Over/under: How much planning is really necessary? Part II: Under

Five years into my career now, I must've passed the 1,000 class mark a while back. I've over-prepared for some, and yea, I've underprepared for plenty. Under-preparing doesn't have to be the end of the world: I pride myself at being good on my feet, and often the best discussions result when I just surrender the reins, zip my mouth, and let the kids hash out meaning themselves. But it's still not a good habit to get into.

I'm guilty of a different kind of under-planning this year, though, and it's a mistake I'll never make again.

The week leading up to the first day of school is so frenetic. There are classrooms and offices to arrange, meetings, meetings, meetings, units to plan, meetings, and to top it all off, there's just a little summer left, so I'm trying to savor late evenings, late mornings, and as much time as possible by the water. This year I was beginning a new position as Technology Coordinator, which meant group trainings, more meetings, and colleagues dropping in with questions just frequently enough to keep me from completing any task of my own so long as I was in the building. (And to my colleagues: I loved every second of it, so please don't stop!!)

As the first day of classes loomed nearer and nearer, I knew I should be thinking about my course outline and expectations. My handouts always had been traditional, describing the course, promoting respect above all, outlining the late policy, the revision policy, etc. I recall thinking I wanted to democratize the expectations: allow the kids to define what it means to be prepared, what our discussion rules would be, when it's appropriate to leave for the bathroom. Sounds great, right?

I'm sure it could have been, had I committed myself to doing it. I could have written it down, devoted some time to it in planning the first few sessions. But in that frenetic week before school started, and through the electrifying first week that followed, I forgot. I just jumped right in to classes, and didn't look back.

That was poor planning.

Successful classroom management begins and ends with clear expectations. This is not a corner to cut. We would have been far better off with undemocratic expectations than we were with unclear ones. Time spent early on to establish expectations and rituals, to build a classroom community, is never time wasted.

Lesson learned.