It's finally over

 

The school year ended last Thursday May 20th with graduation that night. I was in charge of the program and we were having it in our very own gym. Plus, it was the first real graduation in 2 years, thank you Covid. It was nice. Really. Nice. I was so glad when it was over though because that meant that I was finally done. We didn't get out of there until 9:30pm, but everything was cleaned up and put away so there was nothing to do the next day. Yay!!!!!

So now I've begun planning for next year. I must say, I haven't done a whole lot of planning. I've been hanging at the pool, visiting with friends, reading, etc. But a little bit of planning is getting done. We are leaving on a 10-day RV trip in about 2 weeks and I'm excited/nervous about that. Never having done it before, it is a little nervous making. But I'm excited to actually get away on a vacation for the first time in about 10+ years. The last time we went on vacation together was when we came to the mainland over Christmas. That was fun but a long time ago. 

One thing I'm struggling a little bit with is how to lay out my plans. I know that I have to have plans. I have always been one who says I can fly by the seat of my pants, but that creates far, far too much stress. I found last year that if I had the plans laid out for the unit, I was a lot less stressed, I knew what I was doing, and I just felt better about the whole thing. And last year all I did was take the unit and break it up into days. So on Day 1 we did XYZ, on Day 2 ABC, on Day 3 BDF, etc. I also put in the quizzes and tests so that I was knew in advance when things were happening. I typed it up on a Word doc and called it good. That actually worked really well. I could see what was coming so I could plan ahead with copies, videos, labs, etc. I could also make notes if things got moved around some because I didn't allot enough time or too little time. It worked great. I also need someplace to keep notes of things that happen in class. Things I need to check on, assignments I need to post, videos needed, supplies needed, things like that. This past year I had the lesson plans printed out and put in a binder and the notes in a bullet journal type book. That didn't work well. I would write a note in the book and then forget about checking it or conversely, I would write a note on the lesson plans and never check them again. So my thought was that next year I would keep all the information in one place. I bought a big, blank book and was going to make a bullet journal type book where I could write brief notes about the lesson, basically just a list of things to do in the lesson, and it would also leave room for notes I needed to take and remember. But in order to do that I need to lay out my lessons like I've done before in the word doc. So the question is, am I making double work for myself? Why do I need both, why can't I use just the word doc? Well, I've answered that question, I need a place to keep notes on things that happen in class that I can refer back to. I need an ongoing to-do list of things for class, and I need a place to make notes of things I need to order/pick-up. Okay, just talked myself through it. I need to lay out each unit so I now how the year is going to progress and that will be my master plan. But the book with be the day-to-day nuts and bolts of the class. I will keep the book open on my desk so I can jot notes and reminders easily. Okay, that is what I envisioned but I needed to lay it all out. So the word doc plans will go in a binder and will guide the year, but the day to day plans will go in the bujo. That makes a lot of sense and I think it will work for me. 

Well, I've started working on my unit plans. I have them for the 2nd semester from this past year, but the 1st semester we were online and it was a hot mess, so I need to create those. They worked out really well for me and I like having it all laid out to see. Once I get this year's created I shouldn't have to do them again. Just follow along and add things as I go. 

Okay, I needed to work through that and now that I have, I have nothing more to say. Off to start the day.