Tips for Teachers: Planning to Maximize Instructional Time

I make classroom plans on a yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily basis.

My yearly plans come from my grade level cohort group (PLC or Professional Learning Community). During our back-to-school workshops we map out a pacing calendar for reading, math, spelling and vocabulary. We are each given a copy of the calendar and must stick fairly close to the schedule so that all necessary content is covered by all first graders during the course of the school year.

I like to write up basic plans for the coming week on Friday after school. It is usually pretty quiet in my building on Fridays when the students have left for the day, and there are rarely any meetings scheduled on Fridays.

I look over my curriculum pacing plan to see if I'm on track and then I pencil basic plans into my lesson plan book for each subject and each day of the coming week using the manuals for the different areas. I gather the workbook pages, books, and other materials I'll need and place them into the appropriate spots in the five document trays I have stacked and labeled "Monday" through "Friday".

If time allows, I prepare a brief outline for the newsletter I will send home the following Friday. I will grab the necessary homework to be sent home the following week with the newsletter so that it is ready to be stuffed into the Friday Folders our school sends home with our students at the end of each week. (I normally only send homework home on Fridays so that the parents know when to look for it and have the weekend and the following week to complete it before I send more homework.)

I have a storage tub for each month of the year where I keep art projects and other projects that pertain to that month (for instance, a booklet about Abraham Lincoln which I will have the students read and decorate will be stored in the February tub), and about a week prior to the coming month I will look in the tub for any seasonal art or holiday projects I'd like to do. I write up directions for preparing art projects and place them in a box for my aide who is given a 45 minute block each week (while my students are at art class) to help me with classroom tasks . I also have a file folder marked "To Copy" into which I put any materials I want my aide to photocopy.

On a daily basis, I check off what was accomplished during the current day and adjust my plans if something wasn't covered or we need to spend more time on a concept. I will also "flesh out" my plans and move materials needed for the next day from the document tray to my podium so everything is at my fingertips when I'm teaching.

I have outlined above what ideally happens in my classroom in the area of planning. I can wing it as well as any teacher I know when for some reason I am unable to organize my day ahead of time, but I find that when I walk into the building with all my plans and materials in place, I am a much more effective teacher and instructional time is maximized to its greatest potential.