Slow Your Roll and Save Time: Why You Need Digital Pacing Guides

The Problem

How many times have you found yourself running around looking for an original of a worksheet to copy, wasting time digging through bulky filing cabinets and binders? Or flipping through the worn pages of last year’s lesson plan book trying to decipher all of the activities and materials used during a particular lesson? Perhaps you loaned your original to a teammate last year, but you aren’t sure if it was even returned? It feels like, as teachers, we are always hustling, bustling, and without fail searching for lesson materials on almost a daily basis. Time is of the essence, and yet, we tend to find ourselves wasting precious minutes digging through copies to find the exact resource that we know will help our students grow.

If you are tired of hustling, bustling, searching, and flipping through previous lesson plans like I was, it is time to consider your options. Should you attempt, yet again, reorganizing the filing cabinet and binders only to find items from two teachers before you? (I swear that most classrooms are like carefully preserved time capsules and museums, because most of us are unwilling to part with any potentially good resources!) Or is it time for something new? After reorganizing and redecorating my binders too many times and helping teammates search through filing cabinets, I finally decided it was time for something new.

Enter Digital Pacing Guides

After working in several districts, I realized that the time I (and others) spent looking for resources which we already had was an abysmal waste of precious minutes. In addition, currently working on a nine person grade-level team, I also recognized quickly that sharing resources could become a dangerous game of who had it last. I needed something that I could easily share (without having to worry about losing an original), easily access and update from anywhere, and keep organized! At this point in my career, I had been utilizing the Google Suite for a minimal amount of quick tasks, but with the accessibility that the programs offered it seemed like a good place to start.

Over a weekend I took my manual home for my math curriculum and began to create an outline for my first unit on Google Slides by inserting a table with five columns across the top reading: Day, Lesson Description, Standard(s), Material(s), and Note(s). I worked through outlining the unit by inputting the number of the lesson and the lesson description, and later added in the standard(s), page number, and began hyperlinking the materials that I had digital copies of. That summer, my math team jumped on board and we spent two half days scanning in our materials and creating hyperlinks to each assignment, in addition to, a Unit Batch Print Option. Viola! Our Digital Pacing Guides were born.

Why Digital Pacing Guides

After creating and using Digital Pacing Guides for almost two years now, I can tell you that the time investment to create each Digital Pacing Guide is well worth it! If we are being honest, the benefits are far greater than I could have imagined. If I haven’t convinced you to give Digital Pacing Guides a try yet, check out some of the incredible impacts that I have found using them in my classroom!

Benefits for Students and Parents

Absent Work - Whether a student is gone for a day or a week, it is a hassle for everyone involved to get absent work back home. And, with an ill student, the last thing a parent wants to do is come to school. With Digital Pacing Guides, teachers have the option to save time for parents with internet access by pulling up a PDF and/or digital version of the work quickly, and sending it home via email or a learning site such as Google Classroom.
Vacation Time - Have you ever had a parent call and ask for a week or even two week’s worth of homework the day that the student is going to be leaving? Me too. Digital Pacing Guides are a lifesaver in these types of situations! By pulling up the correct pacing guide, a teacher is able to quickly locate, open, and print all of the necessary materials for when the student will be away.
Homework Needs - Everyone is forgetful sometimes, and this includes students! When a student forgets his/her homework it is easy for the teacher to pull up and email a digital copy home using Digital Pacing Guides.
Unit Overviews - A scaled down version of Digital Pacing Guides can also be sent home as a unit overview or learning road map for parents and students. Giving parents and students a look at the expectations for a unit can be a great way to facilitate learning!

Benefits for Teachers

Seamless Lesson Planning - By entering, in advance, all of your lesson plans into a Digital Pacing Guide you will have a more seamless lesson planning experience. Now, when I lesson plan, I merely write in the lesson name (for example: Unit 1, Day 2) under the correct subject, include the topic, and the standard(s) I will be covering. I also include a hyperlink to my pacing guide in case I need to reference the material(s) I will need.
Copying Made Easy - At the top of each pacing guide, my team and I created a Unit Batch Print option by scanning in all of our assignments for a unit together and creating a hyperlink. This is a huge time saver, because rather than having to run each page through the copier, we can now just batch print an entire unit with only a few clicks!
No More Aching Shoulders - I see you rubbing your sore shoulders teacher! Whether you carry a backpack, a crate, or if you are smart enough to invest in a rolling cart, the materials that you carry to and from school are heavy! With Digital Pacing Guides you will just need a computer to quickly access all of your information from home.
Access from Anywhere - At the Dollar Store and can’t remember all the materials you needed for this week’s science project? Or trying to answer a parent email while at a baseball game for your child? Not a problem. Access your Digital Pacing Guides quickly and easily from your phone using the Google Drive application.
Lesson Reflection You Will Actually Remember - Have you ever finished a lesson and thought, “I need to remember that for next year!” only to forget by the time next year comes around? I know I definitely have! By using the Note(s) section on your Digital Pacing Guide you can quickly type your reflections in a place where you will actually remember them!

Benefits for Teaching Teams

Collaboration is a Breeze - Have to meet via Zoom? No problem. With Digital Pacing Guides, your team will be able to quickly access and edit any document that you are discussing live! Even in person, the work is much lighter sharing resources and collaborating together with Digital Pacing Guides.
On the Same Page - Grade level team above you and administration will thank you for this! By using Digital Pacing Guides both large and small teams are able to stay on the same page in terms of lesson materials and content. Digital Pacing Guides will also allow you to get new teammates up to speed quickly on curriculum and lesson expectations.
Updating and Sharing - Digital Pacing Guides make it incredibly simple to update with newly found resources and to share them. Rather than sending emails out to your entire grade-level team, you can now mention that you added a new resource to the pacing guide at lunch. Best part? Everyone already has access.

Digital Pacing Guides in 3 Steps or Less

Are you as excited about Digital Pacing Guides as I am? Fantastic! Here are three steps to help you (and hopefully your team) get started.

Step 1: Download my Digital Pacing Guides template at Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking here! There are ten different color options for you to choose from in the template so feel free to color coordinate by subject, unit, or whatever makes your heart happy!

Step 2: Using your lesson plan book, manual, and/or previous pacing guides, fill out each section of your Digital Pacing Guide. Make sure to type in the name of each material that you will be scanning in as well, and feel free to leave the notes section blank for future reflections!

Step 3: Scan your materials in and save them to Google Drive (if you already have digital copies you can skip ahead to adding the hyperlinks). Gather up your hard copies and bring them to your school’s copier. Most copiers will have an option to Scan To email. Decide if you are going to scan as a batch (you can then later separate out individual worksheets with Adobe editor or an Apple Computer) or as individual sheets. Once your materials have been scanned pull up your email on a computer. In each email you should see an attachment, and if you hover over the attachment you will see an add to Google Drive button. I would recommend selecting the button, then choosing the organize button to select a folder for the document. Once the document is in Google Drive, locate it, pull up the document options and select “Get Sharable Link”. This will copy the hyperlink to the file for you. Then open up your Digital Pacing Guide, type in the name of the document, highlight it and select the hyperlink button. Once you have opened the link option, paste the link for the document and choose apply.

Digital Pacing Guides or Bust

So what are you waiting for? Invest the time to get organized and start creating your Digital Pacing Guides right now. I promise it will be well worth the investment, and you will be amazed at all the benefits. I know I have been. After all, Digital Pacing Guides are a great way to slow your roll and save you time, and For the Love of Learning, what teacher couldn’t use that?

For the Love of Learning.