The end of the year has come at last. My planner is full of great, engaging lessons and meetings that could have been emails… (can I get an amen!) Call me crazy, but when my summer starts, I immediately get excited to get my new teacher planner together! I put in the date on the calendars, I fill in the holidays that I get off (most important… duh!), and begin planning my first week back. I don’t know about you, but I love the way a paper planner feels and how easy it is to look at and access, and how beautiful and custom I can make it with stickers (and flair pens!). I have created an easy to use  planner for those teachers that love to create their own paper planners like me! Looking for a new planner? Well this is the one for you! Want to see the planner for yourself?! Look here!

What Comes in the Planner?

In this planner, there are many teacher tools that help keep us organized and give us more time at home and less on lesson planning. There are may title pages that give us easy access to the sections we need. These title pages include Class Information, School Information, Professional Development, Grade Book, Class Data, and Lesson Plans. There is also an editable title page that you can create for your specific needs! This will fit everyone’s needs for an amazing, customizable planner.

Parent communication is key to a healthy, well-rounded classroom and can be a crazy unorganized mess! There are pages for Conference Logs, Volunteer Logs, and Communication Logs. Everything parent related can be found in one place! No more searching everywhere for that volunteer log to get some help with your holiday party and 25 sugary students.

To fill your planner, there are many other pages that help keep all our information in one place. You will also find a Log in page for all of your username and password needs. And let’s face it, we have 6 billion usernames and passwords so there are plenty of places to put your information. To help stay organized with your students information there are student information pages that include Mom and Dad’s information, transportation information, allergy or medical information, and IEP or 504 information. Everything in one organized place! There is also a place to put your student’s birthdays because we can’t forget those.

Drum roll pleaseeeeeee….we have the calendars and lesson planning pages. This is my most favorite part (hehe!). For these pages, I have dated the calendars for you left the weekly planning pages blank. I realize that everyone follows the same yearly calendar, but not everyone has the same weeks or days off. I wanted it to be easy for you to print however many weeks you wanted or to be able to fill as you go. This is a vertical layout meaning that the days of the week are at the top and the subjects (also editable) are across the side.

Not only are there dated calendars, but there is a Year at a Glance Page and a Week at a Glance page. The Year at a Glance page is where your long-range plans would go OR your focus skills for each month. This page is with me EVERYTIME I plan. It is essential for me to be on track with my team and this page is a life sae when it comes to that. The Week at a Glance is a bit different. This is special for me a s a teacher planning my upcoming week. There is a To Do section, a To Plan section and a To Copy section. I love having this page with me when I plan do be sure I have everything I need for the upcoming week such a materials, copies, and anchor chart ideas.

What Binding Do Is The Best?

Who else gets a random.. I mean super important piece of paper that YOU NEED TO KEEP from a meeting and then end up losing it… This seemed to be my life until I found The Happy Planner Binding System! I am sure you have heard of this system, but I am here to tell you it has saved my life! (Dramatic?… NAH!) It is so easy to punch the paper and put it in my planner. I can’t be alone that when I get close to the binding my handwriting gets cramped and sloppy? Well, with this binding system you can take the page out to write those beautiful plans then put it right back in with no trouble! It is the absolute best! Not only is this system easy, it has so many accessories that come with it. At Michael’s I walk around and window shop (mostly actually shop) the Happy Planner accessories. My most recent purchases are the Checklist Pages and the Teacher Stickers. Can you say “easy peasey lemon squeasy”?! Happy Planner Hole Punch is linked here. The Happy Planner Binding rings I used are linked here. The Big Happy Planner Covers I use are linked here.

How Do I Set Up My Planner?

I love setting up my planner. There is something so calming and exciting about setting up my new planner. I ask myself what worked last year and what I need this year. I found that setting up my planner was a bit more difficult this time around because I am starting a new school, however this is a challenge I will happily accept. I like to keep all of my personal information in the front like my Logins, my PD Log, and my School Information. Having it in the front is a great reminder of the things I need to do to get my professional self together. After my information, I keep my student’s information. This is for easy access. If I need to call a parent or write a note home, I know who I am talking to and I can easily log it. Behind the student information, I keep my beloved (sometime be-hated) calendars and lesson plans. I have purchased these Erin Condren monthly tabs from Amazon. They have been essential to my Teacher Planner for a few years now and hold up great. They are linked here. I like to keep my grade book in the back so that it is easy to flip to and I have a more sturdy place to write. At the very back I keep my meeting notes. This makes it easy to add my random.. I mean SUPER IMPORTANT notes from all the meeting that should have been emails!

This planner is essential to keeping me organized and stress-free! I hope this helped you in your journey to happy planning and to continue to grow! Happy Planning! Do you want this planner and become ridiculously ourganized?! Get it here!

-Madi