Do you spend your Fridays and Weekends sitting on your computer creating lesson plans, slides, and handouts each week? Powerpoint templates for teachers can help!
I used to spend HOURS trying to plan each part of my day, create lessons for each skill, and format my materials just so. Now, I look back and CRINGE at myself, thinking: GIRL THERE IS A BETTER WAY!
Being a Special Educator, I have often had to teach multiple grades, subjects, and students on completely different levels, making lesson planning a high key nightmare. A few years ago, when I transitioned to a job as a Reading Interventionist, I learned a secret weapon that I will NEVER stop using: the power of templates.
I am a Powerpoint kind of gal, so for me, templates look like folders of powerpoints for each lesson of my week. You can do one template per day, subject, lesson, or even week! It is really whatever flow you feel comfortable with! I started with these easy to use Guided Reading Lesson Plan Templates, and they have made planning Guided Reading a breeze!
Here’s how I create my lesson templates for a week in my class:
Step 1: List out all of your lessons each day (or week if you don’t have the same schedule every day).
Step 2: Make a list of routine activities you do daily (or often) in each lesson. For example, in guided reading, you might put “sight words, word work, preview book, discussion”. For math, you may want to list out do now spiral, fluency, intro to new material, guided practice, and independent work. *I also use SEL templates in my lessons to keep me accountable for consistency with those strategies*
Step 3: Create a Powerpoint or Google Slides Template for each lesson, day, or week! Label the Slide deck “Monday Slides” or “Guided Reading Group 3” so you know what the content of your template is.
Step 4: Add your activities as slides! As many slides as you need for each activity. This is where the magic happens my friends. You create IN AS MUCH DETAIL everything you need for a general version of that activity. Check out these templates below for inspiration!
Step 5: Save! I would save as a template to start, then save each slide deck by date if you want archives of each week!
Extra Credit:
Okay, now this is where you will have to either invest or do extra work upfront, but the time you get back is AMAZING! I actually create slide decks with all the actual content for all of my activities. Meaning, I have every skill I plan to teach for the year (or at least the next few months/units) stored in a slide deck, so I just copy and paste the slides in each week. When I say this has been life-changing, I really mean it. I have content slides for every phonics skill, sight words (Fry and Dolch) up to 3rd grade, and reading strategies anchors for guided reading. If you are a math teacher, that could look like creating batches of math problems to keep on deck so you can mindlessly copy and paste (I have some basic math for Kindergarten and First Grade slides here). They have been invaluable to me this year! If you don’t have the budget to invest or want to create materials that work for you, I would tackle a little at a time (start with the subject that has the most repetitive content), and you will have a backstock of materials for the future in no time!
Looking for powerpoint templates for teachers to save you time and take the stress out of your lesson plans? Check out these templates and content slide decks!
Templates:
Guided Reading Template (Emergent Readers – Level A-C)
Guided Reading Template (Early Readers – Level D-I)
Content Deck Slides:
Sight Word Content Slide Bundle (Fry)
Sight Word Content Slide Bundle (Dolch)
