Lesson Plans Made Easy

I feel like every year I look for an easier way to create my lesson plans and I believe I may have found it. Planbook.com is an online program for creating lesson plans.

It boasts that you can do the following:

• Develop custom schedules for each class.
• View and print lesson plans by day, week, or class.
• Create class templates for any day of the week.
• Adjust your lesson schedule with a single click.
• Share your plans with other teachers.
• Easily re-use lessons from one year to the next.

Why do I like it?

• I can easily access it from anywhere; work or home.
• I can color code my classes or subjects.
• If I don't get to an activity, I can use the bump feature to push it to the next day.
• I can print my plans to a PDF format to e-mail them to my principal.
• It has a section to easily add standards, even common core.
• I can create templates, even use a district one if necessary.
• It helps me keep my schedule!

Why is it so easy to use?

• Its similar to any other program our district uses whether that be Microsoft or E-Chalk.
• It allows you to transition from old versions of your lesson plans by allowing you to upload your lesson plans to the program.
• It also has an entire section devoted to videos showing you how to work different features of the program, like this one:

Click here for a list of the tutorials available.
My only disclaimer about the program is that is costs $12.00 to sign up to use planbook. But that will give you a subscription for an entire year! I'm not sure about you, but I am willing to pay that that amount if it will help me create lesson plans faster and focus on my students more.

Happy Planning!

My Desk is a Mess!

A teacher once told me a messy desk means the teacher is spending a lot of time with their students. Well if that's true, no one could ever accuse me of not spending all of my time with my students! During the school year, my desk organization sometimes goes to the way side..

So while one of my daily perusings on Pinterest, I came across the Blog, Down the Learning Road. She had this brilliant idea of buying a toolkit and making labels for all the little odds and ends you find in your desk. Now I know this wont completely fix my desk organization problem, but it's a start!

So here's what I did:

First I went to Amazon.com and searched for plastic drawers and this is the one I decided to purchase:

Next, I thought it needed a little sprucing up! So I took scrapbook paper and measured the drawers and cut the paper to fit in as labels. But what good are labels if there aren't any words on them? This is where I had to get really clever! I had found this idea of printing letters on sticky notes, so I thought why couldn't I do that with my scrapbook labels?

First, I just printed the labels on regular paper:

Second, I tapped my pre-cut labels on top of the words I wanted printed on them:

Third, I sent it back through my printer:

The last thing I needed to do was adhere the labels to the drawers. And what better way to do that than with a little Mod Podge!

Now, drum roll please! I have the finished product and already my desk is cleaner!