Anticipate

Anticipate anything. Anticipating potential questions, interruptions, and problems helps you prepare for and lessen unexpected incidents. After all, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” A wise teacher considers and anticipates problems and challenges that could surface in the course of a lesson or activity. Anticipating is not limited to what might go wrong. It also considers questions or misunderstandings students might have. Thinking in advance helps prevent, lessen, or eliminate potential problems. For example, one teacher anticipated the Anticipate and Act https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">

Anticipated Challenge

Contingency Plan

What if a student forgets to bring in materials requested for the special craft project?

Have additional supplies on hand.

Prepare an alternate activity with materials available. This craft then also includes a lesson in responsibility.

You are eager for students to participate in amazing Web Quest activities. What if the Internet goes down or you can’t access the sites?

Plan an offline interactive activity.

Brainstorm a possible Web Quest of your own.

Students are restless, so you want to have an outdoor science lesson collecting rock samples. What if it rains?

Develop your own sample rock collection for students to “discover” indoors.

Make a “rain date” and review instead.

“Mine” for rocks in books or on the Web.

Monday is the much-anticipated field trip to the nearby children’s museum. What if the bus gets delayed in traffic?

Use the delay time on the bus to rearrange the day’s schedule, shortening parts of the trip to make the most of the time left. Flexibility is your friend! P.S. Have students play a guessing game or trivia contest while you rearrange the day.

Your planned and practiced, awesome science demonstration flops. Now what?

Turn this seeming “failure” into a teachable moment. Ask students what they expected to happen in the demonstration. Have them determine causes for what might have gone wrong.

At recess your students were engaged in an emotionally heated soccer game. How do you handle tempers and get them settled?

Set the mood for students’ return to the classroom. Dim the lights. Play soft, calming music in the background, and select a quiet activity they must begin following recess. In this instance, be sure to respond serenely to the post-game friction.