I am the first to admit that sitting down to plan lessons is not my favorite part of teaching. I love spinning my wheels waxing creative about how I can make literature come alive for my students, yey all that energy takes place in my head rather than on paper.
Almost every year I vow that this year will be different, that I will dedicate one period within my schedule to sit as my desk, sip my coffee, and create the most Pintrest-worthy, Instagrammable planbook you’ve ever seen.
Do you know how many times I’ve done that successfully past the first two months of the year? Approximately zero.
Someone stops by to chop it up with me. The copy machine gets jammed earlier in the day, so I have to circle back. College-essay season hits hard and no prep period is sacred. All these things have taken the train off the track in the past and there went the best laid plans.
A Simpler Planning Process
As we stare down late fall and head into early winter, the train remains chugging along, the little engine that could.
This year I decided to design my own planning pages, taking matters into my own hands and simplifying the process.
I call it my one-page planer.
I know, really original, right?
For me, its success is its simplicity, so much so that it has been duplicated it over and over.
My page is simple. I broke it down to focus on the things that matter most to me for each unit, which is how I’ve been able to customize it to my needs. Each page has five-to-six tasks, making it easy to see the big picture and it has made my daily planning more efficient.
It doesn’t get much easier than that!
Here’s an exmaple:
My novel-planning page is slightly different, as is my short story page.
I know that there are a million fancy planners on the market and you could go bonkers with colored flags, stickers, and pens. It took me only about 10 minutes to make each page on Canva. The point is, customization is the key. What works for me may not work for you. You may want to try my planning pages and see if they work for you. If so, download them and let me know how they work for you. You may want to head to Canva and start tinkering on your own creation.
This has worked so well for me that four things are fixtures, taped on my desk:
and
The planning pages for my current units (I have three preps)
