As an art teacher, several things used up my time before, during, and after school. In order to keep up with lesson planning, meetings, grading, family life, and my own goals to grow as an artist, teacher, and person, I found other planning books to be insufficient. I chose to develop my own. This is the result.
This list of steps guided my planning process as I looked at the previous week and looked forward to the next. I found it useful to remind myself of the steps each week.
My one-hour plan period I spent doing the Daily To Dos listed, which usually included items from the Weekly Tasks list on the right-hand page. Observation Notes were made when I would make my weekly visit to another teacher's classroom.
I found it useful to have a paper gradebook during each block of the day. No classes at the school were larger than 20 students, and most were between 10 and 15. On the Notes page, I found it useful to record good questions, things to do for/with students, etc. These I could review as I planned the following week. On the far-right column of the grid, I recorded student behaviors that lost or earned them citizenship points.
Certain things I could depend on being necessary each day after school. This checklist helped keep me accountable to myself. Just as with the Planning Period spread, the Weekly Tasks on the right-hand page were a reminder of wise uses of my time after school to help me stay effective even when I was worn out by my time with students.
By using the same planner on the weekend, I found it easier to stick with this program I developed for myself. The consistency simplified my life and helped me stay organized.
I find Chaparral Pro to be beautiful, stylish, and clean. It has great variety in weight, and I enjoy looking at it all day. So I chose it for my only font on this project. There is no body text in the document since that is to be done with my own handwriting throughout the week. But there are several subheads using the full range that Chaparral has to offer.
It was, of course, important to leave white space. The alternating task bars, the large top margin, and the wide inside margin helped give the piece a sense of openness, despite the great number of items on each spread. All items on the page follow a 1p9 spacing pattern.
