Planning and prep make things go smoothly

I had to cover for a 12th grade biology class today. They are seniors, so it was pretty easy. In fact, in the lesson plan it said to let two of the students lead the activity.

However, the activity wasn't planned out thoroughly. The activity was a gel electrophoresis. First of all, there was no electric scale in the room. One student went to another science room to pick one up. Secondly, there was no DNA sample. The students ended up not performing the activity. This was okay with me since they were super good students. Plus, what could I do? If I thought of something for them to do, they would probably regect it. They simply chatted the entire period.

This could have been easily avoided. The teacher asked me the day before to cover for him. So he knew he wasn't going to be there. In fact, he was there this morning. He could have set stuff up before he left in haste.

Anyways, I don't mean to bash my coworker. Set-up and prepartion is very important. Even seniors need some structure in order to complete assignmenets.

One thing my supervisor told me yesterday during his visit was to really structure the MET class. Yesterady, I had no plan for that class. I asked the students what they are working on in their regular math class. They mentioned integers and I remembered I had that integers 24 game. I had them play that for a little bit. Actually, it kept them occupied longer than I thought. A few of the students were really into it. My supervisor even got in on the fun. Then I let them play on the computers.

He told me I should structure the period in chunks of time no longer than 15 minutes. They're 6th graders, so they need many stimulations to keep them focused.

Goal for tomorrow: plan for MET tomorrow