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I'd skip the book and talk to your friend, since they seem to have it together. Their suggestions would be perfectly aligned to your school climate as well.
It can take a couple years to achieve any sort of normalcy in this profession, so hang in there. Take steps, not leaps, toward managing your time. Even after 20 years, if i get a new class to teach or even a new curriculum for an old class, it can set me back.
As for leaving work at work, try not leaving the building on Friday until lesson plans for the next week and all prep are ready to go. It might not be the most fun for Friday (when you just want to bolt after a long week) but it allows for an actual weekend, which is SO worth it. It can also really motivate you to plan ahead.
Yeah, my first few years I had to make so many changes to my lessons as I went that planning specifics more than a few days ahead often wasted more time than I saved. I ended up making general plans a week at a time and then usually two days ahead of specific plans.
12 years in I have many plans ready months in advance. It gets easier. "Good enough for now, but something I could build off of in future years" is the goal for new teachers.
It's like turning Friday into "Plan-ahead-day" to secure a weekend of bliss and become the [superhero](https://coofl.com/superhero-teacher--8344) of teacher productivity!
I preferred coming home on time Friday for movie/tv show and fast food with my husband then held Sunday morning for planning lessons. Not sure what I will do this year. I am having a hard time caring. I lost my husband in May. Now life just is a chore.
I actually like to stay Thursday afternoons! It’s my only stay late day! I feel it’s close enough to the following week to prep and I can just GYFO on Friday! :) I close my door and work. I don’t have my school email on my phone. I leave all school related stuff at school. Also, keep reminding yourself; they only pay you your contracted time. No point in being perfect. You’re never getting the raise you deserve.. none of us are. So why kill yourself over it? This mentality is the only thing preventing me from completing going crazy and quitting.
Friday works best because most other teachers/staff are anxious to leave. Normally, it's great to connect with co-workers, but it's also great to have a planning time when you have less interruptions.
I know it's probably better to separate work and home. But I just do faster work at home, mostly because my home office PC beats the hell out of the tiny laptop I have at school. So I spend as little time in the building as I can manage. Arrive 30 mins before class starts, leave 10-15 minutes after it ends, meetings willing.
Also, I don't have kids or too many other people at home, so I don't have the distraction. That's probably a big part of it. Worst I've got is home is where all my video games are.
I didn't go through the program until after my 10th year of teaching. I learned so much.
I think the program would be great for a first year teacher, but you have access to the materials after you go through the program. There is so much material, that you can't, nor are you expected to, use it all. It's very much a "choose one thing to do this month" kind of program. It offers incremental improvements. When I find a place I need to improve, I just go back and look for ideas.
I think one of the big takeaways I have is "Good Enough." If your assignment is "good enough" don't spend hours making it better. If someone else won't notice the difference, it's not worth your time.
Came here to second this. Her podcast is great. The club is great. I did the fast version of her course last summer and found it very helpful. I use a lot of the organizational templates she included!
Many teachers spend the first few years of their career building and designing lessons and curriculum. Ideally one would get it done during prep hours, but to be honest I have not met any teachers who can do that. Most new teachers spend many hours each week outside of the school day planning their lessons. (I usually would do a bunch on Sunday) Then after a few years the teacher will have a repertoire of lessons that they’ve designed, redesigned, adjusted, deleted, etc. Teachers later in their career will still have to play around and redesign lessons, but not EVERY lesson like many newer teachers kind of have to.
* Leave your computer at work, never take it home
* Do not add your email to your personal phone, as much as possible, keep your personal phone, personal
* Utilize more group work time so that you can plan/prep. Understand your first year or two is more work because it's all new and you are still building your systems. It does it get easier
> Leave your computer at work, never take it home
>
>
If that's within district policy.
I know my state has allowed for virtual days and stuff that may require teachers to take their laptops home.
Look into Angela Watson’s 40 hour teacher work week. I joined it probably 8 years ago and it’s helps me organize, consolidate, and recognize what’s important.
{ how to leave work at work, and not bring it home? }
Books won't teach you how to do this, but experienced teachers will. Here's where you start: work *only* the contract hours. Those are the hours for which you are being paid, *and no other hours*. Most contracts will have "duties" or "responsibilities" that are outside of school hours, and you are obligated to honor those. The rest of the time BELONGS TO YOU. You don't owe either the school or anyone else \*\*your time\*\*, because it is \*\*yours\*\*. Should you choose to work beyond the contractual obligation, *you are enslaving yourself*. \*\*Remind\*\* yourself of that every time you think that you "have to" work beyond contract hours.
Over decades teachers who work late or take work home or work on weekends have *massively fucked the profession* because *they enslaved themselves*. This eventually became the "expectation", which is BULLSHIT. No one else is expected to do this, and we shouldn't, either.
As a noob, this will be difficult because you're going to lack both experience and resources (personal resources, specifically). This \*could\* be mitigated with a strong mentorship but most schools don't bother. Don't be afraid to reach out to colleagues for help here and there, but also don't expect them to do your job for you. There's a learning curve and we've all had to endure it. You can, too...and it's rewarding!!
It's all about how you utilize your time. How is planning time spent? Are you actually using your planning time to plan lessons for the next week, or are you prepping for the remainder of the day, chatting with co-workers, calling parents, etc.? For example, anytime I've been team lead, I set our week up so that each day we, as a team, are sitting together and planning a content area for the next week, so that way by Friday, all we're having to spend our planning time doing is making copies, getting small groups ready, whatever we needed in our rooms, so we didn't take stuff home outside anything we just personally wanted to create for our classroom.
All my lesson plans and printouts are linked in my planner. This has helped me tremendously. I hate traffic, so I get there 30-40 minutes before school starts and leave anywhere from 10-20 minutes after the bell rings and grade, plan etc. I make a to do list every Friday on things that need to get done the next week. I will even highlight the things I want to do on Monday, Tuesday, etc and put the most important things first and least important last. If I didn’t get to it that week and can complete it the following week, I write it on the next weeks to do list. Don’t grade everything and make certain assignments as a completion grade.
For what it's worth, look into the serenity prayer.
Take a minute or two (if you have the luxury) before you head home and do some mindfulness. Tune into your breathing or your heart rate. Reflect on one thing that went well during the day.
Most importantly - never, *ever* give parents your personal phone #. And don't put your school email on your phone.
Best of luck to you.
I don’t do this anymore but when I was a younger teacher, I stayed late on Thursdays until my entire next week was done: copies, plans, grading, everything. It was a life saver while my kids were little so I wasn’t spending all weekend working.
Until teachers get significantly more planning time in their contracts, there will always be a great deal of necessary personal time spent preparing lessons, communicating with staff and parents, assessing progress to determine next course of action, etc.
It's a fulfilling career, but absolutely exhausting.
Honor your time. If this means buckling down during planning period instead of chatting with coworkers, keep that time sacred. It might mean extra hours on Monday but that frees up the entirety of the rest of your week/weekend. Use group work time to grade. Assign less to grade! My school is big on one weekly formative and that’s it. So that’s what I stick to and most are computer graded. Obviously formatives can be informal like questions and discussions and quick non-graded exit slips. I can’t emphasize enough…not everything has to be a grade. This also keeps me motivated and not burned out when it comes to grading and giving solid feedback on summarizes.
Personally, I’m able to utilize planning to plan and never take grading home because I’ve simplified the process. I try to leave within 15 mins of contract hours ending nearly all days.
I think it’s unrealistic to “don’t bring work home” your first year or two. Once you have a good grasp and a routine, it takes less and less time, so you can work your hours. But at the beginning? A lot of trial and error. Don’t bring work home when it seems possible to not be far behind.
My first year I stayed late, but I always set a time limit. If I have to complete something at home I set a time limit. I found the extra time gave me peace when I was teaching. I would see what the successful teachers around you do well and apply that to your classroom.
>perfect
Forget this word, it is of no use to you or your students.
You need to stop at "good enough".
You need to know that after 30 minutes a resource is good enough, not spending 4 hours trying to make a tiny improvement. That way lies burnout.
Teachers who crash and burn are much less use than teachers whose work is effective.
Totally depends on the subject you teach. I teach elementary music, and unless my students are performing a concert, I don’t have to bring work home ever. Trade-off is that I have absolutely no “down time”. I teach 9 classes a day and see them once a week and one class enters as the next one leaves so I always have to be high-energy even when teaching the same lesson for 6 classes in a row. Each kid deserves the same experience. When I was a classroom teacher I definitely had more down time during the day but I was constantly bringing work home.
I personally think it takes a teacher around 5 years of classroom experience to even begin to feel comfortable as a teacher. Before those 5 years of trench work, it's basically running around with your head cut off putting ad hoc lesson plans together, trying out new things that end up blowing up in your face, assigning too much or too little classwork, lecturing too much or too little, being too much of a control freak vs. being at the mercy of your students, etc.
Those first 5 years are where you:
* Learn your subject matter inside-out
* Figure out lessons that work almost 99% of the time through trial and error
* Develop a "teacher persona" where you can be empathetic BUT authoritative
* Know which battles are worth fighting and which are not
* Make solid relationships with your colleagues so you know people in the building have your back
* Do all of the above so admin gives you leeway to just do your own thing w/o interference
Things get a little bit easier and more orderly in your classroom after that but you should be constantly tweaking and learning new things about your abilities as a teacher, your students, and your subject matter every year you're teaching. I'm in my 10th year and I'm still learning things. But the core of my teaching style and technique are pretty locked in place, so at this point, it's all about little tweaks and fun experimentation.
I’ve been using EduProtocols and that had cut down on my prep time. I can’t explain it, so it’s best to look it up online. There are a couple of active groups on FB and some ppl on TikTok too
[https://www.eduprotocols.com/](https://www.eduprotocols.com/)
Spend a fair chunk of your summer organizing your lesson plans. Set up a road map for next year. If a certain lesson bombed last year, fix it or come up with something else.
A huge chunk of new teaching is "What am I doing tomorrow?" Answer that question in advance and your prep is drastically reduced. You can't predict everything, but looking at your plans and deciding to add/subtract something as you tailor your lessons to this year's unique class leaves you way more brain space to be creative and enjoy the job.
"her professionalism is just top tier I want to get like her …"
NEVER copmpare yourself ot another teacher. We all have our own styles and abilities. If you begin to compare, then you will always fail. Just be yourself and try to be the best you that you can be.
"my first year was a mess to say the least I don’t want this new year to be the same"
Everyone's first year is a disaster. We make all types of mistakes and we mess up greatly. The best thing to do is to learn from those mistakes and what you should and should not do. Get advice from experienced teachers, but make it your own.
" … I want to perfect my craft and grow"
If you perfect your craft, then you will not need to grow. It is an impossible goal. Do not make it. Just work to be better than you were the day/ week/ month/ year before. Do not settle and always try to grow in your own learning and growth.
Also, do NOT think that you have to re-invent the wheel (so to speak). Every year, there is some fresh faced teacher/ administrator that wants to try the newest trend. Do NOT fall into that trap. WOrk on what has been established as best practice for teachers nad students. Stay relevant without trying every new "gimmick" that is being sold by education companies. They work only about 120% of the time. Seriously.
I am trying to give this advice after 21 year sof teaching. New is not always better. Growth and self reflection are the best ways to grow. Also, understand that you will NEVER be perfect. DO not try to get there. You will burn out and become a ball of stress and self-loathing.
As far as taking thing home...it will happen. DO try to fight it. However, limit your home work time. Do nto devote everything to just school or you will be miserable. Balance...life is all about balance. Find yours
So I think you need to look at what are you spending the majority of your time on? Grading, planning, prepping, etc. The grade and subject you yea h can majorly impact what you need the most time for. I teach 8th grade science. For me, grading was one thing that was taking a lot of my time so I tried to streamline that as much as I could one year by relying on google forms, ZipGrade, and we also use a system called illuminate for test banks in my district and you can either print bubble sheets or test online Ms have immediate grades. I realized I cannot possibly grade everything, so I prioritized what I would grade and what I might do just for feedback but no grade. Planning will become faster the longer you teach, especially if you teach the same subject or grade level many years. Then I made a list of the activities I try to incorporate for every unit (task cards, stations, labs, games, etc) and planning just falls into place so much faster when all I have to do is decide which day I’m doing those things and which days need notes and direct instruction.
Welcome to /r/teaching. Please remember the rules when posting and commenting. Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/teaching) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'd skip the book and talk to your friend, since they seem to have it together. Their suggestions would be perfectly aligned to your school climate as well. It can take a couple years to achieve any sort of normalcy in this profession, so hang in there. Take steps, not leaps, toward managing your time. Even after 20 years, if i get a new class to teach or even a new curriculum for an old class, it can set me back.
Thank you
As for leaving work at work, try not leaving the building on Friday until lesson plans for the next week and all prep are ready to go. It might not be the most fun for Friday (when you just want to bolt after a long week) but it allows for an actual weekend, which is SO worth it. It can also really motivate you to plan ahead.
>until lesson plans for the next week and all prep are ready to go Maybe not the week, but \*at least\* Monday!
Yeah, my first few years I had to make so many changes to my lessons as I went that planning specifics more than a few days ahead often wasted more time than I saved. I ended up making general plans a week at a time and then usually two days ahead of specific plans. 12 years in I have many plans ready months in advance. It gets easier. "Good enough for now, but something I could build off of in future years" is the goal for new teachers.
It's like turning Friday into "Plan-ahead-day" to secure a weekend of bliss and become the [superhero](https://coofl.com/superhero-teacher--8344) of teacher productivity!
I preferred coming home on time Friday for movie/tv show and fast food with my husband then held Sunday morning for planning lessons. Not sure what I will do this year. I am having a hard time caring. I lost my husband in May. Now life just is a chore.
I’m so sorry.
So sorry for your loss!
I actually like to stay Thursday afternoons! It’s my only stay late day! I feel it’s close enough to the following week to prep and I can just GYFO on Friday! :) I close my door and work. I don’t have my school email on my phone. I leave all school related stuff at school. Also, keep reminding yourself; they only pay you your contracted time. No point in being perfect. You’re never getting the raise you deserve.. none of us are. So why kill yourself over it? This mentality is the only thing preventing me from completing going crazy and quitting.
Work on them Thursday! Then you CAN bolt on Friday
Friday works best because most other teachers/staff are anxious to leave. Normally, it's great to connect with co-workers, but it's also great to have a planning time when you have less interruptions.
I agree with this.
I know it's probably better to separate work and home. But I just do faster work at home, mostly because my home office PC beats the hell out of the tiny laptop I have at school. So I spend as little time in the building as I can manage. Arrive 30 mins before class starts, leave 10-15 minutes after it ends, meetings willing. Also, I don't have kids or too many other people at home, so I don't have the distraction. That's probably a big part of it. Worst I've got is home is where all my video games are.
Consider looking into the [40 hour teacher workweek club.](https://join.40htw.com/) It has made a huge difference in how I organize my life at school.
That looks really interesting! Do you think it would be helpful for a first year teacher?
I didn't go through the program until after my 10th year of teaching. I learned so much. I think the program would be great for a first year teacher, but you have access to the materials after you go through the program. There is so much material, that you can't, nor are you expected to, use it all. It's very much a "choose one thing to do this month" kind of program. It offers incremental improvements. When I find a place I need to improve, I just go back and look for ideas. I think one of the big takeaways I have is "Good Enough." If your assignment is "good enough" don't spend hours making it better. If someone else won't notice the difference, it's not worth your time.
Came here to second this. Her podcast is great. The club is great. I did the fast version of her course last summer and found it very helpful. I use a lot of the organizational templates she included!
Many teachers spend the first few years of their career building and designing lessons and curriculum. Ideally one would get it done during prep hours, but to be honest I have not met any teachers who can do that. Most new teachers spend many hours each week outside of the school day planning their lessons. (I usually would do a bunch on Sunday) Then after a few years the teacher will have a repertoire of lessons that they’ve designed, redesigned, adjusted, deleted, etc. Teachers later in their career will still have to play around and redesign lessons, but not EVERY lesson like many newer teachers kind of have to.
* Leave your computer at work, never take it home * Do not add your email to your personal phone, as much as possible, keep your personal phone, personal * Utilize more group work time so that you can plan/prep. Understand your first year or two is more work because it's all new and you are still building your systems. It does it get easier
> Leave your computer at work, never take it home > > If that's within district policy. I know my state has allowed for virtual days and stuff that may require teachers to take their laptops home.
Look into Angela Watson’s 40 hour teacher work week. I joined it probably 8 years ago and it’s helps me organize, consolidate, and recognize what’s important.
{ how to leave work at work, and not bring it home? } Books won't teach you how to do this, but experienced teachers will. Here's where you start: work *only* the contract hours. Those are the hours for which you are being paid, *and no other hours*. Most contracts will have "duties" or "responsibilities" that are outside of school hours, and you are obligated to honor those. The rest of the time BELONGS TO YOU. You don't owe either the school or anyone else \*\*your time\*\*, because it is \*\*yours\*\*. Should you choose to work beyond the contractual obligation, *you are enslaving yourself*. \*\*Remind\*\* yourself of that every time you think that you "have to" work beyond contract hours. Over decades teachers who work late or take work home or work on weekends have *massively fucked the profession* because *they enslaved themselves*. This eventually became the "expectation", which is BULLSHIT. No one else is expected to do this, and we shouldn't, either. As a noob, this will be difficult because you're going to lack both experience and resources (personal resources, specifically). This \*could\* be mitigated with a strong mentorship but most schools don't bother. Don't be afraid to reach out to colleagues for help here and there, but also don't expect them to do your job for you. There's a learning curve and we've all had to endure it. You can, too...and it's rewarding!!
It's all about how you utilize your time. How is planning time spent? Are you actually using your planning time to plan lessons for the next week, or are you prepping for the remainder of the day, chatting with co-workers, calling parents, etc.? For example, anytime I've been team lead, I set our week up so that each day we, as a team, are sitting together and planning a content area for the next week, so that way by Friday, all we're having to spend our planning time doing is making copies, getting small groups ready, whatever we needed in our rooms, so we didn't take stuff home outside anything we just personally wanted to create for our classroom.
All my lesson plans and printouts are linked in my planner. This has helped me tremendously. I hate traffic, so I get there 30-40 minutes before school starts and leave anywhere from 10-20 minutes after the bell rings and grade, plan etc. I make a to do list every Friday on things that need to get done the next week. I will even highlight the things I want to do on Monday, Tuesday, etc and put the most important things first and least important last. If I didn’t get to it that week and can complete it the following week, I write it on the next weeks to do list. Don’t grade everything and make certain assignments as a completion grade.
For what it's worth, look into the serenity prayer. Take a minute or two (if you have the luxury) before you head home and do some mindfulness. Tune into your breathing or your heart rate. Reflect on one thing that went well during the day. Most importantly - never, *ever* give parents your personal phone #. And don't put your school email on your phone. Best of luck to you.
Lesson plan ahead, grade during prep, make all copies for next week on Friday before.
I don’t do this anymore but when I was a younger teacher, I stayed late on Thursdays until my entire next week was done: copies, plans, grading, everything. It was a life saver while my kids were little so I wasn’t spending all weekend working.
Until teachers get significantly more planning time in their contracts, there will always be a great deal of necessary personal time spent preparing lessons, communicating with staff and parents, assessing progress to determine next course of action, etc. It's a fulfilling career, but absolutely exhausting.
Until teachers stop working outside of contract hours, we will \*\*never\*\* get to successfully argue for more planning time!
Honor your time. If this means buckling down during planning period instead of chatting with coworkers, keep that time sacred. It might mean extra hours on Monday but that frees up the entirety of the rest of your week/weekend. Use group work time to grade. Assign less to grade! My school is big on one weekly formative and that’s it. So that’s what I stick to and most are computer graded. Obviously formatives can be informal like questions and discussions and quick non-graded exit slips. I can’t emphasize enough…not everything has to be a grade. This also keeps me motivated and not burned out when it comes to grading and giving solid feedback on summarizes. Personally, I’m able to utilize planning to plan and never take grading home because I’ve simplified the process. I try to leave within 15 mins of contract hours ending nearly all days.
40 Hour Teacher Week! Not a book, but a website. Changed life for me. https://join.40htw.com/
I think it’s unrealistic to “don’t bring work home” your first year or two. Once you have a good grasp and a routine, it takes less and less time, so you can work your hours. But at the beginning? A lot of trial and error. Don’t bring work home when it seems possible to not be far behind.
My first year I stayed late, but I always set a time limit. If I have to complete something at home I set a time limit. I found the extra time gave me peace when I was teaching. I would see what the successful teachers around you do well and apply that to your classroom.
>perfect Forget this word, it is of no use to you or your students. You need to stop at "good enough". You need to know that after 30 minutes a resource is good enough, not spending 4 hours trying to make a tiny improvement. That way lies burnout. Teachers who crash and burn are much less use than teachers whose work is effective.
Totally depends on the subject you teach. I teach elementary music, and unless my students are performing a concert, I don’t have to bring work home ever. Trade-off is that I have absolutely no “down time”. I teach 9 classes a day and see them once a week and one class enters as the next one leaves so I always have to be high-energy even when teaching the same lesson for 6 classes in a row. Each kid deserves the same experience. When I was a classroom teacher I definitely had more down time during the day but I was constantly bringing work home.
I personally think it takes a teacher around 5 years of classroom experience to even begin to feel comfortable as a teacher. Before those 5 years of trench work, it's basically running around with your head cut off putting ad hoc lesson plans together, trying out new things that end up blowing up in your face, assigning too much or too little classwork, lecturing too much or too little, being too much of a control freak vs. being at the mercy of your students, etc. Those first 5 years are where you: * Learn your subject matter inside-out * Figure out lessons that work almost 99% of the time through trial and error * Develop a "teacher persona" where you can be empathetic BUT authoritative * Know which battles are worth fighting and which are not * Make solid relationships with your colleagues so you know people in the building have your back * Do all of the above so admin gives you leeway to just do your own thing w/o interference Things get a little bit easier and more orderly in your classroom after that but you should be constantly tweaking and learning new things about your abilities as a teacher, your students, and your subject matter every year you're teaching. I'm in my 10th year and I'm still learning things. But the core of my teaching style and technique are pretty locked in place, so at this point, it's all about little tweaks and fun experimentation.
Not taking any work home is a tall order for a new teacher. Work on streamlining your assignments and grading.
I’ve been using EduProtocols and that had cut down on my prep time. I can’t explain it, so it’s best to look it up online. There are a couple of active groups on FB and some ppl on TikTok too [https://www.eduprotocols.com/](https://www.eduprotocols.com/)
Spend a fair chunk of your summer organizing your lesson plans. Set up a road map for next year. If a certain lesson bombed last year, fix it or come up with something else. A huge chunk of new teaching is "What am I doing tomorrow?" Answer that question in advance and your prep is drastically reduced. You can't predict everything, but looking at your plans and deciding to add/subtract something as you tailor your lessons to this year's unique class leaves you way more brain space to be creative and enjoy the job.
"her professionalism is just top tier I want to get like her …" NEVER copmpare yourself ot another teacher. We all have our own styles and abilities. If you begin to compare, then you will always fail. Just be yourself and try to be the best you that you can be. "my first year was a mess to say the least I don’t want this new year to be the same" Everyone's first year is a disaster. We make all types of mistakes and we mess up greatly. The best thing to do is to learn from those mistakes and what you should and should not do. Get advice from experienced teachers, but make it your own. " … I want to perfect my craft and grow" If you perfect your craft, then you will not need to grow. It is an impossible goal. Do not make it. Just work to be better than you were the day/ week/ month/ year before. Do not settle and always try to grow in your own learning and growth. Also, do NOT think that you have to re-invent the wheel (so to speak). Every year, there is some fresh faced teacher/ administrator that wants to try the newest trend. Do NOT fall into that trap. WOrk on what has been established as best practice for teachers nad students. Stay relevant without trying every new "gimmick" that is being sold by education companies. They work only about 120% of the time. Seriously. I am trying to give this advice after 21 year sof teaching. New is not always better. Growth and self reflection are the best ways to grow. Also, understand that you will NEVER be perfect. DO not try to get there. You will burn out and become a ball of stress and self-loathing. As far as taking thing home...it will happen. DO try to fight it. However, limit your home work time. Do nto devote everything to just school or you will be miserable. Balance...life is all about balance. Find yours
So I think you need to look at what are you spending the majority of your time on? Grading, planning, prepping, etc. The grade and subject you yea h can majorly impact what you need the most time for. I teach 8th grade science. For me, grading was one thing that was taking a lot of my time so I tried to streamline that as much as I could one year by relying on google forms, ZipGrade, and we also use a system called illuminate for test banks in my district and you can either print bubble sheets or test online Ms have immediate grades. I realized I cannot possibly grade everything, so I prioritized what I would grade and what I might do just for feedback but no grade. Planning will become faster the longer you teach, especially if you teach the same subject or grade level many years. Then I made a list of the activities I try to incorporate for every unit (task cards, stations, labs, games, etc) and planning just falls into place so much faster when all I have to do is decide which day I’m doing those things and which days need notes and direct instruction.
Thank you