Stay Organised and On Track: A Guide to Using the Mrs Edgar Teacher Planner

Using a teacher planner offers numerous benefits that can significantly enhance your teaching experience. It increases organisation by providing a clear structure for your lessons, meetings, and tasks, ensuring everything has its place. 

With dedicated spaces for time management, it helps you prioritise tasks and allocate time efficiently, ultimately improving productivity. A teacher planner reduces the mental load of remembering everything, which helps reduce stress and keeps you calm and focused throughout the day. 

Additionally, it’s invaluable for tracking student data, ensuring you stay on top of assessments and progress, leading to more effective teaching and better student outcomes. 

For it to be truly effective, your planner must become a regular part of your daily routine. Make checking your planner a habit that you do multiple times a day—start by reviewing it first thing in the morning, before opening your inbox or starting your computer.

 Keep it open throughout the day to stay on track, and take a few minutes at the end of each day to set up for the next. This simple, consistent system will help you stay organised, prepared, and ready for whatever comes your way.

Setting up your teacher planner for the week ahead is key to staying organised and reducing stress throughout the school year. With a little planning and strategy, your planner can become an invaluable tool for managing lessons, tasks, and deadlines.

Plan Ahead
Each week, set aside time to plan your lessons and activities. Use your weekly planner to outline the key objectives for each class, and allocate time for lesson preparation, grading, and meetings. Planning ahead ensures you're always prepared and reduces last-minute stress.

Break Down Tasks
Divide larger tasks into smaller, manageable steps. This method helps you stay on top of everything without feeling overwhelmed and makes it easier to track your progress.

Keep Track of Deadlines
Record important deadlines in your planner, such as assignment due dates, grading periods, and school events. This ensures you stay organised and meet all your responsibilities without missing anything important.

Use Colour Coding
Colour coding is a simple but effective way to stay organised. Assign different colours to subjects, tasks, or priorities, allowing you to quickly identify key information and stay focused.

Incorporate Flexibility
While it's important to have a structured plan, it’s also essential to remain flexible. Teaching often involves unexpected events, so leave space in your schedule for any unforeseen changes.

By following these simple steps, you'll be able to stay organised, reduce stress, and keep your week running smoothly.

Our planners are designed with both a term overview and term planning pages to help you stay organised throughout the term. The term overview section is ideal for noting important dates, such as upcoming student assessments and key school events. 

At the start of each term, the term planning double-spread pages allow you to set up a section for each subject, where you can map out the work and key topics for the term. Like shown in the video below.

As a teacher, goal setting can often feel like just another item on your ever-growing to-do list. However, when approached with intention, it can become a powerful tool for refining your focus and achieving meaningful outcomes both in the classroom and in your day-to-day life. Setting clear, achievable goals allows you to stay motivated, organised, and on track toward both personal and professional growth. In this section, we’ll explore practical strategies for setting and achieving your goals as a teacher, helping you take actionable steps toward success.

Choosing Your Focus:

Before setting goals, it’s essential to identify a primary area for improvement. Focusing on one key goal at a time can maximise effectiveness and clarity. Here are some potential focus areas:

• Professional Development : Enhance your teaching by learning new methods or skills, such as taking a course to expand your toolkit.

• Classroom Management : Implement or refine strategies to foster a positive classroom atmosphere, like enrolling in a management course to improve discipline techniques.

• Student Development : Support holistic student growth by promoting personal development and engagement, like adding fitness activities to each class for better well-being.

• Personal and Organisational Goals : Prioritise work-life balance and organisation for a more productive environment. Examples include leaving work at school on weekends or dedicating time to declutter and optimise classroom space.

Making Your Goals SMART:

To ensure the effectiveness of your goals, adhere to the SMART criteria:

• Specific: Clearly define the objective and its significance.
• Measurable: Establish criteria to track progress and success.
• Achievable: Set realistic targets within your capacity.
• Relevant: Align goals with your broader teaching objectives.
• Time-bound: Set deadlines to create a sense of urgency and accountability.

SMART goals are a tried-and-tested strategy for achieving success in various aspects of life, including teaching. By adhering to the SMART criteria individuals can effectively articulate their objectives and chart a clear path towards accomplishment.

Taking Action:

Break down your goals into actionable steps and set mini-milestones to maintain motivation. Consistently monitor your progress and adjust your approach as needed to stay on track towards achieving your objectives.

We love to add a little note into your planner each week of what step we are taking towards our goal. 

Embrace the power of goal setting and embark on a journey of continuous improvement and fulfilment in your teaching journey.

Classroom Layout Pages

Our classroom layout pages are designed to help you plan and organise your classroom space for the year ahead. Use these pages to map out your seating arrangements, create seating charts, or note specific areas for different activities.

 This feature ensures that your classroom is set up efficiently, allowing for a smooth flow of teaching and helping you make the most of your space throughout the year.

Professional Development Log

Continuing your education and professional growth is key to staying up-to-date with teaching practices. Use the professional development log to track your progress and achievements, making it easier to keep track of your PD hours.

Workshops and Courses
Record details of any workshops, courses, or seminars you attend. Include the date, topic, and key takeaways to capture your learning experiences, and track the hours spent on each.

Goals and Reflections
Set professional development goals and reflect on your progress. This helps you stay focused on your growth and identify areas for further improvement, while also keeping track of your PD hours.

Certificates and Credits
Track any certificates or credits you earn. This is especially helpful for meeting professional development requirements, advancing your career, and ensuring you stay on top of your PD hours.

Assessment Recording Pages

The assessment record pages in your Mrs Edgar Teacher Planner are designed to make record-keeping seamless and stress-free. With everything in one convenient place, these pages help you track test scores, assignments, and overall student progress throughout the term. This organisation not only saves time but also makes report writing significantly easier, giving you quick access to the data you need to create detailed and accurate reports. 

Additionally, you'll can access a free editable class list  that fits perfectly within your planner, so you don't have to waste time rewriting your students' names. This feature ensures your class information is always up-to-date and easily accessible, further simplifying your planning and record-keeping process.

Notes Pages

The Teacher Planner offers plenty of note pages for you to make the most of. Use them for planning, journaling, setting goals, tracking productivity, or writing to-do lists – the possibilities are endless! You can also utilise these pages to take notes during staff meetings, ensuring you stay organised and on top of important discussions and action points.

Monthly Calendar Spreads.

The monthly planning spreads in the Teacher Planner are perfect for mapping out key events and meetings. They help teachers keep track of district or school meetings, important dates, and school functions. On the note pages following each monthly spread, teachers can jot down notes from staff meetings, ensuring they stay organised and prepared for all upcoming events and discussions.

Planner stickers are a fun and effective way to stay organised in your Teacher Planner. Here are five ways to make the most of them to create a well-organised week:

1. School Event Stickers : Use the school event stickers to highlight important dates such as school holidays, excursions, or assemblies. This keeps you aware of upcoming events at a glance, so nothing gets overlooked.

2. Icon Stickers : Add a personal touch with icon stickers for tasks like to-do lists, coffee breaks, or mail reminders. They’re a great way to visually organise your day and make it feel more manageable.

3. Flag and Bunting Stickers : Mark urgent tasks or important events with flag and bunting stickers. These eye-catching accents make it easy to prioritise what needs your attention right away.

4. Library and Duty Stickers : With 46 library stickers and 120 duty stickers, you can designate specific times for library visits or track your teaching duties, helping to maintain an efficient routine throughout the week.

5. Dot, Corner, and Hexagon Stickers : Use transparent dot stickers for reminders or colour-coding, corner stickers to add a touch of decoration and organisation, and hexagon stickers for extra tasks or notes. These versatile stickers can help you create a visually appealing and neatly organised planner that supports your busy week.

Using these stickers allows you to break down your schedule into manageable pieces, making it easier to stay on top of all your tasks and events.

Stay Organised with Planner Accessories

In addition to using stickers, planner accessories can further enhance your organisation and help maintain your planner’s longevity. Here are a few must-have accessories that can keep your Teacher Planner in top shape and improve your planning experience:

Planner Folio : Protect your planner from wear and tear with a planner folio. This durable accessory ensures that your planner’s cover stays in excellent condition, even with daily use, while also giving you extra space to store documents, notes, or even extra stickers.

Planner Elastics: Use planner elastics to easily mark important pages, such as specific weekly spreads, assessment records, or upcoming meetings. They help you quickly navigate your planner without having to flip through every page, saving you time and keeping you focused.

Pens and Highlighters: Invest in quality pens and highlighters to make your planner visually appealing and easy to read. Colour-code your tasks, highlight important deadlines, or add personal notes to stay organised and motivated throughout the week.

With these accessories, you can ensure your Teacher Planner stays in great condition while making it even easier to manage your schedule and tasks with ease.

By incorporating the Mrs Edgar Teacher Planner into your daily routine, you can take control of your time, reduce stress, and stay organised throughout the school year. From setting clear goals and planning lessons to tracking assessments and using helpful planner accessories, this tool is designed to support you in every aspect of your teaching journey. With a little preparation and consistency, you'll find that staying organised not only makes your job easier but also helps you deliver a more focused and effective learning experience for your students.