The joy of lesson planning

vs the feeling of inconvenience.

Photo by ameenfahmy on Unsplash

Thoughts and musings

There are not many vocations where each day is incredibly unique. I suspect this is one of the many reasons why educators choose to devote their career choice to that of teaching. Because, it isn’t an easy route to take. With at least a year dedicated to gaining the introductory professional qualification, as soon as you decide you are in, your feet barely touch the floor. Teaching is renowned to have a gruelling day-to-day schedule, a reputation of the blurring of the lines between when you are ‘on’ or ‘off’ duty (so to speak) and a heightened emotional attachment to daily outcomes - as this is pupil’s lives we are dealing with and there is nothing more important.

Now, ‘Glimmers in Education’ is a title deliberately chosen as a result of my experience observing the light becoming dimmed within a number of colleagues over my 16 years as an educator. My rationale in my weekly blogs is to attempt to ignite some of this again, for those who may at times feel rather disillusioned or in a bit of a rut. I have been there myself, on many occasions. My offering today is the joy of planning.

Almost two decades in education has taught me a lot! Probably the most prominent of this is the cyclical nature of many approaches, theories and trends in education. As I embarked on my PGCE in Primary Education in 2008, it was clear that planning was a focus-point on the course agenda. As students, we would be required to write copious lesson plans, detailing the minute-by-minute actions of every single child in the room. From the moment that they picked up their whiteboard and pens to the second that they punctuated their final full stops. It was intense and saw me living on a diet of Red Bull and Dairylea Dunkers as I typed up my plans furiously until the early hours of the morning. Anyone with me?

Now, I would not advocate a return to the extent of this nonsensical approach, which swallowed up hours of precious time on justifying every single action to a senior teacher/observer/inspector. However, I can’t help but feel that the positives of the rationale behind the focus on the importance of planning has been lost in recent years. It is not adhering to a cyclical pattern. And, I know what I feel is to ‘blame’:

• Privatisation of planning resources and platforms.

• The rise of AI (namely Chat GPT).

• Increase of administrative demands on teachers.

It is important to note here that I am not in disagreement of resources and platforms that support teachers with their lesson planning needs. There are some amazing educational specialists out there who are saving teachers time and up-skilling practitioners simultaneously - and these are truly a gift to the profession. Equally, I understand that AI is advancing rapidly and it is important to gain knowledge of the ways in which this can support educators as well as having an awareness of the world that the pupils we teach are growing-up into. I can also see how AI can support schools with bullet point 3 - so it certainly is not all bad!

More so, I believe that the above points are denying educators, and the pupils who they teach, the opportunity to find the true joy that lesson planning can have in the lead up to, the delivery and the outcomes of lessons which truly connect with a cohort’s learning experiences. All too often have I witnessed frazzled teachers downloading plans and presentations from paid platforms that match the learning objective which needs to be covered, minutes before a lesson and delivering this to their classes with a differentiated worksheet to be completed, marked and stamped. Imagine this - every lesson a day, five days a week. It is robotic. It is joy-less. For everyone involved. When I have questioned said practitioners about this approach I have often received the same response, “It saves time.”

Planning itself appears to have become a chore. An inconvenience. An administrative task. And, I get it. It takes time and I can’t profess to have never fallen victim to downloading a lesson and resources from one of these ready-made sites to save me some precious minutes. However, I truly don’t believe that this should be common practice. After all, couldn’t AI do this for us? If we are merely delivering a lesson, are we really teaching?

Ideas and practical suggestions

So, how can we ensure that lesson planning sparks joy for both ourselves and for those who we lead/work alongside? Below are two suggestions which I hope can be actioned with minimal time spent preparing. Think of these more as a shift toward raising the importance of engaging with the lesson planning process to increase both the enjoyment and purpose of crafting learning experiences which place a value on teaching, rather than delivering, lesson content.

1. Ensure the planning process is given the time it needs - and deserves.

I was reminiscing with a previous colleague (and very dear friend) over the festive period about the “golden era” when we worked together. We both hold a similar number of years of teaching experience and therefore had ingrained in, and modelled to, us the importance of the planning process. We were also quick to acknowledge the number of hours we spent on this but, as I hope to offer today, we can now see where advancements in technology could have helped us with the less “faffy” bits.

Back to the joy. This was an era where planning was at the centre of all that we did. Data, reports, parent meetings, sports day, class assemblies and the rest of it still existed, but they were consistently second to our engagement in designing learning experiences. It was what got us out of bed in the mornings and helped to take the edge off the extra time spent on the laptop on a Sunday afternoon. The buzz we felt when teaching the lessons we had thoughtfully curated, the flurry of chatter as we reflected on them in the staff room at lunch and hearing the children still talking about the lesson as they met their grown-ups at the end of the school day. I felt I was living my purpose every day.

Now, reality check. Not all lessons are going to elicit this level of joy - even when there is more support available to compliment the process. However, in the portion of lessons in a week, I would hope that the percentage of these are higher than those experiences which feel like ‘going through the motions’.

• So, how can the planning process be elevated in the ever-increasing expectations of an educators role?

  • Time. Plain and simple. If it is important - make it important. This often comes from the top. I am a true believer that the best lesson planning happens when two or more educators are involved. Curating relevant, exciting and meaningful learning experiences demands creativity, the bouncing around of ideas, a network of knowledge. This is where the buzz happens. It is palpable. An idea builds on an idea builds on an idea. The glimmers are everywhere!

  • Logistics in schools can be tricky. It is not always feasible to have teachers who need to plan together available at the same time. However, if it is deemed important, time can be made. If leaders can be flexible with timetabling or intentional with staff meeting time¹ opportunities for teams to come together is possible. In the golden era I refer to above, we were given a day out of class every term, in our Year Group team (with the input also of the additional adults who worked with us) to create our Medium Term Plans. These were some of my favourite days of the academic year. Armed with paper, pens and a protected day to get creative we would whittle away at the curriculum to create 8 weeks of learning experiences which we couldn’t wait to get stuck into.

  • Now, I am going to sound old-school here, but my next pitch would be for paper and coloured pens. My first article, ‘Writing by hand’² explores how the written word can benefit your brain and I would add here that the collaborative, often messy nature, of physically building on an idea, scribbling it out, rearranging and reforming it until it becomes something that all involved own, has a real place in the process of these initial plans. To go a step further, taking these plans along to the next intentionally planned whole-school staff meeting and sharing them with other Year Groups and Key Stages. Not on a shared virtual drive but on the floor, on the wall, on the table. The whole creative process in its raw and authentic glory. With pens! So that further ideas can be offered or considered. We understand the importance of collaboration for our pupils - the same stands for us, as educators.

2. Carefully audit the platforms and resources which staff are using to enhance learning experiences.

As I wanted to make crystal-clear in my thoughts and musings, I am certainly not opposed to high-quality platforms and resources which serve to support, enhance and add value to an educator’s experience of lesson planning. My concern is the vast range of subscriptions that exist which are not necessarily being used by educators in the intended way or that are being seen to replace the lesson design process and are labelled as “doing the planning”. I have witnessed first-hand, practitioners “getting the planning done” on their PPA time and this has consisted in logging in, typing the objective, downloading the slides, uploading to the shared drive, printing the differentiated resources and moving onto the next subject.

This devastates me for a number of reasons. It is administrative. Which, in my experience, so much of the profession is edging towards as teachers are given more and more responsibilities which used to sit with other members of an educational organisation whose job most probably no longer exists. Back in the day primaryresources.co.uk was a teachers go-to. Then came the TES. I used both. Religiously. However, at this point, these resources supported my lesson planning skills. I was a new teacher. I was learning. I would see the resource as an outcome and build my lesson to the point where the children could complete it. As I became more confident, I would create my own resources. More confident still? Who says there needs to be a worksheet?

When educators are not even engaging with the content of these ‘trusted’ sites though, there is an issue. Are they confident with the content? Does this Year 4 PPT about fractions suit the children in this particular cohort? Are all of these learning steps accurate? I have worked with a number of teachers whose first port of call is to always visit these sites, deleting a couple of slides, changing the date at the top and they truly believe this is planning. When we have tried to make these pre-made lessons personalised to a particular class I actually think this process is more difficult than planning from scratch - and it certainly isn’t joyful.

Now, I am a realist. That is also what I want my ‘glimmers’ to be - relevant to the current demands in education. So, I know there is a place for pre-made lessons and resources. Instead, it is the auditing and intentionality of where precious money is spent when seeking to upskill, inspire and support educators in the planning process - rather than having this handed on a plate.

• So, what might need to be considered when auditing subscriptions, platforms and resources?

  • How much of what is offered on the platform is ‘ready to go’? This would be my red flag number 1. Once again, this is not to say that there is not a time and a place for a ready-made lesson and there is not always a valid reason to ‘re-invent the wheel’. If the content on the site is trusted it really can be a time-saver. However, are there opportunities within this resource for teachers to engage with the planning process? Or do you have supplementary offerings which seek to aide alongside upskilling teachers? I have spoken previously about a purposeful appraisal process³. Can part of this conversation be about how teachers plan? Which resources they are accessing? The proportion of the planning that they are actually ‘doing’ - and what the ‘doing’ looks like.

  • Are educators being upskilled by the offering? As discussed above, there are so many exceptional educationalists who are creating high-quality resources, informed by research, experience and feedback. These get my vote every time. Being effective in the planning process should not be a stand-alone staff meeting or a series of webinars to watch, existing out of context. Just as we began our journey into being an educator on a University course, continuing to learn about the theory and application of the planning process should be happening simultaneously alongside our day-to-day development. Finding resources which encourage teachers to reflect, create and try something new (in real-time) I would argue, is some of the best professional development out there.

  • Does the platform promote collaboration and conversation? In my experience, planning can often most feel like a chore when done alone. Not necessarily the ‘fleshing out part’ but the initial curation. The landing on an idea. The gaining of different perspectives. Without this, it can feel like a slog. So, now you have ensured that the resources available to staff are of a high-quality and promote continual learning, how can these important conversations be prioritised? Once again, like most things, this comes back to time. Ensuring that when teams come together they have time for a chat about the plans they will be creating. In my experience, having a planning meeting opportunity works best at least a week and a half ahead of the delivery of the lesson. This chance to thought-shower does not need to be long and laborious. More, the teacher having looked at the objective and seen what resources are there to support in advance and sharing initial ideas/asking premeditated questions, to gain the importance of clarity and that first little glimmer of excitement to get building the lesson. Magic.

  • My final offering is linked to the use of AI. As shared above, I understand that AI is rapidly advancing and that there are some amazing ways in which it can support the profession. What concerns me is the application of AI tools to ‘cut corners’ and save time in the planning process. Asking AI to generate lesson plans - and then not engaging with these at all, is the same as blindly downloading these aforementioned lesson packs. The de-skilling which this presents, if actioned consistently overtime, is a real worry. Now, I do understand the argument that the collaboration element could be between a teacher and an AI tool (ChatGPT for example) but there is something that really saddens me here, that we may be prioritising these magical thought-generation moments with a machine rather than another skilled and impassioned colleague. I have a future post up my sleeve about the importance of the ‘model text’ in the writing process but for now, I would also highly discourage the promotion of AI creating this for teachers. In my view, if as educators we are not willing to experience, first-hand, the process of creating for example, a portal story linked to the Ancient Egyptians, how can we truly understand what we are asking of the children who we are hoping to inspire to do so?

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I would like to share some of the amazing platforms and resources available to support lesson curation and generation, which truly place the educator’s professional development at the heart of all that they create. I would highly recommend taking a look into these exceptional resources.

As always, I would love to keep the conversation going in the comments below. Please do add any further suggestions.

• Mary Myatt

Mary is an inspirational education adviser, writer and speaker who shares ideas, support and resources linked to the curriculum. You can visit Mary’s websites below and if you have not already done so, ensure you subscribe to Mary’s weekly Substack.

• Nikki Gamble

Nikki is the Director of Just Imagine and is a former teacher (secondary and primary) and university lecturer, with over 40 years’ experience. She holds a wealth of knowledge about various aspects of children’s literature and curates fantastic resources and lesson planning ideas seeped in possibilities for professional development, which elevate and raise the profile of the teaching of reading

• Bob Cox

Having taught English for 23 years, Bob Cox is an independent education consultant, writer and teacher coach who has created the quality English curriculum, ‘Opening Doors’ which seeks to ensure that ‘access and excellence is at the heart of entitlement’.

• Pobble 365

Pobble consists of a team of teachers, writing experts, and edtech enthusiasts whose mission is ‘to foster a love of writing in as many schools around the world as possible’. The platform is home to free, ready-made writing prompts for every day of the year, as well as hosting a number of live writing lessons and planning ideas which are created to inspire.

• Guerrilla Education

I am currently enjoying reading Jonathan Lear’s book ‘Guerrilla Teaching’ after hearing him speak at a fantastic Blue Cow Education’s Primary Leaders conference a few months ago. I thoroughly resonated with his passionate and child-centred thoughts about curating a meaningful curriculum.

• If you are not already following on Substack, I would suggest taking a look at:

Jack Watson - How to be a teacher

Jonny Walker - Trickster Teaching (particularly this post linked to the role of AI in education, ‘What if I don’t want to teach with AI…’)

1. Pragmatic professional development

2. Writing by hand

3. Instructional coaching