 on lesson sequencing.
Check out episode 48 on evaluating final exam data.
Get the question list and tips for unit sequencing.
Live and learn, right? These are the mistakes that I made in my early years as a teacher. I still have plenty of things I could work on, but these things were mostly ironed out when I fixed just one thing.
See the full show notes.
Check out the All Star Planning Masterclass!
Learn the true breeze over of the All Star Planning Method in this episode. Learn it in a bit more detail in the All Star Planning Masterclass.
Get the show notes here.
Learn more about how I code my lessons here.
Learn more about how I sequence my lessons here.
Teachers deserve a life. You deserve a life. You should not be working and working for hours on end. You should not be staying up all night working until the sun comes up. You deserve more.
Learn more about the All Star Planning Method in the masterclass.
One of the most important part of being a teacher is being a model for learning and growth. One of the primary ways I do that, is by using the hard data that I get back from my students. What are they learning? Where are they struggling? I can do a little of this each day and throughout the school year, but the final exam data is really like a teacher report card? How did the kids do, and what can be done better next year? Learn my test reflection tips here, and feel free to get a test reflection checklist here!
https://plan.kelseyreavy.com/testreflection
Getting the opinions of your students does a few things. First, it lets your students have their voice heard and second it gives you the exact information you need to grow as a teacher. Plus it's a lot of fun. Learn how I implement my end of the year student surveys in this episode.
Grab your free copy of my student survey here!
Every single school year I've had to move out of my classroom. It's a huge pain, but over the years I've gotten better at moving out. These are my tips for getting your classroom packed up so that you aren't pulling your hair out at back to school time.
Get a copy of the moving label for your boxes here!
Uh, yes, you should be thinking about back to school right now. Reason? If you do it now and get it over with, you can truly relax over the summer and know that your first week or so back won't be so crazy (It'll always be crazy - the goal is reduction, not elimination). So get that BTS prep going now with the tips outlined in this episode.
Want to grab the end of the year BTS prep checklist? Get it here!
Unpopular Opinions on Interactive Notebooks Blog Post
My fave wireless handheld vacuum
I've been a paper and pencil planner for all of my life, and I still use it for most things. I have found that between all of my preps, teacher responsibilities and being an adult human with responsibilities, I sometimes drop the ball and totally forget stuff. By using the app ToDoIst, I find myself much more put together, less frazzled, and feeling good about what needs to get done.
Having ToDoIst help me to prioritize my tasks, when I finally have the time to sit and get things done, I don't have to think, I get to just DO. And that's what the All Star Planning Method is really all about!
Get your list of common teacher To Dos here! Don't leave anything off your to do list!
Spiral review can be as easy or as difficult as you want it to be. In this episode I outline some of my super easy and slightly less easy ways to implement spiral review in your classroom. I like to do a little every day, but you decide what you and your students need.
Get your list of spiral review techniques here!
Sometimes the kids don't get it the first time around and you need to spend time literally reteaching. Well there's usually not enough time to dedicate a whole lesson to this topic again. In this episode, I have some strategies for you to quickly reteach, and get to the specifics of what ACTUALLY needs to be retaught.
Get your list of reteaching strategies here!
There's no luxury of time when it comes to the end of the school year and finally reviewing for your final exam or end of year test. You want to make sure your students are completely prepared, and use your time as effectively as possible. In this episode I give my tips for figuring out EXACTLY what you need to review.
Grab the test score tracker here! You'll want it for next school year.
In this episode I detail how to answer some of the most common interview questions and how I would attempt to answer them. I also drop a lot of tips for what to do BEFORE your interview.
You can get a copy of the questions YOU should ask at the interview.
Looking for a job is stressful, no matter who you are. When teachers look for a new teaching position, it often includes multiple interview with people at various levels within a school district. Showcasing who you are is very important, but the question remains "What exactly should I include?"
I have an awesome template for your portfolio that you can snag!
PTCs or parent teacher conferences were super intimidating when I first started teaching. Now that I feel pretty good about them, I wanted to share my parent teacher conference strategies for helping them to run smoothly.
Get your copy of the PTC survey for parents.
Teachers are always told to do more than worksheets, but how exactly are we supposed to do that? Especially when many of us learned on worksheets!
In this episode I outline 10 games that my students and I play in class in order to practice the things we learn. Some of these are more complex than others, but many are COMPLETELY doable.
Grab the printable game board!
Full Show Notes
I'm a messy person by nature, so trying to keep my classroom tidy has always been a struggle for me. In the early years, my prep periods including tidying up, which used up so much of my valuable time. In this episode I outline some tips I think you could use in your classroom to help keep in tidy by doing something with all that clutter in your classroom!
Related Episodes: Easy Peasy Sub Plans
Don't Grade Everything Your Students Do
Resources: Post It Pile (PIP) Template
Asking questions in your classroom is an art. I believe that the more questions you ask, the better your students are learning. In this episode I break down my questioning strategy for you to steal. In my lesson planning, I start with HOT questions (Higher Order Thinking Questions) and get my students there by asking (what feels like a million) probing questions.
Episodes Mentioned: Writing Less on Your Lesson Plans: https://youtu.be/uifeJ2RsMvk
Masterclass: https://plan.kelseyreavy.com
Teacher energy is super tough to maintain, especially these days! Teacher tired, amirite?! The space between Christmas break and Spring Break can be draining. I find myself a victim to the fewer hours of daylight more than anything else. I have a few strategies for getting your energy back as a teacher, and getting excited about work again.
Things Mentioned (affiliate links):
Exercise Bike: https://amzn.to/36tvp6V
Back Massager: https://amzn.to/2MbVxfZ
The One Thing book: https://amzn.to/36vooCF
Other Epsiodes Mentioned:
Unlimited Test Retakes: https://youtu.be/BnPCZXPSn6o
Interested in the masterclass? https://plan.kelseyreavy.com
Full Show Notes: https://kelseyreavy.com/teacher-tired/
Whether it's a field trip or a band rehearsal, sometimes we find ourselves with only a few kids sitting in our classroom. This has happened to me quite a bit, back when I taught in a school where the kids went on field trips ALL THE TIME. Now that I have quite a bit of expertise in this area, I have some tips on what to do when most of your class is absent.
Interested in the All Star Planning Introductory Masterclass? Click here.
There is no such thing as bad kids, just kids trying to figure it all out. Bad behavior in the classroom can be dealt with in a variety of ways, but I find the best way is to let my students know that I love them. This is on the whole, how I deal with classroom management in my high school classroom.
Interested in the masterclass? https://plan.kelseyreavy.com
Science Valentine's Blog Post https://kelseyreavy.com/science-valentines/
If 2020 taught us anything, I'm sure it was digital technologies and teaching, but second to that I believe is flexibility. In my early years I was so rigid and inflexible in my teaching methods and how my classroom ran. If I had a time machine, I wouldn't think that me then and me now were even the same person. I've learned to be a more flexible teacher and be more relaxed. And all I can say is that it has brought me so much happiness and calmness in the difficulty that is teaching.
In this episode I outline some of the things that I have learned to be far more flexible and relaxed with and give some tips I think could help you to also be a bit more flexible.
Find the All Star Planning Masterclass here!
Writing fair tests is so hard, in fact, I think that writing a fair test is an art. There is a lot of stress in writing a test, especially as your students are preparing for high stakes testing. I have compiled 7 tips that have helped me to make sure the tests I give my students are fair:
- No surprises!
- Too many easy or challenging questions
- Too many or too few questions
- Having multiple correct ansers
- Indirect questions that are too open-ended
- double jeopardy
- Worth too many or too few points
Check out the episode on test retakes!
Check out the free masterclass!
There is so much buzz around growth mindset in the classroom, and it can get to be really overwhelming. I love the idea of growth mindset, but I'm not down with the sometimes cheesy way that it comes off. I have 10 strategies for promoting a growth mindset culture without actually having to explicitly say so:
- Test Retakes
- Assignment Redos
- Optional Homework
- Extra Credit Opportunities
- Variety of Activity Types
- Affirmations
- Picture Books (blog post here)
- Teacher Language
- Connecting Content to Real Life
- Students Tracking Data
Check out the free masterclass here!
When I was a new teacher I was under the impression that whatever you put in place in September is what needed to happen for the rest of the school year: the planning method, behavior management, paper flow and so much more. In this episode I outline some of the things that I have successfully changed in the middle of the school year that made me and my classroom much happier.
All Star Planning Masterclass can be found here!
Stop doing everything! Your students can help you save time as a teacher. In this episode of the podcast, I talk about some of the things that I delegate to my students. My students are SO willing to help me, because they're totally awesome, but because this school belongs to them just as much as it does me. They want to make it a happy place too!
Interested in the free All Star Planning Introductory Masterclass? Click here!
Managing due dates is literally my least favorite thing about being a teacher! For years I struggled to keep them straight and then hold my students accountable for late work. It always felt like I wasn't doing it well.
I feel like I FINALLY have due dates under wraps and I have a few tips for you!
Interested in the free All Star Planning Introductory Masterclass? Click here!
You do not need to grade every assignment that you give your students. In fact, you shouldn't grade every assignment that you give your students.
It's far too much work for you, and also, I don't believe that it gives you the best picture of how the kids are learning and progressing in your classroom.
Interested in the free masterclass, click here!
When I started giving my students my curriculum calendar my teacher world flipped on it's head. In the BEST way possible! You will not believe how doing just the smallest, tiniest amount of extra work made my life as a teacher much easier and lowered my stress significantly.
Interested in the free All Star Planning masterclass? Sign up here.
Related episodes:
1) Curriculum Calendar
2) Vocabulary
3) Learning Targets
When it comes to teaching vocabulary, I feel like I've tried it all. From lists of words and definitions to defining in their own words, I've put my students through nearly every vocabulary strategy that I've been able to brainstorm. This episode of the All Star Planning Podcast for Teachers includes what I've been using these days to help my students with vocabulary terms. Because let's face it, if students don't understand the vocabulary used in a course, they simply won't be able to fully understand the content. Want to learn more about the All Star Planning method? Check out the free masterclass here.
Related episodes:
What is the value of homework?
My Unlimited Test Retake Policy
Vocabulary Dominoes Freebie
Observations can be stressful, and even scary! I have a few tips that I have used to get way more comfortable with my teacher observations and how I make sure that my observation scores are always high and something that I can be proud of.
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning method? Sign up for the free masterclass here!
The value of homework may be the most controversial topic in education. I'm not even sure how I feel about it, if I'm being perfectly honest.
You can hear me bounce back and forth on the value of education during this episode.
If you're interested in hearing more about the All Star Planning method, you can sign up for the free masterclass here.
Taking off from work as a teacher always seems to be a real pain. But not anymore! In this episode I share all of my quick, easy sub plan hacks that make taking off from work a breeze!
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning method? Sign up for the free masterclass here!
I'm just a girl, crossing her fingers and hoping this is all over soon!
There is only one thing that I know for sure: distance learning stinks, and I'm not going to pretend to be an expert at it.
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Sign up for the free masterclass!
Once I hacked my lesson plan template things became a lot easier and I gained a lot of confidence, specifically in my observations. In this episode I talk about some of the specifics of my lesson plan template and how I used it to make me better at teaching.
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass! https://plan.kelseyreavy.com/
It' every teacher's dream to get ahead of their lesson plans! It took me some time to figure out the correct method to get me ahead of my plans. I share my tips about using unit plans to get ahead as well as my actual set up for writing lesson plans.
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass! https://plan.kelseyreavy.com/
Lesson reflection will save you so much time when it comes to writing and editing your lesson plans. It's like giving yourself a head start! You'll evaluate what you're good at and do more of that. You'll evaluate what needs work, and you'll work on those things. I talk about the many ways I reflect on my lessons in this episode!
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass!
Addressing misconceptions in your teaching and lesson plans is going to one up your students' understanding. It's really tough to do, especially early in your career, or when you are teaching a fresh course. I give a few tips to collecting and using student misconceptions in this episode. You can use your students to help you, and they won't even know it!
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass! https://plan.kelseyreavy.com/
Setting goals is an important part of growing. As a teacher, setting goals can be frustrating if you are comparing yourself to other teachers. The important thing is to compare yourself to who you were at the same time last year, to make sure you are growing. This is especially hard to do for the new 2020 school year because all teachers have changed SO MUCH since last year!
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass! https://plan.kelseyreavy.com/
Trusting your students in the lab is no easy task, but teaching very thorough lab safety protocol can make it much easier to trust your students. In this episode of the All Star Planning Podcast, I go over my very in depth procedures for teaching lab safety in my chemistry class.
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass! https://plan.kelseyreavy.com/
Are you a chemistry teacher? Check out my chemistry resources.
Interested in my specific Bunsen burner lab? Read this blog post.
When I was first told about a retake policy, I'm pretty sure I laughed out loud. Now that I've implemented a retake policy in my classroom, I CAN NEVER go back.
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass! https://plan.kelseyreavy.com/
Having your students self assess can be a difficult place to get to. You have to create a very strong climate and culture for self assessment in order for it to be successful. In this episode, I will give you my tips on how I get my students to be as honest as they can with me when it comes to self assessment.
Blog Post: Growth Mindset Books I Read to my High School Students
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass! https://plan.kelseyreavy.com/
Exit Tickets have always sounded really horrible to me, so I call them Baby Quizzes. Regardless of what they are called, these exit assessments are used as formative assessments to determine how well your students are understanding the material they have just learned.
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass! https://plan.kelseyreavy.com/
Follow me on instagram @kelseyreavy
My name is Kelsey and I hate Do Nows. Well, I hated Do Nows up until this school year.
As a student I never saw a reason to do them. This is mostly because my teachers never graded them, let alone looked at them. When my teachers were circling the room to check and see how their students were doing on the Do Now, I’d pretend to write something. I one time wrote about ducks. True Story.
As a teacher, I felt like my Do Nows. were so difficult to plan. I never had a “brain” for them. They seemed to take up almost as much time to plan as the main activity in my lesson. This was not going to fly. I changed what I did for Do Nows nearly every month because I couldn’t figure out a simple way to deal with them that was easy for me and my students.
Once I had figured out a method, I knew I was going to have to figure out a way to make it meaningful to my students, so they didn’t feel like 16 year old me. I wanted them to see the value to the Do Nows!
For that reason, I made it a point to look at EVERY SINGLE Do Now. But of course, my students helped me out with this one. They self assessed.
Learn my Do Now Strats and Self Assessment tips in this episode of the podcast!
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass!
I didn't realize how personal these plan books were for a long time. Everybody has different opinions about what should be in a plan book. I’ve been through every type of planner there is. I worked with the printables, the premades, the calendars - you name it, I tried it.
I’m a very “keep it simple” kind of girl, so for me, I’m currently using this weekly planner where I just write my lesson codes (listen to that episode here) and the names of absent kids. And that’s it.
With everything going digital in a moment’s notice, I think the importance of a digital planner has been underestimated. I think the best part of digital planning is that fact that it is SO easily edited, and even more easily shared. And I’m talking sharing with both adults and students. In my All Star Planning Masterclass, I talk specifically about sharing this information with students.
Sign up here.
Sharing files is so easy when they are digital (especially when saved in the cloud). This can make coteaching or coplanning much easier. When this is done in Google Drive, groups of teachers can collaborate on the same document and you cut down on your planning time. Plus it’s super easy to make edits, when the time to makes changes comes.
I hated learning targets when I was a students. Well, back then my teachers were calling them aims, but regardless of the name, I never knew the reason why they were on the board each day. In fact, I thought the teacher just put them there because the principal told them they had to. It wasn’t until about half way through my first year of teaching that I finally realized the value of learning targets, or LTs as I call them now.
I realized that learning targets not only tell the kids what the goal of the lesson is, but give them something to strive for. In my classroom, learning targets become part of the study guide when it comes to assessments. This is the reason that no matter what anybody tells me, I will continue to write my learning targets as “I can” statements so that they are written FOR my students.
I also make sure to tell my students how to use these learning targets to their advantage during the beginning of the school year and bring up a reminder quite often.
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass!
When you actually sit and look at the order in which you teach your lessons, you may find that you weren’t as purposeful as you would have hoped. Well at least, this is what happened to me. I figured if it happened to me, it must have happened to somebody else, right?
When you go to order your lessons, it’s important that the order of your lessons provides flow. What I mean by flow is that the skills that your kids are learning are learning are building on each other from one day to the next. I accidentally created a theme to each of my semesters, making the flow much stronger. After my lessons were streamlined, my kids were learning better because they were only being asked to recall things from a short period of time, and then slowly building on those initial concepts.
The better you are at providing flow in your lessons the stronger your students will be, and the less time you will need to spend reteaching.
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass!
Let me know what episode you're loving on instagram - tag me @kelseyreavy
Numbering your lessons may be the most important part of your curriculum planning, and helping your classroom run. Giving your course a coding system won’t just be beneficial to you either. Numbering your lessons will help your students, parents, admin, guidance and team teachers.
I use my coding system everywhere that I can. I number my lessons and put those codes on worksheets, notebook pages, lesson plans, unit plans etc. You name it, there’s a number on it! By using a coding system, you can streamline your photocopies and get out of the copy room as soon as possible.
My numbering system for my lessons has 7 major benefits
- It outlines where I am in my curriculum and pacing
- It forces me to create flow within my lessons and planning
- Paperflow and photocopies aren’t stressful
- Keeps my students organized
- Parent communication is much clearer (this is especially true for more complex subjects that parents don’t use in their everyday lives, like chemistry)
- Gradebook is much more organized and it’s easier for kids to make up work
- INBs take up less time (If you’re interested in hearing more about My Unpopular Opinions about Interactive notebooks, you can read the post here. )
Want to sign up for the masterclass? Click here!
Enduring Understandings are some of the best parts of my unit plans! They can be a pain to figure out the first time around, for sure. I know that the Enduring Understandings, or as I like to call them Big Ideas, are worth the work.
Once you have your enduring understandings written, you’ve essentially outlined the things that your students will know by the end of the unit.
I like to keep these at the top of my unit plans so they are super easy to see and they jump out easily.
I take those enduring understandings and break them down into my lessons.
Having the big ideas written out at the tippy top of the unit plans helps me to sequence my units and make sure that I’m teaching my units in the right order. When the order gives you flow, you wind up saving time. I also use the big ideas to keep my lessons in order because that’s another way to save time. If you know anything about the All Star Planning Method, it’s all about saving time!
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass!
Has anyone ever told you that you need to write unit plans? Has anyone ever told you HOW to write unit plans? How about how to use unit plans to streamline your curriculum planning?
What if I told you that having unit plans cut my lesson planning time in half (and then in half again)? Or that, by having unit plans, I was able to resequence my entire curriculum and give myself six weeks of time at the end of my school year for final exam review?
On today’s episode of the All Star Planning podcast you will learn
- the basics for writing a unit plan
- how your unit plans can help you to plan your lessons
- how your unit plans can help you to plan your course
- how sequencing your units can change the entire outlook of your course
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass!
Hey! Did you know that you can’t plan your entire curriculum calendar for the school year in one sitting? I’m telling you - it’s simply not possible. But putting your school year on a calendar doesn’t have to be as daunting as you think it is!
I live by my curriculum calendar! It has saved my tush in so many situations, I can’t even begin to recall them. The big thing that I use them for is to keep me on schedule and looking at the long term and approaching the year as a whole.
In this episode you will learn:
- how to estimate the number of days that you actually teach, because it isn’t 180
- blocking out dates that you know won’t be teaching days
- how to actually get your curriculum and individual lessons planned out on to a calendar
- the benefits of scheduling your school year out on a calendar
- how to share the calendar with your students
- how to share the calendar with your students’ families
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass!
Welcome to the All Star Planning Podcast! In our first episode, I’m talking about your approach to your standards. Every teacher deals with their standards differently. I started out really stressed and overwhelmed by my standards. I felt like I didn’t know how to read my standards. Nobody ever taught me! All of the codes were confusing! Science standards, chemistry standards, interdisciplinary standards - I couldn’t keep up!
Because my student teaching experience was in a great school I simply copied what I learned when I had my own classroom. I was teaching in a school, essentially by myself. I was the only chemistry teacher there, so I couldn’t bounce ideas off of anybody. It eventually caught up with me. When I felt like I was drowning in my lesson plans I decided to go back to the basics and take a really hard look at my standards. In a moment of frustration, I took a scissor to my standards and chopped them up into what felt like a million pieces.
And that crazed moment gave me SO much clarity. I looked at my standards as a giant to do list. My standards became my goal, and in that my friends! I learned to love my standards once I rearranged them and made them my own.
Having a handle on my standards started to make my lesson planning so much easier!
Want to learn more about the All Star Planning Method? Check out the free masterclass.
If you are interested in what the All Star Planning Podcast is all about, you are starting in the right place. You can learn about the formation of the All Star Planning Method and the beginning of my teaching journey.
If you are interested in more All Star Planning content, be sure to check out my website, kelseyreavy.com or check out the Masterclass to learn the nitty gritty details about the All Star Planning Method. Sign up at plan.kelseyreavy.com