5 Tips for How to Lesson Plan While Managing Constant Disruptions [Episode 208]

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:01]:
You might be looking at the calendar today and thinking, how are we only at this point in our sequence? And we only have a month or so left until winter break. Or maybe you just did your beginning of the week email check and saw that half of your students are going to be dismissed early Friday for a playoff football game. And then Thursday, there’s a spontaneous pep rally we’re doing before we send them off. And then Wednesday, oh yeah, it’s the quarter to fire and drill. Like, I don’t know about your teaching environment, but I know for me, especially when I taught at a small private school, the disruptions were constant. Like, I really feel like at my large public school, they tried to protect instructional time a little bit more. But I feel like at smaller schools, whether they’re private or public, there’s just so much going on. There’s always a chunk of students missing class for some extracurricular activity, whether it’s a sport or junior leadership or mock trial or government theater performance.

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:59]:
I also swear, too. Like, at my small school, students were doing field trips and other classes every other week. I was like, what is going on? Or, you know, maybe it was something coming from admin. You know, there’s mandatory testing, or we’ve rearranged the bell schedule to accommodate this pep rally or this, the winter awards ceremony. Or, you know, we have these drills we have to practice. And that’s not even to mention spirit weeks. I don’t know about you, but my schools did spirit week in the fall for football and a spirit week in the spring for basketball. It was like, we, we have the spirit.

Rebecca Joyner [00:01:27]:
Yes, we do. And then on top of that, maybe you’re at a school that does random theme days for like, every holiday and celebration imaginable. Like, it doesn’t matter what the day is. There’s some sort of holiday and some sort of dress up that just kind of throws everyone off. And so it can feel like you look at your calendar and you’re like, have we ever just had one normal week where I get to see my students every day for 50 minutes like I’m supposed to, or every other day for 80 or 90 minutes like I’m supposed to? So how on earth are you supposed to lesson plan and run your classes with these constant disruptions to the schedule in your class periods? That’s what we are going to tackle today. So let’s dive in. This is Secondary Science Simplified, a podcast for secondary science teachers who want to engage their students and simplify their lives. I’m Rebecca Joyner from IT’S not rocket science.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:19]:
As a high school science teacher turned curriculum writer, I am passionate about helping other science teachers, love their jobs, serve their students, and do it all in only 40 hours a week. Are you ready to rock the time you spend in your classroom and actually have a life outside of it? You are in the right place, teacher friend. Let’s get to today’s episode. The first thing I want to say is try not to stress about being quote, unquote, behind schedule, okay? And I say quotes because my first question for you to consider is who says you’re behind schedule? Like who’s making the schedule and who is going to punish you if you are behind? Let me give you some examples before you start. Like yelling at your speaker at me, okay? For example, if you teach, you know, biology and it’s EOC course or any sort of course that has like some sort of end of course exam, I get it. Like you are on a schedule and there is very much a deadline for you, okay? And if that’s the case, I definitely recommend listening to episode 116, which is what to do when you’re behind schedule. Like that is for the defined people. Like, you are for sure behind schedule.

Rebecca Joyner [00:03:30]:
But what about for your other classes? Like for me, anatomy, physical science, those are electives. And yeah, there might be standards that we’re told we need to get through, but at the end of the day, does that really matter? Like, am I gonna get in trouble if we don’t get through every reproductive system? Maybe physical science, I need to get through certain things, so I set them up for success going into chemistry one. But like especially some of these elective sciences doesn’t matter. And I’m. I’m not gonna answer that question for you because it may actually matter. But I do wanna encourage you to maybe take an honest look at it. Like, what is the rubric you’re judging yourself on? What is the pacing you’re judging yourself on? And maybe it’s something you’ve been given, but who is following up and how is it affecting your job and your students if you don’t actually get to everything you were told or expected to get to? And you might approach this differently for different classes. So, for example, in chemistry, I personally care more about depth rather than breadth for me personally.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:31]:
So this time of year, I’m often getting emails from teachers that are like, we’re still on unit three and my chemistry curriculum has 10 units. I tell those teachers, hey, if it was me, I would just keep doing what you’re doing. If Things feel like you’re moving at a pace that feels what’s best for your students and your situation. And my goal would be to get through, you know, the first six or seven units. And then if you have time, pick and choose from 8, 9 or 10. If you can squeeze one of those three in. I kind of think the order of 8, 9 and 10 doesn’t really matter for my chemistry curriculum. And I’ve seen a lot of teachers teach those topics in different orders.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:06]:
So really it’s just like the first six of my chemistry curriculum you really gotta do in order. Cause they really build on each other. And then 7, 8, 9, build on everything else, but don’t necessarily impact each other. So that’s how I would handle chemistry. If I’m feeling behind anatomy, I am the opposite. And I’m gonna do a whole episode about anatomy specifically next week. And even if you don’t teach anatomy, I think it can be a good lesson for everybody just to consider. Cause I’m gonna kind of share my thought process for the rationale.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:35]:
But in anatomy, I care more about breadth than depth. So it’s the opposite. I actually care more in anatomy about introducing students to every body system than I care about how deep we get in the body systems. And again, stay tuned because next week I’ll explain why. And even if you don’t teach anatomy, it might still be helpful for you to think through that reasoning I went through. That’s the first thing I would say is don’t stress about being behind schedule. Unless you have like an end of course exam, it may actually not matter as much as it feel like it matters. If you do have that end of course exam, I can understand why you’re stressed and we’re going to address it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:07]:
Don’t worry. Also, a quick note encouragement. If you’re on a block schedule or really any sort of weird schedule. Like if you heard me in the start of this episode, say, like, I’m supposed to see my students every day for 50 minutes or every other day for 80 to 90 minutes. And you’re like, I wish I had that much time with my students. I think it’s encouraging to actually do some math here and calculate the amount of instructional minutes you have. I do this with a lot of teachers who email me and I also talk about it. And I have an episode 149 about teaching on a block schedule.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:36]:
And we actually look at the math because you may have way less instructional time than the average teacher who teaches what you teach. And I think that’s important to know because if you are constantly feeling behind compared to other teachers in your district, teachers in your state, teachers in the Facebook group you’re in, it might not be your fault. It might be because you have way less instructional minutes. So I think that’s worth seeing and calculating and addressing. And if you’re not sure what I mean, you can DM me on Instagram, tell me every week how often you see your students and for how many minutes. If you teach for a semester, if you teach for trimesters, if you teach for a full year, give me some of those details and I’ll help you with that math and explain some of it to you. I’m happy to do that for you. Okay, so first things first.

Rebecca Joyner [00:07:18]:
Let’s just not stress about being behind schedule if at all possible. I know that doesn’t work for everybody. Second, I still want to tell you to make plans, okay? Like, this isn’t one of those things where it’s like, well, I can’t lesson plan because I’m constantly having to change them. They’re constantly getting ruined. I still think it’s worth making plans, but do plan with buffer and some grace in mind. So if it truly feels like this is every single week, maybe when you write your lesson plans, you plan on four instructional days a week instead of five, and then you just kind of go from there. And if you get a little bit more time, you do. I’ve said this before, but, like, I actually think having a plan, even if that plan has to be adjusted, makes the disruptions easier.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:00]:
Because if you’re just constantly flying by the seat of your pants, you’re always going to feel overwhelmed. Whereas if you have a plan in place, you decide how long everything’s going to take, then something interrupts. Now you’re just saying, okay. You just have to make the decision of, okay, do we just skip this activity, move on, or do I push things back a day? You’re just adjusting. You’re not starting from scratch every day. Another thing, too, is maybe you plan in your notes. Like, hey, this is gonna fall around Homecoming week. Homecoming week’s always at some point in October or November.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:28]:
So maybe you go ahead and plan lightly for that week. I remember my first year at a private school. I had, like, tests and quizzes in almost every class. What ended up being homecoming week? Because homecoming week was the week before the end of the quarter. So it was, like, terrible timing for all. And I fought it so badly. And then I realized, like, this is just not serving any Anyone. And So then I wrote in my notes, like, hey, next year either everything’s gotta move up a week, so these tests and quizzes are the week before this, or you just need to plan that these tests and quizzes aren’t gonna fall till in the second quarter.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:59]:
So put in your notes. I recommend also planning in pencil or friction erasable pens if you’re like a pen person. I do love those because I can color code. I like to have a desktop paper calendar and I’ll link one in the show notes, really simple. And I just write like the basics on there. I don’t write like all the details of the lesson plans, but I would like put on there for each class. Like, okay, this Tuesday, it’s like this lab in biology, we’re taking these notes and practicing chem. Like I kind of try to put it there just because I’m a visual person and just looking at things on the computer, it just doesn’t do it for my brain like something written out does.

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:32]:
But plan in pencil so that then you can just erase or draw arrows and move things over as needed. Another thing too, when you’re making your plans and what it looks like, I think to plan with a buffer or plan with grace in mind and is as you’re making your plans, maybe you go ahead and if it’s digital, you kind of highlight it or put it in Italy if it’s something that, hey, if something comes up last minute, I could skip this if I need to so that we can kind of stay on pace. So go ahead and preemptively think like if I have to cut something last minute because this lab takes longer than we thought or we have all these interruptions, this is what I would cut out. Making those decisions in advance can really serve you in the future. Now if you’re listening to this and you use it’s not rocket science resources. Over this past year, 2025, I wrote differentiation guides that now come with each bundle. So re download the bundles. They will be if you purchase on tbt, it’s in the bonus files.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:24]:
If you purchase on my website, it’s just like in a folder called bonus files, I believe. And it has like a bunch of stuff in there, but the differentiation guides in there, it’s usually. It’s like a 20 plus page PDF and for each unit, I go through and I highlight the differences between the CP and the honors resources. And then the last page of each unit breakdown on the honors column, I highlight all these ways you could uplevel the rigor and stretch the students or extend the content to make it even harder. And then on the CP side, the college prep or on grade level side, I list out all the ways that you could simplify the content overall and the resources. And I and every single one I list out, hey, if you’re short on time and you have to skip resources, these are the ones you could skip. So that’s going ahead and telling you what you could kind of highlight here. So that to me is what it looks like to still lesson plan, still make the plans, but put in some buffer, have some grace in mind for yourself and your students and the unpredictability of the schedule.

Rebecca Joyner [00:11:21]:
Third, as you’re teaching, take notes as to what happens so you can remember this for next year. Two ways that I do this. So first, if you have any of my units or bundles, you know that I include editable word doc unit plans and they’re also PDFs, but they’re like a nice table. They’re very nice visually. They’ve got a table. They list out what the theme is for the day, like the central idea, like a bullet list of what we’re going to do, how they’re going to be assessed, like what the standards are. That is what I made and submitted to admin. Okay, that’s like your pretty thing you’re going to give to admin.

Rebecca Joyner [00:11:55]:
But that’s not what I actually use on a day to day basis. Okay. I use like I said, I have my written calendar because I like love that. But then I also just have a Word document for every curriculum. That’s truly, I cannot explain how simple this is. People are, I’ve talked about this before and people will ask me to send them the document and I’m like, I literally can’t because it’s so basic, it’s not even funny. I can’t like have this on my. It’s Iraq science name.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:19]:
But it’s so usable. It’s literally a word document. And it’s just a numbered list. And so number one refers to day one that I see students, number two refers to day two. And I genuinely just list with like commas. Day one would be like prime time, comma, syllabus, comma lab stations, comma, you know, like it’s that simple. And then I put in color, I put in notes like this is the first day of school, so periods are often shorter or like when I, I know when I get around the days in the 40s that this is around the end of the quarter, which is when homecoming is. So I Like will put like big all that whole section like six days in a row in Italy.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:59]:
Like know that this is going to be weird or this is when the upper school has their retreat. So this might be funky. Like I put notes in there or I like it too because it’s so easy to edit. So like let’s say I did lab stations and I thought they’d take one day and they took three. I will go in right there on that document. I’ll highlight it in yellow and word and say next year need an extra day for this. And so it’s all just in this like one place. The second thing I’ll do which and this helps more kind of in the moment is post it notes all over my packets.

Rebecca Joyner [00:13:29]:
I keep my binder of each unit where I have my printed packets for CP and honors and the answer keys. And I might have the printed test too. It’s up to you. But I’ll put post it notes in the packet of like again on the lab stations. Like this took way longer. Or rewrite these procedures because they didn’t go well or you know, reconsider this lab because it fell at this time and it was really hard to do because half the students were gone because they were all on this field trip that the theater teacher does every year or they were all gone for playoffs. So we couldn’t get the day 2 data. So need to reevaluate that.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:01]:
So I’m taking notes. It’s going to help me remember. So that’ll help me with number two, next year of making plans but planning with buffer and grace in mind. Okay, number four, serve future you from disruption stress. One thing I personally found really stressful is when you’re in the middle of a lab and maybe it’s a multi day lab and there is a fire alarm that goes off and maybe it’s not planned or some sort of disruption comes up and you’re like wait, we, this is a multi day lab. We need to get this data. So I highly recommend anytime you do a lab, save the class data. It can be, you know, you can put in an Excel spreadsheet and save it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:40]:
It can also be as simple as collecting it on your whiteboard and taking a picture of it and then you’ve got that. Okay, but save the data so that in future years if something comes up or maybe you know, you guys get snow days or if you’re like me, you get hurricane days and oh, we’re out of school for a month. Didn’t expect that to happen. Now we’re virtual for a month. Oh, at least I have this data. So even though we can’t physically do this lab, we can still talk about it. I can still give them the data. They can practice analyzing and graphing.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:06]:
Like, that’s a way you serve future you from disruption stress. Save your class data. The other thing you can do is take pictures of student work or save the best student work samples you know, especially if it’s something like the atomic theory timeline in chemistry or the central nervous system discovery stations in anatomy. This is for you. It’s not rocket science. Resource users like, those are things that in future years you may not have time for because of these disruptions. So you’ve got to cut it. But if you save one years like you save them, then you have them.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:39]:
And you can still decorate your classroom with the timeline so that you can refer to it throughout that entire unit. Or you can set up the central nervous system discovery stations that the class last year made and students can still walk through and learn from them, even though they’re not making their own this year. So saving data, saving student work, super helpful. Also a way to serve future you. And this kind of overflows back to lesson planning with grace, is build an end of semester buffer time, if you can. I always tried to plan for only like 80 days, even though I was supposed to see students for 90. Now obviously that’s not perfect. And if you’ve purchased my resources often, you’ve probably seen like, there’s way more than I even have time to do.

Rebecca Joyner [00:16:19]:
I will say that’s because when I actually write curriculum professionally for you guys, like, I will add in extra stuff that I have, like, good ideas for that I’m really excited about. And it may not be possible to actually get it all done. I’d rather you have more than have less. And then you can decide what needs to be cut. And you can use those differentiation guides to cut things as needed. But I like to give you lots of options there. But if you can, if you can build and buffer like five to 10 days, then it’s great because then if all goes according to plan, you can put in a little midterm review project that students do or, you know, use that time to do some extra review prep or let students make up late work or something. But most of the time you’re probably gonna use that buffer and it gives you just that overflow.

Rebecca Joyner [00:17:01]:
It takes the relief off of when like you lose a day unexpectedly. Well, we’ve got this buffer at the end. It’ll make up for it. Another example of this, specifically, my biology curriculum has 83 days of lesson plans for semester one. It leaves three days for this children’s book project I do and four days for midterm review. Or just seven days total of buffer physical science if you do physics first. I will tell you guys right now, I never got to WAVES first semester because of my first unit, the science foundations. That just is so important to me.

Rebecca Joyner [00:17:31]:
And that took too long and I want to do that slowly. So I always just overflowed WAVES into January, so I had more buffer time. If you do chemistry first, you go from science foundations to chemistry. It does flow easier and you get that natural buffer built in. But if you’re trying to do like all of the physics units and science foundations in one semester, you’re not going to have any buffer time. Another thing to consider too, if you are like, I need time to review for the midterm also is maybe you do an alternative midterm. And episode 51 has a lot of examples of that. So I will link that in the show.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:03]:
Notes of different things you can do for a midterm. Another option also is you can cut your final test for that unit that’s backing up to the midterm and then weight your midterm exam more heavily on the last unit. So make it like major. Maybe half of your midterm is just on the unit you most recently did, and then the other half is like stuff from the previous units. Or you can just say, hey, we’re not going to do a midterm. Like, the midterm exam is going to be the unit test, and I’m going to save this midterm that I’ve used in other years and just kind of do it as a benchmark when we get back in January. Just kind of see where students are, what they remember, that kind of thing. So you have options.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:38]:
There’s some fluidity here, but I think if you can plan in some buffer time, that will help serve future you. But also get that class data picks. Save those, Save the student work samples. My fifth and final tip is decide how much you need to adjust your lesson plans versus how much the students on their own need to make up. Okay, so every one of these tips that I’ve shared, these four tips that’s looking at where our whole class is getting disrupted. So, like, I’m not going to then put the onus on the students because it’s not their fault that, you know, they planned this spirit week and there’s all these interruptions, these first four tips are like what I’m going to do to kind of deal with this on my end. But there are disruptions, like I mentioned, where it’s more just like a chunk of students are missing for an extracurricular. But not everyone is gone.

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:23]:
So like what do you do? Okay, so for example, one year I had two sections of general biology plus like five other reps. But I had two general bio and one of them was sixth period, which was the last period of the day. And every Friday in the fall, I missed half of my class. Literally half of my students, like 12 of them were out because they cheered or they played football or you know, they were in the band and they had to prep for it. Like they were all involved in the football game. So it was like consistently a problem where every Friday I had these tiny classes. And so you have to assess how does this impact everyone else. Like if it was a one off thing, like, okay, we made playoffs for the first time in 10 years, so this is a random Friday and a bunch of kids are going to be missing.

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:05]:
Or maybe it’s spring and it’s senior skip day. So like all your seniors are gone except for there’s four juniors. I would probably just give them a catch up day, like say, hey, here’s a day you can just work on work for another teacher, you can make up work for me, that kind of thing. But again, if it’s like my other class where I had all these students gone, like I, I can’t take off every Friday. That’s not fair to the students who are there and that’s not fair to me and what we need to get through. And also I like to keep my sections on the same pace. So if I have two sections of general biology, I want them doing the same thing because it’s just way easier for me planning wise. So that’s where I would assess the situation and say we’re going to keep moving on even if this chunk of students is gone.

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:43]:
And that’s where you train your students and what your procedures are for when they’re absent. I personally have absent students take any notes that they missed and a couple other things that I addressed in episode 152. So episode 152 is all about dealing with absences. But that’s where like I learned after the second week where I was missing all these cheerleaders and football players, I was like, hey, we cannot keep just like not doing anything on Fridays because you’re not here or because you’re leaving 45 minutes early or whatever. So just FYI, like this is the expectation. You gotta get these notes that you’re missing or you, you just got the class data. Now you’re gonna have to analyze and graph it at home and you need to have that on Monday. You will be expected to have it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:21:22]:
Cause this is like a pre planned absence for this school event. So that’s where it’s good to consider if there are some things they need to make up. Most of the time I’m trying to take that burden off of them and because oftentimes these interruptions aren’t their fault. But if it’s a consistent disruption like that, I would definitely get them involved with helping make up some of this. Okay, so let’s review the five recommendations I have. One, don’t stress about being behind schedule. Two, still make your lesson plans, but plan some buffer and plan with grace in mind. Three, take notes as you teach as what’s happening in the schedule, what the interruptions are so you can remember those for next year.

Rebecca Joyner [00:22:00]:
Like they’re always going to have that PSAT testing day in October, you know, whatever it may be. Four, serve future you from disruption stress by saving things and building an end of semester buffer if you can. Maybe that looks like reevaluating how you do your midterm exam. And five, decide. Assess the situation to decide how much you need to adjust your lesson plans accordingly versus how can just maybe this group of students make up some things so that we can all keep moving forward as a class. Today’s take home challenge is going to be to go through what you’ve taught so far this year and take notes. Whether you’re doing this digitally like I do with my Word document or if you’re sticking sticky notes on your packets that you’ve printed, go through and say like hey, this was Homecoming week. I need to remember that in the future that sometime in October this is going to happen or I need to do this differently.

Rebecca Joyner [00:22:51]:
I need to plan for this and I’ll have a test during this time, that kind of thing. Take some notes. Go ahead and reflect right now while it’s fresh if you haven’t been doing this and it’ll serve future you next year so well. I promise. You can find any of those podcast episodes or extra resources I mention in the show notes@itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com Episode 208 and I would love it if you have not left a review today. Leave a review. If you teach at a school that sounds like the one I taught at that has lots of chronic disruptions. And also, feel free to DM me on Instagram.

Rebecca Joyner [00:23:25]:
Or you can comment on this episode if you’re a Spotify listener. If you have a strategy or a tip that helps you manage them that I did not mention, I know that would benefit a lot of people. So reach out and let me know. All right, Teacher friends, that wraps up today’s episode. If you’re looking for an easy way to start simplifying your life as a secondary science teacher, head to itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com challenge to grab your classroom Reset Challenge. And guess what? It’s totally free. Thanks so much for tuning in in and I’ll see you here next week. Until then, I’ll be rooting for you.

Rebecca Joyner [00:23:58]:
Teacher friend.