You Can Have A Life Outside Of The Classroom

*GUEST POST: Chelsea (🇨🇦) McLeod

You Can Have a Life Outside of the Classroom

You Don’t Have to Be Overwhelmed by Prep and Lesson Planning as a New Teacher with Schoolio.

That age-old idea that teachers have it easy, that all the lessons are planned out for them, and that they spend their time teaching from a book is deeply engrained in our culture. Nevertheless, this is a misconception that many people have about teaching, especially in Canada and the US. While this is the way it was many years ago, in recent years, there has been a shift in Outcomes-based Education (or Common Core as it’s called in the US). This means that each state or province has Outcomes and Indicators that must be achieved in each grade level, but the resources and the lessons that guide the students toward these goals are up to the Teachers. This shift in the world of K-12 Education has made the Teacher’s job distinctly different than that of our predecessors. It can lead to panic, overwhelm and burnout among those entering the profession. Does this sound like you? Schoolio can help! You can have a life outside of the classroom! 

Finally Landing the Job of Your Dreams, Now You Can Teach, Right?!

So, you have wanted to be a teacher for as long as you can remember, and finally, you are hired for your first teaching contract. Fantastic! You have dreamed about this day, worked so hard to get here, and you are so happy because now the hard part is over. The countless all-nighters, the endless hours reading textbooks, and the monotonous multi-page lesson planning will all have been worth it. Finally!

You are hired! Now you can relax, enjoy the job, and take pleasure in the goal you worked so hard to accomplish because Teachers have access to resources and lessons that student teachers do not. You have made it into the “club” and will be given all you need to teach, right?! Or at least that is what you thought would happen. You are not alone in this. We all thought this was the deal once we finally got that elusive teaching contract.

I mean, we grew up with the old way of teaching. When we went to school in the ’80s, 90s, and even early 2000s, there seemed to be minimal lesson planning; the teacher was given the resources package and books to follow. This style of teaching is often referred to as “teaching to the middle” the lessons and work were geared to the majority, but that didn’t leave room for enrichment or supporting students who needed more help. Over the last decade, there has been a significant shift in the how and why of teaching, so this is no longer the case. Now, what does that mean to you?

I’m Sorry, I Have to Prep for What?

Well, that means that once you are given your teaching load, realize that this is now where your lesson planning and prep work begins. You have not made it, not in the way you had previously thought. It would help if you planned topics, unit plans, lesson plans and assessments on your own to help students achieve their grade-level Outcomes. Now is when you begin to feel overwhelmed and start to panic. Who has time for all of this? Wait, you can have a life outside the classroom? How is one teacher supposed to do all this lesson planning while grading, connecting with parents and meeting all other deadlines? Because we all know that as a teacher, you are responsible for more than just what goes on within the four walls of your classroom. 

While you were prepared to lesson plan in university, it was only for some classes, not an entire grade of subjects and not for the scope and sequence planning of a whole year of curricula. So, with the knowledge that you may be in over your head, you try to dive headfirst into your Prep.  ELA, Math, Social, Science, etc., but what if you have a split grade? Well then, all these doubles, triples or even quadruples if you are in a rural setting. Teachers are also expected to teach to each student based on their individual needs, there is no such thing as a classroom of 3rd graders who all perform and read at a 3rd-grade level, but that is a post for another day. To meet all the needs and plan accordingly without losing your sanity, you spend hours on Pinterest looking for ideas or spend a fortune on TPT and still can’t keep up. Anyone in this situation can become so completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work that there aren’t enough hours in the day to do it all.

“Wouldn’t it be great if there was somewhere that I could go to get lessons and resources that I could just use?”

Schoolio Can Help!

What if I told you that there is a digital platform that can help? Schoolio has a digital platform bursting with resources you can use in your classroom! You do not have to do it all yourself. Schoolio has levelled resources for each grade, with lessons created by certified teachers and available to use right now. All this is at your fingertips; now you can. 

You can pick and choose the content you need based on the levels of your students and differentiate based on student interest. While there are other sites like TPT that you can purchase lessons and units on, it is often hard to sort through all the content to find what you need. Sometimes you must buy an entire unit or bundle just for one or two lessons; you can also purchase something only to find out it’s not what you had hoped since there isn’t a way to try anything out. Schoolio has set out to change this. Now you can use your time more intentionally and have a curriculum at your fingertips to support you in the classroom. And what’s more? For a limited time, you can try it out for free!