Who We Are
Pacing Calendar |
I create an annual pacing calendar based off of the general education calendars. I then review the essence statements for STAAR-ALt. 2 to make sure that I am also teaching the content that will prepare my students for STAAR. Once the school year has been mapped out, I organize my materials according to the planned topics in each subject area. Because I have 6th, 7th and 8th graders in my room, and I don't always have a paraprofessional in my room with me, I create one pacing calendar for my classroom. All students learn together, no matter their grade, because all students are at different ability levels, and they can all learn from the lesson, whether it be from the prerequisite skills or the critical skills that are taught.
|
A peek into our creative nest located
|
|
Lesson Plans |
My lesson plan template is different every year depending on the number of students and other variables that I have each year. There are a few things that usually remain the same from year to year though. I try to always include the TEK and related prerequisite skills. Even if the lesson is based off a 7th grade TEK, the 6th and 8th grade students in my room will still be learning important prerequisite skills such as sorting, classifying and matching while being exposed to middle school content. I think it's important for the students to learn together as much as possible rather than separating by grade, because there are important social skills that are learned by working in groups. I'm also able to create more fun and enriching lessons when I can focus on one lesson at a time without spreading myself too thin in a given class period. Teaching this way reduces down time for students and promotes student engagement. See below for the lesson planning template I made for myself this year.
|