This is the story of one new teacher's evolution through planbook formats...
When I first started teaching in Fall of 2010, I wrote all my lessons out by hand in a small (cheap) teacher lesson plan book. This was not ideal because there were not enough spaces for all of my classes and I had to write many things many times (times of classes, homeroom teacher's name, ect.) for every week... And to top it all off, I could not expand my lessons and show step by step because there was not enough room in the tiny boxes provided. But hey! I could see the whole week with just two pages open on the desk! (That seemed pretty cool to me!)
I also had, in a separate binder, all of my class lists. The opposite page for each class list was my "Rockstar" list and class star chart (behavior management strategies to be explained later...). These were awesome to have on hand, but I did not like the idea of having two separate books with my teaching materials-- THAT I HAD TO MAKE SURE WERE BOTH ON MY CART.
CLICK HERE for my handwritten planbook from 2010-2011
When my second year of teaching started, I decided to DIGITALLY create my own lesson plan template to accommodate all 5 days and 22 homerooms. This worked well because I created the template using Microsoft Excel (which seemed to take me forever 'cause I'm picky...) and copied and pasted it onto new tabs at the bottom for each week. Unfortunately, I decided that it would be best if the ENTIRE week fit on ONE horizontal page, printed out from the computer weekly. Because I chose to fit everything on one page, I, again, was unable to expand my lessons in the planbook and I simply used a few key words for each lesson (sometimes hard to remember all the steps for the 45-minute lesson).
Of course, I needed my handy-dandy binder on my cart with me at all times, but I managed to put my weekly plans first before all the class lists. I also added clear sheet protectors to the binder to insert class lists and my "Rockstar" list and star chart on the opposite page. The sheet protectors allowed me to write the students name ON the sheet protector itself with wet-erase marker (used for overhead sheets). This was also perfect to make notes on the class list page about students' behavior, grade marks, ect.
CLICK HERE for my first digital planbook from 2011-2012
I have been thinking A LOT on how to improve my lesson plans for this year and I have come up with a better solution. I am going to label the days of the week on the left side and the class times along the top. Also, this new format is two pages and can be easily accessible in a binder. This allows for more space to expand the lesson to include national and state standards, lesson procedures, lesson materials, ect. needed for that particular lesson. I have found many advantages to having a digital planbook, and do not think I will EVER go back to writing everything out by hand!
CLICK HERE for my new digital planbook for 2012-2013
Please let me know what you think! I am always looking for new ideas and ways to improve!
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