• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

August 20, 2017 Ask a Teacher

Back To School Hacks: Digitize Your Syllabus and Lesson Plans!

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, at http://jenniferwolfe.net, and grab a free copy of "8 Tips For A Successful School Year" while you're there.
  • Teacher Self-Care: Great Tips PLUS A Hyperdoc To Share! - January 14, 2018
  • 3 Steps to Helping Students Develop College-Ready Writing Skills - November 26, 2017
  • A How To List For Flexible Classroom Seating - September 10, 2017
  • Back To School Hacks: Digitize Your Syllabus and Lesson Plans! - August 20, 2017
  • Want to Be Ready for Middle School? Start With These 4 Skills - August 14, 2017
  • Making STEM Matter in Schools - July 17, 2017
  • The STEM Revolution in Higher Education - June 26, 2017
  • The State of STEM in U.S. Schools - May 30, 2017
  • Teaching Writing With Hyperdocs - May 22, 2017
  • Budget Cuts? Don't Take It Out On The Teachers - Or The Students - March 20, 2017

This year I'm going back to school with a twist - I'm going to digitize my syllabus and lesson plans!

A few years back I experimented with different ways to engage students on the first day - and first weeks - of school. Building relationships, engaging my classroom and creating a sense of excitement helps me to keep a high energy level - absolutely necessary for teaching middle school - and also sets a tone of exploring new ideas, trying new strategies and risking failure.

Because seriously - we teachers are constantly asking our students to "push themselves", to step out of their "comfort zone" and present their very best work, right? And yet how many teachers actually walk their talk? I've discovered that I build better relationships with my students when I do what I ask them to do, and as a result, we have a more productive, more creative and more growth-oriented classroom.

Last year was the year of hyperdocs for me - I wrote about how to teach narrative writing with hyperdocs, and have begun transforming nearly all my units into a digital package of pedagogy. I like that. It gets me energized and invigorated and when I see what the students produce...mind blown!

This year I decided to digitize as much as I could for the first day, the first week, and beyond.

Creating a Digital Lesson Plan Book

To begin, I signed up for planbookedu.com. This is a HUGE step for me - I love tech, but still prefer to read a hardcopy and write in a spiral planner. I decided to switch to planbookedu, however, because in the process of hyperdoc-ing and transferring file cabinets to Google Drive, I found it challenging to access all the lessons that I had written down but had no direct digital link to. Having a digital plan book allows me to manage my multiple preps (4), to link my digital files onto each day/period, to copy the lesson for the one class that repeats and to search and save the plans for next year. I can also print it if needed. After researching the cost of purchasing a new paper planner, the fee for planbookedu seems well worth it.

Digitizing My Syllabus

Next, I decided to digitize my syllabus. I've seen this trending online this year, and I found a shared Google Slide template I thought I could adapt. You can get a copy of it on my 'free teaching and parenting resources' tab of my website, jenniferwolfe.net. I'm not going to lie - it took me a good 4 hours to fiddle with the template, to fit in what I needed, to edit, revise, and edit some more...but then once it was done for one class, I could just modify for my three other preps!

The amazing part of digitizing my syllabus was that it forced me to really THINK about how I wanted to present myself to parents and students; my hope is that the syllabus sticks around with them and becomes a reference point during the school year. On that end, I created a new technology and plagiarism policies and linked them to the syllabus for parents to review and return. I was able to add links to my teacher Google site, to my class photo slide deck, my grading policies and my REMIND codes, and because it's so visual I inserted more information than my paper syllabus ever did!

Use Google Slides For A Digital Daily Agenda

Finally, I'm using Google Slides for creating a digital daily agenda that can be embedded on my website, shared with students and parents, and easily updated from home or school. Last year I used a plain slide deck that I switched up fonts and colors every month to keep students engaged - this year I'm going to get a bit more stylized! I've almost entirely given up directly assigned 'homework', so my daily agenda will follow the 'must do', 'should do' and 'could do' format. I use "due dates" instead of "homework", allowing students more choice and control over their work. I love using funny gifs or images or quotes to start the day off, and by using a digital template I save tons of time by not having to rewrite everything every day! You can also see and grab a copy of my digital daily agenda template on my 'free teaching and parenting resources' tab of my website, jenniferwolfe.net.

I'd love to hear some of your ideas about digitizing your teaching and moving your classroom into the 21st century - please leave ideas in the comments below!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Teaching Writing With Hyperdocs The STEM Revolution in Higher Education One Future of K-12 Education: From the Factory to a Personalized Model Creating Excitement In The Classroom With Hyperdocs
« What to Change Behavior? Start With Class Meetings in Special Education
The Solar Eclipse-A Unique Teaching Opportunity »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • Looping Kept Me From Quitting Teaching. Here's Why
  • Educators Need Safe Spaces Too
  • It's Time to End Elitist Music Education
  • My Question to White Teachers: Why Are You Here?

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.