Planning

My mentor was telling me that she doesn't write up lesson plans up a lot. She knows what she is doing and has done it for a while now. But every now and again she will write up lessons so she can stay in the habit of doing so and have records of her lessons.
When she writes up lessons, first she begins in her planning book. She will plan her weeks out and decide what lessons she needs/wants to do. She uses the Montessori lesson plan outline which she follows for her lessons in general. It is a lot like any other lesson plan outline I have used. She includes what skills should be needed before the lesson, what skills the lesson will take, and what skills the students will learn. She lists materials and procedures. She includes standards, aims, what outcome should come forth. Extensions may also be included.
I haven't seen what she uses for formal observations. If I have, I can't remember. But she does document everything to keep herself safe as well as students, and then just simply for records. She has confidential notebooks where she might document her observations on a child. She will document dates and times of incidents as well as emails or conversations that could be important for a future use. She will document a child's progress regularly.

She plans weekly by what lessons she wants to give and goes through her planning book and puts those times in. She will also think each week what she wants to teach to individuals, small groups, and large groups and plans accordingly.
Monthly she plans by theme and will add in what she knows is going on such as field trips, holidays, and approximate lessons.
I would say the longest range plan is yearly. She has an idea at the beginning of the school year what each month will be and plugs that into the calendar.

My afternoon

So yesterday I got the challenge of taking over the class for the full afternoon while my mentor teacher needed to leave early. She did hire a sub, but made it clear to the class that I was the one in charge for the afternoon. The sub really did stay in the background. It was a chaotic day to say the least. I think the kids were testing me. But I ended up being more firm then I usually am in the classroom. When my mentor teacher and I talked this morning, she realized that if the class will become so chaotic when she leaves, that means they are relying on her to keep them on task. So today we decided things needed to change up. We went with "killing them with kindness." We noticed how the students need to learn to regulate themselves more so we don't come off too firm. We had a class meeting and my mentor teacher stressed that she did not want to use her grumpy voice today. The atmosphere was a lot better then yesterday. It is a challenge to have a good balance sometimes of being gentle and firm. But I am learning. Classroom management and working with behaviors is definitely an area I'd like to work on this year.