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Lesson planning. AKA the bane of most teachers’ existence.
I cannot wait until I have taught for a while, so that I will have more lesson ideas. Sometimes I feel so stuck for fun lesson ideas, and it seems to take me forever to write a lesson.
Because I sometimes find it difficult, I have implemented a lesson planning schedule to help keep me on track. This is one of the biggest reasons I am able to get all of my planning done on time and keep my stress levels down! Lesson planning with this schedule keeps me organized.
And we all know that being organized is one of the most important aspects of being a good teacher.
You can check out my other organization posts here. Subscribe for more—I will be continuing this series for a while!
Schedule to make lesson planning easy
Tuesday- Think about lesson planning.
Yes, I have a day dedicated to thinking about lesson planning. This helps because it gives me plenty of time to think things through. Sometimes, I will not have any ideas in the morning, and as the day goes on, I come up with something great. I usually just write down the ideas on Tuesday.
For example, this week my list says “Carol of the Bells Orff, Pentatonix listen, Christmas sing along. Listen to winter, talk about winter, sock skating to beat, hot potato with jingle bells.”
Not exactly what you would want to put in your lesson plans for your principal to see…. But it works for me.
Wednesday- Write lesson plans
Our template is long and clunky and ridiculous, so this takes a while. Always make your lesson plans detailed enough to prove to your principal that you know what you are talking about.
They especially like to see “content specific” words. Even if they don’t know what they mean, seeing them in your lesson plans makes them think you know what they mean. Things like dynamics, tempo, quarter notes, etc.
Thursday- Gather materials
This means printing materials, making materials, finding them, etc. I love doing this on Thursday, because our lesson plans are due on Thursday at 5. This means most teachers are just starting to think about their lesson plans, and I have free range of the copier. Friday and Monday, it is packed.
Also, since our lesson plans are due on Thursday, planning to do them on Wednesday ensures that I have them done on time. If I cannot get it done on Wednesday, I have a whole entire other day to work on it.
If I planned to do it on Thursday and couldn’t, then I would be in a bind.
Friday- get everything ready
Pull out the materials, get them all set to go.
You will notice I didn’t put anything on Monday. This is because with new lessons, I like to have some time to tweak it and not worry about anything else.
Free Music Lesson: Bizet Scarf Routine
Some general lesson planning tips:
Make a series
If you don’t know what to do, pick an instrument and go with it. Or pick a theme. This does wonders because it limits the amount of lessons available.
For example, you could spend a month on Kidsticks Stations. Or recorder. Or whatever.
You could do a musical month, a keyboard unit, a ballet unit, opera unit, etc.
(Click on these pictures to go to the Amazon page)
Embrace the holidays
Teachers love holidays because they make things different!
You can extend Christmas for a whole month. Same with Thanksgiving and Halloween. Also, Hispanic Heritage month and Black History month are great for lesson planning as well.
If you pencil all of those in, there won’t be many days left!
Here is a Halloween lesson: Free K-2 Music Lesson: Rhythm
Combine grades
This is one of my favorite tricks. I honestly only plan two lessons a week—one for K-2 and one for 3-5. This works well with our schedule and really reduces stress. It is worth it if just for the materials—you only have to get out one set of instraments, or two. Not six.
I think ideally K-1, 2-3, 4-5 would be the best groupings, standards-wise. This does not go well with our schedule at all, but I may try it anyway and see how it goes.
I promise you are not an awful teacher for doing this. I believe it really helps you to do your best because you have time to work out all of the kinks, and you are not constantly trying to think of what your lessons are.
Now, if you have been teaching for 20 years, you probably know your lessons well enough that having 6 different ones isn’t an issue. But for us newbies, it is very helpful.
Have some carryover
When I am really put together, I do this very well. What I mean is that you use a piece of your next lesson in this week’s. Or you use a piece of last week’s lesson in this week’s.
For example, I taught my kids Al Citron a few months ago. We learned the song at the end of one lesson and then we played the passing game the next time. They sang so much better because they knew it better! It was fantastic.
Another time, we learned a circle dance to a Ringshout song as a Musical Explorers lesson. We used it as a warm up the next week.
Sometimes it is tricky or not possible, but if you can do this, it really helps! It allows time for the song or lesson to really sink into their heads.
Lesson Ideas: Creative Movement with Scarves
Find a Curriculum
I cannot sing the praises of the Game Plan Curriculum enough. K-8 is also a really great one. Both are fun, having singing and instrument playing, and get the kids to read music well.
Free K-2 Music Lesson: Animal Form
What is your lesson planning technique? How does it keep you organized? Any tips and tricks? Let us know in the comments!
Happy teaching!
Becca
