You may be a cosmetology teacher or beauty educator, and already skilled in beauty applications and beauty treatments, you still need to be armed and equipped with a lesson plan when facing those doe-eyed cosmetology students of yours. A lesson plan is your roadmap, your day-to-day guide in going through topics and subjects, as well as evaluating and monitoring your students. They are created with an objective or a goal on what they want the students to take away from learning about cosmetology, and more importantly, how the students can be able to apply those lessons in real life. Cosmetology lesson plans come in different formats, but more significantly, they need to at least include these essential elements for them to be effective when applied to teaching. Step 1: Learning Objectives The learning objectives contain the goals or aims of the lesson plan of what students should learn on or before the end of the course, just like a Work Plan Strategy. The objectives should be brief but written so that the readers or the students will be able to understand what is expected of them and what is hoped to be accomplished from them. Oftentimes, objectives are written as a form of a call to action, conditioning the reader that this is the behavior or the outcome that is being anticipated. The words “to do” or “to be able” are used as sentence starters, indicating that there is a clear need that something should be done or accomplished. The learning objectives also set the timeline of the undertakings. It could be a whole school year, a semester, or even a quarter of the year. Remember that the goals or objectives set in a lesson plan should follow the SMART Goal, goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Step 2: Requirements and Resources The requirements and resources in a cosmetology lesson plan are those materials, tools, references that are needed to conduct the lessons. Requirements could also come in the form of time requirements, like how much is allotted per activity or per lesson, or the number of units or subjects a cosmetology student needs to take to be considered for graduation. Resources include textbooks, online reference materials, handouts or Worksheet Plans, guest speakers, and materials for practical applications, such as hair, skin, and nails beauty tools and treatment kits. Another form of requirement could be that a student needs to have a particular skill-set or knowledge before moving on or taking the next higher level of class. Step 3: Teaching Activities At the very core of a lesson plan are the Teaching Plans, methods, procedures, or activities that the instructor lines up. The activities could come in the form of oral, written, or practical application. In picking out the activities, make sure that these activities are aligned with the objectives, relevant to the course, and engaging for the students. For cosmetology, a lesson activity could be in the form of a basic makeup application. It could be a step-by-step demonstration, from the cleaning, primer, foundation, concealer, contouring and highlights, eyes, lips, et cetera. A written activity could be in the form of listing down the right way of properly taking care of salon tools and equipment, the dos and don’ts of salon makeups and chemical uses, et cetera. Another activity could be in the form of inviting guest speakers to talk about their experiences working as cosmetologists, and where students could be able to interact with them. Step 4: Assessment and Evaluation Similar to a Teacher Action Plan, at the end of each lesson, all students are subjected to an assessment and evaluation to determine how far their understanding of the lesson is, or the Lesson Learned. In the cosmetology lesson plan, there should be a separate sheet that lists down the names of the students, the activities that they partook in, and the corresponding score or grades they’re rated with. This is also an opportunity for teachers to provide feedback on areas that the students need to improve, or else skills and talents that need to be enhanced and developed further. This section can be likened to a Student Progression Plan.