Welcome back to part 2 of Plan Your Way to a Better School Year
If you missed part 1 on how year-long planning can save you time – you can read about that by clicking here.
So now that you have your year planned….let’s tackle weekly planning! How long does it take you to plan each week? What if I told you that you can get your weekly planning accomplished at school without staying late?!
Now, let’s clarify….there are times when your weekly planning will take much longer! Moving schools, changing grade levels, doing a new project or unit you’ve never taught before, and of course, the beginning of the year ALWAYS require more planning time.
How to do all your lesson planning at school
So how does it work?! It’s all about batching your productivity and breaking it into small tasks! This may sound silly….but it’s about planning your planning time!
Think about everything you have to do on a weekly and daily basis and write it down.
Grab these templates here
Now…Plan Your Week
Take all of those weekly and daily tasks and actually schedule them out! Think about what your typical planning times look like each week before, during, and after school.
Below I’ve written out how I have my week broken down, but remember, this is what works best for me and my situation. You need to figure out what will work best for you!
Mondays
Before school: change date, morning work posted, gather day’s materials, drink coffee
During prep – stuff graded papers for Monday folders, general admin tasks
After school- Kept open making sure any last-minute changes to this week’s plans are taken care of, sending weekly update emails to parents, clean out email inbox, etc.
Tuesdays
Before school: change date, morning work posted, gather day’s materials, drink coffee
During prep – Next week’s lesson planning, I use my year-long planning calendar to see what I’m teaching to help this go quickly.
After school – Finish lesson plans (there were several times this year, that I was able to complete my weekly plans during my prep time, so I began lesson plans for the week after) Y’all…having 2 weeks planned ahead of time is an amazing feeling!!
Wednesdays
Before school: change date, morning work posted, gather day’s materials, drink coffee
During prep: grade papers
After school – staff meeting, pull/print lesson resources for the following week including copies to be made
**Summertime Tip**
Instead of spending your planning time during the school year on Pinterest, use the summer to browse Pinterest for new ideas! Save them for later, then you just have to go to one place to look for the ideas and you don’t fall down the rabbit hole of Pinterest and waste your planning time!
Thursdays
Before school: change date, morning work posted, gather day’s materials, drink coffee
During prep: grade papers
Parent Volunteer: make copies, laminate/cut resources
After school: Grade papers
*the years I did not have a parent volunteer, I would do those tasks after school on Thursdays
Fridays
Before school: change date, morning work posted, gather day’s materials, drink coffee
During prep: collaboration meeting
After school: enter grades into the grade book, clean out email inbox, clean off the desk
Saturdays and Sundays – Enjoy the weekend – No school work!!
I will say after 7 years in the same grade level, I have less prep work on printing, cutting, laminating. BUT….I’m always finding new resources and while I don’t have to do that every week anymore, I still have to occasionally.
I also want to add that most weeks, I usually choose one day a week to stay until 5:00 or 6:00. On the other days, I try to leave by between 3:30 and 4:00 (we are contracted until 3:30). This is a personal preference because I’d rather stay late one day a week then bring anything home to work on.
I have found it is SO important to have that to do list during my prep time or else it just gets wasted! Thanks for the tips!
I completely agree!!