Sunday, August 11, 2019

#MTBoSBlaugust - Teaching Binder



This month, I am participating in a blogging challenge called #MTBoSBlaugust.  To read posts from other participants, click on the logo above.



It's time to go back to school, which meant it was time to get my act together and get my teaching binder finished up for the 2019-2020 school year!  For many years, I have designed and printed my own personal planner.  (You can see last year's here).  I know it would be much easier and probably cheaper to buy a pre-made planner, but I am picky. :)

This year's planner has 3 sections - a Monthly Calendar section, a Lesson Plans section, and a Gradebook section.  As always, I bound it with the wonderful Arc System :)

The Monthly calendar got a bit of a facelift with the left side staying the same, but changing the right side to include a few things like "Start / Stop / Continue", a small look at the next month, and some notes and to-dos:

In the Lesson Plans section, there are two layouts - a long range quarterly look to help with flow and planning and a weekly layout with a more detailed view:

The long-range outlook has a 2-page spread for each semester.  I've included holidays and important dates to help with planning as well.

The weekly spread got a huge update this year.  I decided to put the lesson plans on a single page so I didn't have to have my binder open to the whole 2-page spread.  I also decided to only use this for school, so I took out the weekend areas.  On the left, I put in more of a weekly reflection place so that I could keep more of a teaching journal with some reflection questions inspired from Fairy Dust Teaching.  I also trimmed down my habit tracker and added in some other checklists (To Do, To Buy, Strategies Used).



Finally, it was ready to print!  I took it to Staples as they have a bit heavier pound paper than I have at home and had them print it grayscale.  While at Staples, I browsed through their Studio C 2 pocket folders as they are my favorite DIY Arc Binder covers!  Cut them in half, punch some holes and you have a sturdy cover with pockets!  The photo at the right shows the pattern I picked out for this year:  Doesn't that just bring you happiness and joy?? :)

As always, I've uploaded a generic version in PPT for you if you want a copy of the planner for yourself! :)

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