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Becoming Planners - Finding Time and Insight

by based on an interview with Patricia Berl
January/February 1998
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Ask any director, stop any teacher, and he will tell you that planning makes the difference. With time to plan, chaos can become calm, tension can give way to decent relations, seat-of-the-pants classroom management can become quality education. But I'd take those testimonies a step further. I'd claim that it's only when teachers become planners that teachers, as well as children, develop.

A skeptic might point out that teachers are already developed - after all, they're full-grown adults. But when I speak of teachers developing, I am not talking about them being just successful activity planners or classroom managers. I am thinking of teachers developing their teaching into an art, reflecting a deep sense of personal values and style - as a composer who writes good music or an author who crafts his individual story. Only if teachers are given the time to plan their work thoughtfully can they become artists in this sense.

Narrow Vs. Broad Planning

What you notice about novice teachers is that their plans are often narrow, short term, and teacher dependent. They plan just for specific activities. By comparison, skilled teachers plan for the long term, for broad objectives, and in terms of children's activities. Consider the simple example ...

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