Once upon a time, I used a Squibbs teacher lesson planner (remember those?), meticulously fitting my weekly plans in tiny calendar squares, constantly erasing and adjusting as plans shifted. My whiteboard hosted the daily agenda, a daily cycle of erasing and rewriting.
Then, before school, during my plan period, or after school, I'd pay my daily visit to the copier to make paper copies of the handouts I'd need the following day (or if I were really ahead of the game, the rest of the week!).
It was a lot of work to prepare to teach... before the teaching even began.
Years brought experience, speeding up the planning, but not changing much. I experimented with a number of lesson planning platforms (I highly recommend CommonCurriculum), yet weekly preparation ate up more of my free time than I'd hoped.
Then, the entire world fell apart as we entered the pandemic years. As educators, we did our best to adapt virtually every aspect of our jobs to an online world, and although those days aren't ones I'd want to revisit, a strategy born out of necessity back then has remarkably streamlined my weekly prep ever since.
Enter: the Virtual Classroom and Digital Agenda
I remember first hearing about "Bitmoji classrooms" in 2020 as a way of creating a space online that still felt personal, and I fell in love. Even after returning to the actual classroom, I've maintained my virtual hub as a weekly landing spot for students. It's visually engaging, ensures consistent access to crucial resources, and serves as a central place for our agenda, keeping all students in the loop, whether in-person or remote.
Once the weekly agenda is up, my students take the lead. No more questions about what's happening today or what was missed during an absence. Everything they need is already there. No more daily trips to the copier or rewriting agendas on the whiteboard—I'm all set, every time!
If this sounds like a welcome change in your weekly planning routine, let us make your life easier with some FREE TIPS AND TEMPLATES FOR VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS AND AGENDAS!
Example themed virtual classrooms
I hope you have so much fun with these tips and resources! If these make your life easier, be sure to join our mailing list and check out the rest of our resources and units at our Weird Sisters Teach TPT store!
Take care!
~Jamie
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