I am referring to the 3 plan books above,... well maybe I am or maybe I'm not, but in either case we are so excited to start out the school year with these in hand! Yes, this post is about the elusive teacher plan book- something we cannot live without. As every good teacher knows, losing your plan book is (almost) just as bad as losing your smart phone. Yup, that's how much of our sweat and tears go into these babies month after month (maybe that's why the three of us at Kinder League have held onto our plan books from our first years of teaching many years back). This year we are trying something new. I think I'll call it the Hybrid Teacher Plan Book.
It all started with a post from Rachel Lynette. She asked if teachers preferred old fashioned write-in planners or digital planners. And I was shocked to see that teachers overwhelmingly prefer the digital versions. So of course I felt like the dinosaur that I am since for the past 15 years I have been participating in the yearly ritual of shopping at my local teacher store and picking up the same type of over sized planner and using my best printing to make it mine. And every year I was left 75% satisfied with my selection. You see, none of the plan books ever met my needs 100% and I just accepted it.
My plan book had to hold my class roster, long term calendar, student placement list & student groups (which constantly change), daily teaching plans, grade book, math placing plan, ELA pacing plan, school calendar, aide schedule, to-do lists, blogging/FB posting calendar, sprinkled with tid-bits from my personal life (I do have one you know).
My plan book had to hold my class roster, long term calendar, student placement list & student groups (which constantly change), daily teaching plans, grade book, math placing plan, ELA pacing plan, school calendar, aide schedule, to-do lists, blogging/FB posting calendar, sprinkled with tid-bits from my personal life (I do have one you know).
Needless to say, the perfect planner did not exist...
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until maybe now. Let me backtrack a bit here. You see, our school district is in the process of rolling out a massive database that is supposed to include a grade book, all sorts of rosters, and yes- even a planning component (in the future). So the question became: how invested do we want to get into either paper OR digital plan books? I know, I know, the things that teachers contemplate,...but it was a valid dilemma. So the planning queen, Cessy Truex, whipped this up from one day to the next. We now have the choice of either PENCILING in or TYPING in our daily lessons and plans. I for one will be doing both because I don't trust anything technological (until I have no choice).
Yes, like many of you, we were the teachers showing up to meetings with 3-4 different plan books and an assortment of calendars. But no more! As you can see here, it's all included in one book and for this we are truly grateful! We'll see how this Hybrid Teacher Plan Book works out for us. I'll blog about it, I'm sure.
But in the meantime, remember that the true professional always shows up prepared. No,... planning in the shower or on the drive to school does not cut it. It's just not good for your sanity. Plus, don't you want to document your awesomeness? I sure do! So always have a plan and then a backup plan,...cuz you never know when that darn fire bell is going to go off!
From, The Kinder League
*Our pacing plans for Envision Math and Treasures Language Arts are available as a freebie on TPT.
From, The Kinder League
*Our pacing plans for Envision Math and Treasures Language Arts are available as a freebie on TPT.
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