Welcome to the All Star Planning podcast. My name is Kelsey, and this is the place where I talk all things teacher lesson plans. Today I am talking about sharing a curriculum calendar with your students to use as a study guide.
Since forever it’s feels like I have been using Google classroom. And Google classroom for me prior to distance learning started out as an extra resource center for my kids to use. So I would put some of my materials on there and then I would curate materials from the internet specifically from YouTube. So that my kids had another place to go to look for help with chemistry.
Kids Don’t Read Textbooks
Part of the reason for this is that I don’t teach out of a textbook. I kind of hate textbooks. And part of the reason is because I know that kids for the most part also hate textbooks. Kids definitely would prefer to watch a video or an animation on a screen than read a book. I am willing to meet them where they are. You don’t like books. Don’t worry kids. I got ya. So, so, um, that’s what Google classroom started as, but I very quickly realized that the more information I gave my kids the easier my job was.
Sharing Your Curriculum Calendar with Students
And I know that that sounds counter intuitive, that me giving them more information actually creates less work, but here’s why. I was already making myself a curriculum calendar. It’s part of the All star Planning Method. I talk about it in my free masterclass that you can find at plan.kelseyreavy.com.
But I already had this curriculum calendar pretty much made. And I figured if I share it with the kids, then they would know when their next test was, they would know what’s going to happen on Wednesday the 16th when they have to be out of school for an orthodontist appointment, they are going to know how many labs were doing that month and how that kind of gets wrapped into their quarter grades and averages.
Information is Power (and less work for you!)
The more information I gave them. The less work I had to do. So I never really felt like I had to talk to the kids about what was coming in the next month. I still do, but not all that much because I have a calendar. And when I do talk to them, I pull up the calendar. So there is a visual to go with it. So this calendar, let me explain.
How My Curriculum Calendar Looks
It is a Google slides presentation. That has a five by five grid on it that represented them month of September or October, whatever. And I fill it out and it’s all color coded. I spoke about it in a podcast episode five or six, possibly seven. I will link it in the show notes and in the video description bar, if you were watching on YouTube. But this calendar has been earth shattering life-changing because my kids know exactly what to expect from my class.
There’s almost never a question of “wait, when is our test?” Because there’s a calendar. “Wait, we have a lab today?” We have a calendar. The calendar answers all of the questions, right. So I can use this calendar to communicate with students, what is coming at them, what they can expect, how, um, their grades are going to be calculated. Because they can see the assignments they know when their vocabulary is due, when they’re going to have their next quiz, next test, next lab. All of that is laid out for them.
Use the Curriculum Calendar for Communication
I can also use it to communicate with administration of what my schedule looks like. Especially when we are looking to make appointments for observations or IEP meetings or whatever. I can send a calendar and say, “Hmm. This day is not a good day for me. It’s a green day, which means it’s a lab day. Can we pick a white day? That’s just a teaching lesson. Oh, preferably can we pick a purple day? Cause that’s a review day.”
You can color code your calendar, however you like, but I use it to communicate with everybody. I use it for guidance, I use it with parents – I love using it with parents. Because so far in my teaching career, I have never had a students’ parent. As far as I know, know chemistry.
The coding system and the calendar I work so that I can very easily communicate with parents. They can check out the calendar through Google classroom. And learn when their kid is having their next task or when their homework assignments are or any of these things. And I love that because I don’t have to communicate in chemistry, lingo. I can just say, Hey, here’s a look at the calendar. All of the blue days, our tests, and then parents know, “Oh, I shouldn’t let them go out with their friends Wednesday night because they’ll have a chemistry test on Thursday first thing in the morning.”
A Course Calendar Will Help Students Understand their Grades
Are you seeing it, are you hearing it, are you loving it? So this calendar specifically with my kids is fantastic because they know exactly what’s coming at them. They know all of their tasks, their assignments, and then. My lab, these are green days, so they can look at, let’s say it’s the end of October, beginning of November, whenever the quarter changes. I think it’s the beginning of November.
And they can say, okay, that was first quarter. And there are 10 labs in first quarter, let’s say labs represent 20% of their overall grade. They know that each lab counts as two points. If there were only three labs in a quarter, I can’t do that math very well, but it’s. Seven ish points. No, not seven. Almost seven. It’s like six ish points, a piece. So they can kind of calculate how important assignments are when they can see them all laid out. Which I love I’m here for a visual I’m here for color coding.
Calendar Helps Absent Students
Another reason I love this calendar is because it helps me when kids are absent. So because my Google classroom is really just like a giant resource center, I can have a kid look back at the calendar on Tuesday the 14th and be able to say, Hmm, Okay, Mrs. Reavy taught lesson 4.8. I should go look at everything that has a 4.8 on it. I should make sure to get all the copies that go with less than 4.8. And it’s all there.
They also will go to like the absent student center in my classroom, pick up the copies of, they need specifically the things for 4.8, put them in their notebooks, look back at Google classroom, fill out the notebooks, watch the video. Everything’s there. I love it.
How to Make A Curriculum Calendar You Can Share
So you’re asking Kelsey, how does calendar look?
The calendar that I share with my students is the exact same calendar that I use myself. So I will have all 10 months of the school year. In my Google slides calendar. But I am only working with two at most three months at a time because I don’t want to get too ahead of myself. I like to get ahead, but not too far ahead. Cause I know that things change.
So, what I will do is share this calendar with them. I create a big box. That they can’t it’s there looking at the calendar in view, only mode. So they can’t adjust things at all. They just get to see my product. So I put a big box on top of things that I’m not ready for them to see yet. And that’s it that’s really it. When I get a date from the English teacher about, uh, the AP presentations that happen. In like January, I think I add them to the calendar and then this way, when I’m planning, I can see the calendar and I know what’s coming up, but also the kids kind of, sort of have an idea of what’s coming up, but they’re only looking at one to two weeks at a time.
Unit Planning for Students = Study Guide
I really don’t like the idea of giving kids information super, super early. So in addition to the calendar, I give the kids a printout, which looks nothing like a calendar. And it’s actually really simple. So if I were teaching unit seven, this print out would just be for unit seven. I just give them one unit at a time because. Again, I don’t like to get too far ahead of myself, but I think kids work best with a little bit of foresight. So to be top, it says. Units, Evan matter and energy, then I’ll list all the vocab words that they are responsible for learning by the end of the unit. And that they have to write for their homework assignment. I spoke about vocabulary recently. I will link that in the show notes. Slash video description.
Then they have a column for date and title of the lesson. So it’ll say lesson 7.1, which is chemical and physical changes in properties. And we learned that on February 1st, let’s say. So that is the first column. And then the second column is their learning target, which is always in an “I can” statement. Then I have their homework assignment. And I do that for every single lesson within a unit. I usually, um, darken the line between weeks so they can kind of look at it in that format, if they like. And that’s pretty much it. So they can look at just one unit at a time, everything that they’re responsible for, or they can look at the calendar.
Use Your Curriculum Calendar as a Study Guide
The reason I love the printout is because it doubles as a study guide. Learning targets, (another podcast episode that I will link) are basically a giant checklist of things that kids are supposed to learn. . If I want the kids to be able to show me their knowledge of the unit matter and energy. All of those learning targets for that unit should cover everything that’s on the test, theoretically, if you’re doing it well. This unit map that I call it, or homework sheet. I don’t actually know what I call it. It changes every single day, every single year. But this print out is a study guide.
In the first like week or so of school, I talked to the kids about how to study. I give them study tips. I talked to them about these unit maps and how they’re a checklist. And I actually did it for my midterm. I looked specifically at the midterm and told them which learning targets were going to be on the midterm that they needed to know. And the kids did really well, the kids loved the list. They like the organization of it. They liked that the learning target I gave them was specifically tagged to a lesson that they could go back and look at on Google classroom and in their notes.
Learning Targets are a Checklist of Things that Must be Mastered
So the learning targets on these maps in a giant list, just act as a big checklist. So when the kids are studying, they can say, “Hmm, do I know the difference between chemical and physical properties? Check. Yes, I can. I can do that. Do I know the differences between chemical and physical changes? Mm, that one. I’m not so good at it. I should go back to lesson 7.1 and review.”
Because I have these unit maps, print out things that I give to the kids, there are a few things that I don’t need to do anymore. The first is, think about when my test is because it’s already been determined. It’s already marked on my calendar. It’s done. I do not have to answer the question. “Ms. Reavy when is our next test?” I don’t have to think just. Like it just falls out of my mouth and I say, “look at the I look at the map, look at the printout.”
The Curriculum Calendar is a Study Guide (with tiny manipulations)
I also post the printout on the wall in my classroom. So it’s very easy for kids to know “what are we doing today?” It’s printed for them for their reference. So they know, um, “what did I miss?” I don’t answer that question anymore. Go look at the map,go look at the calendar. I don’t write homework on the board. You know why? Cause it’s on the map, it’s on the calendar.
It’s there. They should know. And then finally, my absolute favorite part is that I don’t have to create a study guide for the kids. I do make practice and like review stuff for them still. Usually my review stuff is a test from last year. I just print new copies of i t and then that becomes their review assignment. But specifically a study guide, like you need to know X, Y, and Z in order to do well on the test. I don’t do that because that’s what that print out is. The list of everything they need to know to be successful on the test. So my life got easier. Just by doing these tiny little maps and giving the kids more information.
Kids are Grateful for an Organized Teacher
And honestly, I have had so many kids say to me, “Oh, I wish all my teachers did this.” I’ve had administration say to me, “This is awesome. I wish we had more teachers doing this.” It’s hard to do. I’m going to tell you it’s hard to do. It’s hard to be able to commit 15 days of school and say, this is what I’m doing the next 15 days. That’s tough to do. It takes practice. And what it really takes is a very strong firm, foundational, reliable curriculum. And I have that because of the All Star Planning method.
So really what happens, you get your standards in order, you get your units in order. When you create a calendar for yourself, you just kind of modify it a teeny tiny bit to give to the kids. Boom. Life is easy. So, if you were interested in learning more about the All Star Planning method and how I plan my curriculum, you can take my free masterclass. It is called the All Star Planning, introductory masterclass. And you can find that at plan.kelseyreavy.com. It’s how I show you the five pieces of the All Star Planning method come together to help you build a strong foundational curriculum.
Curriculum Planning is DIFFICULT
It is very difficult to be able to say, this is what I’m teaching for the next 12 days. It’s not easy at all. It took me quite awhile to figure out how to do it. And then to keep these calendar print outs more or less steady. If you’re not totally committed to printing it out, just do it digital, put it on a calendar in Google where you can edit it and make changes. That’s fine. Just let kids know that it’s not set in stone and then it’s probably going to change. That’s fine.
Um, and you don’t have to give them all that information at once. You can just. Drip it out to the kids a week at a time. Even if it’s just a few days at a time and say, okay, this, you always have access to three days. What are we doing three days from now? I’ll be able to tell you that. It does kind of create a little tiny bit of an issue when you have this big, beautiful plan of what you’re gonna do.
And then a kid comes to you and says, “Oh, I’m going to visit my grandma. I’m going to be gone from school for like 10 days. Can I have all the work I’m going to miss?” No kid, you can’t have it. It’s not ready yet. I know what you’re gonna miss. I just don’t have it for you. So if that is a common occurrence, just watch out for that, because that can happen. Um, but. Really what it comes down to is a very strong curriculum. That is reliable that, you know, is more or less how you’re going to do it. Otherwise, subscribe to the podcast. So you don’t miss anything. New episodes come out every Tuesday. And that is all. I’ll see you in the next one. Bye for now.
