Are you having a hard time figuring out what should be included in a teacher planner? Then, you should be considering brilliant ideas on how to best utilize your teacher planner in order to boost your productivity on a daily basis.
Say no more, let me carry away your blues and help you become organized the best way you can be for your classroom!
Planning is the most crucial part of being a teacher, and most teachers rely on using a teacher planner to help them put their eggs in their perspective basket and all the things they need aligned.
Identifying the essential parts that you need to include in your teacher planner is a great step ahead to prepare the best teacher planner that you can use for the whole school year or so.
Knowing how to plan your crazy and busy days will help you maximize your free time while you get things done like a boss at the same time. Work-life balance doesn’t need to be something that you only wish and long for, it can be something that you can achieve.
Having that perfect balance between work and personal agendas is your way to be an effective and happy teacher.
So roll up your sleeves and get ready to plan the best days ahead!
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Looking for a planner? Here is our collection of the top planners you might need! These are adaptable nondigital planners that can help you stick to your plans with greater ease.
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What Should Be Included In A Teacher Planner? 8 Important Things To Include To Utilize It Effectively
1.) Line up significant events
The first and best step that you can do to get you up and planning your teacher planner is to start lining up all the important things that you need to include in your planner.
You can start by sorting out the most important dates you need for the whole year, and just add in from there if you do get to think about adding important events along the way. And if you’re not sure about permanently jotting it down, you can use the ever-handy sticky notes!
2.) Complete Class Information Section
Need a quick glance at a student’s medical information? Or are you feeling guilty about missing a student’s birthday? Say goodbye to those dilemmas because once you include complete class information in your teacher planner, you’ll be armed and ready with the details of your students.
You can also try to use fun stickers to set the date on your month-at-a-glance pages for a certain student’s birthday, this way you’ll never lose sight of it. You can also add in a few things that might be helpful along the way:
- Every parent’s contact information
- Class list and their birthdays
- Medical information
- Classroom seating chart
- Daily schedules and more…
You’ll be able to customize this section according to its relevance to your teaching needs or so.
3.) Grading Sheets
A must-have section in your teacher planner is the grading sheet. Some teachers might prefer to encode these electronically but some still prefer doing it the traditional way.
This way you will also have a hard copy of your student’s grade anytime anywhere if your computer or tablet is not available at the moment.
4.) A section for each of your subjects
These might be the sections where you’ll spend most of your time planning and organizing your lesson for the week or so. This can be a place where you can include all the resources or other plans that you’ll make for a certain subject.
5.) Meeting notes
And of course, a meeting notes section. A vital and highly relevant section where teachers need to jot down all the important notes they need to have a copy of. It’s great to have a copy of all the important discussions during a meeting with the faculty where important academic agendas are discussed.
A great way to highlight important notes is by using different bright and bold colored pens that will surely grab your attention when you’re passing through this section of your teacher planner.
6.) Monthly and Weekly spreads
What works for some might not work for others, it’s about finding the planning method that works just right for you. It’s not going to be perfect at first but you’ll find out how to tailor it just the way you like and how it best works for you.
Monthly spreads will help give you a quick glance at the important dates that you might need to prepare for in advance. This generally works as your monthly calendar for all events that you’ve jotted down in the Macro view.
This can include team planning meetings that you have set out for the whole month, this can also work as a guide for you to prepare for your weekly spreads.
Weekly spreads will work for you like the Micro view with more details along with it. It can contain plans for each of your subjects and you can write about various activities that you have planned for the day in it.
This is also a good way for you to see any window to take some time off for yourself to enjoy activities other than work.
7.) Small-Group Lesson Plans
If you are teaching primary grades, it’s essential to create this section for all the things you intend to teach for your small groups which are for reading and math.
This will be a great way so that you can stay on track with what you have prepared for each small group that you have. This will give you a general view and not get lost with all the lesson plans for your small groups.
8.) Consider digital planning too!
Everything has gone digital nowadays and having a digital planner to back you up does have its benefits for teachers. If you’re someone who might prefer typing in your plans instead of writing it down traditionally this just might work for you.
You’ll be able to access it anytime anywhere as long as you have your trusty tablet or laptop with you and just edit as you want and please.
Tips and tricks to create a teacher planner and lesson plan that will work for you
Putting together the perfect teacher planner for you will highly depend on your own preferences.
How you want things to appear before your eyes, how you will be able to check important dates and notes, and how you will organize them to find them instantly without you having to go all through the pages one by one.
Here are some tips to help you create the perfect teacher planner for you:
Set clear goals
Knowing what you want to accomplish with teaching will help you line up your lesson plans effectively. This will also keep you on track so that you will not stray too far from the intended topic that you want to discuss and for your students to learn.
You can do this by setting daily or weekly goals of what you want students to learn. This is also a practical way to help you with time management inside the classroom so that you won’t get piled up with things that you need to discuss for a certain period of time.
And this way, you can also set some free time for yourself which is very important to avoid a teacher’s burnout.
Make it as practical and relevant as possible
Make sure that you’ll be able to show an example of how your lesson would apply in real life. This will give your students a different perspective and will also help them understand the lesson more.
It’s also best if you can connect your previous lesson to the current ones you are teaching so that your students will be able to have a refresher of the previous lesson that you’ve already tackled. You can also give them a glimpse of future lessons by incorporating them into your current ones.
Create lesson reviews
By creating lesson reviews, you’ll be able to see if the students did grasp the important takeaways that you wanted them to learn from the lesson you’ve given them.
You can give them short or pop quizzes, a summary test, individual or group projects, or try to let them choose how they want to present what they learned.
Be open to changes
As much as we want everything to go as planned, there are times where a few obstacles will be faced in any classroom. There may be times where certain events might need to be moved too, this is why you should always have a contingency plan whenever things like this do happen.
You should practice leaving space for unaccounted issues that you might face in class during lessons. This can help you assess and reflect on your teaching.
You should also anticipate any kind of problems that might arise just in case so that you’ll be prepared on how to handle them and have a solution ready for it.
Your lesson plan should be ready for adjustments. An example would be a student that might need added guidance to properly understand the lesson that you are trying to teach. Not all students are the same, some might need a little more time to fully absorb the lesson and this might result in a few setbacks. Thus the reason why you should plan for unexpected challenges.
Conclusion
Creating a teacher planner is like being prepared and armed for battle. This will help you gauge and keep track of the important things you need to focus your attention on.
A good teacher planner is a tool that teachers can use to execute their roles effectively and wisely. It is also a helpful indicator to remind them that it is also time to take a break by doing some self-care routine to help destress and make time for their personal life.
What do you include in your teacher planner? Please share some of your own tips and tricks in creating a teacher planner that works best for you.
Sharing is caring, so sound off below!
