Tuesday, July 15, 2014

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!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

21 Comments:

At July 15, 2014 at 3:17 PM , Blogger Pat's Paper Passion said...

I love planbook.com. It has my state standards-I'm from Nebraska and we haven't adopted common core-which need to be with every subject. Thanks for the freebie

I usually just do digital plans unless there is a sub.

Pat

 
At July 15, 2014 at 3:19 PM , Blogger Becky said...

From the second I read "am I the only one who changes their lesson plan layout a million times a year?" I was like, I love this girl! I do the same as you, but this year our principal gave us a required layout for our plans. It was fine, but not attractive at all, and not really functional for me. So I spent the past two years doing two versions every week - one to turn in, and one for myself. Time consuming, but necessary (for me, at least!). Yours looks great, though! I love how colorful it is.

Becky
http://bbbbecky.com

 
At July 15, 2014 at 3:23 PM , Blogger Shannon said...

I'm right there with you-I reinvent my format at least a dozen times every year. Tried the EC planner, but my school requires so much junk on our plans that it wasn't big enough. And the writing got old ;) Thanks to TEKS, I have no idea what my format will look like this year, but I like your idea of Internet and paper. Might have to give that a try...

 
At July 15, 2014 at 4:25 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

I am forever on the hunt for the "perfect" way to write lesson plans. I no longer write them by hand, but I do bounce back and forth between a Microsoft template I created and online plans. Obviously, I am still on the hunt! There will be a lot of changes this year at my school and in my school system so I have no idea what they will need to look like this coming year. Thanks for the info on planbook.com...that might be an option for this year.

 
At July 15, 2014 at 4:29 PM , Blogger Katie said...

I have gone back and forth about using a EC planner. I always end up using a paper version. I like to erase things and add things when needed. I also like to have them on my desk for subs. I took a class this summer in digital content and the instructor talked about how much she loved using planbook.com. I might have to try it this year.

 
At July 15, 2014 at 5:14 PM , Blogger Alison Rose said...

I absolutely LOVE using Planbook. Seriously the best $12 I have spent the past two years. I have been eyeing the DayBook Pro, but I'm just not sure I'm ready to make the switch yet. www.daybookpro.com I might just join it and check it out. I still use a binder for planning though that has all my lists, standards, grades, etc. in it. I write in paper calendar and I will never, ever switch to digital for that. If I don't write it down, it doesn't happen! :)
Alison
Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin'

 
At July 15, 2014 at 6:35 PM , Blogger jen said...

I'm a follower :)

 
At July 15, 2014 at 7:31 PM , Blogger Marcia said...

I am a follower. I use both a digital copy, required by principal, and a paper copy for subs and small group.

 
At July 15, 2014 at 7:33 PM , Blogger Sara Kovach / Dare to be Different - Teach! said...

I have thought about plan book, but have not gone there yet. I have been seeing more and more people posting or telling me about it, so I just might have to give it a try. .


By the way, I follow you by Bloglovin.

 
At July 15, 2014 at 8:08 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

I tried the plan book free trial and loved it! I am a follower on BlogLovin.

 
At July 15, 2014 at 9:49 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

I follow you on Bloglovin! I am still trying to figure out what planner will work best for me!! :)

Breanne

 
At July 16, 2014 at 12:21 AM , Blogger The Mom Mom Diaries said...

This is great, I'm downloading the app right now so I can play around on it!!!

 
At July 16, 2014 at 8:00 AM , Blogger Cherie said...

I've been following your blog for a while!

 
At July 16, 2014 at 3:19 PM , Blogger CATHY said...

Now you have another Kinder fan; : )
this is great. I usually do my plans digitally as well, unless there is a sub coming in.

 
At July 16, 2014 at 3:36 PM , Blogger CATHY said...

And I forgot to say that I, too, reinvent my format a couple of times a year. It always needs to be tweaked. sigh.

 
At July 16, 2014 at 3:41 PM , Blogger Micha said...

I also change my plans during the year looking for the "perfect" template. Ugh

 
At July 17, 2014 at 1:37 AM , Blogger Brandi said...

I printed my plan book because I love having something to write in, but I've jumped on the planbook.com bandwagon and am working on setting it up. So far so good!

Brandi
Swinging for Success
Follow me on Facebook!

 
At July 18, 2014 at 9:06 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

You are going to like it :)

 
At July 18, 2014 at 9:07 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

You can do a free trial to see if you like it.

 
At July 18, 2014 at 9:07 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

Sounds like we have a lot in common! LOL

 
At August 2, 2014 at 12:45 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just started using Planbook this summer and am so excited to use it for this school year. I have never been very good at keeping up with plans and I do love the drop-down CCSS menu. I will still keep a planner because I'm tactile like that and I think it's nice to have, but it won't be nearly as detailed as the online plans. I can't wait to be better organized this year.

 

Post a Comment

Hi! I would love to hear from you!

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home