One of my favourite things is the feeling of a new teacher planner at the start of the year. It’s such a signal of a fresh start, maybe even more than turning the year over on January 1 each year. This is likely because as teachers we tend to use planners that run from the start to the end of the school year rather than one in January.
I have played around with digital teacher planners and printable ones too. I quickly realized the main reason I strayed from printable was that I could never find one I really loved. The layout was wrong, or there were a bunch of pages included that I didn’t need, or there were ones I really needed that just didn’t exist in the premade versions.
So, I made my own teacher planner! After using it last year, it has quickly become one of my favourite tools to keep me on top of my game in the classroom.
Benefits of the Lessons for Learning Printable Teacher Planner
Cost-Effective
This Lessons for Learning Printable Teacher Planner features sleek and simple black and white designs so you save money on color ink. You can print only what you need and therefore avoid wasting paper. Ultimately, this ends up being significantly cheaper than purchasing a premade planner!
Customization
I mentioned about how I could never find a teacher planner that fit exactly what I want. Well this one solves that issue! You can customize the Lessons for Learning Teacher Planner to suit your needs.
You type your weekly schedule into your timetable so you don’t need to rewrite it every week like you would in a blank planner. I include a tutorial that shows you how to do this ONCE and have it automatically populate into all the other weeks, so it takes just a few minutes. Another way this teacher planner will save you time!
There are also flexible options for binding including using a standard binder, Happy Planner discs, or you can even get it bound at a print shop to suit your preference.
My favourite feature (compared to purchasing one from a store) is that you can rearrange and add pages. Easily move pages around or add new ones as your needs change throughout the year once everything is printed. This is the benefit of using a binder or happy-planner disc system versus made-to-order and pre-bound versions. I love being able to throw checklists into my current spot in the planner to track things like field trip form submissions or missing assignments.
Professional Appearance
If this is your year to have a teacher performance appraisal (TPA), this one is ready for you! There are organized layouts that look professional for many different aspects of a teacher appraisal or when your principal asks to see your notes.
This is a teacher planner you’ll be proud to flaunt on your desk or bring to parent-teacher interviews too!
Planner Features
Many features make this teacher planner an ideal choice, including monthly and weekly overviews
The Month at a Glance sections are perfect for brain-dumping at the beginning of each month to plan ahead. And the Week at a Glance sections organize both school and personal tasks in one place. There are fully dated calendars and weekly spreads where you don’t have to fill in dates; you can just print and start planning. The weekly layout options give you a choice of 5, 6, 7, or 8 subject layouts to fit your specific needs.
There are also pages for your year at a glance, a spot to include class birthdays, seating charts, student logins, student details such as IEP and/or ELL information, transportation info, as well as numerous checklists, grades, and communication log and behaviour tracking. Plus there’s space for staff meeting notes, student meeting notes, and top it all off, 17 fun cover options!
The best part is that all the tables and charts included are editable. If a layout or heading doesn’t work for you, you can adjust it as needed! You can also pre-fill your student names into the class lists and copy them so you don’t need to write them by hand each time.
Practical Tips for Using Your Printable Planner
Maximizing Organization
While this teacher planner has all you need there are some additional practical tips to use it to its maximum. Here are some of my best teacher tips from experience using this teacher planner.
Establish a colour code. Use coloured pens or stickers to differentiate subjects, personal tasks, and important dates. This makes it easy to gain the info you need at a glance.
Create task lists and checkboxes. Keep track of assignments, deadlines, and to-do lists with easy-to-use checkboxes. Add a heading to your task list and then follow through with a quick tick to indicate something is complete.
Use the dividers. There are tabs provided to create different sections for easy access to the materials you need. I like to put the less frequently used parts towards the back, knowing I can move them elsewhere if I’m using a binder or Happy Planner clips.
Enhancing Functionality
Take this teacher planner to the next level with different add-ons and extras. You can include pages like student contact information, seating charts, or lesson planning templates. You might even include a list of go-to supply teachers to cover when you know you’re going to be away.
Personalize any of the charts or tables included in the file to suit your needs. You can even make use of the blank template included with title fonts embedded if you’d like to create your own layout or page but keep the fonts the same.
The Lessons for Learning Printable Teacher Planner was a game-changer for me last year and I’ve already printed mine for the upcoming year. Grab yours now so you too can get started with organizing school life and get ready for back to school!
For more teacher organization and time management tips check out these recent posts:
