ABSTRACT

A key thing that helps new teachers succeed occurs when the students are not in the classroom: lesson planning. College professors are great for helping you plan a lesson focused on academic instruction, but this section will help you plan your day as a first year teacher who is still figuring out how to manage students, let alone teach them the alphabet or calculus. According to Todd Whitaker's research on teaching quality, very little occurs at random in an effective teacher's classroom because they always have a 'plan and purpose for everything they do'. Every single minute should be planned for because even five wasted minutes each day of school leads to hours of lost instructional time over a school year. Some will simply lose focus, which may not be a huge detriment to you, but it could cause students to lose precious learning opportunities.