Do NOT sit at your desk, empty lesson plan book in front of you, trying to conjure new ideas.

Think about your favorite moments from school as a child.

Think about your favorite moments OUTSIDE of school as a child.

Look through your yearbooks — as a student and as a teacher.

Take a walk — or go for a run. (Exercise is known to improve brain function.)

Ask a student about a fun app on her phone and what she likes about it.

Ask a student about the book he read recently that he loves — and ask for all the spoilers.

Ask students about their favorite YouTube channels and what they do in the videos.

Ask students about their favorite board games and what rules/twists make them interesting.

Ask students what they do at home that’s super, super fun.

Ask students what changes they’d like to see at school — and in the world.

Ask students what they want to do when they grow up.

Look for the story in what you’re teaching — the conflict, the characters, the metaphor, the happy ending, etc.

Look for the recipe in what you’re teaching — the ingredients, the steps, the tools, etc.

Flip through your movie collection (if you still have DVDs or — gasp! — VCR tapes).

Open up Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, etc., and look at movie descriptions.

Open up the App Store / Play Store on your phone. Read the descriptions of the top rated games.

Grab some sticky notes. Write the different parts of your concept/material on them. See if a new relationship/arrangement emerges.

Plot locations from your lesson on Google MyMaps. See if their proximity to each other (or something else) sparks a new idea.

Ask your students to do any of the previous two (sticky notes / MyMaps) and check out their observations.

Spend 10 minutes of your prep period in another class like yours.

Spend 10 minutes of your prep period in a class WAY different from yours.

Spend 10 minutes of your prep period asking another teacher on prep what he/she is doing in class.

Spend 10 minutes of your prep period asking another teacher for ideas on what you’re doing in class.

Ask for help on Twitter. Post your lesson idea and ask for suggestions. (Use some of the hashtags above for more visibility.)

Ask for help on Facebook — to your non-teaching friends. Post your lesson idea and ask for suggestions.

Listen to what your students are talking about during passing period/at recess.

Ask students later for more details about what you overheard.

Listen to education & non-education podcasts.

See what’s trending on Twitter.

Flip through old files in your file cabinet

Make a list of students you remember from previous years. Your memories of them may spark ideas.

Make a list of teachers you remember from your school. Your memories may spark ideas.

Make a list of things you admire about your current students — and what gets them excited.

Make a list of improvements your community needs. Find ways the standards and your students’ work could help them.

Make a list of injustices in the world. Find ways the standards and your students’ work could help them.

Make a list of every TV gameshow you can think of (past and present) for game dynamics and fun twists for lessons.

Check out this list of attributes employers want to see on resumes. Use them to inspire lesson ideas.

Check out the lesson plan template.

Read through your academic standards.

Read through the academic standards for another content area — or another grade level.

Keep a notebook, a Google doc, a Google Keep note, etc., of teaching ideas whenever they come to you.

Dream about the perfect lesson, class, unit, classroom. Then turn those dreams into lesson ideas.

Remind yourself why you got into teaching — and why you’re STILL teaching.

Ask yourself what the world desperately needs — and include it in your next lesson.