I'm really trying hard to stay ahead in my planning because that's my weak area. I'm always waiting until the last minute to do things. Then, I see something on a blog somewhere or on Pinterest that I want to squeeze in so I'm having to stay late to plan those things and it's just bad. My goal is to be better at planning and sticking to it! (yeah, right) Here's one thing I'm doing to plan ahead.
WARNING: It is NOT fancy by any means. No, neat notebooks, no pretty covers, no typed up notes, nothing of the sort. Just Ziploc baggies, post it notes, and my awful handwriting. But, it's what works for me...for now.
If you read my blog regularly you probably know that I teach through thematic units like most of us do. Instead of pulling out 1 unit, I'm trying to pull out the themes for each month and go from there. Here's how I am organizing them.
I put my centers for each week in a Ziploc bag with the game pieces in front of each game. Then, I put a sticky note with the week for each month inside the bag on the front paper.
It looks like this...this was for week 3 of November.
this was week 2 of November
This is a top view just so you can see that I even stick in my sentence strips for my pocket chart stories...it doesn't bother me that they are folded. I know for some of you it would... ;)
Okay so here is what the planning process looks like for me in December...I throw all of my December files into a big basket...then I go through and pull out what I want to do.
I know for some of you this looks like a train wreck...I am NOT "pretty" when it comes to my files. This is how I learned to do it so it just stuck. I should probably buy 3 ring binders and sheet protectors and organize, but that won't happen until my kids are grown probably...HA!
Then, once I pull and run copies I sort through the copies by literacy and math games.
Last, they go into the Ziploc baggie like this until it's their week to come out and go into baskets!
So, now you know how I TRY to plan ahead on centers.
Oh my gosh. I plan almost the EXACT same way!! That is so funny! :) It's worked for me so far, too!!
ReplyDeleteI hear ya...planning ahead has been something I've tried to work on each year. I'd like to think I get a little better with each year? Hopefully? But until our babies are grown...we do what we can! Those little cuties are still getting a great education from a great teacher! The "train wrecks" don't matter! It works! :-)
ReplyDeleteI've been teaching for 29 years, and the same thing happens to me. I don't know how you even have time to blog and create all the wonderful units that you do. It may look like a mess to others. However, we all know what we're doing, right?
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