Thomas Westfall, OCT
As a new educator, I remember being intimidated by planning my first lesson. It's hard to plan for something you haven't done before, you never quite know what to expect. Having gone through several practicums and two years worth of teaching experience, I know you plan both for the end result and what is unexpected.
My experience as a Financial Planner did help me a lot along the way, some of the ideas are indeed very similar. You always start with your goal, where do you want to be at the end of the period be it a school year or at retirement. Then you work your way back from there, this is fundamentally backwards design. What do the students need to learn and experience along the way to get to the end goal, how much do you have to save for your retirement? This is when everything goes to plan, but any good plan can be adapted quickly. What if the students miss multiple days because of the labour issues? What if the stock market crashes because of COVID-19? An experienced educator or Financial Planner won't panic, they'll find a solution and make adjustments. The ideas are very similar when you think of it.
A good financial plan gets reviewed periodically, a form of assessment to provide feedback and make the necessary tweaks. Planning is the same, you see where the students are through assessments and provide feedback to help them grow. It is at this time you need to analyse how you and your students are performing, how is the student supposed to learn if the teacher isn't learning about themselves at the same time? A teacher that sees the ways how they can improve their practice is the kind of teacher that will really make a difference, teaching is a dynamic activity where active participation and analysis are essential.
Upon reflection, I did have a solid basis to plan lessons and units from my own previous experience. I was able to transfer that knowledge to make myself a stronger educator. I have one key takeaway I did learn from my teaching experience compared to that as a Financial Planner, it is that the children are our most valuable ressource and we must do everything to support them along their journey.