School year prep pt.1
Working in the summer is a necessity for me. However, I don’t judge teachers who don’t work on things during the summer. I have taught with amazing coworkers who refused to do schoolwork during breaks. I’m an Enneagram one, an achiever in Cliftonstrengths, and a judging Myers Briggs personality type. It all boils down to the same thing; I’m a planner. I don’t function without planning in my personal or professional life. Every summer I plan classroom decorations, organization, and curriculum changes.
As soon as the school year ends, I’m planning classroom decorations and organizations. Is it more important than curriculum planning? No, but I need to do it first. I need to have a plan of action. Classroom organization is a weakness of mine. I struggle with paper organization and general decorating, but I refuse to give up. Color coordination is something that bring me joy. I haven’t changed my classroom colors (yellow and blue) in seven years, and I don’t plan on changing it. I enjoy buying decorations and organizers each year to make my classroom look better. I don’t use a credit card, and I don’t spend thousands each year so I refused to be teacher shamed for having a semi- cute classroom. My classroom isn’t Pinterest worthy, and I doubt it will ever be.
Each year I tackle a specific classroom area and get that organized. Then I try to tackle other organization issues throughout the year. Since I’m unsure if I will be in the classroom next year, I haven’t made any purchases. I make my list on Amazon and Pinterest so I’m ready to buy in August. This school year I’m focusing on rearranging my room so I’m able to sit in the back of the room with my document camera. My second project is to move shelf items to make more room for classroom library without having to purchase another shelf. My classroom changes will improve my classroom routines and management. I can’t imagine not planning for a better classroom environment.
After I plan my future purchases, I’m ready to tackle my planner for the school year. I use my Franklin Covey planner for everything, but I like having a cheap planner I can mess up with curriculum planning. I don’t like writing in pencil, and I don’t feel guilty when my curriculum planner looks a hot mess from a hectic school year. My major problem this school year was the A5 sized checklist I used for a grade book was just too small. This year I decided to turn my TUL notebook into my second planner. Once I found out it was compatible with the Happy Planner inserts, I knew I made the right choice.
I ordered the pencil pouch and weekly pages from Staples.
The Staples Arc 2020-2021 planner offered standard pages such as emergency contact and address pages.
The monthly layout provides the month before and month afterwards which is a bonus for curriculum planning. Paper is thin, but I have trouble with bleeding in most planners because I write heavy.
I could not find a monthly layout only that was under $10 and printed on ETSY. The weekly layout on Staples was the cheapest. A box for Saturday is nice because I like to add sporting events onto my academic calendar.
I divided the 40 sheets of Happy Planner Checklist into my dividers for my six classes. The TUL sticky notes had been used the previous year and were having a hard time staying in their original spots.
The one unnecessary purchases I made in this planner was this Happy Planner add on. I love the idea of not using paper in my disc planner. I really hate the way paper tears in disc planners from moving them often. I will probably use them as page finders.
In the end, how much did this cost me?
$4.00 on upgrading my discs to 1.5 inches using the Arc planner discs inside the Staples store.
$8.00 on Happy Planner inserts ( I had a coupon) at Michaels.
$17 on Staples.com for my pencil pouches (came with 2) and June 2020-July 2021 inserts.
$8 on Amazon for the Happy Planner checklists.
$5 at Office Depot on extra tab dividers, but it is cheaper at Staples. . ( I was looking for inserts and decided to go ahead and get more dividers, and I received a 20% coupon to help ease the $2 difference. )
Should I have bought a Happy Teacher Planner instead? The total cost for my planner was $42 ( I round everything- I’m not a math teacher). If I spent full price of a Big Happy Planner and added checklist inserts with a pencil pouch, it would have been around $45. I’m a functional planner and refuse to print out my own inserts. I don’t care about stickers or fancy dividers. I love the purple hard cover of my TUl notebook so I was able to save $14 from purchasing a hardcover from Happy Planner. I’m extremely happy with how my planner turned out. I believe I will continue using my discs for curriculum planning and checklists in the future which will make my price future cost lower. I’m happy with the way my planner turned out.
* I would love to know how other teachers begin their planning process. Please leave a comment below.
** There are no affiliate links in this post. I posted links only to things that are the cheapest version of a disc planner option even with a coupon. All opinions are my own, and I’m not affiliated with any companies mentioned in this blog.
