Lesson Plan/Resource Organization & Planning Process

Organizing your lesson plans and resources can be a daunting task, and you can easily become overwhelmed. I was asked to write this post to share how I organize my lesson plans and resources. The ideas below aren't anything new, exciting, or groundbreaking but they are just some things that work for me, and maybe it will help some of you!

Part One: Planning to be Organized

1. Year Plan- I always start preparing each year with a year plan. Ask coworkers or other teachers you know for year plans to look at and refer to. Year plans can be as simple or as detailed as you want. Personally, I make mine very detailed as it helps me stay on track for the year and I refer to it often. For me, the easiest way to start a year plan is to look at the curriculum of the grade you are teaching and find units/themes in each subject area. For example, the units I use in Grade One Health are All About Me, Feelings and Relationships, Healthy Behaviours, The Body, and Safety. Once you have the units/themes identified for each subject, connect the outcomes and make sure each outcome is assigned to a unit. For example, the outcome for my "All About Me" unit is USC1.5. From there, order the units/themes how you would like to teach them during the year. For example, I like to do the "All About Me" unit first, so I can get to know the kids. You may want to do Feelings and Relationships first, or Safety during Halloween. There is no right or wrong order (except in Math). You get to decide the order you teach the units in. If you have a grade partner, you may want to plan your units/theme order together. Continue this process for each subject area you teach. I create my year plan in a table in Microsoft Word. Nothing Fancy. Most admin will request year plans from all of their teachers. Once I have my year plan done, I print it out on large paper and tape it to the inside of the cupboard or wall by my desk. As I cover units/outcomes I highlight them so that I know what has been covered. Year plans take a lot of time and thought, but once you complete it, it makes the rest of your planning much easier.

2. Time Table- Most admins will also require you to make a time table. Some schools may have a template for you to use. If not, creating a table in Microsoft Word is easy. For this process, you first need to go into the curriculum of the grade you are teaching and identify the weekly curriculum minutes for each subject area. For example, Grade One Health is to be 70 mins/week in Saskatchewan. That means, in my timetable I need 70 mins worth of Health. I like to plan my time table in 30-45min time slots. Depending on when recess and lunch time is at your school, you may want to do the same. I also like to keep my days as routine as possible- meaning I try to keep my days looking similar across the board. It is impossible to keep all days identical, but keeping it as routine as possible will help you and your kiddos. I also like to plan Math and ELA in the morning, when students are the most attentive. I have added example time tables to this post for you to refer to. One is a Monday-Friday time table example, and another is a 6 Day Cycle time table example. They are posted at the bottom. :)

3. Weekly Lesson Plans- I like to plan my week all at once. This does not mean you have to. I am in my fourth year of teaching and I am FINALLY at the point where I am not planning day by day (and that's okay too). For my weekly plans, I have an outline I have created by using my timetable. From there, I add things I need to do each week like book exchanges, attendance, lunch numbers, etc. and then fill them in. Having the outline saves a lot of time and repetition. All you have to do is fill in the actual lessons you plan on teaching. It is important to include the "I can" statement or learning target for each lesson you teach. I have it at the top of my lessons to share with the students. Once I complete the planning portion of my week, I like to print the schedule off and go through each day and highlight what needs to be prepped for the week.

4. Daily Lesson Plans- I know a lot of teachers will print daily time tables and fill in their day plan by hand. Personally, I prefer to type out my day plans (that way you can save them without storing all the paper that goes along with hard copies). As mentioned above, once my week is planned, I print it out to refer to during my lessons. I write out changes or little notes in the margins if things change throughout the week. I end up shredding the plans at the end of the week and keep the digital file on my computer to refer back to. Again, this may not work for others but it is what works for me. I also like having the paper copy printed in case I need a sub one day. That way the day is laid out already for them. In regards to unit plans, I will be honest, I haven't created a full unit plan since university. Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but I don't know a teacher that has. Of course I have lessons planned, but I haven't placed them into a unit plan. Maybe one day I will get to that level of organization, but that day is definitely not today!

Part Two: Organizing Your Resources

1. Professional Resources- You will most likely be given resources that your division and/or school would like you to use. For example- Math Makes Sense, Fountas & Pinnell Phonics Kit, Next Steps Forward in Guided Reading, etc. You may also have your own professional development books or textbooks from university you want to use or refer to. I like to keep all of these resources together, so I know where they are and I am not looking for them when I need them. I also make a separate binder for each subject I teach (ex: Health, Math, Science, Social, etc.) In the binder for each subject, I have the printed copy of the curriculum, a curriculum check list, all the rubrics for the outcomes, and a notebook to record formative and summative assessments, observations, etc. These binders help me stay organized, and makes it easy for me to refer to outcomes or student progress.

1. Lesson Resources- Once my week is planned out, I print my lessons and go through them and prep the lessons for the week. I have one of those clear drawer carts that you can get from Michael's and I labelled each drawer with the day of the week. Usually, all the materials we need for each day fit in the drawers. If they don't (ex: big construction paper) I just place it in a pile on the counter next to my desk. I like the drawers because I know everything is ready to go for the week and I don't have to stress about finding any of the materials because I already have them organized by day. I also know if I ever need a sub, everything they will need is in a drawer. This brings me to my next point...

1. Sub Tub- Do yourself (and your guest teacher) a favour and make a Sub Tub. Substitute teachers will thank you! This year, due to COVID my Sub Tub looks a little bit different. We are required to have a week's worth of lessons made and prepped in case anything ever happens. In my Sub Tub, I include a clipboard with the lessons printed out, file folders separated by subject and all the materials they will need for each subject in the file folder. I also have a Sub Binder that includes my classroom management plan, positive reinforcement tools, special plans for students, a time table, map of the school, emergency plans, seating arrangement, a class list, etc. Having a Sub Tub prepared in case something happens will keep your mind at ease. Sub Binders do take a lot of time, but it is worth it. I know I have written a lot about being prepared for a Sub, but you likely won't be gone that often. I have been fortunate enough to have only had 3 sick days in my 4 years of teaching, and that was only in my first year! However, being prepared in case you are sick is so important. I use the cutest Sub Binder templates from Teach Create Motivate on TPT!

1. Unit Resources- I am not a huge hard copy fan, but I do keep a master copy of units/worksheets and exemplars for ease of photocopying. I keep units I have created or bought off of TPT in a small file cabinet. My file cabinet is a short 2 drawer cabinet. That is all you need. Seriously, if you need one of those big ones, you have too much paper! Just kidding, but having the smaller 2 drawer file cabinet definitely helps me keep my paper hoarding down. I also bought mine off of Kijiji for $40 and then spray painted it a fun colour! In the bottom drawer of my file cabinet, I keep units and worksheets from when I taught Grade 3. I have limited all paper copies to stay in one drawer for my Grade 1 and 2 resources. It is packed, so thank you for asking me to do this post, as it is reminding me I need to organize that thing! Within the cabinet I have hanging file folders for each grade/subject. For example- Grade 1 Science has one hanging folder and Grade 2 Science has another hanging folder. Within the hanging folder, I have folders that separate them by unit (ex: In the Grade 1 Science hanging folder I have the following folders- Senses, Animals, Weather, etc.)

1. Student Assessment/Student Work- I keep 2 milk crates for student assessments and student work. You can get cute coloured ones at Staples and I think I have even seen some at Walmart! I store these above the lockers in my classroom. Anyways, I have a milk crate for student assessments and a milk crate for student portfolio work. In each crate, each student has a hanging file folder and I have labelled them with sticky tabs. In the assessment milk crate, I keep things like behaviour forms, behaviour plans, Speech Therapist reports, etc. In the portfolio crate, students choose a couple pieces of their work from each unit as we complete them to go into their portfolio. At the end of each term, we place all of their paper from their hanging file folders into their 3 ring binder (which we use as a portfolio) instead of taking their binders out each time we want to add something. Personally, it is just a time management piece for me.

1. Digital- I will try to make this as simple and as easy as I possibly can. My digital files are organized very similarly to the way I organize my file cabinet. I will make a folder and title it (School-Grade-Year) Then within that I have folders for each subject (subjects, year plans, weekly updates/newletters, weekly schedules, etc.) and then within the subjects, I have folders like curriculum, rubrics, assessment, units, etc. and then within the units, I have the actual learning materials.

Okay, if you are still here, and your brain isn't absolutely jumbled trying to understand what I just told you, thank you for reading and following along! If any of these ideas have helped you, let me know! I am also always up for hearing your own tips and tricks!

Happy February Break, teachers!

XOXO,

Elle

Blog- Time Table Example-2.pdf

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Blog-Time Table Example- 1.pdf

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