To Collaborate...Or To Collaborate

I used to feel a little frustrated by the thought of having to teach someone else's lesson plan. I was told that the elementary teachers work in grade level teams to plan lessons. Such as, all the first grade teachers work together or "collaborate" and one teacher is in charge of making all the lessons for only Math or one teacher is in charge of making all the lessons for Reading and so on. I have come to feel more comfortable with the idea of being able to collaborate with other teachers that will be teaching the same grade. Collaboration leads me to believe that you can get more accomplished in less time and you will have more brains to pick when it comes to lesson ideas. I hope that I can be a team player and do well at it, specifically in the technology area of things. This article has gave me some better thoughts toward collaboration and I would encourage anyone to read this. Especially, if you feel you might be on the fence about the whole process. Link:  http://www.creating-teaching-inspiring.com/2015/10/the-new-age-of-professional-development.html
There are two videos below; that I thought were useful.

My Favorite Site For a Solid Lesson Plan

In class I went to the sites our Teacher listed. I clicked on a few links within those sites and found an awesome lesson plan builder model. It is like a desk planner. However, it has the convenience of being at your fingertips all the time through the use of your phone. It even has options for sharing, if you want to share it with your colleagues. It allows you to build lesson plans for every day throughout the school year. You are also able to chose when your school year ends and starts. I chose the free version; when I signed up. I am sure the paid versions are even more awesome and are not terribly expensive. I believe the next level, for which you pay for, is $4.99 a month. That is less than a subscription to your favorite television streaming company and this equally, if not more so, keeps your sanity. I am excited to start building some lesson plans through this site.
https://www.commoncurriculum.com/

This is a link to the lesson plan I created on this awesome website: Tiffannie Nitcher's Planbook

The Importance Of A Lesson Plan

Having a well written lesson plan is very important for any and every classroom. It is essential firstly, in being able to have good management over your classroom. If you didn't have a lesson plan and were just "winging it" there would likely be a lot of time gaps in activity. When you have those gaps unfilled; the students get restless and you will start seeing more behaviors to manage within the room. When you have your lessons well planned out; half the work is done. A good lesson plan has a good lesson that students learn from, can understand, can actively apply, makes them critically think, and helps them make connections within their lives. Lesson plans help teachers evaluate students based on what they learned. They provide a base for which the teacher can look back on and gauge how much of the material was learned by the student. In short, lesson plans help teachers keep some resemblance of organization and sanity.

My Super Clean House

My two children will both each have 100 percent of their toys picked up out of the living room floor and their bedroom floor and put in their toy boxes, every day after school, for the rest of their childhood lives.