My favorite teaching hack for homeschoolers, new teachers, and tutors.

Have you ever been worried about teaching a new topic? There is nothing like trying to teach someone else to show your glaring gaps in knowledge about a topic. Being a new teacher, homeschooler, switching grades or courses often, or teaching in a non-traditional setting like learning cooperatives is challenging because it seems the topic is always new.

WAIT! Don’t send hate mail. I’m not saying good teaching can’t happen in a variety of settings. In fact, I think that the evolving scope of education can be great (especially for kids that aren’t excelling in the traditional paths).

It does create more challenges for those people who find themselves responsible for educating. Because I get that responsibility, I want to tell you my favorite hack to develop awesome lessons without literally trying to add more hours in the day.

Teaching the same old thing has some advantages…

Just like you might be a little worried about teaching a new topic, you know that there is confidence in teaching a concept that you’ve taught before. It isn’t just subject matter knowledge. I think the best gift in teaching a topic repeatedly is being able to anticipate the parts where students might have misconceptions or gaps or just find the topic difficult to understand.

This anticipation helps you create lessons that have the correct pacing and emphasis. You know where to stop, you know when to add more examples, you know when hands-on learning is best.

If you aren’t in a traditional setting where you are teaching the same material for maybe the third or more year in a row, it can be almost impossible to find that rhythm. If you have ever spoken to a new teacher or homeschooler, one of the first words they will use to describe their journey is overwhelmed. Let’s talk about my favorite hack.

How to use my favorite teaching hack for new topics

Even though my focus is science (and especially biology lesson plans) this works for any subject. When I’m working with a topic that I don’t teach on the regular my favorite thing to do is to search out some good strong sub plans. That’s right. I don’t immediately go towards this amazing lessons that are hands-on and interactive and engaging in ways I’ve never thought of… because they might be great, but they are probably going to sit in a pile on my desk with their friends that were also NEVER completed.

Substitute teacher plans are perfect for the person that is new to TEACHING the material. You could have a Ph.D. in the topic, but if you have never presented it to kids you can easily spend more time stumbling than teaching. Most sub plans are designed so that someone without ANY experience with the kids or the material can be successful. This means that you are probably ahead of the game in at least one of those areas.

>>>Check out this FREE Sub Plan Sample<<<

What do sub plans look like?

They will typically be a style that allows you to take a step back and work as more of a coach than the old “sage on the stage” version of teaching that we all have come to equate to learning. As a coach, you are there to encourage them. You are not there to provide all the answers.

Was that a sigh of relief I just heard?

My sub plans

Focus on a video playlist. They assume that the person following the lessons has NO Background knowledge. This allows you to provide an expert teaching experience without all of the expert responsibility.

Keeping Learning Active

Sitting back and watching videos can be good for some students, but we know writing things down helps to solidify concepts and helps to remember them later. I try to include notes or activities to go with the videos. This keeps the kids tuned in and not zoned out.

Following Up

Sub plans are designed so that kids are spending time on task while the regular classroom teacher is away. That means that they have follow up and extension activities to keep even earlier finishers learning. In my biology lesson plans, I have used coloring and labeling pages, interactive notebook components and research articles as additional learning activities. Research articles are my favorite additions to sub plans.

The goal of these science lesson plans is to keep learning moving forward independently of who is the teacher in the room. That’s why we should all be using them!