Lesson Plan Book: Fill & Download for Free

When I first started teaching, there was a 1:1 ratio between planning time and teaching time. That was because I was still learning how to use the resources I had, and I was still writing detailed lesson plans like I learned to do in college.By Christmas break of my first year as a teacher, I had that down to a 1:2 planning/teaching time ratio. I became familiar with how to use the resources I had, I learned my students’ personalities, and, most importantly, I quit making such detailed lesson plans.Now, in my 8th year as a teacher, my planning/teaching time ratio is probably about 1:50. That’s not an exaggeration. I spend very little time planning, because I’ve literally done all of this before. My plans are just a few scribbled notes to remind me what I wanted to cover during that lesson. The rest is in my head.I don’t have to write an entire page describing a single lesson plan for, say, a lesson in transitive verbs. I literally just write that in my plan book: transitive verbs. That’s it. I know what to do from there.

At this point in my career, ten years in, I spend about an hour planning all of my lessons each week, about 20 minutes of that is spent watching new videos I may want to use in my lessons.It wasn’t always this way. My first year as a teacher, I spent 5–6 hours per week planning. Like everything else in life, you get better and more efficient with experience. I’ve taught the same lessons with the same material so many times that, for a while there, my entire lesson plans were just page numbers and the occasional side note to remind me of something. My plan book looked like this:Monday - 8th grade. P. 240–242, video.I didn’t have to write which video. I knew which video went with that lesson.But now I’m trying to do slightly more detailed lesson plans, just in case anyone ever asks to see them.

Yes. It's all very, very obvious.Texting. I've been teaching high schoolers for about 6 months now, and it has never not been obvious that a student is texting. Whether your hands are under your desk, behind a book wall, or inside your pockets, your teachers can tell.Yep.Yeah, dude.Still, yes. Same goes for smart watches, tablets, and “taking notes” on a laptop. The hand position and the head angle are great indicators that I should walk by that desk soon.Whispering. No one whispers as quietly as they think they do— even if you can't make out each individual word, you hear the “sssdsssbshhgsss.” That indistinct whispery sound is like a mosquito in your ear.Sleeping. Yes, it's obvious. No matter what excuse you use, like “I was focusing by closing my eyes” or “I just put my head down for a second.”Gosh, I can't believe I ever thought I was fooling my own teachers.Now, many teachers choose to ignore these things. Depending on what the lesson plan is, I might choose to ignore these as long as you don't disrupt the class. But trust me, I do notice.