I can in some instances. My principal doesn't venture into our rooms much unless she is on a mission or doing observations. I probably could if I felt so inclined to veer off.
I did when I taught preschool SPE. I even had a disclaimer on my lesson plans that it was student led and activities may vary depending on the cooperation of the students and where their ideas may lead.
I can to some extent. I absolutely can at the school I'll be working at next year; it's part of their philosophy. That's one of the reasons my new school is a dream school for me.
I'm not on evaluation this year, so yes. If I were on evaluation, then no. You'd be guaranteed an extremely negative evaluation if you went with the flow like this.
I have only ever been asked for a lesson plan during my three evaluations. So absolutely yes. I do this all the time.
No, we turn in lesson plans and are expected to follow. Early grades have scripted lessons. We have been testing since Feb. In 6th grade during the first 9 weeks the teacher was able to read 1 novel. the 7th grade teacher 0. we test Case21 and ELs weekly plus teacher generated test for data. We have very little time to teach. Teaching is taking Mock state tests and review after.
In my 35 years of teaching my best lessons WERE when I went off "script." The next part best read in a ranting style. During the last couple of years of teaching I got to the point where I hated the start of class, bell ringers, thought of the day, etc. all the "New Age" teaching styles. First most of the new age teaching strategies were/are aimed at the Cognitive domain and Industrial Arts, Shop, Industrial Tech, Technology are best learned in the Psychomotor Domain. Since the verbiage for Psychomotor is different than Cognitive, I fought with a number of Principals and "Guide teachers" who only knew Cognitive verbiage. I can only guess what Common Core (not the standards but the bastardized Common Core curriculum that it is beginning to become ) is doing to the vocational side of general education. Don't get me wrong Common Core standards (and NCLB) were good ideas But were implemented poorly. OK rant is over you may now return to your normal browsing
I feel more comfortable following my plan, of course I have flexibility built in. But it would be totally ok with my principal, she said when she was a teacher she wouldn't never plan like most teachers do, often she would figure out what to do on that morning while she was lying in bed. It worked for her, and she understands flexibility and that you sometimes have to go with the flow. I still want to learn to become more flexible like that, but I do enjoy planning and actually implementing what I have planned (and spent a couple of hours on)
When I started teaching I would make an outline for my lesson plan. Since I knew my subject matter all I needed was a few key words to teach my lesson whether I was teaching Shop or Math I loved Lesson plan books For years I would plan the whole year out and it was right there in my book...... I would make notes as I taught It was just so simple, I knew what I was teaching, I knew the educational techniques, I knew my students' learning styles, I never had to spell it out for a third party (sometimes spelling it out for a third party seemed like having to teach them TOO)
But don't you see how much better it is when everything the teacher does, thinks or imagines is all down in print or even better just scripted completely so they just 'point and say" .Micro manage teachers so we all have our @*#ss covered. Everything you think do and say is in the pill you took today.
Our lesson plans are not too detailed so I can add a number of things if something comes up. One time we were reading a book about animals and one was a rare animal neither my aides or I had ever heard of! We ended up looking up videos about the animal and the students loved it. My principal would not have a problem with something like that even if it wasn't written in the lesson plan.
(Sarcasm) I could train a monkey and a dog to run a "point and say" classroom with me monitoring from home. The monkey would point and the Dog (pit bull) would insure discipline, and I'd be on Skype with a remote control camera. I could wire the seats to deliver a small jolt to sleeping or disrupted students, one press of a button and they be back on task. I wouldn't have to wear pants just a nice shirt and shorts, have a fake back ground that looks like a library ...... The heck with Sarcasm I may market this idea. I can make a million off the backs of children and teachers.(I was still using Sarcasm)
