"If I could turn back time..."

The way that I am planning my curriculum this year is through backward planning. For example, I know that the AP Psychology test is on May 7th. I want two weeks before the test for the students to review. This means that my last unit test has to be on April 20th. I have a schedule for how many days to spend on each unit. Ideally I will be able to fit in all 14 units without fudging and stick to 4/20/18 as my final unit test.

I have never sat down before and scheduled out my whole year. For the past two years I have stuck to the AP Psych schedule and managed to make most of the milestone dates. However it is an imperfect system, since there was no wiggle room for things like taking a month away from work. Last year taught me how important backward planning could be. Now that I have The Book all ready, it's time to fill it in and start figuring out what I plan to be doing each day.

This is very different than how I approach my life and my schedule. I consider myself to be very impulsive. I love just jumping into things and seeing what works and learning from what doesn't. I have had some wonderful adventures this way. I also have many regrets. There are many things I wish I had done differently.

Backwards planning for a school year is reasonable. I know how many days I am teaching, what I plan to teach and how. I just have to map it out by units, weeks and days. It is a lot harder in life. I don't know what my last day on earth is. I have to figure it out as I go. But I have been trying to get better about scheduling things in advance.

What I am not so good at is letting things go. I never would have called myself a perfectionist, but I want my teaching to be a very certain way. I want my handouts to be a certain format, my notes to be presented clearly and I want to make sure that I review everything. I am not as exacting with my students, (though I should give them some better structure). I have learned that I cannot maintain my own standards and get through all the grading, all of the paperwork and still be a good teacher. I have to let somethings go.

This year  I am going to try and use my summer to have my year mapped out. I am going to backward plan all of my classes. However, I am doing it all in pencil, because things will change and I will be flexible. I also will not regret what I haven't done. I will simply learn and move forward.

You know, like it's that easy.

Well at least today's song was a no brainer.