Does your grade level plan as a team? In my school, we are "highly" encouraged to collaboratively plan. At first I absolutely hated it, I usually am a "shut the door and do my own thing" kind of teacher. But I realized a few things....first of all, I wasn't sure I was covering everything that my team was and in the time frame I was supposed to. Second, it is much harder and more time consuming to do it all, ALL by myself. By working together in planning partners, we can be "experts" in our certain subject. Then we make sure we are all covering the standards.
The big problem we encountered though, was everyone was using their own personal lesson plan template. It took so much time to then copy and paste everyone's plans into our own format.
The solution came in the form of Planbook.com! We set up a grade level planbook using a gmail address. Then each planning team can enter plans for their subject. Then each person has an account for their own planbook. All we have to do then is import plans into our own planbook. Obviously each teacher tweeks the lessons to fit their own class but it saves so much time to work collaboratively!
Some tips for using planbook.com:
- More than one teacher can work in the planbook at a time. (just hit the refresh button to see what's been entered)
- They have great video tutorials to help you set up your planbook and learn how to import plans from another teacher.
- They also have GREAT customer service. If you have any questions, they get right back to you to answer them.
- It is very easy to enter your state's standards for each lesson.
- You can upload attachments and links to videos or websites.
- You can easily bump a lesson if you don't have time to get to it, and copying or deleting lessons is also really easy.
Check out planbook, it will save you so much planning time!
I just wrote wrote a post on The Primary Peach to help with a last minute activity for Valentine's Day and Dental Health....check it out!
Happy Valentine's Day!!
I've been busy getting ready for our Valentine's Day activities! In my school, we can't do a party so we have to keep it pretty low key. We only have 2 "official" parties per year. Soooo, on Valentine's Day my kids can pass out cards and we have a little treat and that's about it.
I made these really cute Valentine boxes, so instead of getting Valentines from me , my students will make one and I will fill them up with treats like candy and a pencil and erasers.
Click the picture to pick your copy of Valentine Treat Boxes!
What are your plans for Valentine's Day in your room?
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