Planning Tips & Tricks

This week, I will not be sharing my visual plans. Instead, I will be sharing how I organize my planning each week.

I remember back when I first started teaching. I would stay late until 6pm almost every day. Then I would trudge out of the school with a bag too heavy for me to carry. How was I so behind and what happened to all my time at school? When two small children came into the picture, the work at home ceased. However, I was still staying at school later than I wanted to.

Here are a few Tips and Tricks that I have found in the past year that has really helped me out in a big way. It's totally been a life saver for me!

First, this photo happened upon my news feed a year or so ago. It's from Miss DeCarbo who has such great organizational ideas. She wrote and entire post about how she organizes her planning life each week. This is where my inspiration came from!

As soon as the week starts on Monday, I start preparing for the next week. That's the ticket to not staying late day after day or taking things home. 

DO A LITTLE EACH DAY!

I use this time to get together things I use each week. I find the copies I will need for the following week and create my reading log and any other word lists (spelling or vocab). I place all the to to-be copied papers in my To Copy drawer.

• Morning Work
• Reading Logs
• Spelling List
• Vocabulary List

To help my sanity, I have a label I have created to place in my lesson planner each week. The to-do list is for the following week so I can get busy on Monday afternoons!

I use this day to get my resources together based on the skill we will be working on. I may not use ALL of the resources, but I get them together for my planning meeting. I have a planning folder I use put all the resources in.

I use Wednesdays for planning. This is the day I plan with my team. I take my resources out of my folder and write my pre-planning plans in my Day Designer planner {thanks, Ms. Leslie Ann for this idea!}. I then place the copies I'm going to use in my To-Copy drawer.

Thursday is the day where I get it all together. It is also the one day during the week that I plan to work an additional 2 hours past the time I am allowed to leave. I try to only stay late one day a week so I can go home on time every other day! I get all my copies ready for coping (we have someone who does this for us), create all my anchor charts, and plan my focus board wording. 

On Fridays I finalize my plans and write my final plans in my Anchor Teacher Planner that I absolutely LOVE! I also type my newsletter and work on my website for the following week. Once all the copies are done, I place them in my Days of the Week drawers that I pull from during the week.Now I can enjoy my weekend with no planning worries!

Don't forget your favorite pens and markers when planning!

This routine works so well for me and has totally changed the way I plan! Do you have anything that works well for you?

Plan with Me Sundays

Hey, y'all! I'm linking up with Meghan from Keeping Up with Mrs. Harris again for Plan with Me Sundays! Today we are going to talk a little about how I plan for my business week. If you don't consider creating resources for teachers as a business, then you are wrong! Who would have ever thought we would be teachers and own our own business brand?!? There is really nothing unique about the way I plan out my week. I am in the works of creating my very own business binder. But for now, I use my EC life planner to do this planning as well in addition to a spiral notebook where I keep my ideas :) I'm also going to talk a little about how I incorporate my phone into my planning! First, I wanted to share a few pics with you. These pictures are from this week... (shhh... I finally used my Canon so you aren't left with those yucky picture this time! If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the difference in my last Plan with Me Sundays post. Picture DO MATTER! Shame on me for those horrible pics!).

Front Cover

Back Cover

I like using the weekly spread better than the monthly. I do use the monthly and try to put link-ups in their appropriate places according to what time of the month they are. Then, I transfer them all over on my weekly view on Sunday afternoons after church. :)

I reserve the bottom portion of my weekly layout for business things. I try to do a to-do list for daily things here.

I just loved this because I love pens! :) They make my teacher heart happy. Here are some I recommend.

I usually have custom stickers that are over the night part that say business. However, I've got to find them. Another reason I need an office ;) Here you can see the weekly to-do list I have going on the left side of the page. These are things I just need to get done this week... no daily constraints here!

My Mondays and Wednesdays are always really full during the summer because these are the days my boys go to summer preschool so I can work on my business :)

I use a spiral notebook to plan out my new resources. I like to write and organize everything out then put it into digital form. Once the writing is done, it usually goes by pretty fast!

Notice my phone?? I use it to plan my resources, too. Sometimes some of the greatest ideas come to me when I don't have paper and pencil. I use the recorder on my phone to record ideas when I'm out and about or driving down the road. When I get ready to create the resource, I simply play back the recording. This is by far the most efficient thing I have found for ideas... I just LOVE it! I have no idea what I would do without my recorder on my phone. The great thing is that almost every phone has one!

I hope you have enjoyed a glimpse into my planning world! Don't go any where yet! There is an awesome link up and giveaway that you will want to know more about!

A group of bloggers is teaming up to give away two different prize packs. The first prize pack is for a 3am Teacher Planner and $50 gift card to Michaels! Awesome!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
The second prize pack is for a blog planner from Mandy from Mandy's Tips for Teachers and a $50 Michaels gift card. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Both are equally awesome! Link up and enter for a chance to win!

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How I Plan My Week {Personal Planner}

Hey y'all! I'm a little late to the party (I mean.. hello.. it's Father's Day... I've been busy:), but I'm linking up any way with Meghan and Robyn for the first ever Plan with Me Sundays linky!

Now, let me just go ahead and warn you... there is nothing fancy here! I don't have an office because we *still* live in our starter home that... ummmm... we were only going to live in for 3-5 years! Ten years later and we are still here! So... it's getting a little crowded up in here! Do I want an office so I can have my *own* space in a house full of boys? ABSOLUTELY! But, I'm trying to ready my house for the market in a year or so. Until then, I'm left spending all my time and extra money on upgrades to make my house that much better for the next owner... go figure! And to be completely honest.. I rarely have time on Sundays to sit down and relax let alone put all sorts of cutesy stickers in my planner for decoration. No offense to those of you who do... it's great! I love it! I wish I had time for it. But with 2 boys ages 5 and 3... it's a little crazy around here! Hopefully I will get to be you in a few years :) So here we go... my little planner that I use to organize my PERSONAL life :)

{excuse my yucky pictures... they were taken with my phone... I need to stop doing this!!}

I have been using Erin Condren life planners for about four years now. I've gotten my sister totally hooked and the funny thing is that she uses hers totally different than me!

I like to use the monthly layout and then transfer that information on the weekly layout that I use the most. It helps keep me organized through the week and has more room for writing. I try to set time aside to transfer everything over and make goals for the week on Sunday!  I have managed to change up the function of my planner with my custom labels I made. It makes more sense to me. The pictures you see here are not for this week. I haven't had time to plan my week yet... SIGH!

I have found it very useful to set goals and draw little boxes so I can check things off. Is it just me or is there something about checking things off a list? I love it!

As far as pens, here are some of my favorites. You can click on the picture to order them on Amazon.com!

How do you plan??