I'm ready to plan! I have my new lesson planning book -- I always use this one. Lakeshore Learning tends to only carry it in maroon, and if they had it in combination with the record book, I'd get that, too. I like the simplicity of the design and the lack of commercial-looking clip art on the cover and pages. Just nice, clean, sepia grids for my grand plans!

Planning on the weekend feels very familiar and natural. Planning during the summer feels rather directionless and strange to me. It's always hard for me to deal with long stretches of unstructured time. Perhaps that is part of the reason I love teaching in a Waldorf school. Our time is fairly free within each lesson period. We strive to have healthy rhythm to each lesson, including times for concentrated, quiet work and for expansive activity, with meaningful transitions. Aside from that, and general indications for lesson content in each grade, the teacher is free to create lessons that will meet her students' needs. So much freedom would be overwhelming for me, and was, in my early days of teaching, without the understanding that it is up to me to create a reliable rhythm of activities within each given timeframe into which the students, and I, can relax.

For example, in fourth grade, I always started the day by greeting each student with a handshake and a hearty, "Good Morning!" This gave me a chance to hear any pressing news, to take a good look into their eyes, and to get a feeling for what kind of day each child was having so far, and how I might best meet him or her. When it was time to start, I'd close the door, sing our good morning song, and read out the schedule for the day. After this, the students would stand, light a candle, and recite together the morning verse, a sort of dedication of the day to learning and expression of gratitude for light and life.

This sequence of events, repeated each day, was extraordinarily calming for me as a teacher. No matter what kind of day I'd been having up until that point, no matter how tired I was, by the time we had finished the morning verse and moved the desks to do some concentration exercises, singing, and moving together, I felt more present, more solid, and ready to work. I saw that it had a similar effect on the children, too, and the days that we didn't follow our usual rhythm were usually more difficult and presented greater classroom management needs.

Part of my planning this weekend will be to craft an opening sequence for this new school year. The students are older and ready for new challenges, and the time we will take on this work together has shrunk from 45 minutes in the first grade, to perhaps 20 minutes. There will be some time for mental math and spelling drills, review of the previous day's work, presentation of new material, and lots of time for them to work independently.

This weekend, I will also lay out my plan for the year -- the sequence of topics for our morning lesson work each day -- and decide which blocks I will ask someone to teach while I am on maternity leave. It's a hard choice; I hate to miss out on any of it!

back to school, back to blogging

I have an ambitious goal this year. Okay, truth be told, I have several. I like making lists of goals at each new turning of the year, whether for my birthday (which was a week ago), New Year's Day, or the beginning of school. I have all kinds of goals for my students, goals about courtesy and academics and social development, and I have goals for myself as a teacher, partner, and soon-to-be mother.

One goal for this year is to do more posting. I'm still working on carving out the time for that, but the more active my posting, the more likely it is that people will come and join in the exchange of ideas. The ambitious part comes in here -- I want this blog to be good. I will be working on honing my writing skills and my ability to pay attention to what is happening in the classroom, and what I am doing to effect change and to foster real learning.

Our first block of the year is Botany. We'll be exploring habitats and biomes around the world, starting with a journey up mount Denali (imaginary, unfortunately) to learn how altitude, sunlight, and warmth affect the plant life in each biome. We'll consider the interconnectedness of plant and animal life, with a special focus on the honeybee. I am excited to get started and to do some research to bring to them. One place I'm starting is with Gerbert Grohmann's The Living World of the Plants. Grohmann wrote stunningly detailed studies of various plants for adult readers, and this is his offering for young readers. I love the way he uses imagery and comparison to make the inner workings of the plants familiar and easy to understand.

I'm serving as Chair of the College of Teachers until my due date. My co-chair has stepped down, so it's just me, all the time now until mid-December. The College is a governing body within the school that makes decisions on behalf of the faculty and strives to keep our work in line with the philosophy underlying Waldorf education. It's hard, exciting work, and it means lots of meetings and interaction with colleagues and board members, which I find invigorating.

More to come. School starts next Wednesday, and there is much to do.