Thursday has traditionally taken on the role of my planning day. By this point I know what I did and did not cover and have a pretty good idea of what I want to do for next week. Although I haven't collected my planning sheets from all my teachers yet, I can at least start sitting down and creating a rough sketch of what the next week will look like. So I decided, why not start devoting my Thursday posts to planning. This week the focus in on co-planning.
Thursday is also the day that I sit down with my 6th grade team to plan our co-taught lessons for the next week. Over the years, we have developed a form so that we are both aware of what we are teaching and who is responsible for each part of the lesson. Because of this we are now more prepared, and in my opinion the lessons are far more effective.
You can get a copy of my planning sheet here.
I hope you find it as useful as I have!
A huge part of what I do relates to coordinating services for my 18 kiddos. Regardless of whether I'm with them or not, they are still entitled to the accommodations that are listed in their IEP. I have found that coordinating with six different teachers in three grades (for a total of 26 different classes) can be quite difficult. For that reason, I started handing out Scheduling sheets on a weekly basis. These sheet have made it incredibly easy to have at least a little idea of what is going on.
Get the form here!
The sheets are two sided, with one side having space for schedule changes, tests and projects. I also included a disclaimer that I cannot guarentee accommodation for changes or tests I do not know about. On the back is a section for teachers to list the chapters or pages they will be working on. This way, I know where to direct parents if they ask (I also know if they are close to finishing the chapter or not).
Normally I give the teachers their sheet on Thursdays, and I ask for them back by Monday. I made sure to copy the sheets on bright paper, so they could not miss them. Some teacher just give me their lesson plans instead of filling it out. Regardless, they have made a huge difference in my stress level when it comes to scheduling!
