Lesson Planning with Resistant Teachers

When I first became a teacher, I remember taking home all of my resources (teacher's guide, supplemental materials, magazines...) on Friday, spreading them out on the floor, and having a planning-fest in my living room. It would take me hours to plan out the whole group and each of the centers I used then. I was proud of the work I did, and to be honest, I loved it. But, I would always think, "There had to be an easier way." I've taught pretty much every subject and grade level, and each time, I followed this pattern. I left the school system for 3 1/2 years and went corporate. When I returned, I noticed A LOT had changed since leaving, one of them being a new way of lesson planning. Since I was "new" again, I decided I would just copy the best I saw around me. We had a supervisor assigned to our school from the district. She walked into our planning session to model what she called deep planning. She also assembled each person from the grade level to plan together. This was totally foreign to me. She spread out all of the materials that came with the basal. She walked us through the entire week, had us come up with our higher order questions for each page, we found or created the assessments together, and even discussed what a good example of a final product or answer would look like. Again, since I was new to all of this again, I thought that's what we were supposed to do. So, I took it as the norm, and I began planning that way. Naive. But, I'm really glad I didn't know any better. As a reading coach, I brought this way of planning to each school I have worked in. It didn't dawn on me that people just didn't plan on me until I met up with a particularly resistant group of teachers. These teachers wouldn't read the materials ahead of time, bring resources to share, or not show up all together in some cases! I had one really tough year with lots of tears on the drive home, but eventually the teachers have come around to liking the new way. I've learned some tricks along the way for encouraging them to come on board. For one, bring "little presents." If teachers know you will give them some really cool website to go to or a helpful resource for teaching every time they come to planning, they are going to look forward to it. Some of the best "little presents" have been modeling a new strategy to use with their students, a video to use during the opening, and even stuff I've bought or put together for them like a cute pointer to use with their word wall game for the week. Another tip would be to highlight something you observed in the most resistant's teachers class. If that teacher doesn't have much to highlight, FIND SOMETHING. :) I've highlighted the neatest handwriting in a lesson plan binder, the most organized data binder, great anchor charts, fantastic spelling poem... Everyone likes to be recognized. Once teachers see you as a resource and not as an enforcer, things will be smoother.

Have any of you come across resistant teachers? what are your horror stories? How do you encourage participation in lesson planning?