I recently retired from teaching after having a fourth grade classroom for nearly thirty five years. I loved teaching more than anything else, but planning elementary lesson plans nearly did me in a few times. At several times throughout my teaching career I would come home and complain to my husband that I wanted to be done. The job was too hard, the pay was too small, I was underappreciated, and I had to spend hours each week making elementary lessons plans that half of the time I didn't even follow.
Five years before retirement another teacher gave me some of the best and most relieving advice of my teaching career. I'll admit that I was a little upset that I hadn't heard this news thirty years before, but I was grateful nonetheless to get all the help I could. This teacher suggested that I start looking for other ways and sources of getting great elementary lesson plans for my classroom.
At first I laughed at her and responded with a simple "yeah right." I had myself convinced that I was the only reliable source of elementary lesson plans and that my classroom would fall apart if I didn't have the perfect plans going into each morning. I was wrong. My teacher friend suggested that I utilize resources that other teachers have made in my own classroom. She suggested that I look for elementary lesson plans at bookstores, teaching stores, and even on the internet.
I began to look around for other sources of elementary lesson plans during the summer between two school years. I was skeptical about finding something that worked, yet I found the idea intriguing enough to be worth my trying. What I discovered as I really began looking for elementary lesson plans was unbelievable: there really is a wealth of information and resource available for teachers in the area of elementary lesson plans. I had no idea how much work had been written and published in this area. I stumbled upon a treasure house of solid information that changed everything about the last five years of my career.
So teachers, regardless of how long you've been in the classroom, start looking now for great alternatives for elementary lesson plans. You'll be glad you did.
