Lesson Planning

It has been three days of school and every minute of my time (other side of sleeping, cooking, eating and being on the bus) has been dedicated to lesson planning.  Each school does their lesson planning differently; requiring more details on the activities, methods of assessment and homework. 

I personally like seeing an overview of the half term, term, semester or year and how many lessons I have for each topic.  I would also prefer to have the lesson listed out with teacher and student notes and the timing for each lesson.  Placing all of this information in one document that is easily editable and changeable also helps for those last minute changes and modification.

In the excel document I have the first tab that lists the lessons in order of their appearance and organized by the week.  This tab includes the title, concepts covered and the homework given.  Using this tab I am able to quickly determine what my students have learned and what they will be learning and approximately how many lessons/weeks/terms it will take them to complete the required material.  Overall, this is the "bigger picture" portion of my lesson guide.

The next and all subsequent documents are the individual lesson plans.  According to my academy these are the required lesson planning sections (or as I have learned so far) just in a different order.  I have colour coded all of the tabs to which periods of the day I will see the students.  For example in this lesson I see the class two times a week so every other tab is blue to represent Period 6 while the other tabs are green to represent Period 2.  I also have a blank "Half Term" tab within the worksheet so that it separates the half terms nicely - this is just for esethics!

An aspect of lesson plans that many teachers do not complete often is the "Reflection" portion of the lesson.  In Teacher's College I was informed to complete this section after the lesson and once you have had the opportunity to take a look back on your lesson.  I find this component is easier (and I am less likely to forget) if I complete this during the "independent work times" in class.  Notes such as the student's behaviours, what we covered, what is left to be covered, notes for future lessons, and other information is always important to keep track. 

Here is my most recent lesson guide - if you would like a copy, feel free to email me and I can send you the Excel file.  I hope you enjoy the images and the ideas behind my lesson plan guide.