Teacher Planners: Why I Don't Buy a Fancy One.

Do you search for a teacher planner every year?

I don’t. Well let me start by saying I use to but then I stopped.

Year after year, I would hunt for the perfect planner to use as my day book and year after year I would spend way too much time filling it out.

I found that I was writing the same things over and over again each day/week because they were things that were part of our routine. This was wasting too much of my time after school so I needed to find a better way to plan my days.

In our school district, we are responsible for writing a day plan for when we have a substitute teacher. This is why I constantly had to write out routines and procedures.

If your luck is like mine you always get sick at night/early morning when you are not at school. This means that I had to always be prepared for a substitute in my classroom. There was no way I want to write up a detailed day plan when I am sick.

I no longer have to do this and I no longer have to write a ton in my daybook when I am planning.

How You Ask?

My daybook is put in a binder with photocopies of my day plan template!!

I still want the binder to look nice so I print off a fancy cover and just slide it into the front of the binder and voila….fancy!

What My Plan Looks Like

At the beginning of the year, once we get our schedules set, I type a detailed plan (in Word) for each day of the week. I add any routines and procedures that another teacher would need to know about our day and what we do.

I leave spaces for me to write what I am doing for each subject for that day but ALL the procedures/routines are typed.

Click on the photos to see a larger view of them.

I no longer need to do this throughout the year and if someone comes in to teach for me most things are ready.

Weekly Schedule

At the very front of the binder I also keep a weekly schedule so that someone can see very quickly what is coming up for the week and how the subjects are scheduled.

I do not know if any substitute teachers actually use it but it is there if they want it.

The Tabs

I keep most things I need right in my binder in different sections.

Day Plans: Just what it says. This is where all my day plan pages go.

TTOC Info: We call our substitute teachers Teachers Teaching On Call (TTOC for short) so any information they may need goes here. I have seating plans, class lists, any behaviour plans I may have for students, helpful information about the class, etc.

Schedules: You guessed it. All my schedules (gym, music, library, supervision, learning assistance…) go here for my reference or a TTOC’s needs. I also keep an extra copy of my daybook plans here just in case I am away and more are needed. My year overviews are also kept in this section so I know where to find it when I need it.

Staff Meetings: This is where I keep all staff meeting minutes and any papers we get. I use to keep them in my filing cabinet but I find them way quicker to access here if I need dates or information that came up at a meeting.

Stuff: Any other random stuff I may want handy goes here. I am always surprised at the end of the year what ends up in this section. 😂

Other Benefits

I am super picky about the binders that I use because I want them to be sturdy but I also want them to have the pouches on the inside of the binder.

This is where I store any answer keys I am currently using and my week schedule (as I explained above). I use to have my answer keys just randomly laying around and I would lose them. Since I switched to the binder daybook, they all go at the back in the pouches. No more remaking answer keys for this girl👍

I also have not-so-fancy to do lists that go in my daybook. When I am planning for the week I put sticky notes at the end of each day and make a list of what is needed for the next day. As soon as it is prepped or done, I can check it off.

Since I don’t buy a pricey daybook I now have more money for coffee or shoes!

Another fancy thing I don’t buy and is FREE for you!

I wrote a blog post all about my daily board schedule for the students to use and how I make my own schedule cards. You can read about that here and get the free editable download.