Update and Organize Your Curriculum for the Coming School Year

When do you first begin thinking about the school year? What are the first things that run through your mind? For me, I start thinking about my next school year on the fourth of July. You see, throughout each year I keep a legal pad of paper in a desk drawer. This legal pad serves as the place I make all notes about assignments, projects, lessons, and assessments that need some sort of revision. Somehow, each year the fourth of July triggers a reminder that I need to read through and organize all those notes and ideas I put away from the previous year and begin making revisions. This takes time, and can possibly be an organizational nightmare. In order to ease into the upcoming year in a practical and relaxing manner, here are some tips I follow that allow me to focus and organize for what lies ahead.

Create a Rough Calendar

Sometimes it can be difficult to know where to begin. Throughout the entire school year, I am constantly jotting notes in my handy legal pad as I make my way through each unit of study. You could use my legal pad method, or use an iPad app, like Wunderlist, to organize your thoughts by subject or lesson. Either way, by the end of the year, you'll find yourself with a pad full of miscellaneous, useful notes that are waiting for your attention. I will spend the remainder of this article explaining how I convert those notes to organize and prepare myself for the upcoming school year. To begin, I create a rough calendar—an outline of sorts—in order to place each unit in its allotted time/season. Taking my legal pad of notes and each corresponding unit, I place notes in each unit. Some notes lend themselves to immediate revision, while others are notes that may affect group work situations or classroom procedures during instructional time. Once units and corresponding notes are placed into the calendar, I am able to make adjustments to the year’s curriculum. It’s easier for me to move, add, or delete units at this time.    

Compile Lists—Temporary and Permanent

After the calendar is created and units with corresponding notes are placed, I begin to look at each individual unit and make lists for revision. Revisions can include adding or subtracting items from assessments, projects, or individual assignments. These revisions also include collecting resources for new and existing units. At this point, I tend to create two kinds of lists: permanent and temporary. Temporary lists include one-time revisions that are made before instructional time (e.g., resources, assessment/assignment revisions). Permanent lists are often those ongoing items that need to be accomplished before, during, or after instruction (e.g., material collection, procedure/routine establishment, informal assessment time). The lists help organize what needs to be done in preparation for the school year, as well as serving as excellent reminders for me as the year begins.

Conclude the Project—Prioritize, Revise, Order, and File

With the lists in hand, I make sure that the permanent items for each unit are properly noted within the unit materials—this pays off in February and March when things are often really hectic! Next, I prioritize the temporary lists according to the chronological order in which I will teach them. I can then begin tackling each item. For me, this allows me to focus on each unit, and as I make the revisions that I noted throughout the school year, I often find and update other items along the way. As I work my way through my lists, I file away, or save to the appropriate device, each unit in the order indicated by the calendar. Oftentimes, when I have the revised units finished, I make changes to the calendar. When I get to the end of my lists and feel that my instructional units are primed for another year, I finalize my calendar. Although calendar and list making can be tedious, this helps me to take a year’s worth of teaching and break it into meaningful segments that I can work on throughout the remainder of summer. It also serves as a motivating factor to create instructional goals for the upcoming year.    

Lesson Planet Resources:

Get the School Year Started Off Right, How to Calm Back-to-School Nerves, Back to School Printables