What Would Carrie Craft?: A Planbook ala Carrie

Inspiration: I {Heart} Organizing Of Course! With a Dash of the Nest/Learning Effect!

So earlier in October, I saw a post by the fabulous Jennifer Jones about how she created her own Blog Planner. She printed her own pages, added free dividers, and had it bound inexpensively at Staples. This got me thinking........dangerous I know.

As a teacher I have this ~~ugly,~~ ~~boring,~~ county-issued plannbook. In fact most of my teacher friends have the same one. While it is functional, it lacks personality. I find myself trying to make it my own and failing miserably every year.

Here is what I have come up with. (Pardon the Glare)

I made a cute cover using a Chevron Paper, Embellishments, and my new favorite font KG Be Still and Know (thanks Tiffany@Learning Effect for getting me hooked!)

The first section is my schedules section. I included my schedule that I turned in to the tech office as well as all of those crazy schedules our school makes: early dismissal, late opening, celebrations, etc.

The next section is my calendar. I opted to just put in our county-created calendar. Although next year I think I may print my own calendar to make better use of the page. This was a last minute addition. I use Google Calendar for most things so this is more of the permanent copy. Currently this calendar is hanging on the board by my desk. I like having it in my book all in one place. However, I still think I like having it out and up on the board.......so we will see if this section gets used.......

After that is my To Do sheets. I borrowed this idea from Nest Effect. Tiffany posted a free printable on her blog. I liked it but I ended up making some adjustments so that it worked for me. This allows me to record all those To Do's that need to be done but aren't URGENT. It allows me to put down Due Dates and check off when they are finished.

Behind that are my Notes Sheets. Sometimes, I meet with teams and we do collaborative projects. This is where I plan on writing down info about those projects.

Next are my lesson plans. I have always felt that my planbook pages never worked for me. I rewrite the same info (Teacher/Grade) each week. Once I tried to run it through the printer, that looked like CRAP. What I LOVE about my pages is my Week at a Glance column on the left where I will record meetings and other important things to know about the week. Then plans for classes in the middle and on the right my specific To Do's and Most Important Tasks that HAVE TO GET DONE!

The last two sections are my Gradebooks. Here is where my school has its advantage. We have limited transfers in or out of our school during the actual school year. So I'm able to print up sheets for my gradebook with student names, logins, computer numbers, and passwords. One of the sections is for 1st Semester (1st/2nd Quarter) and the other is for 2nd Semester (3rd/4th Quarter).

I had all of this bound at Staples after I printed it. ALL DONE! It cost me approximately $5.50 to have it bound. CHEAP!

So now that I had this sucker bound....how can I doll it up a bit more. The tabs are a bit ~~white~~ PLAIN. Following along with my Inspiration, I went in search of washi tape. I found a ton at Target. I originally was going to use a bunch of different colors but in the end, I caved and went with just one of the rolls, which was a super cute black and white polka dot. Then I stuck it down on the tabs and used my label maker to create labels. I'm sure I'll find some other craft project to use the other washi tape for. (insert Evil Crafting Laughter)