Lesson planning is a big part of every teachers job. The lesson can make all the difference in whether kids learn and planing those lessons can take a lot of time. In fact, many teachers work extra hours slaving over lesson plans. There are ways to get great lesson planned and still do it without a lot of extra time though.

A good lesson plan will show what is being learned and will include a note about what students will do (take a test, complete a worksheet, work on a project, group work, etc.). It should also note at least one activity that is hands on during the instruction part of a lesson. However, too much detail takes a lot of time and it can be restrictive. The best teaching can happen when the teacher knows the content and the basic outline of what will happen but still has a lot of flexibility to allow it to be modified according to students prior knowledge, interest level, etc.

Use online resources for great lessons that are already developed.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel. The internet is full of free lesson plans on everything imaginable. Go to teacher web sites and do a quick search for whatever you are teaching. This is a real quick and easy way to borrow other people's great ideas. Then, when you have a good idea for a lesson plan, you can pay it back.

Share lesson plans with other teachers at your school.

for example, if you teach 4th grade and there are 10 fourth grade teachers at your school, coordinate so that each teacher is not developing lessons on the same thing. One way to do this is to create a common library of lesson plans that teachers can share. Another way is to coordinate at the first of the year and make a plan to share activities that can be used in lessons, etc.

Keep all of your lesson plans.

Create a hard copy of each lesson plan and create a categorized file. when you need a lesson plan, you should be able to go to the file and pull one from a previous class.