I bought Bento last year in an attempt to organize my lesson plans. My goal was to create a database of lesson plans that I could refer to each year and tweak as needed. The trick was to create the template for my entry form. I wanted something that wouldn't take lots of time to fill out, but that would still be thoughtful and useful. I also wanted something that would be manageable as a database. Lots of fields would only make things complicated if I wanted to export the database as an Excel file so I wasn't looking for something terribly fancy, but I did want something kinda sleek and definitely functional. I played around with Grant Wiggins' Understanding by Design models. I found that UBD was good for unit planning, but when it came to daily lesson planning, I needed something more detailed. I decided to combine the traditional lesson plan: Title, Objective, Essential Question, Content, Skills, Procedures, Assessment, Materials with UBD. You can see an older version of my lesson plan template here. A newer version should be up on the Bento Template Exchange any day now. It should be published under "Lesson Planning."
I'm always curious to know what others methods teachers use to plan. I'd love to hear from you and learn more about what others are doing to stay on top on planning. It seems there is never enough time to do it. I've tried software like Planbook and starPlanIt, but they didn't quite have what I was looking for in terms of customizable planning and schedule options. I have a class with two sections that meet at different times during the week, on different days. Neither of these programs seemed to really get that. And we all know that schedules change! Flexibility is the name of the game! I wanted by database to be able to reflect that. Bento isn't perfect, but it definitely lets you customize your entry form. I have a rating system on my lesson plans so that I can quickly go through my lessons and revamp the ones that kinda stunk and be proud of the ones that were successful. It's a quick reflection, but useful nonetheless. As my planning time gets eaten, I've found it helpful to build an organizational structure for myself so that I can attempt to make my life easier in the future. I'll admit, entering the information in the first year is a bit time-consuming, but then being able to just pull up a lesson or tweak one is really nice. It gives me more time to spend on assessment or an occasional toss of a frisbee with my eighth graders.
