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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
 I have been teaching for 30 years, and a good lesson plan still takes me three hours, especially if I haven't taught that particular lesson before.  Anyone not spending significant time planning lessons isn't teaching all that well, unless they've been teaching the same thing for a long time.  It's got nothing to do with pedagogy.  Lesson planning is largely creative work.  
 [/quote]

Honest question -- why do you need three hours to plan a (I presume) 1 hour lesson?  In what field?   What age student?

The content doesn't change that much from year to year.   [b]Kids don't change that much either. [/b]  Either they are well prepared with strong background knowledge in the subject, and know how to read and write; or they have lagging skills in one or more of those areas.  You and a thousand other teachers are probably teaching the same subject to the same types of students.  I get that it can take some time to put together an interesting unit, but why three hours?   Why every year?  Why keep reinventing things?  Find some lessons that are decent enough to get the job done, and have a life as a teacher.[/quote]

I disagree. Every year, I have a different class. Last year my kindergarteners were superstars. They made me look good. This year is going to be an uphill challenge. Yes, the curriculum is the same but I am going to have to do A LOT more pre-teaching of everything before I even get to the curriculum. We are also going to have to review A LOT. So my lesson plans from last year won't really help me. It is back to the drawing board. [/quote]

Sure, some years you get a class that is more unprepared and some years, you get all the strong students.

But that happens in EVERY kindergarten.  The kids are 5.  There's only so much range of prior preparation they can have.

You can't reuse the same centers and activities you used for your superstars last year, but all across your school, district, state and country there are teachers who have underprepared K students and you can use their lesson plans.   And in one more year you will either have well prepared or underprepared K students and you can reuse on or the other's plans.

There's only so much range.   Kids don't change that much.  [/quote]

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