Lesson 26: Your SWAY Implementation Plan
Updated: 2 days ago
Start Small. Build Confidence. Grow at Your Own Pace.
Focus Question: How can I gradually introduce SWAY tools and techniques into my classroom without adding unnecessary work or disrupting what already works?
Learning Outcome: Create a practical implementation plan that begins with one SWAY tool, develops student responsibility, and gradually introduces other opportunities for learning through play, technology, and projects.
You Don't Have to Do Everything at Once
If you've explored the earlier SWAY lessons, you may be wondering:
Where do I begin? How much preparation is involved? Do I need to change the way I teach?
My advice is simple.
Start with one tool. Learn how it works. Let your students help.
During my teaching career, I didn't develop the WAY Game, CAP Notes, Pathfinder, and digital lesson planning techniques all at once.
They evolved through classroom experience, trial and error, reflection, and improvement.
You can approach SWAY the same way.
There is no mandatory implementation schedule, no required training session, and no need to introduce all three pillars in a single school year.
Here is a suggested pathway.
Your first goal: Get to know your students and introduce a fair, organized way to select participants.
WAY Cards are a practical starting point because they can be introduced without changing your curriculum.
Use them to:
Learn students' names and interests.
Select students randomly for classroom activities.
Organize teams and classroom responsibilities.
Encourage participation beyond the students who regularly raise their hands.
Start by introducing the cards and demonstrating how they work.
Ask students what they think makes a fair selection process.
You don't need to organize a complete WAY Game yet.
Try this: Use WAY Cards for one classroom activity each day for a week. Observe how students respond.
Your next goal: Learn more about the individuals in your classroom.
Pathfinder gives students a chance to share their interests, strengths, experiences, and goals.
It can help you understand what motivates students and how they see themselves as learners.
Introduce Pathfinder gradually and explain why you're asking students to complete it.
Invite students to share information they're comfortable providing, and handle personal details according to school privacy requirements.
You can also introduce Mystery Kid using information that students and families have agreed to share.
Try this: Review your students' Pathfinder profiles and identify one thing you've learned about each student that might help you connect with them.
Your goal: Give students time to think about what they've learned before the lesson ends.
CAP stands for Curriculum Content, Associations, Processes & Pictographs.
CAP Notes provide a structure for summarizing, organizing, and reflecting on learning.
You don't have to introduce the entire CAP Notes process in one lesson.
Begin with a few questions:
What did we learn today?
What connections can we make?
What picture or diagram could help explain the lesson?
What questions could we ask?
Allow students to work individually or with a partner.
Gradually introduce the complete CAP Notes process as they become more comfortable.
Try this: Reserve the final five minutes of one lesson each day for a CAP summary.
After a week, review the results with your students. What is working? What needs improvement? In the beginning, I modelled filling in CAP Notes by using SMART Lesson Planning Templates.
Your goal: Give students a purpose for reviewing and organizing their learning.
Once students are familiar with CAP Notes, introduce Game Cards.
Explain that students will use what they've learned to create questions and activities for classmates.
The WAY Game includes seven categories:
Answer It
Act It
Draw It
Spell It
Question It
Speak It
Move It
Start with one or two categories.
Students might write an Answer It question about a science lesson or create a Draw It activity connected to social studies.
Encourage them to check their work for accuracy, clarity, and fairness.
Game Cards should demonstrate understanding, not simply repeat facts without thought.
Try this: Have each student create one Game Card based on a recent lesson. Invite classmates to evaluate and improve the questions.
Your goal: Bring the tools together in a structured classroom activity.
By now, students have experienced WAY Cards, CAP Notes, and Game Cards.
They're ready to begin playing.
Start with a short practice game.
Introduce the rules, demonstrate how points are awarded, and explain Captains' and Judges' responsibilities.
Gradually introduce other roles as students become familiar with the process.
Your first game doesn't have to be perfect.
Expect questions, disagreements, and opportunities to improve the rules and routines.
That's part of learning to work together.
The teacher remains responsible for classroom safety, fairness, and resolving disputes that students cannot settle.
Try this: Play a short game using student-created Game Cards. Afterwards, ask students to identify one thing that worked well and one thing they would improve.
Your goal: Use technology to make planning, presenting, and reviewing lessons more manageable.
If you use SMART Notebook or another digital lesson-planning tool, consider how it might support your existing routines. I have many SMART resources for you and your students online that help you play the WAY Game and plan lessons and projects.
You could begin by using the reusable SMART lesson template with space for:
Curriculum objectives
Lesson content and activities
Visuals and supporting resources
CAP Notes and reflection
Questions for Game Cards
Evaluation and follow-up
Digital lesson planning should save time over the long term, not become another complicated responsibility.
Artificial intelligence may also help you brainstorm questions, adapt explanations, and explore lesson activities.
But remember to check its suggestions for accuracy and appropriateness.
Try this: Choose one lesson you already teach and improve it using a digital template. Save it so you can reuse and refine it later.
Your goal: Give students an opportunity to apply their learning to something meaningful.
Entrepreneurial Project-Based Learning (EPBL) encourages students to plan, create, collaborate, and present their work.
Projects might include:
A classroom performance or puppet play
A student art exhibition
A school or community service activity
A small class business simulation
A fundraising project, where school approval and financial procedures permit
Begin with a manageable project connected to your curriculum.
Let students help plan, assign responsibilities, create products, solve problems, and evaluate results.
Use CAP Notes to document the experience.
What did we plan?
What did we create?
What problems did we encounter?
What would we do differently?
Try this: Ask students to suggest three projects that would allow them to demonstrate something they've learned. Discuss which one is realistic for your classroom.
Your Classroom, Your Timeline
You might introduce WAY Cards in September and begin playing the WAY Game in October.
Or you might spend an entire term developing CAP Notes before introducing Game Cards.
Perhaps you're already comfortable with digital lesson planning and want to begin there.
That's fine.
SWAY is a collection of tools and techniques, not a rigid program you must follow in a particular order.
Choose what makes sense for your students, your curriculum, and your teaching circumstances.
Learning from Other Teachers
One benefit of teaching is discovering how other educators approach familiar challenges.
You may want to share your experiences with a colleague, another teacher using SWAY, or someone interested in trying one of the tools.
You can exchange ideas, compare Game Cards, discuss classroom routines, and share suggestions for improvement.
You don't need to participate in scheduled livestreams or organized pilot programs.
Collaboration can begin with a simple conversation.
If you wish to share classroom examples publicly, obtain the necessary permissions and protect student information.
Help Improve SWAY Canada
I've spent many years developing and refining these tools, but I don't believe the work is finished.
Every classroom is different.
I'm interested in hearing what teachers discover when they try SWAY for themselves.
What worked?
What didn't?
What did your students enjoy?
What would you change?
What additional support would be useful?
Your observations and suggestions may help improve the resources available to other teachers.
Your Lesson 26 Challenge
Create a simple implementation plan for your classroom.
Complete these five statements:
1. The SWAY tool I will introduce first is:
2. I chose this tool because:
3. My first classroom activity will be:
4. I will know it's working when I observe:
5. My next step will be:
Keep your plan realistic.
You can always change it.
I learned - A Final Thought
After 33 years of teaching, one thing I learned is that good ideas rarely arrive fully formed.
They develop through experience.
We try something.
We observe.
We reflect.
We improve.
That's how SWAY developed, and that's how I encourage you to use it.
Don't wait until you have mastered every tool. Begin with one, and let experience show you the WAY.
Yours in Education,
Brian McCarthy
Retired Teacher and Founder, SWAY Canada
A SMART WAY to Learn, Earn, and Play
Some more thoughts...
Your SWAY Year-at-a-Glance Planning Guide
One Classroom. One Tool. One Step at a Time.
You don't need to map out an entire school year before you start using SWAY Canada.
In fact, I'd encourage you not to overplan.
During my teaching career, some of my best ideas came from trying something, observing what happened, and making adjustments.
That's how the WAY Game and many of its supporting tools evolved.
The following four phases are suggestions, not requirements. You might move through them in a year, spend longer on one, or begin with whichever tool interests you most.
Phase 1: Discover — Get to Know Your Students
Suggested focus: WAY Cards and Pathfinder
Begin by building relationships and establishing routines.
Introduce WAY Cards to help organize participation, random selection, and teams.
Explore Pathfinder to learn more about students' interests, strengths, and goals.
You might also demonstrate a simple classroom question-and-answer activity.
Ask yourself: What have I learned about my students that I didn't know before?
Phase 2: Reflect — Make Learning Visible
Suggested focus: CAP Notes and Game Cards
Introduce a short reflection routine at the end of selected lessons.
CAP stands for Curriculum Content, Associations, Processes & Pictographs.
Encourage students to summarize what they've learned, make connections, create diagrams, and develop questions.
Gradually introduce Game Cards so students can turn their learning into activities for classmates.
Ask yourself: Are students becoming more capable of explaining what they've learned and asking useful questions?
Phase 3: Participate — Bring the WAY Game Together
Suggested focus: Teamwork, student responsibilities, and the seven WAY Games
Begin with a short practice game using student-created Game Cards.
Introduce the seven games:
Answer It, Act It, Draw It, Spell It, Question It, Speak It, and Move It.
As students become familiar with the routines, introduce responsibilities such as Captains and Judges.
Explore SMART Digital Lesson Planning if it helps you organize lessons, activities, and reflection.
Ask yourself: Are students participating meaningfully? What needs to change to make the activities fair, inclusive, and manageable?
Phase 4: Create — Put Learning to Work
Suggested focus: Entrepreneurial Project-Based Learning
Invite students to apply their learning by creating something meaningful.
It might be a performance, exhibition, community service activity, or classroom enterprise.
Let students contribute ideas, plan responsibilities, solve problems, and reflect on the experience.
Use CAP Notes to document the process.
If a project involves fundraising, obtain the appropriate approvals and explain the finances clearly to families.
Ask yourself: What did students learn from creating something together that they might not have learned from a traditional assignment?
Your Personal Growth Plan
At any point in the school year, complete these five statements:
The SWAY tool I'm currently exploring:
What I'd like to accomplish:
What I've observed in my classroom:
What I would change or improve:
My next small step:
You can revisit these questions anytime.
No deadlines. No required reports. No formal certification.
Just thoughtful teaching and a willingness to try something new.
A Final Thought
A yearly growth plan shouldn't become another administrative responsibility.
It should help you see where you've been, what you've learned, and where you might go next.
Start small. Reflect often. Let your students help show you the WAY.
Brian McCarthy
Retired Teacher and Founder, SWAY Canada
Learn to Play — Play to Learn.
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