Stop Searching for Resources

Download a copy of the podcast transcript by clicking here.

Welcome all-star teachers!As we jump into today’s topic, I would like you to reflect on your wins for the week. Also remember to give yourself grace. Everyone is asking us to give grace, but above everything else we need to give it to ourselves. Every week I want to highlight a teacher’s win. A win can be big or small. I want you to celebrate your wins, and we want to celebrate with you! If you have a win you want to share email me at millie@myadventuresinesl.com

This week’s win comes from Chantel in my community My Adventures in ESL. Chantel is teaching Language Learners and working on getting her masters this school year. Congratulations to Chantel for the amazing work she is doing this school year. If you have a win you would like to share,  join my community My Adventures in ESL on Facebook. 

 Have you ever spent your whole planning period looking for resources for your students? Well I have and let me tell you it is a frustrating experience. Spending a whole hour searching for lessons, supports, and activities only to come up empty handed can lead to you feeling defeated.

I experienced this a lot my first two years teaching Language Learners. I would spend my whole planning period scouring websites and books looking for something to teach my students. You can imagine this left me feeling ill-prepared and not confident in my lessons for my students. AND it showed! Thinking back on those lessons I cringe. I was spending so much time looking for resources that I wasn’t actually planning engaging lessons for my students.

I had my breaking point when I had an unannounced observation of my classroom. It did not go how I planned in my head because I was scouring and printing. I was not taking the time to plan my lessons. 

I realized that no amount of worksheets and other resources will help me unless I learned how to create lesson plans for my students. I could go to as many worksheet subscriptions sites, print off free lesson plans, and borrow resources from other teachers but if I didn’t know how to plan for my students then it would be all for nothing. I knew that I needed to learn how to create a simple curriculum guide for the school year to support my students and guide me in my lesson planning. 

I want you to step out of the vicious cycle of searching for resources and create a long range for the school year. In your long range plan you can include topics, skills, text, and so much more. 

Creating a long-range plan will allow you to be very focused about what resources you are including in your lesson. This will help you supplement your lessons for language learners.

Use your planning to plan and try to avoid searching for lessons. I have a curriculum guide you can help you plan topics for your language learners. Click here to download the guide and learn

how you can use it in your classroom. 

How are you preparing your lesson plans for the upcoming school year? Share your comments below