However, this year, I want to color code them by unit. If you right click on the tabs at the bottom of your spreadsheet, you can rename them and change their colors. (This isn’t necessary, but it makes me happy.) At the top of my sheet, I color coded the components of my lessons. For days where I don’t have formal plans (like a day where I have a sub), I shade the background of the cells for that day in gray. I try to use this feature lightly so that it’s clear when I’ve used it. Nothing is more annoying than when your text is cut off. Select the text wrap option so that all of the text you type into a cell appears. Here are a few bonus tips to get you started: Just like any Google application, Google Sheets is very easy to use, and anything you can’t figure out, you can Google how to do. Also, it is so much quicker than creating a Google Doc for my weekly plans, and then separate Google Docs for each lesson plan. When I’m ready to lesson plan, I simply duplicate my sheet for the new week, and type the current information into each cell. I choose to have my days of the week down the first column, and each component of a lesson plan required by my school across the top row. The hardest part was setting up the template. (You could also choose to keep your current week front and center.) Additionally, Google Sheets lesson plans are very easy to share with administrators, co-teachers, and anyone else that needs access to your plans. Each week has its own sheet, so rather than scrolling through a 40 page document, I can scroll through the sheet tabs and find my current week easily. Google Sheets, however, has tabs on the bottom of the spreadsheet for additional sheets.
Using Google Docs required either a ton of scrolling to find where I wanted to be, or (what I chose) 40 different documents for an entire school year. In my Google Docs template, I was bound by my 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper.īest of all, my Google Sheets Lesson Plan Template is one file.
Also, it’s seamless design allows my information to go as far as it needs to. Since Google Sheets is a spreadsheet application, I can add a ton of information. Why use a Google Sheets Lesson Plan Template? To lesson plan, I think in weekly blocks, and I need a lesson plan template that allows me to do that, while incorporating all of the requirements set by my school. The solution? Complete lesson plans once. (One that includes all of the extra things my school looks for in a lesson plan.) This meant an entire additional step in my lesson planning process, and I couldn’t keep up with it any longer. You see, I was planning using my previous template, and then having to share a separate Google Doc.
Spoiler Alert: This year I switched to a Google Sheets Lesson Plan Template! I still love the Google Docs template, but with a school district mandate that we submit lesson plans, I had to streamline my efforts. Previously, I shared a post about how I use a Google Docs template to plan my lessons one week at a time.