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How to Make the Most of Your Teacher Planning Period | Free Teacher Planning Pages

Now that school is back in full swing, the newness of the year is wearing off, and the stress that comes with our jobs as teachers is settling in, it’s more important than ever to maximize our precious time during our teacher planning period.

It always drives me nuts when people say that teaching is easy, because there is SO much more to our job than just teaching! There’s lesson planning, meetings, making copies, grading papers, entering them into the grade book, printing and laminating resources for the weeks ahead, and #allthepaperwork. That’s not even counting all the things we do when we are actually teaching and managing our classrooms. No wonder we’re exhausted! 

As teachers, we get a planning period each day, but it’s often hard for us to squeeze in everything we need to get done during that time. Then we end up loading down our teacher bags and bringing it home in the evenings and on weekends. It seems like our work is never done.

However, it’s super important that we set boundaries between school and home so we can take care of ourselves and our loved ones. The best way to do that is to make the most of our teacher planning period by setting a schedule for how we work during that time each day. Read on to see how I structure my planning period, plus get my FREE teacher planning pages that I use to stay organized and on track.

teacher planning period tips

Structuring Your Teacher Planning Period For Success

Every school is a little bit different when it comes to the length of their teacher planning period. At my school, I get anywhere from 60-90 minutes a day because we have 1-2 specials each day at 30 minutes each. Every third week, I have lunch duty, and during that week, I don’t have recess duty, so I get an extra 30 minutes. At my previous school, I only had 50 minutes one year, and that was super tough!

I remember in my first two years of teaching, I wasted so much time trying to get it ALL done in 50 minutes. I never got anything accomplished. I would work on lesson plans for 10 minutes, grade papers for another 10 minutes, then I would try to make copies of a few things. It was a nightmare. I was trying to get too much done in a short amount of time. 

I knew I had to make a change, so I finally set a schedule for my weekly teacher planning period time, and it helped me so much. 

Learn more tips about how to have the most productive planning period in my YouTube video below.

Free Teacher Planning Pages

Before I share this schedule and the teacher planning pages I use, keep in mind that this is my ideal set up for my teacher planning period. It doesn’t go perfectly every day, but it gives me a starting point to go off of. Otherwise, I could sit there for an hour, click from tab to tab on my computer, and get nothing done. Can you relate?! 

I do tend to forget things easily, so I use a weekly planning checklist to help keep me on track. 

free teacher planning pages

On the first page, I write down:

  • The concept/unit/topic for the week for each subject.
  • The anchor charts I need to pre-make. 
  • The books I need to pull. 
  • Anything I might need to buy or ask my administration for. 

On the second page, I use the checklist for my most common things that I know I need to prep each week. I check it off once it’s been printed and then check the box to show that it’s been laminated and prepped. 

You can grab this FREE set of teacher planning pages by filling out the form below. It’ll be delivered straight to your inbox!

My Teacher Planning Period Schedule

Now, let’s take a peek at my teacher planning period schedule and what I aim to complete each day! By having specific focuses for each day, I feel less overwhelmed and can be more productive each day, knowing exactly what I’m going to focus on and accomplish.  

Monday

  • Update reading and math rotation slides for the week. 
  • Put weekly spelling words in student mailboxes
  • Put any graded work from the previous week or papers to pass out in their mailboxes. 
  • Review my ESGI data from the previous week if time allows. 

Tuesday

  • Look at ESGI data and plan out reading small groups and literacy centers for the following week. 
  • Begin printing or make note of what needs to be printed for the week. 
  • Look at what skills I’ll be teaching in whole group next week. (We use Journeys for ELA, so I teach with the weekly story for 3 days a week. The other 2 days, I focus on the same skills, but supplement with other read alouds if I want too).
  • My room mom comes on Tuesday afternoons and helps me with center prep, copies, and anything else I might need. 

Wednesday

  • Plan out math lessons for the following week along with small groups and centers. (I supplement our Envision curriculum with my Guided Math units. I have a lot of those resources prepped already, but I make note of anything else I might need).

Thursday

  • Meet with my team briefly to make sure we are all on the same page for the following week. There are 3 of us and we teach the same content and skills each week, but are fortunate enough to be able to teach with anything we want. 
  • Thursday is my copy day, so I will make copies for the next week. 
  • Start laminating anything that needs it. (If I don’t get it all done during my teacher planning period, I’ll stay late on Thursday to get it done). 
  • File away original copies and put things into their weekly drawers if time allows. 

Friday

  • Fridays are my filing days and station day. (If I didn’t get it done on Thursday, all of my copies for the next week are put into weekly drawers and all of my original copies are filed back where they belong. 
  • Literacy and math stations are set up for the next week so that we are ready to go Monday morning. I never stay late on Fridays… ever, and you shouldn’t either! 

Of course, this schedule doesn’t always go 100% as planned, but it really helps me stay on track and productive! By working on a little bit at a time each day, planning and prepping seems less overwhelming. Plus, over time, you get in a groove and may be able to just relax a bit on Friday!

free teacher planning pages

I hope these tips and free teacher lesson planning pages are helpful for you! Feel free to share them with your teaching team and teacher friends, too!

Let me know in the comments, what tips do you have for making the most of your planning period?

teacher planning period pages
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