Welcome to the All Star Planning podcast. My name is Kelsey, and this is the place where I talk all things teacher lesson plans. Today I am talking about getting ahead of your lesson plans. It’s every teacher’s dream, right? To get ahead of your lesson plans? I am telling you. Buckle up. This is gonna be a long one. I am telling you right here, right now that in order to get ahead of your lesson plans. You need to create a system. If you are planning your lessons differently every single day,
- every single week,
- there was a different method
- or a different format
- you are jumping between lesson plan templates
- you don’t have unit plans.
If you’re just winging it, you will never get ahead of your lesson plans.
You need a lesson planning method
It is so important that there is some method to your madness. Now it doesn’t have to be a perfect method. It can be a method that changes don’t change it every week. But it can change. So. We’ve we’ve we all know at this point that my very first year of teaching, I had three chemistry curriculums in a retired art classroom with no chemicals, no lab equipment, no chemistry teachers to bounce ideas off of, nobody to work with.
My mentor was the reading coach or the literacy coach. I honestly don’t even know what her title was. Sweetest lady ever, big help in a lot of ways, but not chemistry. Um, That’s that’s where I started. And because of all of these factors, I did not have a succinct way of planning my lessons. My school had set me up where they wanted, they called it a homework sheet delivered to the kids, every single Monday of the homework assignments for the entire week. So because of that setup and everything else just there’s so much else. But basically I was set up on a week by week method. So I would plan everything for Monday plan, everything for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
My first lesson planning method was a mess
That made me crazy because I was writing three lesson plans every single day for my three different sections. And then what would happen is that I would see different kids on different days. So like for instance, one class, I would see them Mondays first period. And then I wouldn’t see them again until Wednesday, eighth period. And then I’d see them twice on Thursday, but not back to back, and then I would see them middle of the day on Friday. So some days I would have to write two lesson plans and other days I would have to write five lesson plans. And this just became like a big chaotic mess of me staying at work way too late. And eating way too much chocolate and Taco Bell.
Not, I’m not proud of it, but that’s, that’s where I came from. I came from Taco Bell and chocolate and ice cream and staying at work until six or seven o’clock most days. So, in comes a planning method into my brain, like a guardian angel just passed this thought through my brain. And I said, “Holy moly, I need to act on this.” So it was at that point that I stopped working on a day by day basis.
All Star Planning Method comes to life
It was hard to keep up, but really what happened was I had this idea the day before Christmas break. My method changed almost instantaneously. Um, it was just like a thought process that popped into my brain and everything changed. So as I was kind of like fleshing it out and figuring out what I wanted it to look like it was like, uh, of tornado of papers. Post-its color coding markers.
It was really like, um, if you’ve ever watched, Always Sunny in Philadelphia. And then Mac and Charlie go and get that job and they’re sorting the mail. And Charlie has the big web with the string and Pepe Silvia, and he’s trying to figure it out. That’s what it felt like. Okay. Um, If you have no idea what I’m talking about, just Google Pepe Silvia, and you’ll see the picture.
So that is what it felt like as I was putting all the pieces together. And when I finally clicked it clicked and I spent the entire day trying to figure out how to make it work.
Unit Plans help you to get ahead
Really what happened is that my method told me that I needed to basically plan everything like a month before it happened. And that’s where I’m at right now. I am in a place where I write my lesson plans like three to four weeks ahead of time. And they don’t ever change. There may be something that comes up where I just have to like push everything back a day, but really nothing changes. And the reason is because I have a really firm foundation. I have a very good, firm, reliable curriculum. If you want to learn more about that and my process for building a beautiful reliable curriculum, check out the All Star planning masterclass at plan.kelseyreavy.com.
But. Really what happens is I structured my curriculum. That’s where I started. And that is something that should have happened before I started teaching. Not in December. But, you know, life happens. So I structured the entire curriculum. And then I really only planned out like, the next two weeks after we got back from Christmas break. And I really spent Christmas break that year, getting ahead as much as I could, because I had an excellent plan that I was ready to implement. So, the gist of it. Is that the strong, reliable curriculum gave me footing to plan ahead. You see what I’m getting at here?
Organize your Standards
If you are just shopping through your standards, which for me is 189 distinct standards and skills. That’s more than there are days in a school year, just in case you were wondering, um. Shopping through all of those standards is ridiculous. And that’s what I was doing for sometimes two lesson plans, sometimes five lesson plans every single day.
And being, you know, the first year teacher, I’m not super familiar with the standards. I don’t really know how to read them. The standards are listed as standards, no major understandings. And then the skills are labeled as process skills, and then there’s some interdisciplinary skills in there. And the New York state chemistry standards are getting an upgrade, thank goodness. But trying to interpret them as a first year teacher with really no other chemistry people in the building to kind of walk me through it? Chaos. So that’s, that’s kind of where I was at. It was shopping through all of these standards, trying to figure out which ones matched the thing that I was going to be teaching the next day.
And that would take me hours. Hours to sort through 189 standards and skills and say, they’re learning this one for the first time. This is a reviewing standard. This one is a recurring standard. This is something that they’re going to learn next week. So let me grab that and hold on to that and put that to the side.
I took Christmas break and I changed everything. And I created a unit plan.
Unit Plans are the Key
So I looked at all the standards, looked at my pacing and said, “okay, when we get back from Christmas break, the kids are gonna learn math or chemistry.” Which for my chemistry listeners. Um, it’s really just intro to stoichiometry, nothing super intense. So I shopped through all of my standards at once looking for everything that was going to be involved with math and chemistry. And I took those and I put them to the side. And then I did the same thing for. The next unit and the next unit and the next unit and the next unit. So that when I was writing my lesson plans, instead of shopping through almost 200 of them I would just shop through 20 to 30. Which made my life so much easier. And then I took those standards and I kind of organized them and sort of put them in order. And then that right there was a unit plan, and then I took that unit plan and I used it to copy and paste into lesson plans.
My lesson plans were like lightning fast. So then I could spend all of my time not writing lesson plans and instead creating beautiful worksheets without typos. And.
First Year Teaching Mistakes
I’m telling you the number of typos my first year of teaching. I think I was just doing everything with just one eye open. So like one eye, my left eye would be sleeping and my right eye would be working. So everything was a mess, so once I had these unit plans that I could work from everything else afterwards became super easy. And I had so much more time to do it. And that’s when my curriculum started getting creative. That’s when I started moving away from worksheets and moving into like different activities.
And every single year, they get better and better and better. You can listen to last week’s episode on, um, lesson reflection for a little bit more on that. But really what happened was that my lesson plans took me almost no time at all. Seriously, almost no time at all, because my unit plans had collected all of my standards. And then I had, you know, these pockets of standards instead of shopping through 200 of them.
Unit Plans = Less Stress = More Fun
And this changed everything. It changed everything. I was so much happier, so much less stressed. I was getting more sleep. Um, and then I could focus on things like classroom management, building relationships with my students. Just all of the things that you want to be doing as a first year teacher that I was just putting to the side because you know, your first job as a teacher is to teach. And the second job is to like, make it fun and all of, you know, the fun part. So I got job, number one down, so job number two became the fun part. So I started doing uh, gallery walks and we would do color by number pages, which there are some excellent ones on teachers pay teachers just in case anybody was wondering. Um, there are so many of them and they’re awesome. I’m not creative or, or artistic. So I can’t come up with these things, but I do shop for them because they’re great. So we started doing more fun, things like that.
Um, my labs got a little bit more intricate, more exciting. And. It just. Boom. Everything changed. So in order to get ahead on the lesson planning, you really just need like that firm curriculum foundation. And then what happens is that you, lesson plans kind of like almost write themselves. Now I’m at the point where I’m writing my lesson plans, like three to four weeks ahead.
Lesson Reflection to Save Time
Part of that is because of my lesson reflection. So everything that I do, I just tell myself, “make this edit and make that edit, and then you’ll be fine.” There are some lessons that need a lot more work than others, especially with all of these new activities that I come up with every single year. Some activities just completely faceplant. They don’t work. And then that lesson plan needs a big upgrade. And then there are some that are fantastic. They run smooth and I don’t have to make very many edits to them. So, I mean, that’s the advantage of doing this for a few years.
Prep at the End of the School Year
Another reason I’m so ahead of my lessons is because. Uh, at the end of every school year, I. Kind of plan the first two weeks of school, I write the lesson plans. I make the copies, I bundle them up and throw them in a file cabinet. I labeled them “Reavy First Week of School.” So that’s already planned. So then during my first week of school, I’m planning for actually week three.
My Lesson Planning Schedule
So what happens? I write all my lesson plans, usually on a Friday. Not the Friday before I need them, but actually two Fridays before I need them. And then I spend the entire following week prepping for next week. So, um, if you’re thinking about a calendar, my lesson plans would be written on a Friday. Ten days before I need them. And then the week before I need everything, I am editing my worksheets, I’m making copies, I’m creating new activities. Uh, and I create a lot of new stuff every single year. I’m making card sorts and board games and quiz games. I do jeopardy and we do, uh, Finger lights, activities, which is like multiple choice in the dark. The kids go crazy for it. Um, they also really like escape rooms. My escape rooms have gotten really intricate and a lot of fun.
But those are the things I do now instead of writing lesson plans because my lesson plans are based on a solid curriculum. And that solid curriculum is the All Star Planning Method.
So really what happens for me is that the last few weeks of school, uh, we’re doing final exam review. And then for like the last 10 or so days, we have state final exams. And chemistry, usually the last one. So I will be proctoring tests for about half the day. And then the other half is grading, makeup work, uh, packing up my classroom and all that jazz. So I will find pockets of time in there to edit my syllabus make copies of my safety contract and all of those kinds of things. And then wrap them up, throw them in a filing cabinet. Didn’t get to do that last year because the 2019 2020 school year ended very strangely and abruptly.
2020 School Year is Crazy & Unusual
So, um, this upcoming school year is going to be a little, we’re going to start off with a little bit of, you know, craziness, but everybody is so. We’re all in this together. We’re all trying to do our best and, uh, We’re just gonna roll with it. It’ll be like being a first year teacher in some respects because nobody will know what’s going on. It’s okay though, because every teacher has been a first year teacher before and you’ve done it. So you’re able to do it again. Just saying.
Nobody wants to go back there, but you all can. I know I can because my first year was absolutely crazy. And then my second year was also crazy because I taught physics. That’s a story for another day, but I was basically a first year teacher, two years in a row. And, uh, I’ve done it twice. I can do it again. Not that I want to, but that’s where we’re at.
Summing it Up
So in terms of getting ahead on your lesson plans, you want to have a strong, reliable curriculum. You want to honestly plan as much as you can, uh, before the school year starts. And for me really, once that curriculum in those unit plans are done, the lesson plans are super easy.
My method and my templates are really just copy and paste. I can write a week’s worth of lesson plans in like 30 minutes. Because it’s copying and pasting because it all comes from the unit plans. So, and the unit plans are not even really that intricate, like pinky promise. They’re just copy and paste it from the standards. And. That’s where we’re at. Also mixed in there, is some lesson reflection. Because when you are reflecting on your lessons, every single year, your lesson plans just become easier to write. Because you just need to make minor edits here and there. Sometimes they’re big edits, but you already know what they are. So there’s that. And you can listen to more of my lesson reflection tips in last week’s episode.
All Star Planning
If you are interested in help in writing your solid, reliable, strong curriculum, you can find my free All Star Planning masterclass at plan.kelseyreavy.com. There, I show you how the five pieces of the All Star Planning method come together so that you can make your lesson plans lightning fast, get ahead of them because you have a strong curriculum to back you up. And please make sure to subscribe to the podcast. New episodes come out every Tuesday and I will see you then. Bye!
