A Nerdy Satisfaction

At the end of this academic year, I achieved something special. 

I'm not talking about the wooden name plate that sits proudly on my desk now, which I received at the awards ceremony on our last teacher day. 

Rather, I'm talking about the conclusion of something that I've been working on for the last 5 years.

Finally, oh finally, I have condensed all of my lesson plans (which were once strewn about, residing in various places all over the classroom) into three wonderful and tidy binders.  The lesson plans are filed chronologically, and they are full of detail.  They are the summation of all previous years' lesson plans and the edits made thereafter, resulting in these newly revised and hopefully improved versions, if you will.  :)

There are no worksheets or answer keys in these binders.  Those are what fill up my file cabinets and much of my computer's hard drive.  Instead, these binders contain the "how to" steps of my lesson designs, including the essential questions I ought to ask, the important vocabulary I ought to use, and the materials I ought to have prepared ahead of time.  :)

Each binder contains about 120 lessons, for a total of 360.  This carries me through 180 school days, teaching two courses (mathematics and pre-algebra).

This, dear reader, is my personal teaching gold mine.  If I sold a year's worth of lesson design to a curriculum company, do you think I could make a mint?

Even if not, these binders are the things I would take with me if--God forbid--our monthly fire drill wasn't a drill.  I actually wondered if I should keep them in a fireproof and waterproof box over the Summer, such as a safety deposit box kept at a bank.  Or, if not that, then perhaps I should at least bring them home, lest our custodial staff accidentally misplace them over the Summer months.  Can you tell how invested I am in these things?!

Hope you like the titles!  :)