Lesson Plans and Newbies!

     Your lesson plan should be a guide...goals to accomplish. Don't assign an absolute time frame; what is written cannot be timed. Dive in, infuse your words with humor. Elicit curiosity, encourage conversant exchanges. If a teachable moment presents itself...having nothing to do with your lesson...charge the mountain and teach it!  Lesson plans are objectives separated by oceans of possibilities. Don't restrict yourself, but seize every moment to enlighten. 
     College may have taught you how to write objectives, Newbies, but they cannot teach you HOW to be a teacher.  This is all on you!  As you teach your kids, you are teaching yourself.
     Remember...in the classroom nothing is set in stone!  What worked one day, may not work the next.  Be pliant, be adaptable, be able to change-it-up on the fly!  Out of the seven hours you will spend in the classroom per day, only about half of that will be spent actually teaching, and even less time that that truly engaging the kids.  Throughout the day you will hold your kids captivated for short bursts of time.  Make the MOST of these times. 
     Finally, never...I MEAN NEVER...forget to have some fun during class!  Breath through everything.  Happy kids are mountain movers! 
     Have a wonderful year!  The meme below is for shits-and-giggles!