We can make plans, and we can lay out when we intend to teach things, but the right time to teach is when conditions are right.
In weather like Michigan’s you don’t hang Christmas lights when it’s time to turn them on. You hang them when conditions are right. In other words: if there’s a beautiful sunny day that’s not too cold, but it’s two weeks before the lights are going on, that’s when you hang the lights. Later, the conditions might be miserable. The reverse is true too: if the weather turns suddenly worse, you might have to postpone hanging lights.
It’s just the same with the day to day work educators are doing with students. It’s not a question of timing a lesson so that ideas are delivered in advance of a test. The best educators know that they need to pounce on a ready mind to share ideas and information when it will be received. Later, a student might be gone on a trip, or at the orthodontist, sick with the flu, or too exhausted from a weekend of concert performances to absorb your teaching.
I can’t begin to count how many times I have recognized that students were ready for a music literacy lesson and thrown my rehearsal plan aside.
Definitely have a lesson plan. Definitely know what you want students to know down the road; but if the time is right, get out there and hang those lights.