Lesson plans (and plans in general) have been the biggest boon to my life ever. I’ve said “yes” to way too many projects in the span of just a few months. Because I didn’t have an organized schedule in the back of my mind at all times, I committed to too many things, and everything suffered as a result—especially with the added stress of the mess of 2020. I knew something was going wrong by late September, but didn’t know what it was or how to fix it. Well, now I know.
My first lesson in my class on teaching marching band was completely off the cuff, and I rambled all over the place. My teachers, my peers, and I all knew that it was not a good lesson even though there was lots of good content. I knew that I needed to be better than that if I was going to contribute anything meaningful to any team of educators, so for the next teaching assignment, I made my first lesson plan ever. I didn’t think it was possible, but when I left that class I knew I was successful in teaching people about how to teach electric bass to high school jazz banders. Then I went back and read up on lesson plans again in both of my education classes. While I’d designed an effective presentation plan, it didn’t really teach a new skill as much as break down a concept. What I was missing was the sequencing, putting tasks together in an order such that each is easily accomplished while building towards the big skill.
I didn’t really understand sequencing until I saw the example of changing “Hate” to “Love” one letter at a time. Each step still forms a word, just like each task in a sequence still accomplishes something new. I started applying that concept to my daily life this week, and boy have I noticed a difference. I’m far more productive starting the day with easy to accomplish warm-up tasks than when I start the day by panicking about the big assignments due later that week. I’m learning to actually budget my time well rather than just watch it slip away from me. I’ve begun learning the hardest skill I’ve ever faced, but also the most important: organization.