Time-Saving Strategies for Busy Teachers: Lesson Planning Edition

Lesson planning sometimes feels like doing laundry. Just like you will always have more dirty clothes, there will always be more lessons to plan.

BUT that doesn’t mean lesson planning needs to take up your entire life as a teacher. It definitely did for me, which is why I wanted to share these tips that I have learned, and help you get your time back! 🙌

1. Templates are Key 🔑

Start using templates so you aren’t re-creating your planning format each week. 

✅ Lesson Plan Templates 

Do you find yourself writing the same headings, titles, or ideas down each time you plan? Create a template that already has those ready-filled-in areas for you. 

💠 Create a Google Doc template that houses your lesson plans 

💠 Use a digital planner that automatically formats your lesson plans for each week

💠 Create your own planner with pre-made headings for objectives & standards 

If you are looking for a daily lesson plan template already made for you, this is one that I created to plan out my 4 main subjects each day. I wanted one that I could quickly see everything I needed for the day on one page. 🙂 I have added it to my TPT shop, in case you are interested in using this editable template too!

If you are also interested in this editable daily lesson plan template, you can find it in my TPT shop here!

✅ Exit Ticket Templates 

If you often have students submit exit tickets for informal check-ins, create a template you can use for all of your subject areas! This will save you LOTS of prep time. 

✅ Google and Powerpoint Slides Templates 

Using Google Slides (or PowerPoints) during your lessons?

Rather than spend time creating new slides each week, create a master slide, then simply edit it 😊

Looking for beautiful and fun templates made for you? My Happy Hues Google and Powerpoint Slide templates provide many pre-made slides that you can quickly customize and use in your classroom! Check it out to see if it will fit what you’re looking for!

Simply edit the set of slides to contain the slides you use most often and type the headings to suit your class.

Once you are ready to start planning for the week, simply duplicate the slide and change the “Bell Ringer”, “Centers”, “Daily Schedule”, etc for each day 🙂

You can also find these template slides on Esty! 

Interested in other themes? Click here to see all of the slides template options in my Etsy shop!

2. Batch Planning 📝

The life of an elementary teacher with 4-5 subjects to prepare for each day can easily feel overwhelming.

Instead of approaching your week as 5 individual days with 4-5 lessons each, focus on one subject’s lessons for the entire week. 

This allows you to: 

✨ Get in the flow and give your full focus to ONE subject at a time. In addition, you can see how content & skills build on each other from one lesson to the next. AND I love that I feel more prepared with a bird’s eye view of what is coming each week. 🙂

Want to become even more organized and batched? 

Choose specific times of the week when you plan out each particular subject area.

For example, Monday plan time is always math batch planning. 

This may not seem like it will save time, but it definitely has for me! I am so much more efficient when I work on one subject at a time, and sometimes can plan all of my science lessons for the month in a few hours 👀

3. Batch Prepping 📎

As you are planning, create a list of all the things you need to prep (copies, materials, etc.) or create for each lesson. 

Then, at a later point in time, prep for those lessons. Take out your list and check things off as you get them ready! ✅

This will save you trips to the copier machine when you can make your copies in bulk, and have less of a chance of running into a jammed copier 🤪

Prepping lessons ahead of time always means extra papers hanging out in your classroom. But, that doesn’t have to mean more clutter! I have a blog post filled with suggestions on how to best organize papers.

4. Your Teammates are Your Biggest Help 👥

Never underestimate the power of joining forces. Your teammates can be your biggest help in saving time lesson planning! 

The beauty of teamwork is planning together can look different based on what will work best for you & your team. Here are a few suggestions 😊

 💫 Sit down and do the planning together. Bounce ideas off of each other for how to teach specific standards, etc!

💫 Share materials if any of you already has a set of reading comprehension questions that you have created, or a math exit ticket to check for understanding on a topic, etc.

💫 Assign one subject to each team member. They are in charge of planning & prepping that subject. 

💫 Assign one teacher to make ALL math (or any subject) copies for every teammate for the week, and rotate who is in charge of copying each week.

Yes, lesson planning is an inevitable part of teaching that isn’t going away anytime soon. 

Develop a method of lesson planning that helps you be prepared in the classroom without taking up all of your evenings / weekends!

Hopefully, these suggestions help you start finding that rhythm for yourself!