There are so many things we love about our Teacher Planners. As former teachers ourselves, we have truly designed them with real teachers in mind – in fact, when our Founder Rachel first started TPTC she did it alongside her teaching job. The whole reason she started it was because she wanted to create a planner that was ideal for her role! So of course, we love every page of our planners. Today we thought we’d highlight a few of the best bits, suggest ways you can make the most of your Teacher Planner, and give you some ideas on how to get started.
#1: Personalise, personalise, personalise
It’s so important to us that your planner works for you, both practically and in a way that suits your personality! We want your Teacher Planner to really bring you joy when you use it, because we think that adding a bit of fun and positivity in can really help if you’re feeling overwhelmed. That’s why it’s really important to us that you get exactly what you’re looking for.
So – for the first time this year, you can choose whether you want your teacher planner to be A4 or B5. In previous years, only the Undated Planner was available in B5, but we asked for your feedback and found out that many of you only buy the undated because you love the B5 size! So this year, we’ve made it an option for the dated version too. Of course, the planner is also available in 13 different cover designs, so you can choose your favourite. Also new this year is the fact that the tabs inside your planner will match the cover that you choose, so your planner oozes personality inside and out. And of course, you can personalise the cover by getting up to 7 characters embossed!
#2: Manage your Professional Development
The teacher planner is packed with pages to help you plan your teaching and all of your lessons throughout the year, but did you know you can also use it to track your professional development as a teacher? We know many teachers are always striving to do more, whether that’s specialising more into a subject, or going for a leadership role. The Teacher Planner includes pages to manage this, so you can keep it at the forefront on your mind throughout the year (if you want to!). It includes pages to track 3 professional goals for the year, including a mid-year check in and reflection. There’s also a habit tracker which you could use to track all kinds of different CPD-related tasks, and dedicated pages to note down CPD training and activities you’ve taken part in, and the key takeaways you got form them.
#3: …but balance your personal wellbeing
Work life balance is so tricky when you’re a teacher; we hope that staying organised with our planner helps you reclaim a little bit of your time back, and we’ve also popped some self care moments in to encourage you to look out for your wellbeing. We’ve got a wellbeing tracker so you can check in and see how you’re feeling – this can be really important during busy times when you just power through the days. We’ve got a place to list your favourite podcasts and blogs you want to check in on, and a fun library page where you can track the books you’ve read by filling in the spines and colouring them in! We’ve also got the Proud Moments and Wow Moments pages, which are great for memory keeping and noting down the moments that really remind you what all your hard work is all about.
#4: Get a head start on the year
With our Teacher Planner, there are lots of ways to prepare for the year ahead in ways that will make your life a bit easier when you’re in the thick of it mid-term. One of our best tips for getting the most out of your Teacher Planner is to spend some time setting it up at the end of the summer break, before the new school year starts. There’s an entire Calendar tabbed section dedicated to planning the year overall, so you can fill in the birthday record and important dates. There are double page monthly calendar spreads for the entire year, which you can fill out with events, deadlines, and important dates you already know about. Make sure to keep this up to date when you learn of any more important events! Then when you’re planning each week, refer back to this long term planning to check on anything coming up you need to be aware of.
#5: Set up your weekly plan
A big portion of the calendar is made up of the weekly plans, which take up two pages per week in a vertical layout, so you have a column for each day. This is a chance to really make it personal to your schedule and your workload, as there aren’t timeslots but instead there are blank boxes which can be tailored to your needs. You can highlight a line across the page (or use matching washi tape!) to mark lunchtime and separate the morning and afternoon periods, note down which days you have break duty, colour a box around your PPA time or free periods, add stickers to note meetings or open evenings. Check in with your long term plan in your calendar section and add in anything that’s coming up that week. By doing this, you’re building a solid framework to plan your week around, filled with useful information you’ll need to have on hand. Then you can go ahead and fill it in with lessons, tasks, and things to remember in a way that fits in with those fixed elements.
