I don’t think I’ve seen this asked before, and … well, I need to crowdsource something.

Tonight, on twitter, I asked:

For the past few weeks, I feel like my teaching hasn’t been that good. It’s okay, but not near the level of goodness I know I could achieve. My big limiting factor is time and energy — I’m overextended with commitments. But I also think I could be doing better if my planning process were better. If it were more efficient, and I reoriented the way I thought of how I plan…

So I’m wondering from y’all, on a regular basis for a normal class…

… and before you answer, this is a judgment free zone! If you wing it and don’t plan most days, just say that! I just want to get a sense of what people do to see if I can’t steal some great ideas and be a more effective planner … and I guess I’m also just plain plum curious!

(1) How do you plan? Like… um… what’s your process (if you have a formal one), or what do you do (if you just sort of do something)?

(Things like: what sort of things do you think about when you’re planning? Do you pre-script questions? Do you pick specific problems? Do you design some conceptual walk-through for the kids? Do you always build in formative feedback? Do you always try to switch what kids do 2 or 3 times a class? Do you start with a unit or week-long plan and then go down to the individual class level, or vice versa?, etc.)

(2) What does your completed plan look like? Is it written on paper, or a SmartBoard file, or a computer file, or in your head, or something else — and what sorts of things are on it? Questions? Objectives? Problems?

(3) How much time does it take you (again, for a normal class, on a normal day) to make a plan for a single day’s class?

(4) Other stuff that didn’t get caught in the net of the first three questions, but you wanted to say?

Throw your answers in the comments! Help me out!