At an educators conference here in Phoenix, I heard featured speaker, John Maxwell say, "Educators take what is simple and makes it complicated. Communicators take what is complicated and makes it simple". Response from the hundreds gathered that day was surprisingly affirming -applause, lots of demonstrative nods. Though it may have been a little difficult to hear, most of us knew that the insight from this world renown communicator rang stingingly true. As a substitute teacher of nearly 10 years now (with hundreds of classroom assignment in public high schools), I have seen a broad array of, afterthought or sometime nonexistent lesson plans. Often, in attempt to create a document that reflects an intellect commensurate with higher education training, a teacher will leave a lesson plan that more closely resembles a research paper or beautifully crafted, MLA-formatted essay. Keep in mind, that there is a good chance this substitute has never stepped into your classroom before -never met your students and in many cases, is unfamiliar with attendance systems which can sometimes require the micromanagement of 3-to-4 separate entries. Imagine you as a teacher, walking into another business-context, that you're unfamiliar with and then being required to micro-manage literally hundreds of expected duties in one day (parking, campus, restrooms, attendance, keys, fire-drills, etc, etc.) and then be expected to politely interact with hundreds of students (I had an assignment last week with over 200 students). I know it sounds crazy, but this archaic subsystem that teachers think of as a "necessary evil" is not likely to change anytime soon.
Now, we don't want you to be fuzzy (which is more often than not the result of a lack of forethought or planning), nor do we want you to write unnecessary verbiage (I once saw a lesson plan that was 5 pages long --most of which was the repetition of what was written on the first page). Just BE CLEAR. The goal is not longevity or brevity, but CLARITY. BE CLEAR. And if you create a single page, "at-a-glance", script-like lesson plan (a plan that can also be a practical utensil/script throughout the day) you will be considered a hero by most subs and a "genius" by yours truly. Also, don't write-up a lesson plan and then rewrite another version on the board (often the two conflict creating further fuzziness). Do one or the other, but don't create two copies. I once saw 4 separate lesson plan notes for one teacher and none of them agreed --insanity. Keep it simple and the best way to do that is to plan strategically for sub-days on your off days -when creativity will be at it's peek.
