"Drum roll please!" Presenting my views about annual plans (before and after class)

What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of an Annual Plan? Why start with resources when designing units?

As I work to finish graduate school requirements and began thinking about my own future classroom, I have had many worries about my ability to cover the neccessary material throughout the school year, without teaching to a test. Hopefully, an annual plan will help to ease some of my worries as a preservice teacher. I decided to create this blog in two perspectives, one perspective is before our Social Studies class during which we will discuss annual plans in more detail and the other is after our social studies class after I have obtained more insight about creating an annual plan.

So far, I have not been able to find many online resources related to annual plans and their creation, other than the online workshop presented by Dr. Heidi Jacobs. I considered if this lack of internet resources is due to teacher or districts not utilizing annual plans as much as possible. The advantages of an annual plan include planning. A teacher can never plan enough to create engaging, meaningful activities for his or her students. I think of annual plan as a roadmap to success, ensuring that the teacher's lessons are in line with school, state, and national learning objectives. The disadvantages of annual plans is the time and effor that it takes to create a succesful plan. However, I have a feeling that the advantages will certainly outweigh the disadvantages.

Starting with resources to design units will give me ideas for integrating subjects. I can envision using different aspects of different lessons plans, websites, and etc. to incorporate into the annual plan. With resources, I can always refer back to the activities and seek ways for improvement. It is a great idea to use peers and other teachers as a resource for collaboration when creating an annual plan.