An Annual Plan: The Blue Print for My Year

Part of my background prior to coming to education is in the construction industry. I was an estimator and project manager for a construction company for over three years and spent most of my time pouring over blue prints and drawings for various jobs. I learned the benefit to a well detailed plan to help create the architect's vision exactly as they wanted it. The more information provided the easier it is to see the big picture.

I am now learning about multiple ways to plan for instruction and right now we are focusing on an annual plan for Social Studies. As I learn about this planning format and the way it can work hand in hand with unit plans and daily lesson plans, i can see a direct correlation between these plans and the blue prints for a building. These will be my starting points. My annual plan will help me take the North Carolina Standard Course of Study as well as the Wake County Pacing Guide (think of these as the specifications for the products within a set of blue prints) and layout how I will cover all of the information to build my school year.

Organization is a skill that I am constantly working on. It has NEVER been my strong suit, but all of this planning shows me that the more effort I put into these plans the smoother my class will run. Having an annual plan as a building block will help me to stay organized and focused on the end goals for the school year.

Although these plans are going to be very helpful, I can also see some negative points to an annual plan. We have talked throughout my program about using various forms of formative assessment to help gauge when students have actually mastered a topic. Sometimes, topics need to be retaught in a different way to make sure that everyone has understood the information. With an annual plan, you could feel trapped into a specific schedule. I think that it is very important to remember that changes can be made. In construction, this is called a change order. Once you start building the building, some things may need to be tweaked so everything fits together properly. You rework and redraw some of your plans and move on from there to make sure the final product is what you really want. I think that it is important to remember that change orders can be necessary in instruction. If you stay open minded, flexible and focused, the annual plan can be fluid throughout the school year and change with your needs.

As I move through the program, I am learning that I will have so many tools in my tool belt to really help me in the teaching process. I feel like I am adding new helpful ideas each week.