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A Teeny Tiny Teacher

I’m a Planner

I’m a planner.

I am not spontaneous.

At all.

Ever.

I would like to be.  But I just can’t do it.

If, for example, I’m planning on spending Friday night on the couch with a glass of wine and the hubby, and we unexpectedly end up with an invitation to the Dodgers game or dinner out or  . . . or . . . or . . . surely something will come to me that’s just as exciting as a baseball game . . . anyways, generally speaking, I am almost never inclined to want to do it.

Because I was all set to sit on the couch in my pjs and glasses.

I mean, right?  

Right?  Who’s with me?

I also have to plan everything in the classroom.  Even though my kids seem to think they need to remind me about the plans I have already planned.

As in:

Are we going to have sharing?
Are we going to have centers?
Are we going to read Junie B. Jones?

Or:

You forgot to pull a stick for the such and such!
You forgot to switch the Teacher’s Pet!
You forgot to switch the Center Cards!

Forgot?

I forgot?

I think not.

If it’s in the plans, we’ll do it.  It’s not my problem you can’t tell time.

A million years ago, I started writing lesson plans on my computer because my friend Susan created them.  We really thought we were fancy.  No one else was really doing it.  We were so tech savvy.

It worked.  Very well, I might add.

But . . .  the plans were in Word.  The text boxes could be a little . . . well, sometimes they didn’t line up the right way.  No matter how many times I played with it, there were a few that would just not butt up against each other.  It frustrated me to no end.  I didn’t plan for the text boxes to act like that so it just didn’t work for me.

Do you see what I’m leading up to here?

Can you feel it?

Well, hot dog, guess what?

I have found THE BEST PLANNER IN ALL THE LAND!

Alright.  This is good stuff, people.
Traci from Dragonflies in First is a genius!  Seriously, I’m not kidding.  You can buy the planner for $15 or you can pay an extra $10 and SHE WILL DO ALL THE HARD STUFF FOR YOU!  
Yep.
You get to pick colors and fonts and everything!  EVERYTHING! You tell her your schedule.  Every itty bitty thing.  And Traci will get it on there in the right place and, if you’re like me, it will look super cute, too!
Even though they’re digital, I actually have to print mine out because we’re required to have our lesson plans out on our desk or table or stapled to our forehead.  It’s our choice so that’s really nice.  Here’s a pic:  
I put mine in a binder and have the binder open on my desk.  Traci’s planner can be customized a million different ways.  Okay, maybe not a million, but I think it said 88 in her store.  That’s a lot when you consider my old plans had one look and one look only:  Text Boxes Gone Awry.
If you like your days to go down and not across, no problem.  If you only teach one subject, there’s a plan for that.  And, if you DO teach only one subject, what’s that like?
And another amazing feature?
The Common Core standards are linked up.  Right there.  At the bottom.  You can just grab them, copy them, paste them, chew on them, whatever floats your boat. 
I’m sure there are a million (or 88) other things I could tell you, but I’m still learning how to use it.  I’m at the stage where I click in the box and type.
So there you go.  My new favorite thing for the Planner in me.
Are you a planner?

Comments

  1. The Polished Teacher says

    I have to do my ever attempt at planning this year and I know that Tracy's planner is the way to go! There is no way I could ever make something so cute as that! I would have loads of text boxes gone awry!

    ThePolishedTeacher

  2. Lacie Harris says

    So totally love this and hate word and tables and text boxes and… I spend about 30 min today after school aligning columns and rows and rows and columns to be perfect because the first time I printed out my checklist for the gobs and heaps of back to school paperwork that's coming in I about had a tizzy! They were all off! Now it's beutiful. So with all that said, imagine, I hate lesson planning. Not because I don't like to an, but because I have never found a format that I like. Can't wait to try it!!

  3. goofytortuga says

    I am a planner at school. In the real world I am a fly by the seat of my pants kind of person. It drove my mother-in-law bonkers. She is what I would call a type A personality and I call myself a type Z. I would rather have fun or shop than clean house. She is rather clean house because that is what I planned than go to Target.

    I have not ventured into computer lesson planning. I have thought about it…

  6. Elyse says

    I teach one subject…Art! I love it, but lesson plan books usually only have 8 or 9 rows and I have 11 classes a day! I always have to draw extra lines and it takes forever. This sounds amazing!

    Elyse @ My Life with a Cherry on Top

  7. Kimberley says

    As you know, I rushed off to purchase it and have not regretted it at all. I love it. I had a few mishaps because first I set it up like yours(horizontally), then I remembered that when I had the Eric Condren one which is also horizontal, I could never figure out how to read it. Apparently my brain is entirely vertical. So I had to change to the vertical one. I opted to do it all myself cause I have tons of experience with Excel and it came out great. Thank you (and Traci) so much!!!

    Kimberley
    First in Maine

  9. Mrs. Brooks says

    Very cool. 🙂 Unfortunately, we are required to plan in the online planning system that my district subscribes to, which is neither pretty nor very teacher friendly. Boo! But this is awesomeness and I would have totally used it before the days of the district needing to be able to click a button and see what we are doing. 😉

    Lindsey at Forever First Grade

  10. Jenn says

    Thanks for the great info. I have had my eye on this planner for a while (probably having them customized), but I am not super tech savvy. Your plans are beautiful! I have just two questions before I take the plunge. Did Traci customize yours or were you able to wade your way through doing it yourself? Are the plans you show in the picture a one page layout or two? Thank you so much for your time. I love reading your blog–A LOT!:)

  11. A Modern Teacher says

    You know I am a planner-ha! I can never be one of those teachers who just knows where to take the lesson…I have to have it all planned out. 🙂 ~April

  12. Sharon says

    I bought Traci's planner to use this year and so far (week 3), I love it! Traci is only an e-mail away if you have problem and I have never had to wait for more than 24 hours for a response.

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