The Lesson Plan
It has come to my attention that many principals are telling teachers what must be in their lesson plan. Let me clarify what the school administrators can demand from the teacher.
The administrators can RECOMMEND not tell the teacher what should be in his or her lesson plan. Moreover, the lesson plan must be made available to the administrators when being observed. That means a hard copy on the teacher's desk or a digital copy in the teacher's open laptop. Finally, the administrators can make sure the lesson plan represents the lesson observed, as long as it complies to the unit and topic being taught. Under no circumstances can an administrator dictate to the teacher what format the teacher's lesson plan should be.
Remember, the administrator can only evaluate the teacher, based on the actual lesson and not the lesson plan. The lesson plan is the teacher's guide to the lesson and not part of the administrator's observation.
A simple one page lesson plan that uses bullet points of the lesson being taught, with a introduction, body, and conclusion, with an exit slip should be sufficient to cover any one lesson.
