Hi, all! I wanted to share my thoughts with the Erin Condren Teacher Planner after utilizing it for a full school year. My overall thought? Worth every single penny. I am constantly asked during meetings where it is from, people love it. The colors are beautiful, and it’s the most handy planner that I have used before. I’ll break down what I chose to do with it!

You can read my original review here.

I am reviewing it now because the newest model of the Teacher Planner just came out. I thought it would be nice to look back and see what I did/didn’t like about the one that I had and used all of 2015-2016 and some of the ways that you could make sure of sections that you may have no use for (for me, the attendance and substitute pages). There is surprisingly a lot of room for flexibility and changing the planner so that it best suits your own needs.

Feel free to use my referral link to get $10 off any Erin Condren purchase! 

 Firstly, I use the front cover as a quick dashboard. I put the overall goals of each quarter on there, and also my flexible groups. Since they constantly change, I just do this with a quick Post-It Note that is easy to grab when I need to call out groups for the students.

On the Substitute page, I just put down little things that I want to remember. We do a quick cheer before timed tests, and I write it down since sometimes it slips my mind (hehe, I swap out “motivated” and “dedicated”!). I also write down required medleys that we are required to attend on Fridays. Finally, I put down what “A Week” and “B Week” is. Isn’t it funny how forgetful one can be over the simplest things? I am totally guilty of showing up at computer lab when I should be at library, and vice versa.

 We use a computerized attendance system, so I was at a total loss what to do on the Attendance pages. However, I chose to write down all our read alouds for the year, the date, and what I used them for. This helped me not repeat a book, and will make next year super easy when I want to remember or recommend a good book to teach about responsibility, strong verbs, or DeBono’s Thinking Hats! 

On the graphing pages, I use for generalized notetaking. I write down all our Literature Circle books and write out the pages ahead of time. I also sketch out seating every quarter to switch the kiddos around.

 I am obsessed with the year-at-a-glance page! Each sticker color is a different subject (green=science, blue=math, purple=social studies, yellow=character education, pink=language arts). It is so easy to see what I am teaching each month! I got this idea from one of my BRILLIANT coworkers who originally introduced me to Erin Condren!

On the Note pages, I put down notes for professional development courses that I take. On this page, I was in a Michael Clay Thompson course (if you ever get a chance to see him, I 100% recommend it. He is absolutely incredible!). I put it in Notes for that month, so I can easily flip back to it.

On the Month pages, I make sure to write down tests/quizzes/events/meetings/etc. On the right sidebar, I write down my major goals for the month. For example, SOL testing, get DRA’s done, or winter party.

For the lesson planning pages, I have washi tape and put a line right before the two boxes all the way on the right. I ordered these lesson planning stickers from Owl Plan With You for each subject, to-do list, and other. My to-do list and other category is basically the same thing, as you can tell!

I use the page protector to keep my class schedule in.

Finally, these checklist pages are a lifesaver when it comes to field trip forms, money, DRA testing, etc. SO EASY.

I CAN’T WAIT TO ORDER THE NEW ONE! I am teaching a grade 3 & 4 gifted combo next year, and I definitely need to be top-notch on my organizational game. If you’re interested in one, here is a referral link that gets you $10 off your Teacher Planner! There are new updates this year that I am excited to check out (like a dry erase cover in the front! Nice to see that they are trying to make functional use of all possible spots.

Have you used the Teacher Planner? How do you make functional use out of spots in the calendar that you don’t need, and what are your favorite parts about it?