The Importance of Planning and Preparation

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” - Benjamin Franklin

I have spent about 10 years teaching and I have caught myself thinking about what makes an effective teacher. Over the years I have become more and more convinced that the key to being a successful teacher, both in terms of the quality of learning you provide, and in terms of maintaining your own enthusiasm and motivation for the work you do, is to make sure you devote enough time to planning. But why is it important?

A teacher's most important trait is confidence. Lesson planning can help a teacher be well prepared and be aware of what they intend on teaching the students. To meet your student's expectations, one must have a good lesson plan, even if at times making it takes longer than the actual lesson.

Planning gives the teacher time to ‘think’ while teaching. It ensures that lessons run to time, all the materials needed are on hand and that students are clearly guided on what they need to do. All this helps to free up moments throughout the day for the teacher to stop and reflect on how the lesson is going, how students are coping and whether any tweaks need to be made.

Thorough planning leads to new and creative lesson plans. Planning often means more time for creativity. It’s easy to fall into the trap of repeating the same activities, time and time again, when they work. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, planning can open doors to new activities and teaching methods that are just as effective or even more. Setting time aside to explore these ideas is beneficial to both students and the teacher.

A lesson plan does not necessarily have to be a detailed script that contains every single word the teacher tells students throughout the lesson. It should preferably have a general overview of the aims and objectives of the course, the plan of teaching and learning objectives and activities of the course. Most importantly, the activities planned to check the students’ understanding. It is like producing a show each day and utilising each minute the teacher has with the students to gain the most out of it in a limited time period. The approach is to teach them as much as they can from the lesson. The driving force behind lesson planning is the motivation for the teacher and the hunger to learn more from students, which is what keeps any great teacher going.

Miss Diana, Year 2/3 Teacher