Good Times...

So, on Saturday I had planned on doing my lesson plans. That failed, and I just completed them tonight... about 10 minutes ago. The hard thing is that I know what I am doing each day, but I have this MASSIVE form for a lesson plan I get to fill out for each day. Which is basically where I get defiant. The really annoying thing that I am dealing with right now is that I am MOST LIKELY going to be laid off this June, and then MOST LIKELY asked back in the fall. Which screws up my health insurance... I guess that is how they save money. So I feel like, why do I have to do these stupid plans for my school district when they are just going to let me go anyway.

I am in a low teaching place. Winter has to end. My students have to turn in their work. The end.

Example lesson plan for this week:

Beaulieu, Lindsey	World Geography 2/1/11-2/3/11	Tuesday – Intro to Country Research Project
Goal Set the learning goal/benchmark or objective	Standards applying to that lesson	D-6-1 The student will demonstrate how various regional frameworks are used to analyze the variation in culture and human’s occupation of the Earth’s surface.
	Guiding Question(s)	How do people choose where they live?
	Measurable Objective	Students will understand the objectives of researching a country in Latin America.
Access Access students’ prior knowledge building engagement through establishing immediate relevancy; a “hook” that is a short introduction to the lesson	Possible Instructional Strategies to Try: Review of previous lesson Pair and Share Brainstorming Quick Write Verbal check-in of prior knowledge Visual to access prior knowledge	Power point of my trip to Mexico – showing different pictures of the landscape to spark interest in another country.
New Information Acquire new information – declarative and/or procedural	Possible Instructional Strategies to Try: Modeling and direct instruction Student discussions Academic feedback to students Non-fiction writing, vocabulary and reading strategies to develop understanding of new information Inquiry based questions and activities	Direct Instruction: Teacher will lead the students through the requirements of the Country Research Project – and model an example poster.
Apply Apply a thinking skill or use knowledge in a new situation. Opportunity for feedback provided	Possible Instructional Strategies to Try: Guided Practice Independent and group work Student demonstration of learning objective Student-to-student discussions using accountable talk Ongoing checks for understanding Continuous academic feedback to the students	Independent work: Students will first be randomly selected to pick a country by the teacher selecting their names out of a container. The students will then start researching their country in the computer lab using the provided directions.
Generalize Generalize what has been taught. How will the teacher know if students met the measurable objective?	Possible Means of Assessments to Try: Oral or written summary of lesson Exit slip or quick write Pair and share Peer and individual review of work Class discussion of topic Cornell notes check	Exit Slip: Students will respond and write their answer to: “What do you need to find out about your country to fulfill the requirement?”