Planning with Google Docs

I've always done my planning for class on paper. As much as a geek as I can be, I still have always liked paper planning. It doesn't help of course that I like to write notes to myself and draw circles, lines and arrows across pages.

But it was time for something different. Of course, it always helps when your brilliant wife, who is also a teacher, and who has been doing this type of thing for several years already, almost laughs at you for still doing things like this on paper.

So I've decided that if we push the kids into online, collaborative spaces, I should be playing out in public as well. I'm doing my planning on Google Docs.

I made a template for myself of my schedule and have just been putting in the dates, day on the school cycle, etc. for each week. I try to do most of my planning for the following week on the Thursday and Friday, but as you can see, it doesn't always work out that way. Week Two of the school year and I'm already behind. This doesn't augur well....

I've set the preferences on to update the document as I update it throughout the week and I'm ready to give it a try. I still haven't decided if I'm going to stick with this or go back to my old school style book, but while I'm trying it out, I thought you might like to play along at home and take a peek at what we are doing this week.

technorati tags:google, docs, classroom, planning

Comments

[Doug Belshaw]

Interesting, I've been using Google Calendar for my lesson planning and evaluation for a while. It's great! :-)

http://teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk/index.php/2007/02/17/how-to-use-google-calendar-as-a-tool-for-lesson-planning/

Thinking of using it as a tool for student 'assessment for learning' (i.e. self- and peer-review) as it's called over here...

[Jody Hayes, NZ]

WOW... that is brave... and interesting. It is always interesting having a wee window into what others do in their class. I must admit to being a plan on paper type of person - all those quick sketches to myself so I'll remember what I mean, brainstorms for tangents we may take etc just are quick on paper. My school is planning for the next term tonight and all day I will be thinking about trying to get my thoughts into a more linear format to ease into this.

[Susan Sedro]

Have you thought of using a spreadsheet instead? You could create one template on a sheet, and then duplicate the sheet on other tabs across the bottom. It's easier to look back to previous weeks, and you can pack and carry an entire term in one workbook.

I did that last year, but not online. It worked well. Not perfectly since your formatting options are more limited, but well.