Lesson Plan Book

I was an elementary public school teacher for eight years in Florida, before my husband's job moved us to Georgia.  One of my favorite requirements of the job was to hand-write my lesson plans, with pencil, in a book chosen and provided by my assistant principal.  I. LOVED. IT.  I am detail-oriented, enthralled with paper, swoon about being organized, and am also extremely visual.  Blocks make me happy.  They are tidy.  I am also quite the "acoustic", which means I desire the "real thing", hands-on, over electronics.  I prefer to play my actual marimba, rather than synthesized on the piano.  Same goes for lesson plans.  My handwriting, on paper, in a book that I can touch, erase, and carry with me, is bliss.  Choosing a vessel to write in is much more exciting than trying to figure out how to create a spread sheet on the computer.  While some folks think that technology is the way to go, writing directly on paper just seems simpler to me.

Now that you have all that background, consider yourself equipped to rejoice with me over my latest frugal find. 

I currently home educate my son.  He will be in 5th grade this year, and while I did create a printable set of lesson pages to help me organize all that I plan to teach, I knew there was probably a more cost-effective way. 

Several weeks ago, while perusing the $1 bins at Target, I noticed lesson plan books.  They contained only enough pages for about 25 weeks of school....yet there are traditionally 36 weeks per year.  I actually plan for 40 weeks of school, so Fridays can be lighter.  I didn't buy anything that day, but have been thinking about those $1 books ever since.   Then it struck me: buy TWO books (duh, they are only $1 each).  Use one book for the first half of the school year, and the other for the second.

But...there are only 3 blocks per page, for a total of 6 blocks when the book is open.  I need LOTS of blocks, because, as I said, I am detail-oriented.  So then I had this idea: copy one page of 3 blocks, and tape it hinge-style on the right, so that when I open all the pages, I have 9 blocks going across!

 



I am in lesson plan heaven!!! Along with no guilt, since no copyright violations occurred.

If you are a teacher in any capacity, know a teacher, or are visual and enjoy being organized, then I encourage you take advantage of frugal opportunities when they are available.  I am so thankful that even though I passed this one up the first time, there were two books waiting for me when I went back to the store for them!