How Do You Lesson Plan?.. and Giveaway!

Am I the only one who changes their lesson plan layout a million time a year?  I just can't seem to get it right!  Maybe it's because I get bored easily??

Last year, I spent a hefty $50 on an EC planner.  You can see my at-home planning below.

It was very cute, but I got tired real quick of writing the same thing over and over.  You see, I have a repetitive schedule.   I do whole groups on Mondays and Fridays and I do guided groups on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  So, I became a little tired of writing the same schedule over and over!  It didn't take but a few weeks to see that $50 was a waste!  Some teachers love the EC planner, but not this one.

I quickly switched over to my trusty binder.  I then used a binder system that had all my junk stuff in it.  I loved the idea, but my arm got a workout lugging that heavy thing around the room!  Not to mention that my room is teeny tiny.  The space to plop that big boy down was limited.

Don't get me wrong... I love my binder!  I am still going to use it this year, but I am going to use it to store all of my curriculum things like pacing guide, data team meeting stuff, and instructional/vocabulary strategy files.  But, my daily lesson plans will get a new home.

Before I go any further, you are not going to believe that I started this post about 2 weeks ago.  In the middle of my draft, Rachel from The Tattooed Teacher posted a post similar to this one... I thought I was the only one crazy enough to go back and forth between digital and paper plans!

First of all, during the last week of school, I checked out www.planbook.com to see if it was something I was interested in.  The template is something to get use to, but I absolutely love the fact that you can link in CC standards and files.  That's right my friends, you can link in files that you use.  Just think... wouldn't it be great to have a record of all the wonderful (and not so wonderful) plans/ideas/activities you did with your students ALONG with the file!  How easy would it make your planning life from now on out?  So, I think this is going to be my go-to for my 'beefy' plans.  These will also be the plans that I print out and submit to my administrator.  Did I mention that you can also share them with administration or post them to a website?  How cool!  Here are few screenshots of what the site looks like.  BTW- these are totally MY opinions.  I am not being compensated in any way for this review.

 This is the weekly view.  They also have daily, monthly, and list views.  You can have a different schedule for each day depending on what you like.

 Another great feature is the fact that you can bump plans to the next day if you don't get time to do them.  It will then bump everything else a day.  AWESOME!

This is what the window looks like for the actual writing of the plans.  You can see the lesson, homework, notes, and standards tabs at the top.  I'm thinking of using the notes tabs as a reflection area on how the lesson went.

They also have an iPad app that you can install so you can have your plans with you at all times. 

So, the question is... Am I totally ready to give up my paper plans?  NO!  I'm not sure if I can do it. That's why I am also making a paper planner.  I know... I'm CRAZY!  But not that crazy!  My paper planner will not be as detailed as my online plans and they will focus mostly on my small group plans.  These will be bound together with a spiral binding comb (office store, under $5).  Here's what I'm thinking will go in it.

Yearly Pacing Guide (district created)

Year-at-a-Glance
Quarterly Curriculum Map

Monthly Curriculum Map

Weekly Outlook

Small Group Lesson Plans

Standards

Standards Checklist
Record Keeping (grades)
August-June Calendar Pages
Weekly To-Do
Guided Reading Lesson Plans (3-Rotation Template)
Bloom's Taxonomy Reference Sheets
3 Tiers of Words

Most of these can be found in my teacher planner HERE.  If there is something you are looking for, let me know.  I have already added a few things to it per teacher requests.

So, when I sit down to plan, I will need:
Laptop (for plan book)
Paper Planner (for small groups & Standards)

Within my paper planner, I will have absolutely everything I will need to plan.  I am hoping this will help me be a little more organized and ACCOUNTABLE for getting things done in a timely manner rather than forgetting or putting them off to the last minute.  I am also excited about my Peek at my Week that is a Fan Freebie on my Facebook page.  I think it's going to be a lot of fun filling it out each week!

Now for the fun part... who's ready for a giveaway?  I haven't had one of these in a long...... time :)  I'm going to be giving one lucky person a copy of my Teacher Plan Book AND my Reading Binder pack.  The winner will be announced Friday evening!

Good Luck!

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