Planning: The Real Story

Question: How are you really doing your planning right now?
Answer: Well thanks to the summer retreat, I had the main ideas of my first topic ready to go. As far as planning what I'm going to teach...hmm well...it's definitely on a day to day basis. As soon as I get home from work, I start planning for the next day. This usually takes me two to six hours. I don't know what I'm going to do now because it feels like I have no time to plan for future topics and I'm afraid that I'll go back to my old ways...

Question: How do you determine what to include in your lessons/unit plans?
Answer: I think about what is important to learn and what flows. I think about what my students already know (or should know) and how I can use their current knowledge to learn new material.

Question: How do you figure out how you're going to teach the lesson?
Answer: For the most part I teach the same (which may not be a good thing). On occasion I'll throw in some play-doh/hands-on activities. I do try to switch up the last minutes of class. After the lesson, I either have the students work on the white boards, work in their seats, work in groups, teach each other, etc...
Oh and sometimes we practice math skills in the park.