Lesson planning – two of the most stress-inducing words a teacher can hear during the week. We know that not everyone loves planning out lessons or spending their weekend with their lesson plan books or programs, so we asked some of our Really Good Stuff Facebook teachers to share some of their best tips with us. What better way to alleviate some of the lesson planning stress than by taking advice from those who have also have to do it every week!
How to Make Lesson Planning Easier
“Make a template on your computer, save it, and fill it in every week – just the pages, activities, etc.” – Deborah Six
“Collaborate with your team of colleagues! We are able to do our planning in about 45 minutes for the next week. We all then take responsibility for running off copies for a certain subject, etc. It works great when everyone does their part!” – Kristen Jones
“[Plan] with a coworker more than a few weeks out.” – Kelly Marie Liechty
“Spread it out! Waiting to do it all at once is so time consuming!” – Paula Perkins
“Don’t overplan! Let the teachable moments drive your lesson.” – Kelly Emery
“Start with what you want them to be able to do.” – Shahna Maggard
“Create your tests first, then build lessons.” – Kari Winters
“Be flexible – differentiate.” – Neece Donson
“Don’t reinvent the wheel. There are TONS of great resources out there – from Pinterest to TPT to the awesome blogs. Take advantage of them!” – Brandi Lentsch Gerry
“I have a schedule I follow. Monday and Tuesday are for planning (brainstorming). Wednesday I print master copies. Thursday I make copies. Friday I organize.” – Angie Kirkham
“Don’t wait until 9pm Sunday to do them.” – Karmen Ingraffia
“Don’t write them with a pen. They can and will change daily – ‘monitor and adjust.’” – Kelly Langford
“I use Planbook.com and love it – so much easier than my old way! I can go back and make changes, shift things forward if we don’t get to it, make notes, etc. Plus, it’s all saved for next year so I can look back at what I did!” – Herding Kats in Kindergarten
“Have a routine, and then a template for your plans.” – Johnna Futral
“I like to take notes on current week’s plans each day. Then I use them for next week’s extensions/review/re-teach plans.” – Mary McGough
Do you have a tip that you’d like to share? Leave it in the comment section below!
Gloria Wilson says
Having a template on the computer and filling it in works so well when you then file those daily plans in a binder. Everything is available for a sub and you have the entire year at a glance.
Sylvia Litte says
I keep my plans on the computer so it’s just a matter of tweaking them for the current year. Also, I keep a “ooard” at Pinterest of all my units and when I see something pertinent to what I am teaching in that unit, I “pin” it. Then when I am tweaking my lesson plans, I check the Pinterest board to see if there is anything I would like to add or change to my lesson plans.
Jessica Berggren says
I just wanted to say first, I love that plan book. Even though we have to keep a plan book on our zip drive, I also keep a plan book for myself. Every sunday I sit down and plan out the basics. at the end of every day i love to check off the boxes of what I have finished.
I also wanted to let you know I love,love, love my new Charlie Brown and Bulletin Board set. I posted about it here. Thanks and Happy hanukkah and Merry Christmas!
Catching Snowflakes Post
TinaLParker says
Keep all of your components/resources for lesson planning in one place. Keep it flexible and take notes on what worked and what needs to be tweaked.