I'm setting up my classroom, and I've found my lesson plan books going back at least to 2005. I don't know why I've hung on to them (I don't even teach some of the subjects anymore) but I'm having a hard time throwing them out. Is there a good reason to keep these?
I keep the previous year until about Christmas time at which time I throw them out. I have no idea why I save them or why I wait til Christmas! I never use them or refer to them at all. I have been doing this for about 20 years and have never had a problem.
We are legally required to keep our day plans and student documentation. It can be subpoened by a court.
We have to turn ours in. They're legal documents, apparently. The school has to hold on to them for a certain amount of time.
My school keeps a copy. It used to be paper now its on a flash drive. I keep mine on a flash drive and delete the old ones when I don't need them anymore.
My plan book and grade book are combined into one book. I hang onto it until the kids whose grades are in it have graduated.
I know I should... but I don't. I still think of myself as a newbie teacher (this is my 5th year) and I'm never happy with my lesson plans, projects, assessments or anything This year I'm hoping to really improve in how I organize myself, keep track of things, and lessons/assessments/papers in general so I do hope I will hold on to this one to just compare and help track the work we do in class. It is a wonderful idea to hold on to yours- if you teach the same thing year-after-year. Even if you don't, it's useful tool to pass along to a new teacher who will be teaching that class
I keep mine. They help to remind me what I covered in years past. I always make changes, but if I have to rely on memory to keep track of what worked and what didn't, I'd be lost.
I keep mine and use the mess out of them the following years. I always make notations in the plans about what worked, what didn't, why I suspect it didn't, how long an activity took, etc. Then I can adapt it for the following year. It helps a bunch with making plans and getting an idea for pacing too.
At one of my previous jobs, lesson plan books were collected at the end of the year. I look at my last years plans for the first week or so each year...it takes LOOONGER in the beginning of the year to get things going and I look back for timing reminders...
We turn a print out of ours in, I'm not sure how long the school keeps them. My plan books just have short notes of the activity or concept jotted down from when I plan with my team. I have all of my previous years' lesson plans saved on my computer at school and on my flash drive.
I have a collection of old plan books and grade books in one of the drawers of my filing cabinet. I'm not quite sure why I keep them, but I have never brought myself to throw them out. We do need to turn them in at the end of the school year, but we can get them back when school reconvenes. I use my plan book from the previous school year as a reference, so I rely on it a lot. In fact, my new plan book is sitting on my desk at school right now, but I brought my book from last year home so I could use it to do some planning for this year.
I do like having an old planbook in the event that one of my colleagues has one of those preps for the first time. It's a realistic pacing guide. Not gospel, but at least it narrows down the amount of time it takes to teach a particular topic.
We have to keep them for one year, and then shred them the next. It's helpful because I always forget what I did the first weeks and around state testing times for some reason!
I keep my plan book from the previous year only, and occasionally throughout the year I will look back at it for something.
I keep all of mine in a binder, even though I have the last two years saved on my flash drive as well. I haven't ever used my lesson plans from previous years, but I don't want to get rid of them.
Nah! Just from last year, AND since I am teaching the same stuff, I am able to just copy the old lesson plan on to a new paper, AND I am ready to play! Well! My Week number 1 plan was on a different sheet of planning form, so it took me a bit longer, BUT come next week and the rest of the year, it is on! Rebel1
For my first year of teaching, the principal handed me the previous teacher's lesson plan book and told me I could just follow it. The author was a very successful teacher who went on to become a college professor. It really wasn't anything special. She just followed the text book in order from beginning to end. She just put the section title for her objectives and the homework problems for each day, so I didn't really have to copy it, but just basically do the same thing.
I always hang on to the previous year's lesson plans. I use them as a reference point for the new plans.
I do mine on the computer & have to email them to my P. I print a copy for myself & at the end of the week, I recycle them. I do have them saved on my computer though.
