While many students are gone for the summer, some of us are as busy as we are in the academic year, just with different tasks!
The relative quiet sometimes offers time to go back and catch up on reading, and start thinking about plans for the coming year. For some time, part of the process for me has included reviewing notes from past classes to see what worked, what didn’t, and what I might want to change or explore for future sessions.
Since I started teaching classes, I’ve made notes on how the class I’ve just taught has gone. As I prepare, I generate a plan, and then I use that same sheet for the notes afterward. I refer back to that sheet as I plan similar classes later.
Way back in January, though, a post on the ProfHacker blog gave me an idea for a new system that I’ve been trying out. While the post, Lesson Planning for the University Classroom, is mostly geared toward instructors of ongoing classes, the planning method described could easily translate to one-shot instruction planning or a series of sessions with the same class just as well. I’ve been using this for both my summer course and the one-shots I’ve been teaching, and I think it might even simplify things in the event that someone else has to teach a class in my absence, as it outlines goals, announcements, and even the time devoted to in-class activities.
How do you plan for classes? Do you leave notes for your future self? What techniques work for you?
Amanda Izenstark
Reference & Instructional Design Librarian
University of Rhode Island