Lesson planning

I've finally arrived at a daily lesson plan system that works really well for me. I thought it would be worth sharing.


(click through to flickr to see notes on image)

This sheet is 3-hole-punched at the top and kept in a binder.

By putting the Week/Day/Date and Goals in the upper left, I can refer back to this in future weeks (or future semesters) and find pretty quickly what was going on during that day.

The Announcements and Assignments sections are also set off to the side so that I take care of those right away at the beginning of class.

What I like best about my little lesson plan are the sticky notes. When I'm planning the the class for the day (I teach two 80-minute classes per week), I'll write down each activity on a sticky note. I'll start laying them out in l-to-r order. I find myself often making changes as I decide how long I want to spend on activity A and how well activity B will segue into activity C. I usually end up moving the sticky notes around as I plan.

I also indicate on each note how many minutes I think each activity will take. Once I've put the notes in a finalized order, I sometimes go the extra step and write down when each activity should be done (e.g. the second note might say 4:35, meaning that the class will be done with this by that time). (I didn't do this on the day I took this picture-- but I do most of the time.) This gives me an easy reference point to use during class-- I can quickly look and see whether I'm ahead, on schedule, or behind.

I'll pull the sheet out of the binder during class. On the back, I make notes about what is working, what isn't, participation, etc. I find this method gives me the balance of structure and flexibility that I need to run class smoothly.

Anyone else feel like showing their methods? I love seeing teaching minutiae like this.