Well hello amazing future teachers and welcome to the third session in this course how to nail the teacher interview. My name is Samara and gal. And again, thank you for letting me share some of my experience and advice with you on your journey toward becoming a teacher and making a difference in the lives of students. In this lesson, I share one of my favorite recommendations. Be creative in your lesson planning. You know, most likely there will be a question asking you what your process is when you go and create a lesson.

There is no one right answer, but there are ways to get this one wrong. So for example, don't let the textbook be the most important part of your lesson plan design. Although there are sample lesson plans in each textbook, they are designed for the typical student. The textbook is not specific to the students in your class. When I was teaching, I didn't like using a textbook. It was more of a reference than the primary teaching tool right?

Also, don't Make lecturing or direct teaching the primary mode of instruction in your class. Although you might see yourself standing in front of class giving a highly engaging lecture while students sit awestruck listening intently to every word you say that is not reality. After 20 years of teaching, I was pretty good at telling stories and keeping my students attention, but never for more than 10 to 15 minutes at a time, I had to mix it up. So what is a good answer for the lesson planning question? I'm glad you asked. Like I said, there isn't one right answer.

But here's what you should include in your lesson plan. Number one, identify the standard you're going to teach. What is that concept? You know, write the standard in kid friendly terms on the board so the kids know what they're learning. At my school we asked teachers to write the essential question. on the whiteboard.

The essential question is the question that students should be able to answer about the lesson when the class is over. Next, open up with a quick warm up lesson. Make this simple thing that is interesting or cool or surprising, don't make it just busy work. The last thing you want is one of your less motivated students getting you upset in the beginning of the class because he would rather talk to his friend instead of doing the boring warmup. You also want to have the kids come in every morning wondering what crazy thing that teacher is going to have them do to begin the class, be creative, even in the warm up. Number three, begin the main activity.

Again, make it different than what other teachers do. Let the interview panel know that what you enjoy most about lesson planning is coming up with creative out of the box activities designed to connect with all learning styles in the classroom that big, include examples such as cooperative learning groups, partners walk around the classroom activities, go outside activities, etc. as an assistant principal, I'm looking for teachers who are creative and innovative in the classroom. The days of the teacher sitting at his or her desk while teaching. Those are gone right. Number four, check for admission.

Make sure there's a part of your lesson plan that has some way for you to check or verify that the students are learning the concept before moving on. It could be as simple as a thumbs up thumbs down check or a formal assessment. If you really want to make points in the interview, and you want to be the amazing teacher as well. Let them know that one kind of assessment doesn't fit on. Some students may know the concept but have a difficult time with test. Unless you're assessing writing ability.

You can find out if a student knows the concept by allowing him or her to orally share their answers instead of demonstrating their knowledge on some kind of test. All right, that's a good point to share in the interview, right? Number five, make it about student discovery, not teacher telling. Common Core is changing how instruction is delivered. And if your lesson plan is focused more on you. Then you won't nail the interview.

I'll tell you that much. You want to let the panel know that you're all about having the kids active in their learning. You serve as a facilitator and a guide on a journey to learning. This kind of teaching will not only impress the interview panel, but it'll make you a rare teacher in this new landscape of education. Eventually, more teacher will step away from the sage on the stage role, but for now, you will be a rare and valuable asset to the school. And number six, very important number six is don't be boring.

I will not hire boring teachers. I'll tell you that much right now. I will not hire you if you are boring. I want to hear in your responses that when I walk into your classroom, the students are engaged in actively participating in the lesson and not sitting at their desk, bored to death. Right? The textbook is boring.

Lectures are boring. I want to hire a teacher who has the students doing more than just sitting at their desk the entire time they're in their class. So let me share seven ways to keep boredom out of your classroom. I've also included these as a PDF download attached to this lesson. Ready? All right, number one, you're trying to keep boredom out of your classroom.

So number one, tell a story. Kids like stories, everybody loves a good story. I love telling stories. I still love telling stories. It's always good to have a cute or funny story in your back pocket for those times when you need to break up things a little bit. It should connect with what you're teaching, but not always.

Sometimes you just need to take a break from the lesson to stop boredom from happening. If you don't have a story, make one up. Create an example that connects with what you're teaching, for example. For example, I was teaching about England and the American colonies and how they didn't get along with each other. They were getting mad at each other and they were talking about war and stuff. And I started with the story.

I said, Listen, guys, I knew this guy, you know, and he had a girlfriend and I compare the relationship between the boy and the girl to the relationship between In England and the American colonies, the kid loved it, and they understood and they were able to grasp the concept a little better because they connect it to a story. Make sure you keep your story short, though, even the best stories can get boring after a while. Number two show a video clip. It's so easy now to find an interesting video clip to show about your subject. Just go to YouTube and you'll find a quick five to 10 minute video that you can use to reinforce what you're teaching. I wish I had YouTube when I first started teaching.

I remember using those a movie projectors with the reels with the you know the tape and that was a mess. So make sure you preview the YouTube video first because you don't know what's out there. Number three is get the students moving. It's tough to sit in a chair for a long time right. When you begin to feel boredom invading your classroom environment, get the students moving have them find three friends across the room and write down their favorite color or food or opinion. It has to somehow relate to the lesson.

But having them move around the room keeps them engaged. Here's a tip. Here's a tip that I learned through experience in the hard ways a lot of time trial and error. Make sure you give them a specific time limits. say, All right, you guys, you have three minutes to find two different people in the room and get their answers to the following question. Insert question here.

Ready? Go. At the three minute mark, you say 10 seconds to get back to your chair 987. This short three to five minute break will keep boredom from selling in. Be creative. be fun.

You love it. Number four, let the students teach. Sometimes kids are just tired of hearing your voice. It's late in the day and you're reviewing for test and boredom. fog is creeping into your classroom. That's when you ask.

Alright, who knows what I'm talking about. Hands will go up. All right, Johnny. What should the class remember most are tomorrow's test. Students will perk up to hear one have their own teach the class. Some will even start to interrupt and add their own two cents.

You just have to sit back and listen. Number five, take the students outside. I used to love taking my kids outside. Sometimes the lesson would lend itself to leaving the classroom and teaching outside on the lunch benches or walking around the school. You know, you can't do it every day or both the novelty wears off. But every now and then taking the kids out of the confines of the classroom is a great way to keep boredom away.

Number six, make it a competition. Boys against girls this side of the room against that side of the room, random team selection. When you include some kind of competition into your lesson. Boredom has no chance. I used to have kids names on index cards, and then I would shuffle them up. And then I would call the names of the kids one at a time I would tell them which team they were on Johnny, this side point to left side room Mary this side pointing to the other side of the room, then I would play what I call the Rangel game.

You know you can create your own game to review for a test or just reinforce that concept again. You can't do it every day. But when you make your lesson a competition, it makes boredom a non issue. Number seven, incorporate cool. Yeah, yeah. Incorporate cool.

What is cool? Who is cool as I write this? Taylor Swift she's cool, right? Taylor Swift is a topic of conversation everywhere. I like Taylor. Remember when the Backstreet Boys were cool?

Remember? Probably not, huh? Because I'm old. I'm old. I remember listening. Boredom hates cool.

Boredom will not be anywhere near cool. So when you see boredom thundering into your classroom, just say, you know, I was talking with Taylor Swift yesterday, or start reciting some of taylor swift lyrics as part of your lesson. Keep an eye out for what's cool. Ask your students about what's in at the moment. Most likely, if you're like me, you'll be surprised. You'll say, Well what about Justin Bieber or one direction or Harry Potter though laugh at you and you'll feel old.

All right, again, I've included these seven ways to keep boredom out of the classroom as a PDF download mentioned one or two of these in your interview, and you'll get some of the panel members to smile when that'd be cool. So a possible question that you might receive in the interview is, please describe the process you take for creating lessons. To Good question. Again, I would incorporate some of the stuff that we learned in this in this session and talk about the cool part, that thing that would be something that would impress the panel. All right, so that's the end of this session, guys. Thank you for hanging in there.

Let me know what you think. I haven't asked this. But if you feel that you're liking this, send me a note. Comment down where were you guys comment? And then I'll be glad to answer you have a question or a specific, something that that you're curious about, put it in the comments, and I'll respond. I will.

I will. Alright, so there you have it. We'll see you the next session, guys. All right. Talk to you later.