KISS! Acronym Application to Lesson Plans in the Classroom

 

It's Wednesday, and that means it is "Hump Day!" You are now half-way through your week, and there is light at the end of the tunnel! We are here to brighten your day with Wise Guys Words of Wisdom!

This feature will be appearing on our blog once a week, on Wednesdays from mid August to mid June. The goal is for you to leave with a smile on your face and hopefully a spring in your step to help you finish off the week of school.

The installment is about KISS. (the acronym, not the band!)

One of the hardest things for teachers today is to keep lessons simple. No, we don't mean boring, or dull. We mean the planning and preparation.

Teachers love to be creative, and we are probably the most guilty of this out there. We love to add videos, engaging activities (that are not out of a textbooks), and come up with new ways to keep students attention. But there is a point when this becomes natural and not a black hole of time wasting.

So we want you to apply the KISS rule: Keep It Simple Stupid! When planning your lesson, look at your objective first. If there is a teacher manual that you are required to follow, then there is your prep time (minus any materials you, or the students need). 

If the lesson can be more creative, as long as you stick with the objective, or standard, then go back and look at what you have used before. If it is effective, stick with it! If it needed tweaking, then don't spend more then 10-15 minutes at ideas/resources of how to change it.

In today's society there are so many social media sites where you can find lessons and ideas from other classroom teachers. Here are our favorites: TPT, Pinterest (do a search for what you are looking for), and Facebook (join teacher groups). This is right at your fingertips and it is fast! Plus, you are getting teacher-tested help from those that are in the trenches!

Teachers are creatures of habit, and get stuck in routines. If your planning time seems to take forever, we hope that we offered you a few tips to help you reduce the amount of time for your lessons.

Make sure to stop by next Wednesday for another installment of Wise Guys Words of Wisdom!