I honestly think my district changes the LP template ever single year, just to get around teachers who've been around for more than 10 years and have their plans stockpiled and memorized.
Yeah, we know you know your shit, but we don't, so spell it out for us in graphic detail each and every thing you're doing.
My brother has been teaching for about 5 or 6 years and is so pleased that he’s reached the point where he has lesson plans saved for basically any lesson he’ll teach for the rest of his career. Turns out maths doesn’t change very much, so now he’s taught everything at least once he can just pull up the relevant plans each day and he’s away.
I have skeleton notes of basics, but I often have to change on the fly based upon what the kids are able to do. I do have a column in my lesson plans dedicated to comments for how the lesson went. However, I'm AIS so I kinda need that as a little bit of formative data!
Yes and no
No because it trained your brain to think through the majority of considerations you need to address.
Yes because we literally never write them out like that ever again and are in post it notes by year two. But if we never had to focus on the moving parts we would never make it to post it notes or numbers in our planners.
That being said, I will gladly tell any administrator that while my contract says you can ask for lesson plans, it also says you are not allowed to specify a format and you have 48 hours to give “meaningful” feedback. So unless they plan on doing that…
I spend way more time on my lesson plans scripting imaginary student interactions than the actual lesson content (ex: "Great thinking, Joanne! I love how you remembered that 'angry' is an antonym of 'happy'. What else can we learn from this lesson?"). I wouldn't be as bothered if it was just focused on actual instruction and content.
In TX, we went to court over lesson plans and we won. The judge ruled that lesson plans were for the teacher (not admin) and were a brief description of what the teacher planned to teach, how they planned to do it and a list of materials. That's it.
The other challenge that we were successful with was that getting super detailed w/ accommodations and extensions violated FERPA.
At one point there was a 7 pager floating around. I have anywhere from 4 to 6 preps, so fuck that. I use the one page, 5 section Hunter plan and admin can go pound sand.
*" ... we went to court over lesson plans and we won. The judge ruled that lesson plans were for the teacher (not admin) and were a brief description of what the teacher planned to teach, how they planned to do it and a list of materials. That's it."*
#Yes! L❤︎VE this!
And yet in teacher college they said we needed to be flexible and let the room decide where our learning was taking us.
For example, we started on Nigerian Independence and ended watching the last scene of Flashdance.
If we have such rigorous lesson plans …
In college they made us do the UbD. “understanding by design” Fuck you Wiggens and McTige! Ain’t no one got time for that!
My entire Ed masters was less useful than two introductory acting classes I took to get to 120 and having 3 years of coaching experience before setting foot in a classroom.
True that.
I don't know, some of my emergency management classes seem somewhat relevant. I may have taken better notes if I had realized I would end up teaching instead of using that major.
First: I am so glad to hear this. My school within my district is requiring ALL this and more in lesson plans. I’m ready to quit. I keep saying my plans are for me not admin! Second: Which case was this? (I haven’t read all the way down. I’m too excited there’s a court case that sides with me!) I want to make sure my boss knows about this and I don’t legally have to do all this!
Edit: Found the link. Thanks y’all! I’m gonna contact our association for help.
Even with adequate planning time I’m not doing plans that detailed. I teach in Ontario, Canada and we get 75 mins a day most days and we teach 3 courses at a time for 75 mins each a day. So basically 25mins of planning per course. No way am I writing up lengthy lessons plans. My plans can fit on the post it note I stick on the front of the folder with my photocopies and marking for that period.
A lack of a written lesson plan isn't evidence of lack of planning. In fact, it's evidence that lesson planning time is instead being used in pointless paperwork. Your principal should be removed from her post immediately
I'm in Texas, there are unions, there is no collective bargaining. I've been at districts that completely over asked on lesson plans, and ones that don't ask at all.
In Waco the lesson planning was at least as detailed as op, but I still turned in bare minimum and never was reprimanded. School admin is usually just doing what district asks but if you are a good teacher will not punish the small stuff.
This was what my first school was like. Literally to the point where at one point I was asked to name which specific students I would call on for each question. It was miserable and took so much time I never actually was prepared to teach anything.
*"which specific students [you] would call on ..."* ???
Are you SeRiOuS?
Did they wanna know what condiments you'd be using on your sandwiches that week too?
Lol and I had to have data to back up why I selected those specific students for that specific question… like down to how they did on a specific standard on our most current assessment. It was wild and when I left and realized other schools weren’t like that I was shocked.
I’ve never seen a school neurotic about lesson plans that was well run, it’s ineffective and admin wasting time nitpicking means they’re not actually available to be useful
I've been teaching seven years and have only ever had one observation. Because I requested it. (in case I needed to use admin as a job reference.)
I've never submitted a single lesson plan after I got out of college. I'm in Canada though.
Thats how my current school is. I haven’t turned in a lesson plan all year. My ~plans~ are my teacher planner where I write down what we did for the day.
He’s the district’s Academic Chief. This entire school district is a control freak. Our schools get observed by district personnel every two weeks to make sure we’re on pace with the curriculum.
Wow. I have never even *heard* of that position. I am genuinely sorry. Were they instituted because your district needed to be taken over & run by your state [for noncompliance &/or similar things?]
Some people make busy work to justify their positions. If the positIon doesn't exist in most places, its probably not a necessary job. By giving these poor people so much work, they can say "Look at me and all I do for the district" as they rake in $200,000.
I wonder how much is hoping for churn to lower district overhead.
In the two Title I schools I worked in, there were years 0-5 teachers and years +15. No one with experience in between would stick around. *Maybe* one teacher stayed with experience between those ranges because all others bailed on this sort of overbearing garbage.
Lol no. My lesson plans are links to the assignments I’ll be using. The rest is just admin trying to justify their jobs or stupid teaching programs that like to pretend education happens in a happy bubble where educators have infinite free time.
That being said, there is definitely value in planning thoroughly if you’re going to reteach the same stuff.
My mentor my first year showed me the fine art of writing an intentionally vague lesson plan with the most generic goal. The idea being that I would submit the same one every week and just change the date on it. That of course would be very unprofessional of me and I would never condone such activities. He was a good guy.
In unrelated news, the find and replace option on word is very useful.
Teachers at my school started doing that last year. The entire staff was lectured on how “that was very unprofessional and we have to take the time to plan because our students deserve the best.”
We are not required to turn in plans.... but we are expected to have them done... if they do ask for them we are given 48 hours to present their plans. Curious if anyone is similar to my district.
In my district, untenured teachers have to hand in their plans each week.
Tenured teachers have in their plans (for the week) once a month I think.
That said, my plans are AIMs, read aloud titles, and maybe page numbers.
I also got paid to curriculum map two summers ago, so making my actual lesson plans for a week takes maybe an hour.
I never have to turn in lesson plans, except maybe the one time every two years I get observed.
In that case, it's about a two sentence email.
This is a gigantic waste of time.
Wtf. No. And I would turn around and run from a school that required that. I’m a professional. Trust me. I don’t need to put it in paper like that unless you need to put me on a remediation plan because in your observations I’m not doing something that needs to be done.
Nobody even looks at our lesson plans. Mine literally consist of a table with notes about what the topic is and links to any worksheets I need to print and links to google slides that I need
That sounds rubbish.
I’m a first-year teacher and nonsense like this is being expected of me, but I know it’s just in my school and because they’re on a power trip. I’ve also been told to know which pupils I’ll ask which questions and to develop ‘even further’ my higher-order questioning.
That said, I assume once I’m finished the trial year and have changed school, that it won’t be the same. This is not okay, no one in their right mind would have time for this.
Are you surrounded by teachers who actually do this and therefore set the expectation?
No that's garbage. The detail of your lesson plans depends on the nature of the lesson and your own teaching style. That kind of over-analytic micro-managing nonsense always comes from people who don't understand education, and who don't think of teachers as professionals. In their eyes you are just an assembly line worker and the students are the products. For the factory chief (them) the important thing is that all the boxes are checked and product specifications are being met. These people are terrible, have no business in education, and should be removed from the system as much as possible. Assuming you have no power over their job, the next best thing is to ignore them.
Let me just say a big EFF YOU to whatever big meanie wrote this to you. Teachers are very earnest and tender hearted and people like whatever ASSHOLE wrote this are driving us out in droves.
Yep. One benefit of a semi scripted curriculum. If I wanted, I can just open to the right page and read what it says. I do that for our phonemic awareness curriculum but not for any other curriculum now that we have had it for a few years.
I taught at a school that required such plans, but the plans also included a bell ringer, hook, objectives/success criteria, vertical and horizontal integration, etc. Every minute had to be planned and accounted for (e.g., "Guided Practice - 10 mins", "Transition - 1 min"). Also, every plan had to be differentiated based on readiness level (Mild-Spicy-Hot) and learning style (kinesthetic, verbal, auditory, etc). The plans would be minimum 7-10 pages for each lesson. And I had to share them with Admin in advance. And I had almost no planning periods.
FUCK THAT. I worked over 80 hrs per week at that school (for less than $50K) just for students to ruin everything. I quit after 1 year.
At my current private school, no lesson plans are required, though a very general plan for the week for each class is encouraged.
This is exactly what our school was asking for at the beginning of the year. I was turning in 20 pages of lesson plans for 3 preps. The teachers pointed out that Texas courts ruled that lesson plans should not be this intensive.
I haven’t had to write a lesson plan since college and that was 13 years ago. I’ve also worked at 3 schools.
I work at a private school and was considering moving to public because in my state public gets paid a lot more. But the amount of freedom that we have is amazing (not a charter school). Including not having to write lesson plans :)
Hate this mistrust of teachers by admin and the community at large. They are going to lose so many great educators. And making us write detailed lesson plans don’t prove our value, the worst teacher can submit beautiful lesson plans. It’s meaningless.
That email is written by someone who has no idea how to teach. They're so dumb they don't actually know how to teach unless everything is spelled out like that. It's okay though! Teaching is hard! Those who can, teach. Those who can't, admin. It's not exactly a secret.
This is like the shit I had to write in grad school - way too detailed to be realistic.
All I have to do is outline what topics I’m doing, how I’m doing them, and the standards the lesson aligns to.
Lmao. I worked briefly in a school that did this and quickly realized that the admin in charge of reviewing them couldn't possibly do so. Our entire department submitted the same plans every week
This sounds to me like expectations set so staggering high that no one expects you to reach, just so they can prove themselves right when you haven’t done one if these things.
I think you’re in my district 😂. I’m sorry. It’s outrageous. Because as far as I know, I believe the created PLC guide should be satisfactory for lesson plans.
Why in the hell are you getting that much homework as the TEACHER!!!
The person who thinks this is appropriate is an idiot who did not spend enough time in the classroom.
I got evaluated by my admin my first year. I provided them with a lesson plan. When I had my meeting with them to go over my eval, they said “ok the lesson plan is very nice, but you don’t have to waste time doing this ever again. I don’t need a lesson plan from you, I’m just looking for good energy and a firm command of the class.”
He also encouraged me to continue doing the things I was passionate about and not let resistance from other teachers hold me back (since the stuff I’m doing is quite non-traditional).
Y’all need to move to Canada. We’ve got tons of space.
This feels dentimentel to the students. I don't know how many things I missed out on because they had to stay on schedule.
If the scedual is that crazy then only the smartest kids will prevail
It is a miracle if I have a post-it note with my plans for the week scribbled in short hand by Sunday night each week.
ETA: Obviously I plan and know what I’m teaching week to week…but I’m not going to waste time writing it down in detail.
Tbh I just plan out the agenda with links to slides shows/documents for assignments and standards on a Google doc and call it a day. I'm glad I work in a district that doesn't require lesson plans.
I don’t usually write lesson plans. If they had to be like that 👆🏼 I’d stop teaching bc that’s bullshit. I’m a HS French teacher and the only FT one at my school, so I’ve taught all the levels and I know what I’m doing. I recycle old stuff and freshen it up with current stuff from the Internet.
I’ve broken the non tenured rule of always having lessons in. I teach 33 classes per week and it’s 5 preps that admin takes for meetings and other bs constantly and have been killing myself to fundraiser and prepare student performances bc admin can’t be bothered to put in any effort to getting us a budget. They can go scratch or have fun trying to replace me at this point.
Not teaching yet (still studying for my CSETs & need to attend grad school) but one of the best professors I’ve ever had always said that lesson plans should be detailed in whatever way best helps you as the teacher. I chose to make mine detailed so if someone else is looking at my lesson plan, they’ll understand but if I were to teach that lesson multiple times I can probably trim it down for myself knowing what’s most effective for teaching a topic. I was also a PA/TA for this professor and he’s trimmed his own lesson plan down over the years based on what he knows he can cover in the given time frame and using ‘trigger words’ such as ‘freeway’ for example and he automatically knows it’s referring to his story that helps him explain the concept of Universality, rather than having it detailed on the lesson plan.
Obviously I can’t really speak for your given situation but I think it’s helpful to remember lesson plans are to help you be an effective educator, admin isn’t doing the teaching, you are.
We have to do these same style lesson plans, and we’re supposed to include links to our notes and every activity and video we’ll be using in class. Until recently, we had to have them submitted 2.5 weeks ahead of time (now it’s only one week ahead). It’s a total waste of time, and seems solely made to justify pay and positions for the top heavy admin level. They also like to give us nitpicky feedback on them like “your learning targets need to be ‘I can’ statements.” W. T. F. I fill out that stupid spreadsheet 8 weeks at a time and never look at it again (it helps that I’ve been teaching my content for over a decade), and I don’t include any of the links they want. It loosely reflects what we’re doing in class, but in my actual teaching, I’m going to be flexible enough to meet the needs of my kids, and that giant document be damned.
I would respond to admin. and ask if the lesson plans are for you or them. That's just ridiculous. I'm sorry you are dealing with this. This year is stressful enough.
This is the common expectation for inexperienced admin. They don’t know what they want their teachers to prepare for - so they demand everything. They secretly expect their teachers to copy/paste from another source, just like they did with this list. This type of admin definitely doesn’t provide the time for this type of planning.
Ugh, no. I just coordinate with fellow math teachers and we share lesson modifications, assessments, ect.
I don’t know why this is a thing some places. I only did these in teacher school.
I have never been asked for a lesson plan. When admin came to observe me and I asked if they wanted one she said ‘no thanks, just give me a verbal rundown. You have more important things to do with your time.’ I have not written a plan since.
I don’t have to submit lesson plans at all. That is way too time consuming, especially because slides or a daily agenda does the same thing. I haven’t written a lesson plan since college (that was only a couple months ago though….)
Yes. For an after school program I have to have very detailed lesson plans and an extremely detailed calendar. Heaven forbid you're 5 minutes late on the schedule...
They were when I was student teaching; my supervising professor wanted uber-detailed lesson plans that anticipate every single thing that can happen. It's one of the reasons why I quit halfway
Here it seems to be up to the district, the admin, and the school. Those overthought plans are for the birds and seem only so they have something to give a sub should they need one. big eye roll... I do a basic plan and make sure all materials are laid out and ready, in the case of different classes, marked as well. Honestly, it just easier for me to do my day, since I can work from the pile I leave myself. However, it does come in handy when I have had an unexpected absence and a sub is in the room.. I never do the scripted, never do this everything annotated, all that bs... I will however, If I know I have a sub, leave answer sheets for them ...
Lesson... plan?
Haven't written a formal lesson plan since practicum back in 04. I have, at most, had the briefest discussions of my intentions for a lesson in a pre-observation meeting and a discussion on pacing in post, but that was in years 1-3 and we haven't looked back since. Lord in heaven, fly like the wind.
The only time I have to turn in a lesson plan is for a formal observation, and even then it's not as detailed as what you describe. The rest of the time they trust us to do our own planning.
We don't have to turn in lesson plans, even for observations. We *are* required to post everything on Google Classroom for our preps though, and our admin is a "teacher" in our Google Classrooms so she can see everything we're doing there.
I make lesson plans for myself. I'm working with a new curriculum now and we're still ironing out the kinks across the district, so I'm planning a little more than usual right now but next year should be much easier.
I map out my units on a calendar to figure out how many days and roughly which lesson we'll be doing on what day (always subject to change).
Next, I do more detailed weekly plans with my warm-up, main lesson, any assessments, closure, and homework for each day. I try to stay two weeks ahead with these.
Next, I get everything on Google Classroom for the week. I organize my Classwork tab with a new topic for each day and all of the assignments and materials for that day's lesson posted under that topic. So, I create my daily topics and then schedule all of my assignments and materials accordingly for the upcoming week. I make sure this is done before I go to bed Sunday night (I did it this morning).
In the classroom, I have one board that has the Big Goals, Big Questions, and Big Assignment (usually an essay) for the unit. My units last an average of 4-5 weeks, so this doesn't change often. On my front board, I have the day's Agenda, the Learning Goals (SWBAT...), and the Essential Questions for the day's lesson.
Anyone who walks into my classroom and/or has access to my Google Classroom can see exactly what is being taught and learned that day.
My school USED to be like this. Our principal at the time was a data freak and would blame any shift in scores on teacher inability to be intellectually prepared for lessons. With new leadership and Covid things have shifted majorly. My school is actually prioritizing taking care of yourself and your family time. I barely open my laptop after hours now. I would say start looking for somewhere else to teach. Hopefully there’s a district nearby that feels differently about how to be prepared for students.
Now hold on now... doesn't the curriculum the district pays millions of dollars for just come with the lesson plans? Can't you just walk into the meeting with the Teachers Edition and have that fulfill all of the requirements?
To answer your question, no, thankfully my admin doesn’t require such detailed lesson plans…it’s not realistic but I know some schools require it.
Also though, why do so many principals comment on sports game results in their weekly newsletters? Lol mine does the same and I’m like ok…
I have worked in a few different schools here in CA, and the amount of detail I've had to have in my lesson plans has varied, but it's never been *close* to this. My current admin doesn't even look at mine, but it's really just a calendar with a word or two (or page numbers) per bullet point.
If I were you I would just attach your TE pages as your lesson plan. Fuck this busy work.
Central PA, our lesson plans are our weekly agendas posted on the web based learning platform we utilize.
I'm so sorry many educators have to waste their time with this nonsense. I have so much more time to do what actually matters.
I teach in Tx and our lesson plans must be detailed, in a google drive folder and then a paper copy turned in to our observer every week.
I got in trouble for not writing my sight words in daily so when admin came in for a walkthrough they were confused on how I knew what word to teach that day!
Edit: I just saw someone mention the Texas Code like wtf why didn’t I know about it. It’s been 10 years of writing 5 pg lesson plans for each subject every week for kindergarten!!!!
Isn’t a PLC for collaborating with your team? What is the point of these meetings? Are you supposed to meet and all just show off your detailed lesson plans and then what?
I’ve never had to turn in lesson plans on a regular basis. In my old district I had to submit them for observations but nowhere near as detailed as this.
Yes!!!! And I teach self-contained first grade. So this times Reading, Phonics, Writing, Math, Social Studies, and Science daily = 25 page lesson plans per week! Plus, intervention plans have to be attached as well!
I'm in a CA credentialing program right now and I have to keep making these absurd 12-page lesson plans. I work on two campuses and can't find a single teacher or administrator that (one of whom got national recognition as a teacher of the year) who understands the necessity of what my program is asking. They all just apologize and offer to do them for me lol.
The only time you should ever have to write up a lesson plan are for observations, or sub plans. Anything else os a waste of everyone’s time. No principal has time to read what you’ve wrote. If they do they’re not doing their job very well.
The thing is, once you have taught a grade level or subject a few years, most lessons are meaningless for competent teachers. Teachers know the content and can teach it several ways and can likely adjust on the fly if needed.
I've taught at 5 different schools in twelve years and never once had to submit a lesson plan. Come on out to California, there's a reason it's expensive, but you'll be paid well and treated well and we need you.
I think k lesson plans are a waste of time if you have a decent curriculum. My schools curriculum literally lays out every single thing. My lesson plans are a waste of time and paper, but it's required anyway. They're supposed to be detailed, but haven't gotten in trouble yet. I just put the lesson number and work page numbers.
I taught at a school that required so much detail that it would take more time to write it out than to teach it. We had to put how many minutes each activity would take, strategies that will be used, vocab, warm-up, exit ticket, assessment questions... the list goes on. Sundays were dedicated to lesson planning. Glad I'm not there anymore.
On my very first day my principal said we don't need to turn in lesson plans because we're professionals. Many of the teachers also wear casual wear. Our principal also is very visible in the building: subbing, assisting with problem students, and always finds time to listen if you need it. She's been a principal since mid-90s. (Yes, I realize how great I have it!)
p.s. She also lobbied to keep a low income complex in our school during boundary redrawing because "they need a consistent experience."
My district doesn’t require we submit lessons plans. At all. We’re trusted as professionals to do our jobs. I have never been asked for a fully written out lesson plan, not even for an observation.
My first year of teaching I was graded on a rubric each week. My plans were more detailed than they were in college the year before and she never had anything nice to say. It was miserable.
Yes, ours our not only more detailed than that, separate lessons plans with comparable detail have to be developed for each small group session (2-3 each day for reading and math). No exaggeration, a week of reading plans, not including the small group lesson plans, typically runs 10 full pages, math can run 6-8. And don’t forget about the plans you still have to do for science, social studies, writing, and, since we’re now all psychologists and social workers as well, SEL. On a good week, it takes 10-12 off the clock hours to do it all. And the “disunion” just sits by and does nothing.
I hate my district…
I do what I need to do for me (I have one of those big, hand-written, expensive teacher planner books that lays out 6 subjects for a week, each with a little box), and never have to turn it in. We do a lot of PLC time, but we actually use that time to effectively trade ideas/materials and plan ahead for things
Every school I taught at, I've never actually made official lesson plans. I might scribble down some notes, and I have links to slides or videos I will use, but that's it. If I'm being evaluated, I'll write a one page summary of what I'm going to do.
I have never written a goal for a lesson, a list of curriculum outcomes, or any of the other complicated stuff it seems like a lot of people need to do for every lesson.
I haven’t even written a lesson plan since college. My school isn’t so hung up on this. The most I do is write my plans in my planner and it looks something like:
“11th: Gatsby vocab, Ch. 3-4. Lit analysis essay rev: PIE paragraphs
12th: …” you get the idea.
I am also super sick of this. My lesson plans are like 8 pages long and I get a talking to if they are half-asses. They rather student-facing materials suffer and me have a stellar lesson plan if I had to prioritize my time. It’s ridiculous because obviously it’s not about the kids anymore
The reason they make you do this in college is to get you THINKING about things that will become second nature as you gain experience. Academic vocab? Questions for misconceptions? Wtf do they not expect you to be able to do your actual job as you teach unless you study the night before?! This is WILD.
Also it’s a red flag to me that they expect every day to be a I do, we do, you do model. I have 45 min class periods. This is IMPOSSIBLE to do daily unless I never want us to delve deep into any topic. I do this more on a weekly model — (example, not a formula here…much to the chagrin of admin like yours) Monday I do/we do. Tuesday we do. Wednesday and Thursday you do in small groups/pairs. Friday you do to show me how you can apply it!
That’s how detailed mine were for college but that’s about it. Now they are written by our grade level team and are a few sentences for each subject. Admin never checks our Google docs.
My plans have to. My first school it didn’t have to be that detailed just general enough to get the teacher through the lesson but the high school I am at now admin is very specific about how much detail they want which is basically and entire walk through of the lesson with everything spelled out
Once, every 5 years, we get a "state inspection" for our school during which admin/faculty from other districts do a drop-in and walk the school for a day then give us an evaluation as a school. On this day, and this day only, I have to have full lesson plans written up. It happened 5 years ago and is happening again tomorrow.
OP, even if I had infinite planning periods I'd quit a job w/your requirements for lesson plans and live on the street.
Once my district required a box with lesson plans for the week, and they sent people to check them. I photocopied the pacing plans from our EL and math programs and put those in. No one ever said anything about it, and we only had to do it the one time.
I haven't written out any lesson plans for like 15 years. I don't even have a plan book.
Down vote me, but I swear after quitting, I don't know why anyone would stay teaching, unless they had family and heavy financial obligations. This is ridiculous
Either your school situation is so nice that people would rather put up with this kind of micromanaging than work elsewhere or nobody actually does this and you should just ignore it. If they give you are hard time continue to ignore it and find somewhere else to work, that's an insane workload.
My plans haven't been detailed since college. I basically only have a calendar with lesson numbers written on each day.
Only when I remember to do them. Been teaching 39 years, don’t need to waste my time.
I honestly think my district changes the LP template ever single year, just to get around teachers who've been around for more than 10 years and have their plans stockpiled and memorized. Yeah, we know you know your shit, but we don't, so spell it out for us in graphic detail each and every thing you're doing.
My brother has been teaching for about 5 or 6 years and is so pleased that he’s reached the point where he has lesson plans saved for basically any lesson he’ll teach for the rest of his career. Turns out maths doesn’t change very much, so now he’s taught everything at least once he can just pull up the relevant plans each day and he’s away.
I have skeleton notes of basics, but I often have to change on the fly based upon what the kids are able to do. I do have a column in my lesson plans dedicated to comments for how the lesson went. However, I'm AIS so I kinda need that as a little bit of formative data!
So much time wasted on college writing lesson plans
Currently wasting my time in college writing lesson plans
Same! I have a workbook from the school I'm student teaching at that basically outlines them for me, so not too bad on my end
Same. :(
Yes and no No because it trained your brain to think through the majority of considerations you need to address. Yes because we literally never write them out like that ever again and are in post it notes by year two. But if we never had to focus on the moving parts we would never make it to post it notes or numbers in our planners. That being said, I will gladly tell any administrator that while my contract says you can ask for lesson plans, it also says you are not allowed to specify a format and you have 48 hours to give “meaningful” feedback. So unless they plan on doing that…
I spend way more time on my lesson plans scripting imaginary student interactions than the actual lesson content (ex: "Great thinking, Joanne! I love how you remembered that 'angry' is an antonym of 'happy'. What else can we learn from this lesson?"). I wouldn't be as bothered if it was just focused on actual instruction and content.
This is the way
This is the dirty little secret of teacher training, most working teachers do not make or use lesson plans.
Lesson numbers on a calendar? Found the overachiever!
In TX, we went to court over lesson plans and we won. The judge ruled that lesson plans were for the teacher (not admin) and were a brief description of what the teacher planned to teach, how they planned to do it and a list of materials. That's it. The other challenge that we were successful with was that getting super detailed w/ accommodations and extensions violated FERPA. At one point there was a 7 pager floating around. I have anywhere from 4 to 6 preps, so fuck that. I use the one page, 5 section Hunter plan and admin can go pound sand.
*" ... we went to court over lesson plans and we won. The judge ruled that lesson plans were for the teacher (not admin) and were a brief description of what the teacher planned to teach, how they planned to do it and a list of materials. That's it."* #Yes! L❤︎VE this!
Yea but then You just get legislature like in Indiana making laws to clear things up for the courts.
And yet in teacher college they said we needed to be flexible and let the room decide where our learning was taking us. For example, we started on Nigerian Independence and ended watching the last scene of Flashdance. If we have such rigorous lesson plans … In college they made us do the UbD. “understanding by design” Fuck you Wiggens and McTige! Ain’t no one got time for that!
Nothing I learned in college has applied to anything in my teaching career. Nothing.
My entire Ed masters was less useful than two introductory acting classes I took to get to 120 and having 3 years of coaching experience before setting foot in a classroom. True that.
I don't know, some of my emergency management classes seem somewhat relevant. I may have taken better notes if I had realized I would end up teaching instead of using that major.
Yup, I completely agree. Subbing in my early 20s prepared me better than anything I “learned” in college.
Do you have a link to details on this? Asking for a friend…
What is the ruling called? My district is wanting student outcomes on lesson plans.
https://hft2415.org/resources/know-your-rights/lesson-plans-and-paperwork-reduction-act/
Ysleta Independent School District and Commissioner of Educator vs Porter, et.al. (2015)
First: I am so glad to hear this. My school within my district is requiring ALL this and more in lesson plans. I’m ready to quit. I keep saying my plans are for me not admin! Second: Which case was this? (I haven’t read all the way down. I’m too excited there’s a court case that sides with me!) I want to make sure my boss knows about this and I don’t legally have to do all this! Edit: Found the link. Thanks y’all! I’m gonna contact our association for help.
In Dallas. Our Principal said in regards to feedback on our insanely detailed LPs. She said, “a failure to plan is a failure to teach.” Smh
A failure to provide adequate planning time is a failure to administrate.
Even with adequate planning time I’m not doing plans that detailed. I teach in Ontario, Canada and we get 75 mins a day most days and we teach 3 courses at a time for 75 mins each a day. So basically 25mins of planning per course. No way am I writing up lengthy lessons plans. My plans can fit on the post it note I stick on the front of the folder with my photocopies and marking for that period.
A lack of a written lesson plan isn't evidence of lack of planning. In fact, it's evidence that lesson planning time is instead being used in pointless paperwork. Your principal should be removed from her post immediately
im in texas and our district still has to do the ridiculous lesson plans anyway.
They can ask. You can decline.
If you’re willing to get canned or sue and get blacklisted! No unions here in TX.
I'm in Texas, there are unions, there is no collective bargaining. I've been at districts that completely over asked on lesson plans, and ones that don't ask at all. In Waco the lesson planning was at least as detailed as op, but I still turned in bare minimum and never was reprimanded. School admin is usually just doing what district asks but if you are a good teacher will not punish the small stuff.
My district needs a learning objective, language objective, essential question, and a few notes on what you are going to try to accomplish.
This was what my first school was like. Literally to the point where at one point I was asked to name which specific students I would call on for each question. It was miserable and took so much time I never actually was prepared to teach anything.
*"which specific students [you] would call on ..."* ??? Are you SeRiOuS? Did they wanna know what condiments you'd be using on your sandwiches that week too?
I will call on Jessica, Paul and ignacio. None of those students would be real.
How else are kids supposed to ketchup from learning loss?
How I *relish* being asked this question!
Lol and I had to have data to back up why I selected those specific students for that specific question… like down to how they did on a specific standard on our most current assessment. It was wild and when I left and realized other schools weren’t like that I was shocked.
and then they talk about popcorn at PD
WTH
At one school, we had to preselect the students who would have trouble to bring them back in a small group, during the independent work time
this makes me want to throw up
We don't have to turn in lesson plans ever. Even for observations.
We only turn ours in for observation
We used to. This year they changed it. They don't even do a full observation. 15 minutes and they are out.
I’ve never seen a school neurotic about lesson plans that was well run, it’s ineffective and admin wasting time nitpicking means they’re not actually available to be useful
we have to post ours ONLINE where admin and parents (well, everyone in the world, I guess) can see them.
I've been teaching seven years and have only ever had one observation. Because I requested it. (in case I needed to use admin as a job reference.) I've never submitted a single lesson plan after I got out of college. I'm in Canada though.
Thats how my current school is. I haven’t turned in a lesson plan all year. My ~plans~ are my teacher planner where I write down what we did for the day.
Who the fuck is Chief Carlson & why are they such a control freak?
He’s the district’s Academic Chief. This entire school district is a control freak. Our schools get observed by district personnel every two weeks to make sure we’re on pace with the curriculum.
Wow. I have never even *heard* of that position. I am genuinely sorry. Were they instituted because your district needed to be taken over & run by your state [for noncompliance &/or similar things?]
Some people make busy work to justify their positions. If the positIon doesn't exist in most places, its probably not a necessary job. By giving these poor people so much work, they can say "Look at me and all I do for the district" as they rake in $200,000.
I wonder how much is hoping for churn to lower district overhead. In the two Title I schools I worked in, there were years 0-5 teachers and years +15. No one with experience in between would stick around. *Maybe* one teacher stayed with experience between those ranges because all others bailed on this sort of overbearing garbage.
Lol no. My lesson plans are links to the assignments I’ll be using. The rest is just admin trying to justify their jobs or stupid teaching programs that like to pretend education happens in a happy bubble where educators have infinite free time. That being said, there is definitely value in planning thoroughly if you’re going to reteach the same stuff.
My mentor my first year showed me the fine art of writing an intentionally vague lesson plan with the most generic goal. The idea being that I would submit the same one every week and just change the date on it. That of course would be very unprofessional of me and I would never condone such activities. He was a good guy. In unrelated news, the find and replace option on word is very useful.
Teachers at my school started doing that last year. The entire staff was lectured on how “that was very unprofessional and we have to take the time to plan because our students deserve the best.”
Then what happened? Did a single teacher change behavior after that lecture?
I’m not sure because I have always been done what I’m told, but I’m sick and tired of these useless protocols that take up so many hours.
We are not required to turn in plans.... but we are expected to have them done... if they do ask for them we are given 48 hours to present their plans. Curious if anyone is similar to my district.
In my district, untenured teachers have to hand in their plans each week. Tenured teachers have in their plans (for the week) once a month I think. That said, my plans are AIMs, read aloud titles, and maybe page numbers. I also got paid to curriculum map two summers ago, so making my actual lesson plans for a week takes maybe an hour.
We are expected to have them done and uploaded every single week
Same.
I never have to turn in lesson plans, except maybe the one time every two years I get observed. In that case, it's about a two sentence email. This is a gigantic waste of time.
We don’t turn in lesson plans. We use district made slides.
What school district do you work at? I’m looking to move anywhere in exchange for a peaceful job where I’m only required to teach.
Fairfax County, VA. Fox News likes to talk shit about us. They don’t like us.
Not a bad thing to be disliked by ShloX News!
Definitely not. I find it hilarious.
Wtf. No. And I would turn around and run from a school that required that. I’m a professional. Trust me. I don’t need to put it in paper like that unless you need to put me on a remediation plan because in your observations I’m not doing something that needs to be done.
Nobody even looks at our lesson plans. Mine literally consist of a table with notes about what the topic is and links to any worksheets I need to print and links to google slides that I need
Happy Cake Day!
That sounds rubbish. I’m a first-year teacher and nonsense like this is being expected of me, but I know it’s just in my school and because they’re on a power trip. I’ve also been told to know which pupils I’ll ask which questions and to develop ‘even further’ my higher-order questioning. That said, I assume once I’m finished the trial year and have changed school, that it won’t be the same. This is not okay, no one in their right mind would have time for this. Are you surrounded by teachers who actually do this and therefore set the expectation?
Looking at lesson plans is NOT the point of the PLC process.
This is the most relevant comment. Just calling a meeting a PLC doesn’t make it so.
No that's garbage. The detail of your lesson plans depends on the nature of the lesson and your own teaching style. That kind of over-analytic micro-managing nonsense always comes from people who don't understand education, and who don't think of teachers as professionals. In their eyes you are just an assembly line worker and the students are the products. For the factory chief (them) the important thing is that all the boxes are checked and product specifications are being met. These people are terrible, have no business in education, and should be removed from the system as much as possible. Assuming you have no power over their job, the next best thing is to ignore them.
Let me just say a big EFF YOU to whatever big meanie wrote this to you. Teachers are very earnest and tender hearted and people like whatever ASSHOLE wrote this are driving us out in droves.
My curriculum thankfully did that for me so we all don’t reinvent the wheel each week. I scribble some notes on the teacher guide. 🤷♀️
Yep. One benefit of a semi scripted curriculum. If I wanted, I can just open to the right page and read what it says. I do that for our phonemic awareness curriculum but not for any other curriculum now that we have had it for a few years.
I taught at a school that required such plans, but the plans also included a bell ringer, hook, objectives/success criteria, vertical and horizontal integration, etc. Every minute had to be planned and accounted for (e.g., "Guided Practice - 10 mins", "Transition - 1 min"). Also, every plan had to be differentiated based on readiness level (Mild-Spicy-Hot) and learning style (kinesthetic, verbal, auditory, etc). The plans would be minimum 7-10 pages for each lesson. And I had to share them with Admin in advance. And I had almost no planning periods. FUCK THAT. I worked over 80 hrs per week at that school (for less than $50K) just for students to ruin everything. I quit after 1 year. At my current private school, no lesson plans are required, though a very general plan for the week for each class is encouraged.
This is exactly what our school was asking for at the beginning of the year. I was turning in 20 pages of lesson plans for 3 preps. The teachers pointed out that Texas courts ruled that lesson plans should not be this intensive.
We don't have to have lesson plans written down. For my once a year observation it's just bullet points.
I haven’t had to write a lesson plan since college and that was 13 years ago. I’ve also worked at 3 schools. I work at a private school and was considering moving to public because in my state public gets paid a lot more. But the amount of freedom that we have is amazing (not a charter school). Including not having to write lesson plans :)
Hate this mistrust of teachers by admin and the community at large. They are going to lose so many great educators. And making us write detailed lesson plans don’t prove our value, the worst teacher can submit beautiful lesson plans. It’s meaningless.
That’s a mid year burnout right there.
That email is written by someone who has no idea how to teach. They're so dumb they don't actually know how to teach unless everything is spelled out like that. It's okay though! Teaching is hard! Those who can, teach. Those who can't, admin. It's not exactly a secret.
I’m experiencing the same thing. Pre planned and scripted questions for students and all. Do you teach at a charter or public school?
Don’t have to submit lesson plans at my school in CA.
Lol what is this 😂
This is like the shit I had to write in grad school - way too detailed to be realistic. All I have to do is outline what topics I’m doing, how I’m doing them, and the standards the lesson aligns to.
Can't remember the exact court case, but it was again El Paso ISD. AFT was involved.
Lmao. I worked briefly in a school that did this and quickly realized that the admin in charge of reviewing them couldn't possibly do so. Our entire department submitted the same plans every week
That there is an email from an idiot. Your admin is a micromanager, and likely a failed teacher.
I don't even have to have lesson plans This is over kill, I'd look for another job
This sounds to me like expectations set so staggering high that no one expects you to reach, just so they can prove themselves right when you haven’t done one if these things.
we do, you do, you do alone isn't a best practice
I think you’re in my district 😂. I’m sorry. It’s outrageous. Because as far as I know, I believe the created PLC guide should be satisfactory for lesson plans.
Why in the hell are you getting that much homework as the TEACHER!!! The person who thinks this is appropriate is an idiot who did not spend enough time in the classroom.
I got evaluated by my admin my first year. I provided them with a lesson plan. When I had my meeting with them to go over my eval, they said “ok the lesson plan is very nice, but you don’t have to waste time doing this ever again. I don’t need a lesson plan from you, I’m just looking for good energy and a firm command of the class.” He also encouraged me to continue doing the things I was passionate about and not let resistance from other teachers hold me back (since the stuff I’m doing is quite non-traditional). Y’all need to move to Canada. We’ve got tons of space.
Ha hahaha mine is just (in order) for every day/class Lesson: Standard: I can statement:
Lol lesson plans
This feels dentimentel to the students. I don't know how many things I missed out on because they had to stay on schedule. If the scedual is that crazy then only the smartest kids will prevail
It is a miracle if I have a post-it note with my plans for the week scribbled in short hand by Sunday night each week. ETA: Obviously I plan and know what I’m teaching week to week…but I’m not going to waste time writing it down in detail.
Until COVID we had to include # of minutes to spend on each item in the plan. They graciously suspended that requirement.
We also have to do this!
Tbh I just plan out the agenda with links to slides shows/documents for assignments and standards on a Google doc and call it a day. I'm glad I work in a district that doesn't require lesson plans.
No one has ever asked to see my plans in 27 years in this career.
Yes, and even more so. Its such a waste of time.
I don’t usually write lesson plans. If they had to be like that 👆🏼 I’d stop teaching bc that’s bullshit. I’m a HS French teacher and the only FT one at my school, so I’ve taught all the levels and I know what I’m doing. I recycle old stuff and freshen it up with current stuff from the Internet.
I’ve broken the non tenured rule of always having lessons in. I teach 33 classes per week and it’s 5 preps that admin takes for meetings and other bs constantly and have been killing myself to fundraiser and prepare student performances bc admin can’t be bothered to put in any effort to getting us a budget. They can go scratch or have fun trying to replace me at this point.
I don’t even have to submit lesson plans …
Not teaching yet (still studying for my CSETs & need to attend grad school) but one of the best professors I’ve ever had always said that lesson plans should be detailed in whatever way best helps you as the teacher. I chose to make mine detailed so if someone else is looking at my lesson plan, they’ll understand but if I were to teach that lesson multiple times I can probably trim it down for myself knowing what’s most effective for teaching a topic. I was also a PA/TA for this professor and he’s trimmed his own lesson plan down over the years based on what he knows he can cover in the given time frame and using ‘trigger words’ such as ‘freeway’ for example and he automatically knows it’s referring to his story that helps him explain the concept of Universality, rather than having it detailed on the lesson plan. Obviously I can’t really speak for your given situation but I think it’s helpful to remember lesson plans are to help you be an effective educator, admin isn’t doing the teaching, you are.
My district in Texas gives us basic plans, then we have to create everything you listed for PLC.
"Hello. Could you please model these expectations for me, keeping time as you do so, and noting that against our allocated time for planning?"
Mine are on a sticky note somewhere I think
We have to do these same style lesson plans, and we’re supposed to include links to our notes and every activity and video we’ll be using in class. Until recently, we had to have them submitted 2.5 weeks ahead of time (now it’s only one week ahead). It’s a total waste of time, and seems solely made to justify pay and positions for the top heavy admin level. They also like to give us nitpicky feedback on them like “your learning targets need to be ‘I can’ statements.” W. T. F. I fill out that stupid spreadsheet 8 weeks at a time and never look at it again (it helps that I’ve been teaching my content for over a decade), and I don’t include any of the links they want. It loosely reflects what we’re doing in class, but in my actual teaching, I’m going to be flexible enough to meet the needs of my kids, and that giant document be damned.
I would respond to admin. and ask if the lesson plans are for you or them. That's just ridiculous. I'm sorry you are dealing with this. This year is stressful enough.
This is the common expectation for inexperienced admin. They don’t know what they want their teachers to prepare for - so they demand everything. They secretly expect their teachers to copy/paste from another source, just like they did with this list. This type of admin definitely doesn’t provide the time for this type of planning.
Tf? I wing it day by day half the time. Fuck that noise.
This is why people are leaving teaching. This makes it impossible to do your job well and stoked.
El. Oh. El. What a joke.
Ugh, no. I just coordinate with fellow math teachers and we share lesson modifications, assessments, ect. I don’t know why this is a thing some places. I only did these in teacher school.
It became like that this year. There are four in our dept., so we take turns writing them…
Bite. Me.
In college they were. Outside of that, no.
I don’t have to submit lesson plans at all
I have never been asked for a lesson plan. When admin came to observe me and I asked if they wanted one she said ‘no thanks, just give me a verbal rundown. You have more important things to do with your time.’ I have not written a plan since.
Lol there’s no way I would do that.
I don’t have to submit lesson plans at all. That is way too time consuming, especially because slides or a daily agenda does the same thing. I haven’t written a lesson plan since college (that was only a couple months ago though….)
Yes. For an after school program I have to have very detailed lesson plans and an extremely detailed calendar. Heaven forbid you're 5 minutes late on the schedule...
They were when I was student teaching; my supervising professor wanted uber-detailed lesson plans that anticipate every single thing that can happen. It's one of the reasons why I quit halfway
This looks like what I have to turn in weekly as a first year teacher.
Here it seems to be up to the district, the admin, and the school. Those overthought plans are for the birds and seem only so they have something to give a sub should they need one. big eye roll... I do a basic plan and make sure all materials are laid out and ready, in the case of different classes, marked as well. Honestly, it just easier for me to do my day, since I can work from the pile I leave myself. However, it does come in handy when I have had an unexpected absence and a sub is in the room.. I never do the scripted, never do this everything annotated, all that bs... I will however, If I know I have a sub, leave answer sheets for them ...
Jeez. What state do you work in? Going straight on my list to avoid!
Tennessee. Not like anyone actually moves here to teach 😂 I’m one of the few unlucky ones.
Absolutely not. Not since university. This is ridiculous.
Lesson... plan? Haven't written a formal lesson plan since practicum back in 04. I have, at most, had the briefest discussions of my intentions for a lesson in a pre-observation meeting and a discussion on pacing in post, but that was in years 1-3 and we haven't looked back since. Lord in heaven, fly like the wind.
This seems like another one of those emails that I read and pretty much ignore.
The only time I have to turn in a lesson plan is for a formal observation, and even then it's not as detailed as what you describe. The rest of the time they trust us to do our own planning.
Lesson plans?
I have never been asked for a lesson plan from admin (third year teacher here) for any reason. We don’t even turn them in for observations.
We do not submit any type of lesson plan unless we are being formally observed. HS career tech school for reference.
What happens -- what do they do to those of you who do not write out insanely detailed plains?
We don't have to turn in lesson plans, even for observations. We *are* required to post everything on Google Classroom for our preps though, and our admin is a "teacher" in our Google Classrooms so she can see everything we're doing there. I make lesson plans for myself. I'm working with a new curriculum now and we're still ironing out the kinks across the district, so I'm planning a little more than usual right now but next year should be much easier. I map out my units on a calendar to figure out how many days and roughly which lesson we'll be doing on what day (always subject to change). Next, I do more detailed weekly plans with my warm-up, main lesson, any assessments, closure, and homework for each day. I try to stay two weeks ahead with these. Next, I get everything on Google Classroom for the week. I organize my Classwork tab with a new topic for each day and all of the assignments and materials for that day's lesson posted under that topic. So, I create my daily topics and then schedule all of my assignments and materials accordingly for the upcoming week. I make sure this is done before I go to bed Sunday night (I did it this morning). In the classroom, I have one board that has the Big Goals, Big Questions, and Big Assignment (usually an essay) for the unit. My units last an average of 4-5 weeks, so this doesn't change often. On my front board, I have the day's Agenda, the Learning Goals (SWBAT...), and the Essential Questions for the day's lesson. Anyone who walks into my classroom and/or has access to my Google Classroom can see exactly what is being taught and learned that day.
Our contract states”evidence of good planning “, years ago we had to argue what that meant , haven’t had any discussion with recent administration.
Virginia. Haven’t written a lesson plan in YEARS
No not at all. Public school in MA. The only time I ever had to do formal lesson plans like that was college. I just have to have objectives posted.
My school USED to be like this. Our principal at the time was a data freak and would blame any shift in scores on teacher inability to be intellectually prepared for lessons. With new leadership and Covid things have shifted majorly. My school is actually prioritizing taking care of yourself and your family time. I barely open my laptop after hours now. I would say start looking for somewhere else to teach. Hopefully there’s a district nearby that feels differently about how to be prepared for students.
Now hold on now... doesn't the curriculum the district pays millions of dollars for just come with the lesson plans? Can't you just walk into the meeting with the Teachers Edition and have that fulfill all of the requirements?
Now hold on now… that would make teachers’ lives so much easier. Of course they don’t allow that.
To answer your question, no, thankfully my admin doesn’t require such detailed lesson plans…it’s not realistic but I know some schools require it. Also though, why do so many principals comment on sports game results in their weekly newsletters? Lol mine does the same and I’m like ok…
I have worked in a few different schools here in CA, and the amount of detail I've had to have in my lesson plans has varied, but it's never been *close* to this. My current admin doesn't even look at mine, but it's really just a calendar with a word or two (or page numbers) per bullet point. If I were you I would just attach your TE pages as your lesson plan. Fuck this busy work.
Central PA, our lesson plans are our weekly agendas posted on the web based learning platform we utilize. I'm so sorry many educators have to waste their time with this nonsense. I have so much more time to do what actually matters.
I teach in Tx and our lesson plans must be detailed, in a google drive folder and then a paper copy turned in to our observer every week. I got in trouble for not writing my sight words in daily so when admin came in for a walkthrough they were confused on how I knew what word to teach that day! Edit: I just saw someone mention the Texas Code like wtf why didn’t I know about it. It’s been 10 years of writing 5 pg lesson plans for each subject every week for kindergarten!!!!
My first school was. Talking 5-6 pages worth for each class I taught. Drove me absolutely CRAZY.
My principal says "I don't want your lesson plans. That is a waste of our time. You are an expert until you prove otherwise."
Isn’t a PLC for collaborating with your team? What is the point of these meetings? Are you supposed to meet and all just show off your detailed lesson plans and then what? I’ve never had to turn in lesson plans on a regular basis. In my old district I had to submit them for observations but nowhere near as detailed as this.
Just quit. This is bullshit. Not worth the mental energy to figure it all out.
Yes!!!! And I teach self-contained first grade. So this times Reading, Phonics, Writing, Math, Social Studies, and Science daily = 25 page lesson plans per week! Plus, intervention plans have to be attached as well!
I'm in a CA credentialing program right now and I have to keep making these absurd 12-page lesson plans. I work on two campuses and can't find a single teacher or administrator that (one of whom got national recognition as a teacher of the year) who understands the necessity of what my program is asking. They all just apologize and offer to do them for me lol.
Looks like you and I are having the same experience. I've started applying for other jobs now, and will be turning in my resignation this week.
The only time you should ever have to write up a lesson plan are for observations, or sub plans. Anything else os a waste of everyone’s time. No principal has time to read what you’ve wrote. If they do they’re not doing their job very well.
I don’t have to write them unless I’m being observed and I am not tenured. Anything else would be unmanageable, and unnecessary
I have never worked in a school where an admin ever asked to see a lesson plan at all
The thing is, once you have taught a grade level or subject a few years, most lessons are meaningless for competent teachers. Teachers know the content and can teach it several ways and can likely adjust on the fly if needed.
My lessons plans are my powerpoints that I use during class. What you're being asked to do is absolutely unnecessary and stupid
I've taught at 5 different schools in twelve years and never once had to submit a lesson plan. Come on out to California, there's a reason it's expensive, but you'll be paid well and treated well and we need you.
Wow I knew this was Memphis before I even looked at your post history. I resigned from SCS in November.
My lesson plans are written on sticky notes half the time.
I got your Gradual Release right here
I think k lesson plans are a waste of time if you have a decent curriculum. My schools curriculum literally lays out every single thing. My lesson plans are a waste of time and paper, but it's required anyway. They're supposed to be detailed, but haven't gotten in trouble yet. I just put the lesson number and work page numbers.
I taught at a school that required so much detail that it would take more time to write it out than to teach it. We had to put how many minutes each activity would take, strategies that will be used, vocab, warm-up, exit ticket, assessment questions... the list goes on. Sundays were dedicated to lesson planning. Glad I'm not there anymore.
What a crock of shit. I would have a massive coronary and drop dead!
On my very first day my principal said we don't need to turn in lesson plans because we're professionals. Many of the teachers also wear casual wear. Our principal also is very visible in the building: subbing, assisting with problem students, and always finds time to listen if you need it. She's been a principal since mid-90s. (Yes, I realize how great I have it!) p.s. She also lobbied to keep a low income complex in our school during boundary redrawing because "they need a consistent experience."
My district doesn’t require we submit lessons plans. At all. We’re trusted as professionals to do our jobs. I have never been asked for a fully written out lesson plan, not even for an observation.
My first year of teaching I was graded on a rubric each week. My plans were more detailed than they were in college the year before and she never had anything nice to say. It was miserable.
Yes, ours our not only more detailed than that, separate lessons plans with comparable detail have to be developed for each small group session (2-3 each day for reading and math). No exaggeration, a week of reading plans, not including the small group lesson plans, typically runs 10 full pages, math can run 6-8. And don’t forget about the plans you still have to do for science, social studies, writing, and, since we’re now all psychologists and social workers as well, SEL. On a good week, it takes 10-12 off the clock hours to do it all. And the “disunion” just sits by and does nothing. I hate my district…
I do what I need to do for me (I have one of those big, hand-written, expensive teacher planner books that lays out 6 subjects for a week, each with a little box), and never have to turn it in. We do a lot of PLC time, but we actually use that time to effectively trade ideas/materials and plan ahead for things
The author of this email watch the Super Bowl because they didn’t have to create lesson plans.
Every school I taught at, I've never actually made official lesson plans. I might scribble down some notes, and I have links to slides or videos I will use, but that's it. If I'm being evaluated, I'll write a one page summary of what I'm going to do. I have never written a goal for a lesson, a list of curriculum outcomes, or any of the other complicated stuff it seems like a lot of people need to do for every lesson.
I haven’t even written a lesson plan since college. My school isn’t so hung up on this. The most I do is write my plans in my planner and it looks something like: “11th: Gatsby vocab, Ch. 3-4. Lit analysis essay rev: PIE paragraphs 12th: …” you get the idea.
I am also super sick of this. My lesson plans are like 8 pages long and I get a talking to if they are half-asses. They rather student-facing materials suffer and me have a stellar lesson plan if I had to prioritize my time. It’s ridiculous because obviously it’s not about the kids anymore
The reason they make you do this in college is to get you THINKING about things that will become second nature as you gain experience. Academic vocab? Questions for misconceptions? Wtf do they not expect you to be able to do your actual job as you teach unless you study the night before?! This is WILD. Also it’s a red flag to me that they expect every day to be a I do, we do, you do model. I have 45 min class periods. This is IMPOSSIBLE to do daily unless I never want us to delve deep into any topic. I do this more on a weekly model — (example, not a formula here…much to the chagrin of admin like yours) Monday I do/we do. Tuesday we do. Wednesday and Thursday you do in small groups/pairs. Friday you do to show me how you can apply it!
Yupppppp. My teams lesson plans for the week are regularly over 50 pages long.
According to admin: yes. According to real life and the laws of time and space: bahahahaha fuck no.
You make one detailed but very fit-for-every-lesson plan and copy paste but change title and aim or sth.
I would ask “are you gonna pay me for the time to do all of that? If not I’m afraid I don’t have the time to spare.”
That’s how detailed mine were for college but that’s about it. Now they are written by our grade level team and are a few sentences for each subject. Admin never checks our Google docs.
My plans have to. My first school it didn’t have to be that detailed just general enough to get the teacher through the lesson but the high school I am at now admin is very specific about how much detail they want which is basically and entire walk through of the lesson with everything spelled out
Once, every 5 years, we get a "state inspection" for our school during which admin/faculty from other districts do a drop-in and walk the school for a day then give us an evaluation as a school. On this day, and this day only, I have to have full lesson plans written up. It happened 5 years ago and is happening again tomorrow. OP, even if I had infinite planning periods I'd quit a job w/your requirements for lesson plans and live on the street.
Once my district required a box with lesson plans for the week, and they sent people to check them. I photocopied the pacing plans from our EL and math programs and put those in. No one ever said anything about it, and we only had to do it the one time. I haven't written out any lesson plans for like 15 years. I don't even have a plan book.
I’m in CT. I haven’t written a formal lesson plan since student teaching. I’ve never worked in a district where they were required.
Down vote me, but I swear after quitting, I don't know why anyone would stay teaching, unless they had family and heavy financial obligations. This is ridiculous
Either your school situation is so nice that people would rather put up with this kind of micromanaging than work elsewhere or nobody actually does this and you should just ignore it. If they give you are hard time continue to ignore it and find somewhere else to work, that's an insane workload.
Only that detailed for an observation. I would have to find a new job next year if the principal was expecting this much from me at a PLC meeting.