Friday, May 22, 2015

First Day of Summer Delivery

KToday was the first official day of Summer Vacation but I had voluntary meetings all day. Finally at 6pm. I got home and found a package waiting for me.

I attempted a video to show the opening of the box but my husband got a little too artsy, so I had to scrap it and since I was so excited to dive into my notebook, I decided to go old school and use photos to show what I ordered from Erin Condren.

First of all, best packaging by any company, ever!

What I ordered, plus a couple of freebies!


So for weeks, I thought of ordering a Life Planner but was hesitant of the price. I bought a Teacher Planner last summer and even though it pricey, I loved it and was more organized this past school year. I was hoping a life planner would help me become more organized in my personal life as well. Unfortunately, when I finally got ready to order a Life Planner, they were all sold out until this summer when the 2015/2016 planner comes out. Then I discovered the Deluxe Notebook with option to add a 12 month calendar. It is not as detailed as a planner but it does have the calendar, obviously lots of note paper, color coded stickers, folder, and plastic pocket.
Perfect quote for me after the year I had at work!
Free stickers!
Freebies with purchase. Tote and travel tag came automatically with $50 purchase and then you could add the markers with a notebook purchase. There are also date dots that came free with the notebook when you add the calendar insert.
Lastly, I ordered two inserts. One is a divider page that I customized and the smaller one is a to-do list Insert!
I am so excited to get organized and be colorful! 

Discont codes for Erin Condren 
Teacher Appreciation 25% off code "teacher25" in May for teacher products 

Or

$10 off using my referral link
https://www.erincondren.com/referral/invite/amylaney0504-0907







Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Teacher Planner Reviews and Thoughts

My fourth year teaching is coming to an end. Each year I search to figure out what planner will work best for me and be acceptable if anyone else needed to ever look at my lesson plans.

My Favorite!!



Year One
I tried a traditional plan book, worked well the first few weeks but it just was not flexible enough for me, so I tried an online format but forgot to save previous lessons so it was hard to go back to previous weeks or lessons.



Year Two
I did not teach an entire day, so I created my own format to fit my needs. I had searched through Pinterest and other sites and found what I thought would work best for me. My coworker liked it, so I adapted it to her needs, which she used for at least 2 years. I liked it but it was time consuming to create, print, and organize into a binder.




Year Three
The school year started but I was without a job during the summer so when I did get a job during the second week of school, I scrambled to pull together my teacher planner. I could not adapt my binder from the previous year in a timely manner because I was an interventionist and did not need a traditional binder. So I searched through TPT (Teachers Pay Teachers) and found an entire binder already put together with editable elements. This was easier and more timely to get me going.
I really liked the planner but it just was not exactly perfect and cumbersome the way I was using it.
The product was great but just not exactly right for me.


My 3 in binder...full of everything!


Year Four
Throughout the summer, I kept seeing Erin Condren planners on Pinterest. I watched a few youtube videos and decided to look into it. After finding what I liked and adding a few extra features, I created a $70 teacher planner. My husband thought I was crazy but thought I should treat myself. I found a link at the bottom of a youtube review video that saved me $10. (I am sucker for a coupon!)
The link is like this one:
https://www.erincondren.com/referral/invite/amylaney0504-0907
I am sold and super excited to continue using the Erin Condren Teacher Planner
*important savings note if you read this before May 31st
Erin Condren loves TEACHERS and there is a 25% discount on Teacher Materials.
Follow this link:
https://www.erincondren.com/teachers (code TEACHER25)

ERIN CONDREN TEACHER PLANNER REVIEW
First of all the delivery box is very cute. Every little detail is thought of to make the cost worth it!!







 The planner is well organized by section-









Folder pocket and a ziplock pocket with a bonus of stickers and labels

This is how I used it.


I started the year with color coding my pens to the calendar pages...that didn't last long.
I used washi tape throughout the planner to mark and divide things within the planner.


Double pages after each calendar month were great for meetings.


More washi tape to divide times that did not need an entire black. My favorite addend was the labels for the class section. My school has one early release day and that schedule is different than the other days, so I used Avery labels for the subject and class time. That saved a lot of time!



I added extra checklists but I did not use as many as I thought I would. It comes with 7 but you can choose to do 14 or 21 total pages. 21 was more than I needed but found ways to use them. 


Lastly, the planner comes with one one page protector, but I added two more. I should've just ordered it with one. I only used one page that had testing deadlines and never used the other two pages.

Even though I have designed my own lesson plan pages and downloaded other custom planning, the Erin Condren Teacher Planner is my day to day teaching assissant and goes to meetings and trainings, and keeps me on track. I will use the other binder for data organization.
Super excited to get started organizing my planner for next year but I will be waiting until closer to August!! So until then, I am excited for my newest addtion for the Deluxe Notebook with a Calendar from Erin Condren. It is my transition into a Life Planner but those are unavailable until the fall.
https://www.erincondren.com/deluxe-notebooks