How do you plan rich learning experiences when you're overwhelmed by curriculum
demands and you're strapped for time?
Today I'm gonna share with you the way I plan and unbeknown to me until very
recently, it's also the way a classical curriculum works and the way that
Charlotte Mason structured her lessons.
So if you wanna learn how I reduced overwhelm and spend
less time planning lessons,
. Then stay with me until the end when I'll give you a link to my
brand new lesson plan that nurtures all those essential skills and
saves you hours of planning time.
What I found, whenever I became anxious about the planning, it's
because my eyes were wandering.
I was looking at what colleagues were doing, and that was causing me a
huge amount of stress and overwhelm.
Because I was looking at my colleagues and then second guessing myself,
and then those feelings of not being good enough used to creep in, and
that's when the overwhelm started.
I think for me that comparison trap was something I had to
learn to kick to the curb.
So if you're starting to feel overwhelmed with everything you have to do.
Or actually you think you have to do because quite honestly, I think we
actually put way too much pressure on ourselves and we do and plan
for more than we actually need to.
I think we create a lot of unnecessary work, work that we don't need to create
and it puts extra pressure on us.
I'll tell you more about that in just a moment.
The first step to getting rid of overwhelm is just to put blinkers
on, just to focus on what you are doing in your four walls and forget
about what everybody else is doing.
Nothing causes more anxiety than the comparison trap when you're
comparing yourself to others.
So take a step back and start trusting yourself.
And if you're new to this game, maybe you're a graduate or maybe you're just
gonna start out homeschooling and you're starting to experience those feelings
of overwhelm, start creeping in.
Then I would say the next thing to do is to get yourself a mentor, someone you can
piggyback on, someone that you vibe with.
Sometimes it may be a colleague, sometimes it could be someone
online like me, for example.
But don't just follow this person mindlessly.
They have to share your values.
So for me, for example, I value growth mindset.
I value curiosity.
I value, um, problem solving skills and analytical skills and creativity.
So make sure that whoever you choose values the same kinds
of things that you value.
And so, for example, you might value these things that I value,
so if you are following me because we share the same values, thanks.
And also don't forget to hit that subscribe button or the follow button
wherever you are watching or listening, either on YouTube or on a podcast.
Thanks for being here and being with me.
Now you have to make sure that whoever you decide that you are going
to follow or that you are going to see as a mentor, that they actually
share your values because otherwise you are going to end up miserable.
Now since we do share the same values, I think you'll want to hear about the
lesson plan that I've got for you.
So hang on, stay with me because I'll be sharing that with you
towards the end of the show.
Now the next way that I found to deal with overwhelm, so that planning didn't
suck the complete joy out of everything I did, was to integrate lessons, in other
words, to plan lessons that meet multiple outcomes from different subject areas.
And for me personally, I found that the best way to do this
was through picture books.
And by the way, that's another thing that I've been noticing lately in
mainstream learning, and that is this tendency that a lot of educators
have stopped reading to children in classrooms, and now they're showing the
cartoon or the book on a YouTube video.
I wrote a blog post about this where I shared the research done by the
Reading and literacy Discovery Center of Cincinnati Children's Hospital, which
proved the benefits of reading books to children on their cognitive development.
Another study done by the same hospital explored different formats
of stories on children's brains.
They looked at audio only.
They looked at picture books being read to children and the cartoons
of picture books on a video.
What they found was that when picture books were read to children,
it showed very well developed visual and language networks in
children's developing brains.
The Picture book, gave children a starting point to bring the
words and imagination to life.
The audio version, required their brains to work a little bit harder.
Because they had to figure out what was happening in the story.
But when it came to watching the cartoon version, the researchers found that
things started coming apart because basically there was too much information
for the children's brains to handle,
because brain networks develop gradually and children need multiple exposures
and lots of practice to keep building those networks, and make connections as
children become better readers over time,
they're better able to use those connections to see the pictures in
their mind and use their imagination to make sense of the story.
Which then helps them to progress to pictureless or chapter books later on.
I leave a link for you in the show notes or the description of the
blog post with the research so that you can go and read it there.
So now we know that using Picture books is a great starting point
for any lesson because of the cognitive value for children.
But don't just grab any picture book of the shelf.
You need to be strategic.
You need to choose a book that's going to help you meet multiple lesson outcomes.
That will cover multiple subject areas because that's how you
reduce your planning time.
The first thing I do when I choose a picture book is I choose
one that has rich language.
Does it have descriptive language?
Does it use direct speech?
Does it have an element of inference
so the children can use the text and the pictures to make meaning, does
it in fact have great illustrations to fill in those comprehension
gaps the children might have?
I also look for a book that has a story mountain that has a beginning,
a middle, and a end, so that you can teach children the structure of
stories because they eventually will be writing those stories for themselves.
And of course the story, as I said before, must link to other subject areas.
So whatever you wanna teach, either in science or geography or history, make
sure that that picture book covers that topic that you wanna teach.
Now, once I've chosen the book, I'm gonna read the story to the children to kick
off the lesson or the unit or the topic, and I'm going to read it every single day.
And each day I'm gonna focus on a different aspect of the story.
Perhaps in one day it'll be, they've got to draw and write
their favorite part of the story.
Perhaps another day it'll be something to do with inference about the character.
Perhaps another day I'm gonna ask them to recount the beginning, the
middle, and the end of the story.
Perhaps on another day, I'm gonna focus
on the problem of the story and perhaps another day on
the resolution of the story.
I'm sure you get the idea.
And so now here's another thing that I actually discovered
quite late in the game.
We've all done it.
I did it, is that we planned lessons around a book, but then we
planned a new book for every week.
So it's absolutely understandable that we're all burnt out.
And nowhere does it say that we all have to do one book a week with
lessons and ideas that go with that.
So why would we do that to ourselves?
And that's coming back to that point I made earlier is why do we
put so much pressure on ourselves.
There's really no reason to do that.
We are making teaching young children more complicated than it needs to be.
And we all know the children are not gonna remember a thing when
we just keep piling things on.
That's shallow teaching and shallow learning.
As educators, if we really want learning to be deeper, then we need to slow down.
We need to make everything slower.
And when we slow down, children are actually going to remember
more of what they're being taught.
And remember when I said in the beginning about that study?
That children's brain networks develop gradually and that they need
lots of practice and repetition.
Well, if we keep giving them a new book every week, how's that going to happen?
So stick to just one good book with those activities.
Read it repeatedly every single day with a new activity or different activity.
So the children can get a much deeper understanding so that they
can really have good comprehension.
Now, of course, you're not just gonna read this one book, this one that's
the catalyst for all your learning.
You're going to be reading other books too.
You're gonna read other picture books.
You're gonna read other books on the same or similar topic that you're doing
or other picture books just for fun.
But you won't be doing all the activities associated with those other books.
You're going to just be focusing all your activities on the one picture book that
you chose that's going to be doing the heavy lifting, but you're still going
to be reading other stories as well.
And of course you're going to ask questions you might be asking, so
what's similar about this book that we are reading to our other story
that we're doing our activities on?
Or what's the difference between the two stories that we are reading?
And each time that you're reading a new book and a new story and asking them
questions related to the book that you've chosen, , the one that's a catalyst
for your learning for this topic.
They are going to be making more brain connections.
They're going to be learning more.
They're gonna start making connections between stories,
between books, between the topic.
Their brain networks are going to get stronger and they're gonna
start building their schema.
Now the next thing that's important for me is that this picture books that
I've chosen has to link, as I mentioned before, to the subject that I'm teaching.
So it has to link, although I'm teaching English from it, I'm also going to teach
another subject, be that science or geography or history or anything else.
And if you've chosen a really good book.
This book has to do the heavy lifting
because you don't wanna have to rack your brain every single week
to find new activities to do.
So the way I go about it is I look at this book and I start brainstorming as
I read through the picture book myself.
I start brainstorming what kind of activities can I create with this book?
I always think back and I remember planning with a colleague in this way
and it was the best way to plan, and it seriously, it actually made planning
joyful because you're brainstorming and coming up with all these fabulous
ideas of what this book can do.
How you can integrate art, how you can integrate sculpture, how you can
integrate technology, how you can integrate design, and anything else.
'cause you want the book to meet multiple curriculum outcomes
across multiple subjects.
And when you choose this book that covers these multiple
areas, you can go really deep.
You can slow everything down, and you can really get into the nuts and bolts
of the book without having to rush.
This is what makes learning joyful.
It's that whole rushing thing where we feel that we need to, you know,
meet all these curriculum outcomes.
But if you choose a really good book, you can meet all the curriculum outcomes, but
you just have to go slower and deeper so the children actually remember and learn.
'cause isn't that what we're actually doing in the first place?
And.
If this book is really doing a good job, you should be able to get five
weeks, six weeks, a term of activities to do just with one picture book.
And of course, in early childhood, those activities should be hands-on
because children learn through doing.
We want children's brains to get working, so we want them to use their
hands as well, because if you're just going to give them worksheets, then
you've gotta mark those worksheets as well, adding to your workload.
So don't you think there could be a better way of assessing children's understanding
and their knowledge than just a worksheet?
A way that can save you time.
And again, this is something I learned quite late in my teaching journey.
Like most teachers, I was under the impression that everything
had to be on paper, that children needed to write everything down.
So that I then could prove that I had done the teaching and they
had done the learning and I had co covered the curriculum areas.
I. And so I think that's the other pressure that we feel.
'cause we feel that they, we need to do our job and someone's
going to come and check up on us.
So we have all this work that we get children to do on worksheets and in
their books so that we can actually show how very busy and productive we've
been and we've done all this stuff.
But then a few weeks later, you ask children a question and they can't
even remember what the topic was about.
They can't even remember what they learned.
So what was the point really?
Except put ourselves under more pressure and stress.
And I was doing all this stuff and putting extra pressure on myself just
like we all do until the lights came on and I realized that I could actually
assess children's understanding in other ways just by observation and
listening and asking them questions, and I could then record them and then
look at that recording on the same day.
And input my observations in my record keeping sheets, which by
the way, those are the exact same record keeping sheets that are on the
website that I use in my classroom.
And they would be so valuable when it came to reporting or when it came to talking to
parents because I then already had those observations written down ready to go.
I leave a link to my record keeping sheets in the show notes and in
the description for you as well.
To recap before I tell you what I have for you, the first step to reducing
overwhelm is to stop comparing yourself to others and to start trusting yourself.
The second.
Step is to follow a like-minded mentor, someone who shares your values.
The third step is to choose a picture book that does the heavy lifting for you.
And to stop making your life more difficult and more overwhelming by
choosing a new book every single week.
And then the next step is to wring out as many activities as you possibly
can with this one picture book.
And here's the cherry on the top.
In the beginning I said to you that you'd probably follow
someone who shares your values.
Now, by this time, you hopefully know me and you know , my values are inquiry.
My values are critical thinking, analytical thinking, being,
getting kids to be creative, right?
So my lesson plans that I create, not just for the children that I teach, but for you
too, on my website, the same lesson plans that I use, they tick off those boxes.
They are for deeper, slower learning
because these lesson plans are also hands-on.
They get the children to do the work, not you.
The children must do the work we are just guides and facilitators,
but they have to do the work.
They have to do the learning.
Their brains are the ones that have to learn and make connections.
And in the lesson plan that I create, I give you the questions that you
need to ask for the lesson plan.
I give you the metacognition prompts for children to start thinking
about the best way that they learn.
I give you the ideas and strategies on how to use the lesson plan.
I give you a student workbook if that's something that you want.
And of course, the lesson plans are all differentiated because every
teacher and all the students and your cohorts will be different, so you can
use it and tweak it to suit you and to suit the students that you teach.
Now a favorite picture book that you'll see all over Pinterest and all over
TPT and probably that every early childhood teacher reads is Me on the Map.
Now, my lesson plan for Me on the Map is not one of those generic ones.
My lesson plan is chock-full of hands-on activities that really give children
a sense of their place in the world.
It's not one of those show lesson activities where you read the book
and then you do that activity with the little circles that you cut out.
I'm sure you've seen it.
I think that even I did those lesson plans many years ago until I started to realize
that I was bored out of my mind and if I was bored, surely the children were too.
And that's when I started thinking about lessons that can go deeper,
lessons that teach kids skills, not just we read the book and then we color
in something, and then you ask them in three weeks time about what their
town is, the name of their town or their suburb, and they don't even know.
So it's deeper learning, it's slower learning, it's helping children discover
exactly where they are in the world.
So as you start planning for the new term, the new semester, the new week
ahead, why not dip your toe in and try and start with a picture book
that you can go really deep with.
Not just read and then do a coloring in lesson or a worksheet,
not just tick off the English box and then do a craft that you can hang up
on your wall to show that you know, now you've done it and the kids were busy,
but something a little slower, a little deeper, a little bit
more enjoyable for you as well as for the children that you teach.
If this is something that really resonates with you, I'd love you to
try my lesson plan for Me on the Map.
This lesson plan will take the pressure off you, and quite honestly,
you cannot put a price on that.
So I'll leave a link to Me on the Map lesson plan for you in the show
notes or in the description if you're watching this on YouTube, I think
you'll be pleasantly surprised.
So go be blooming curious.
Get that lesson plan.
See how it goes.
If you resonate with my values, then that lesson plan will resonate with you.
So, by the way, I'll start my new job this week I will be in my room setting up
cleaning, scrubbing, getting things ready for my kindy homeschool group next week.
So I'll be in the thick of it, just like you and I will share that with
you as we go through it together.
So make sure that you subscribe here on YouTube and that you follow on the
podcast and, and we'll see how that goes.
So until next week, stay blooming, curious, and take care of yourself.