Early Start and 50 followers!

Okay, first of all, I am SOOOOO excited that I have 50 followers.  I started this blog as more of a journal and place to collect ideas.  Over the summer, I started reading some blogs and quickly became addicted!  That is when I started using this blog more as a place to share my ideas.  As a thank you to my 50 followers, I have a few freebies for you! 

As 2011 comes to an end, I have been reading everyone's new years resolutions...organization and planning seem to be two goals most of us have in common for 2012.  I have been wanting needing to come up with some forms that will allow me to do long range planning.  So I got an early start on my 2012 goals and made a few different sheets. 

 This is a general sheet you can use to jot down ideas for the future. 

This is a sheet I made that outlines each week in the quarter.  The blank section next to the week is for the dates.  You can get them both for free by clicking on the pictures or by visiting my Teachers Notebook store!  

Enjoy! 

Planbook.com

Are you tired of planning out an entire week and then you realize you forgot to include the assembly or you have a snow day?  Suddenly, all of your plans need to shift over.  You end up with so many arrows navigating your plan book is like navigating an airport.  As a resource room teacher, I often have teachers who change their plans which then forces me to change my plans.  It's beyond frustrating!

Planbook.com makes changing plans easy.  You set up your schedule, color coding your groups/subjects, and type your plans into the correct boxes.  There is a place for standards (which are already entered, you just select them from a drop down box), homework, and notes.  When you realize that you forgot about the assembly and you no longer have time for social studies, just click on that lesson and hit "Bump".  That lesson is bumped to the next time you have social studies and all future lessons are shifted as well.  You can enter in no school days and shift the entire day at once (like for a snow day).  I absolutely love this website!  Here is what my plan book looks like with no lessons filled in (I use student names in my lessons so for confidentiality I have to show blank plans): 

I set up the template for each group I see so I don't have to re-type SWBAT and Assessment every day for every group.  The customer service is amazing! I once tried to print a lesson and it didn't work so I went to go see my next group of kids.  When I got back (30 minutes later) I had an email from planbook.com saying that they saw my problem (which I didn't tell them about) and they fixed it.  I also requested that they add a section for teachers to add their own standards (for IEP goals) and they immediately put their support team on it!  

One feature I really love is how you can view your plans.  I can view my plans in a week form (shown above), a daily form (which is how I print them - the little boxes just go full screen), OR by group (or subject).  My principals often ask me what type of lessons I've been doing with Johnny or how his behavior has been etc and I can view all my lessons for his group only.  This has been very helpful with RtI, parent conferences, and the CSE referral process.  

I am not paid by planbook.com to promote their site.  I just truly think that it's a valuable tool for resource room teachers.  Check it out and let me know what you think!  

-Becky

Lesson Plans

Don't get me wrong, I love planbook.com but after looking at this blog (http://ateachersplan.blogspot.com/p/home.html) I kind of want to re-think my plans.  I love the cute fonts and checklist approach to her plans.  If my plans were that simple to fill in, I might actually be able to plan a week in advance!  I'm going play with different formats and templates.  I'll post whatever I come up with.  I'm also noticing that many teachers planbooks are broken into subjects by week.  The plans on that blog are broken into ELA, Math, and Content areas.  The music teacher I work with does 1 set of plans per grade level and keeps them seperated by grade level.  I'm considering keeping my plans seperated by group.  We will see what I come up with!

Project Organization Phase 5: Planbook

This project is creating an organized planbook which is really more than just a planbook.  This is something that you should have fun with - make it your own because you should be spending a lot of time with this through the year.
Materials:
-Binder with view pockets in the front for a cover (2" is probably good)
-Set of dividers
-Page protectors (optional)
-Zippered pouch (optional)
-3 whole punch that goes in a binder (optional)

You can make this as simple or as complicated as you would like.  The first thing you need to do is figure out what you want to keep in your binder.  Create a tabbed section for each item you want to have in the binder.  Here are some to choose from:
-Student birthdays
-Calendar
-Schedule
-Test Accommodations/IEPs
-To Do lists
-Lesson Plans
-Old lesson plans (previous quarters/months)
-Travel Logs
-Attendance
-Meeting Notes
-CSE Agendas
-Lesson Planning Guides (list of goals or state standards, curriculum maps, blooms taxonomy etc...)
-Parent communication
-Staff Directory
-Handy Lists (favorite websites, future lesson ideas, whatever you might what to refer to when planning)

I don't recommend using all of these.  I have 5 sections in my binder (plans, to do lists, travel logs, meeting notes/cse agendas, and calendars) plus birthdays in the front and a blooms sheet in the back cover.  I recommend spending some time on the actual sheets that you are going to fill your binder with.  Put cute graphics on your to-do lists or lesson plans.  Make a decorative cover for the binder.  Put family pictures on the back cover.  The simple act of creating a binder is simple.  Making your own can get time consuming.  Make it however you would like it.  Have fun!