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Do teachers need planners?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Yes, teachers need planners to organize time for lesson plans and daily tasks, as well as store class information. Using a planner to organize these things boosts productivity and makes it easier to balance long-term and short-term goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, we’ve discussed how planners help with goals before<\/a>, and that applies to teachers as well. However, it’s also important to keep in mind that “teaching is a work of heart.” So ideally, your teacher planner should work both as a time-management tool and as a motivational tool. Whether or not you are engaged and inspired is something your students will pick up on, so it’s worth attending to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to choose the best teacher planner for you, first you have to know what’s out there. We’ll start with simple teacher planners based on the academic year (or academic planners)<\/strong>. These types of planners are generally preprinted with dates from July through June in order to better align with the average school year. The best academic planners for teachers also have plenty of blank pages that offer a DIY approach to customization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there are custom-printed teacher planners<\/strong>. For example, these popular ones from Plum Paper,<\/a> where you can have customized class and subject information printed right in the planner. Spiral-bound notebooks are the most popular format for both preprinted and custom planners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, some teachers prefer a 3-ring binder for ultimate flexibility and\/or maximum capacity. These DIY teacher planners<\/strong> are generally filled with free printable pages designed by and for teachers<\/a>, original pages created from scratch, or some combination of both. Moreover, some teachers may prefer using an academic planner for day-to-day time management in combination with a teacher binder to manage advanced tasks, detailed guidelines, and specific information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, different teachers will have different needs, but overall, a simple academic planner with lots of extra pages is the best choice for teachers. While a custom-printed teacher planner is nice, the price point definitely makes it a luxury for many teachers. On the other hand, a fully DIY teacher planner is the cheapest option, but it takes more time to create from scratch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In contrast, an academic planner with extra blank pages is affordable, easy to customize, and ready to use quicker than a fully DIY option. We love this one (Avery 29874)<\/a> because it comes with free planner stickers, storage pockets, monthly calendars, horizontal weekly pages, and extra pages for notes. The extra pages even come in a variety of lined, dotted, and grid sheets!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Essentially, every teacher planner should include 12 monthly spreads, weekly spreads for each month, and blank pages that can be customized as needed. Blank pages are especially important because there are a range of pages many teachers need, but the priority of these pages is unique to each teacher. Furthermore, there are some advanced teacher planner elements that can be useful for some teachers and unnecessary for others. For this reason, we’ve broken down what a teacher planner should have into three distinct categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to time management, a teacher planner absolutely must have 12 monthly spreads and weekly spreads for each month. This is necessary so that teachers can manage long-term goals, plans, and units that span two or more weeks (if not several months). Monthly spreads are balanced against weekly spreads that track day-to-day plans, lessons, activities, and other tasks. Equally important are blank pages that teachers can use to add class lists, seating charts, parent information, meeting notes, and other important information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Blank pages are essential to teacher planners because there are quite a few different resources teachers may need to reference daily or weekly. This type of information can be added to blank pages in a planner or added to custom-printed or DIY planners based on the individual teacher’s needs. Some planner sections you may like to add to your planner include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, there are a few extra sections that are not needed daily but are very important for reference. For example, macro-level guidelines such as Common Core standards for your state or county, curriculum calendars, and pacing guides are useful resources. In contrast, micro-level guidelines specific to your class are also useful in your teacher planner. Examples include subject sections, small group lesson plans, and individualized education programs (IEPs). Not to mention student data and meeting notes to track student progress throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you require these types of hyper-specific sections, creating your own DIY teacher planner with a binder is a good solution. That way, you can reuse pages that may not change from year to year and have room for as many pages as you need. Another popular solution is to use a teacher planner for day-to-day time management in harmony with a teacher binder. In this scenario, the binder can include more detailed reference materials and long-term road mapping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to deciding what you should keep in your teacher binder, you basically have two options. Option one is to keep everything (and the kitchen sink, so to speak) in one binder. While this does reduce the number of binders you need, it can quickly become unwieldy. Another option is to use a teacher planner (or second binder) for time management and keep more detailed materials in your teacher binders. This would include things like lesson plans, student information, and the like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Below is a table with our recommendations for dividing teacher resources between a planner and what you should keep in a teacher binder. If you haven’t decided on what type of binder to use, check out our helpful binder resource page where you can quickly browse different styles and compare features<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Different types planners for teachers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1) Academic planners<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2) Custom-printed teacher planners<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3) DIY teacher planners<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Overall best planner for teachers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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What should a teacher planner have?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1) Teacher planner must-haves<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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2) Teacher-added planner sections<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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3) Advanced planner sections <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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What should I keep in my teacher binders?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What to keep in a teacher binder vs. a teacher planner<\/h3>\n\n\n\n