Teacher prep time vs Learning prep time

'Time for teacher to prepare teaching' 

vs 

'Time for teacher to prepare for learners to learn'

Recently a colleague observed a session where the teacher talked to learners for 45 minutes with a very well put together PowerPoint.  The PowerPoint included images from various websites, text that had come from respectable sources (on the internet), it also included visual effects of "spin in", and "cosmic fade".

This presentation must have taken the teacher a good couple of hours.

2 hours preparation for 45 minutes??? This is unsustainable (and also quite boring for the learner, and does not stretch & challenge, with limited checking of learning)

...so - plan for learning - don't plan for teaching.

Plan how your students can access, digest, argue, compare, contrast, communicate and justify the information that you think they "need to know"

There are 100's of ways of getting students to actively engage with this information.  

Try this:

• spend 30 minutes googling a new active learning strategy. 
• spend 30 minutes collating your information (website links, or printing chunks of information for a carousel type activity
• spend 30 minutes writing some really good stretching, challenging checking learning type questions
• spend 30 minutes drinking a glass of wine and putting your feet up, feeling smug that the you, the teacher has planned for learning.

Invest time in googling new active learning strategies and you will save yourself even more time each week!