Over the years, I have tried lesson planning a lot of different ways. I did paper and pencil. I did using like one of those online lesson planning template softwares, and I've used as simple as a Google Sheet. Today, I want to tell you a little bit about why I decided my favorite way to lesson plan is digitally.
You're listening to that music podcast with Bryson Tarbet, the curriculum designer and educational consultant behind that music teacher in the elementary music Summit. Each week, Bryson and his guests will dive into the reality of being an elementary music teacher and how music can truly be transformative in the lives of the students you serve. Show Notes and resources mentioned in this episode can be found at that musicteacher.com Welcome
back to that music Podcast. Today we are going to be talking about lesson planning. Let's be honest. Lesson planning is one of those necessary things that we do as music teachers, and sometimes it might be a really cool thing we do, but a lot of times it becomes this, like, chore. Don't get me wrong, I love lesson plans. I love developing curriculum, but let's be honest, does anybody ever feel like they have enough time to lesson plan without getting too far on that tangent? I want to talk a little bit about the ways that I have tried lesson planning, because I've gone through a few iterations during my career. That because I always wanted to try something new, and I always felt like there was something missing. So when I first started lesson planning, I literally just had a Google Sheet. It had all of the grades for the lesson rotation. So if this was less than five, you know, we would have kindergarten five, first grade five, second grade, data letter all the way in, basically this table. And I did it more or less a like this song, with this activity, than this thing. It was kind of this, like, just, it was basically a list, you know, the in the table, there were things like, you know, materials needed and standards addressed, you know, learning focuses and things like that. But the actual, like procedures, part of it was fairly simple. Now, what I did is that I then that each morning when I, like, went to say, All right, what lessons are we teaching today, I would pull out a post it note and I would write down, so, for instance, I'd write, like, second grade lesson one at the top, and then I would literally just write the order of operations on that post it note. And then I would take that post it note and I would attach it to my ID badge. So I always had it with me. So that's what I did my first year of teaching me, me, even my second year of teaching I can't remember. And that worked. It was fine. Honestly, that's really good way to get started, especially when you're trying not to overcomplicate it. With that being said, it's not great for reusing lesson plans, because the the lesson, like procedures, are not very specific, so it's basically like, All right, hope you remember what you meant by this. So that's kind of why I moved away from it. Then I started my Cody levels, and I started using a full on, like codi lesson plan template. And the next step I did was using, I think it was like Plan Board, or chalk.com or something, basically, where you could upload your own template and then it would like, tell you what lesson plan. What I didn't like about this, as much as I love being able to like, have the template, important things like that. I didn't like how it I didn't like how the rotations worked the you know, as elementary music teachers, our rotations get weird. And I was at two schools like it, just could not handle both rotations and, heaven forbid, you know, one day at one school, they had a no rotation day, and I threw everything off. So I just didn't even bother with that. Even when I did that, I actually only used that software for my one school. I didn't even bother using it for my middle school because I knew the rotations just wouldn't work. So that's one thing, if you're ending to use some sort of software that limitation can get a little clunky, especially when there are changes to the rotation that can throw things off. So that was kind of, you know, it was fine. It just, I don't even think I made it a whole year on that, that software because of the rotations things. And basically what I was doing is I was building it online, and I was printing it out anyway, so that I had the physical copy with me. So then once, I think it was my third or fourth year, basically when it would have probably my more fourth or my fourth, maybe even fifth year, when things started like not being so covid crazy, I actually did an experiment where the entire year I hand wrote every single lesson plan. I still used a kind of code. I influence template with transitions and things like that, and that is a template that I still use today, but I hand wrote every single one. And the reason I did this was kind of an experiment, because one I wanted to, I wanted to spend a little bit more time in the lesson plan, rather than on the lesson plan. So, like, basically, I wanted to be able to write a lesson plan that I could use again. I wanted to be able I wanted to make it very clear for, you know, if I had a student, teacher or whatever, that I had something with me, or even the next year, I knew exactly what I meant. So it definitely did take me longer, but I don't think it was necessarily a bad thing. I ended up, you know, I. Really like this. But again, I ran into the situation where I was doing my elementary middle my elementary lesson plans, kindergarten through fourth grade, I was doing in this way, and then I was doing my middle school lesson plans completely different because I didn't have my less my planning period at that school. So I always, you know, if I try, when I really tried to do the written lesson plans, I would just forget them at the other school. And it was a whole thing. And it was a whole thing. So what I ended up doing for the middle school was just digital lesson plans. I basically took the temple that I had into a Google Docs file and I used, I actually typed them out, rather than writing them out, just because I was just constantly forgetting the handwritten ones at the other school. And that's not good. So although I did make it through the entire year doing my handwritten lesson plans at the elementary school, I kind of really enjoyed the having the digital things the next year. So if you're inside that music teacher community, I'm actually in the process of for the lesson plans that I'm giving you. I'm using the lesson plans that I've used in my classroom as like the basis, I'm editing them and things like that, but I'm taking the handwritten copies and I'm turning handwritten copies and I'm turning them into easier to follow lesson plans that are typed out. And if you're in the community, you actually do have that template with you. So if you don't like my lesson plans, or for the lesson plan you you don't want to use, or whatever, you can actually use the template and change it to your to what works in your classroom. But what I what I settled on, is I like digital lesson plans. So I settled on digital lesson plans for a few reasons. One, I wanted to be able to find them a lot easier. I wanted to not have to lug them around from school to school or school to home, although I didn't do a lot of lesson planning at home towards the end of my career. But I really wanted that digital asset. I wanted it something that I can use again. I wanted to be able to attach links to it. I wanted to be able to, you know, put comments on it, if something that really doesn't need to be on the lesson plan, but, like, I need to remember it. That's why I settled on digital, digital lesson planning. And the reason I share this isn't so that you can use digital lesson planning, and it's because that's the only thing that works. Because the reality is is whatever lesson planning technique works for you, works for you, and that's the whole point. But what I just kind of wanted to share a few of the different opportunities, a few of the different ways that I did lesson planning in my career when I was in the classroom, to give you some different ideas of what might work best for you. Because I feel like if you would ask most elementary music teachers if they felt like they were good at lesson planning, or felt like they were spending the appropriate time that they should be lesson planning, the answer would be no, because no one really teaches us how to lesson plan, and that's exactly why I did the the experiment where I hand wrote all my lesson plans is because I wanted to really put in so much extra work that I just up leveled my lesson planning skill. I guess, because I knew it would be a little bit more work, but I just wanted to do that at that point in my career, so that I could have a little bit more experience developing a little bit more of an in depth curriculum, which is good because, again, a lot of those resources, a lot of those lessons, are being used inside of that music teacher community for the lesson plans, the done for you, lesson plans that are added in to the members portal every month. So again, this episode has been a little wonky. Fair warning. I've had so many technical issues recording this episode, so if this episode does not make it to the air because the tech brown ones won, I might lose it. But this has been an episode where I just really wanted to share just some different ways to lesson plan. Because whether you land on digital, whether you land on doing a full, handwritten lesson plan. I think that there are opportunities for you to understand what works best for you and what works best for you and your teaching assignment. I was always in multiple buildings. So I always like the digital things, because I could have them on both buildings. I could have them if you know, I needed to make some sub plans and I need to use them so I could have them access at home without having to go into school. I love the digital app, the digital aspect of it, because they live forever. And what I love about if you use Google is, when you in your Google Drive, you can actually search a specific song and it'll pull up any lesson plans that you have that use this. So if you were like, Wow, I feel like I really did a really cool thing in kindergarten with this specific song last year, but I can't remember when it was, you could actually use basically they're indexing to find that lesson plan. So again, you do you lesson plan however you want. If you're looking for a copy of those done for you lesson plans, you can grab them in the description the show notes here in the podcast. But however you lesson plan, it's totally fine by you. And in case nobody has told you lately, thank you so much for being awesome. Thank you so much for being a music teacher, and thank you so much for making a difference In the lives of the students that you teach you
