Made it Monday/Optimum Organization Double Take!

It's July and in exactly one month - it will be my first day of school.  Vacation, like always, has flown by.  I'm going to have to start getting my "Back to School" to do list looked at.

Ugh!

Last week, I finally finished putting together my Lesson Plan book for 2013-2014.  It's been a bit of a work in progress for me.  My school requires that we have our weekly plans looked at by an administrator.  Plus, the plans have to fit a certain format and has to fit MY criteria as well.

I'm pretty proud to show off my finished product - especially on a Made it Monday and Optimum Organization.  I know that if I didn't have my Lesson Plan book, I'd never get anything done!  During the school year, if I have something important that I can't lose, I always tuck it into my plan book.

  

I printed out the cover that I designed, all my printed pages and took it to Office Max for double sided printing and binding.  The binding only cost $4!  What a deal!  I had to pay about $12 for the double sided printing that I did on my pages.  If my school was open, I could have saved that money... but I wanted to get it finished.

(Psst!  If you like the covers - they are for sale at my Teacher's Pay Teachers store!)

I used post it sticky labels to break up the sections for easy tabbing.  I added the Notes section after some debating.  I figure I always need some space to jot down ideas.

Calendar is courtesy of the fabulous Kindergarten Works!  Because I am cheap - the copies came out a little light.  I had to write over some of the areas so when I doubled sided copied, they would show up.

Our admins sometimes have difficulty finding the right sections, so I added in this helpful cover to my weekly plans.  With the tab, there shouldn't be any problems locating my current plans.

This is how I created my weekly plans to match the specific requests of our district.  They want that Checking for Understanding section and it helps that I added in all the strategies that they would like us to use.

This is what the weekly plans look like, a little closer.  I have this weekly plan issue - the days HAVE to go across the page and the plans go down the page.  I've rejected many a plan book that lists the days down the side instead of across the top.

Yeah, I have issues!

I had to squish my Social Studies section, but I think it will do.  I forgot to mention earlier that they are available for $1.00 at my TPT Store.  (It took me forever to get this plan right.  The $1 might make me feel better for the angry hours I spent glaring at my computer screen ;) )

To keep my place, I added in a ribbon!  I had this fun monkey pattern lying around, so I  used it.

I used sticky dots to attach the ribbon to the inside back cover of my planner.  I almost did it backwards the first time and had to think about how the ribbon would curl over the pages!

At Office Max, they add the clear cover and thick black cover in with your binding.  I added about ten pages of blank copy paper to the end of my book as my Notes section.

Overall - I'm SO happy with my book.  Last year, I printed the pages out on a weekly basis and then taped them into a blank planner.  It wasn't the greatest idea because it was a pain in the butt every week to tape in my plan book pages.  I think that this solution will work much better this year!

Teacher Planner Notebook

There have been lots of teacher planner notebooks floating around Pinterest lately.

LuckeyFrog's Lilypad - probably is my favorite!

Modern Teacher - good for Texas teachers!

However, in typical Lauren fashion... I look at all the examples and think, "I can do this myself."  My son also likes to say the same thing when doing ANYTHING lately.

Here is the "Official" Life in Middle School Teacher Planner and what I used to put this guy together.  It's obviously a work in progress, since I'm in the process of transitioning from a computer elective to Language Arts teacher again.  (I've been told 7th grade.  I'm starting to plan for 7th grade.  I'm hoping 7th grade... I just cannot fully trust anything anymore until August 8th when I start my new year.  Sad aside over.)

Here is my cover.  I know there are a lot of backgrounds and covers online.  I decided to print the center Teacher Planner part and then glue it to a piece of scrapbooking paper.

Inside, I have my Weekly To Do List.  I have it inside a page protector, so I can write on it with an overhead marker, then wipe it clean at the end of the week or whenever I'm done with it.  It's my top page.

I believe this Weekly To Do List is from Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade.  (However, I can't find it at her website anymore...)

However, there is another version offered at 3rd Grade Thoughts!

Right after that page is my calendar section.  I looked at bunch online, but settled on Tiffany's at the Nest Effect.  I like that it's a vertical and not horizontal layout!

My tabbed sections break down as follows:

• Long Term Plans
• Standards
• LA/SS Ideas (for those papers, ideas, etc that you don't want to lose!)
• Pinterest Ideas (since Pinterest is blocked at work)  I'm planning on putting together something like this pin I found today.  
• Strategies

In my Long Term Plans section...

I have my planners that I made to reflect how my district wants us to Lesson Plan.  The inspiration behind the Lesson Planner is Ms. M's fantastic planner website.  If you want a fancy planner that fits your schedule, I would definitely go there.  I can't have her make me one, because I'd have to get it redone every year.  

Next, my long term planner.  Inspiration from this Pin - over at Dragonflies in First.  Obviously, my version is currently very simple.  It's another work in progress because I have to plan lots over the summer.  My district is one of the last dinosaurs - we haven't had too much to do with Common Core.  Maybe this will be the year?  I think it has to be?  Are we totally screwed?  (lol)

Oh and by the way, I bought the "cute" tab dividers at Office Max.  I love the pockets because I don't always have a lot of time to hole punch things right away.

I'm a little hesitant about writing on the tabs, but apparently... nail polish remover will remove it.  You can always just write on the white thingys underneath too.

My last section of my binder is all my teaching strategies that I've been collecting over the years.  I like to have them all in one place, so when I plan - they are all right there for me to get creative.

I have - Teach Like a Champion.  (Get the book people!  It's **amazing**)  I also have my list of GLAD strategies, Strategies from Moving Learning Forward and SDAIE Strategies.

I found this gem on Pinterest too.  HOTS from Hello Literacy.

Feedback?  What do you all think?