Happy Friday!
As I was scrolling through Facebook and the many teacher groups I am apart of, someone had mentioned they the were a first year teacher and would like an example of a lesson plan template. I figured this would be the perfect time to share my resources as well as some websites that I pull from. I have been teaching for almost 10 years and I believe I have finally found what best works for me.
Teachers PLAN and they PLAN and they PLAN! I utilize both digital and paper planning. Here’s how I supplement one with the other.
Here’s what I do for every Unit.
- Create a google drive folder
- Create subfolder for every unit
- In every subfolder, place your unit lesson plan, click here for an example of how I write mine. I really like the Engage, Explore,Elaborate, Assess lesson format. This unit plan is typically what I would send to my Administration for review and suggestions.
- Place all of your files for this unit in this subfolder. This will allow you to have everything in one spot.
- Print out your Unit plans so that you have your “guided questions” in front of you daily.
***Many of my unit plans came from one of my favorite teacher sites, Mr. Bucs Science, he has so many resources that I love!
Also another great website I use for resources is Middle School Science, I absolutely love her and all of her stuff is FREE!! Who doesn’t love that!
Here’s what I do for me
This document is pulled up everyday-this lesson plan template is not too detailed, but gives me an “oh okay this is what I have planned” without looking to deeply at my unit plan. This is also where I document my reflections on my teaching practices. As you know, there will be moments where you stray from your Unit Plan, because something either took much longer for students to understand OR you had an aha moment and you went further in depth with a concept because it was the right time to do so. My digital lesson plan template was found at this website Tammy’s Technology Tips for Teachers– I have of tailored this template to fit my needs. My template that I have edited for this year can be found here. This is a google doc, so in order to edit this document, all you have to do is open in, click file, then click “make a copy”. This will allow you have your own version without messing up mine ♥. Here is what last year’s looked like, click here. I did add notes and reflections to this years, only because I wanted to be able to reflect on what worked and did not work. Today, I meet with another teacher to help her get her website for her students set up and I was thinking, this document could be embedded into your website for parents to see what happened in class that day, since it’s not as detailed. Just an idea.
School Meetings/Family Stuff
I also keep a Happy Planner for my school meetings and stuff..but Im thinking I am also going to go digital with this as well. I don’t know yet, I enjoy seeing a print version of this.
Here’s a Pic of the one I bought.
TIP: Reflect, Reflect, Reflect-If you do not reflect on your teaching , I highly recommend you do. Write it down during your plan as to what worked and did not work. This will help with planning in the future.
TIP: If you use Google Docs, Sheets, whatever, you can embedded this into your google sites webpage. Anytime you make additions to the document, it will automatically update.
I hope you are enjoying your summer!