Being totally honest here… I was never the best at this. I had my materials prepped about 60% of the time. However, if you want to do something small that will help your overall mental clarity each week, prep your materials ahead of time.
What It Does For You
- Allows time each day for unexpected things to pop up.
- Organizes your papers and materials so that you can find them.
- Gives a visual to what all you have planned.
How To Do It
This is the tricky part.
- Make a lesson plan. There are a ton of ways to do this. I personally lean towards simple lesson plans so that I can focus more on having the materials ready to go. However, some people thrive on a total break down of time.
- Determine what materials are needed for each part of the plan.
- Decide on an organizational way to plan the materials. I personally like bins for each day. Then I place my materials from first period to last with everything I need for that period (except books). I divide them with a laminated sheet that states the class time and students in the class. However I have also seen teachers use filing folders, cubbies, drawers, etc. Online classes can use digit folders that work the same way.
- Carve out a time that you can do this at the same time most weeks. This is where my dedication struggles. I have a hard time keeping a consistent planning time. My best recommendation to combat this, is when something comes up during that planning time, reschedule your organization time as quickly as possible.
Wrapping It Up
This seems like a no brainer, but it’s easy to forget about this or assume that it will get done at some point. Unfortunately, this doesn’t just magically happen! We’re so busy! Make some time this week to organize your materials and see how easy next week goes.