ganizing his or her school-related activities or the activities of students, other teachers, aides, parent volunteers, and so on. Planning may be formal, as when a teacher prepares a lesson plan or activity outline, or informal, including the frequent thinking about school activities that a teacher does during nonschool activities such as shopping, driving to and from work, or eating lunch. As long as what a teacher is doing aids in "preparing a framework for guiding future action" (Yinger 1977, p. 18), it counts as planning. By defining teacher planning in this manner, several important aspects of planning as an activity come to light. First, planning is a process strongly oriented to