Following on from a closely fought and popular poll, this week #UKEdChat explored the joys of “planning and resources – tips and ideas on effective planning and resource creation.“
In particular, the session asked:
- Planning – How do you manage your time, and when is the best time for you to plan school lessons?
- Resources – How can we ensure we are lead by pedagogy, rather than by a flashy resource?
- Planning – What aspect of planning takes the most time for you, and how to you handle this?
- Resources – If you collect resources from online sources, how much of your own cash are you willing to pay?
- Planning – How does your school prefer planning to be demonstrated?
- Resources – How do you share your resources with colleagues, or do you prefer not to?
Planning is one of the aspects of teaching with as many ways of doing it as the number of teachers themselves. It is an individual thing. The timing and manner of planning suggested from participants were very varied. Yet it was interesting to read that so many teachers try to fit planning into their school time, many people even staying late, yet planning (and a whole host of other paperwork) still was taken home by the majority of the UKEdChatter.
Without exception, all UKEdChatter agreed that pedagogy should lead lessons, rather than the resources used to teach them. However, many tweets mentioned instances (naturally, from other teachers) where they felt this guiding principal was not being the case. Apps and technology were mentioned in this context. It seems that educators can fall foul of giving pedagogy priority at times.
The chat turned to discussion how long aspects of planning take. Naturally, there were a number of answers, but is was interesting that many Chatter mentioned that planning for other people, like the need to submit planning to SLT in advance was a cause for concern. Obviously, planning for oneself and planning to make it understandable to someone outside your own train of thought needs additional explanation which does not impact on the learning of the pupils.
The conservation turned to paid-for online resources. Participants broadly fell into two camps – those who are willing to pay a small amount (the price of up to £10 was mentioned by a few people) and those who would pay nothing.
Next, the chat returned to planning and how planning is completed in various settings. It seems there are three general levels – Planning in one’s head or very simple notes, a formal plan for one’s own use, and writing plans which will be submitting to a ‘higher power’.
Finally, the discussion moved on to how UKEdChatters share their resources with colleagues, both near and far. Electronically seemed to be the main method, even close to home on school servers and shared areas, and online for the teaching community further afield via online storage such as Dropbox and Google Drive, resource banks and with blogs. It was pleasing to hear that many participants were making good use of UKEdChat’s Directory of free resources.