Planning in a Pinch -- Bex

In my short time in the student teaching experience, I have fallen in love with teaching. I love seeing my students every day and planning for them in the evenings. I spend so much time thinking of ways to make the literature interesting and the activities engaging. I do not mind the time it takes to plan elaborate lessons, but I am often plagued by the idea that my careful work may have to be thrown away at the first technology glitch or unplanned fire drill.

I experienced such a moment this past Monday. I had carefully planned a reading quiz and discussion questions about The Great Gatsby. My students and I were going to explore the role of women in the text: how they act, how they dress, and how they are viewed by male characters. I wanted to show the opening scenes of the film version of the novel to reinforce the decadence of the Roaring ‘20s and the freedom of the flappers. I had found a great viewing guide online and made thirty-six copies (five pages each) for my students. On Monday morning I was so prepared and excited to teach. Then the blow came.

My cooperating teacher was unable to come to school. I was to teach the lesson without her guidance and more importantly, without her key to the cabinet where the film was stored. I immediately sat at her desk and began redesigning my plans. I created new activities and formed more discussion questions so we could use the extra twenty-five minutes constructively. In the meantime, I made frantic calls to the media center and various offices trying to locate a copy of the key.

In the end I was able to retrieve the film and show my students the wild behavior of modern women of the 1920’s, but this experience reinforced my understanding of the need to be flexible in my planning. I now over plan my lessons and make plans B and C just in case. In all of the madness of that Monday morning, I was able to remember that I was not just planning to fill up time, I was planning so that my students could meet the objectives I had laid out for them. Even when planning in a pinch my students are foremost in my mind.

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