Re-Thinking & Re-Designing Planning

It is summer and I am pondering, ever so lightly, what kinds of adjustments I will need to make next year.  Planning is a piece of the puzzle.

So I was scrolling along and came across a podcast, "Re-Thinking with Adam Grant, 'The anti-CEO playbook' with Chobani founder, Hamdi Ulukaya, from June 20, 2023.  It was a really interesting piece about how Hamdi Ulukaya built his Chobani Yogurt business after moving to the USA. After being detained by police during his university years for openly speaking his thoughts on human rights, he was surprised to be released, as many detainees never returned to their regular lives.  He made  plans to go to France, but instead came to the USA on a chance recommendation from a stranger.  Years later, he was traveling and came across an old yogurt plant for sale. Hamdi spoke in the interview about his thinking on flexibility, and how he believes too much planning could have frozen him in his tracks with self doubt, and gotten in the way of progress for his then new business, Chobani.

As is the way with my teacher brain, reading the transcript, I caught onto a sentence Ulukaya said, "Making plans has never been my thing." in response to Adam Grant, rephrasing some of his story to say.  "I hear you talking about something psychologists call tolerance for ambiguity, accepting uncertainty, not insisting that I need to be in control of a plan at all times."  At this point, I am thinking, "Yup, I get this!"

This concept REALLY spoke to me and who I am.  I am a teacher, a practitioner of Universal Design for Learning, and I think this same tolerance for ambiguity that allows me to be a really flexible designer for my students, is likely a trait that colleagues could find a nuisance at best, a deficit, or even a copout at worst.  I have had days where I know the goal of the lesson I want to teach, maybe even have an idea of how...but I am not feeling completely settled on what book, or tool, the details and then BAM!  I am in the shower, or more likely the car on the way to school when it all comes together and I know exactly how to execute.  Because of this, and the number of times I have written the plan only to have to change it for any number of reasons, I can literally hear myself saying, "Writing out plans is not my thing."  Can you imagine as teacher, hearing a colleague speak these words?  Would you be as mortified as I imagine? 

Yet, here I am speaking them.  I have worked in schools where I had to spend time writing down very detailed plans and submit them to admin. before the week begins, only to be left feeling woefully unprepared to actually teach the lessons because it never seemed like there was enough time to do both (and still have a life with my family)!  And No, I never received any acknowledgement that they actually looked at the plans, except once when they were late, they emailed and asked where they were.  I spent years of undergrad and post grad creating and turning in plans for proposed lessons and sometimes imaginary children.  So perhaps this all feeds my teacher guilt and perhaps shame over not finding this process the least bit essential or even helpful to my own teaching.  

So now, here I am the one who doesn't care to write out plans, practicing Universal Design, and working to help colleagues incorporate more services within the classroom setting as opposed to pull out, while working toward an MTSS model.  And I am literally scared shitless!  I went to a "Co-Teaching" workshop several years back and it was drilled into my head, if not my heart, that planning is key!  A plan where everyone supporting students in this room, knows what the goal is for each lesson and what they need to do to support students is a necessary thing. I have seen colleagues' detailed plans come off the printer while I am retrieving some copies for a lesson that came to me on the way to work that morning, and I know, I just know that what works for me is probably not going to work for a lot of my colleagues who may be supporting my class. (or have I just convinced myself that?  am I making assumptions?). To be truthful, I have worked with many teachers over the years in supporting roles.  I rarely received a written plan, but good communication-usually verbal, and preparation did help a lot!

I'm currently rocking in my glider rocker, circa 2003, green chenille covered padding on a golden oak frame, with my eyes closed as I think and rock and think and rock, how can I design a planning system that will work for both me and my colleagues/ co-teachers?  I don't want to tie myself and the class to a specific routine, just for predictability's sake, and I also want my colleagues to feel prepared.  I want to feel like we can shake it up and use engaging teaching practices, chalk talks, carousel, jig-saw, partner work etc. and not feel like I am throwing the adults off their game.  The trick is time?  right?  I want to not spend so much time writing my plans that I don't have time to carry them out?  or writing down plans I know are still feeling "flexible" to me.  Rock. Think. Rock. Think.

• Maybe less is more?  
• Focus on the Goals.  
• Some goals are best met when we have time to pull together the needed tools or options for students...  If they are a part of the process... maybe that is the plan... ask kids what they will need... 
• Big Calendar Planner with Map of the year... in a visible place for me and colleagues (sorry Google!  I realized, after last year, I need to have some visual accountability in my physical presence!)
• personal goal, don't give up on creative plans!  (I realize I did this last year as I settled into a routine of rotations, which seemed to more easily accommodate support persons).   I want it BOTH ways!!
• Check in with colleagues.. how much detail do they need?  What kind of info is most helpful to them?  when? maybe I am assuming they need more than they do... or the wrong kind.....

It is funny how a letting my mind wander on this subject of planning brings me back to basics.  Talk to my colleagues.  Don't assume I know what they need.  Don't assume they know what I need.  Together we can figure out how to help our students learn to ask for and get what they need... Be flexible, and adapt.