Wickedly, Simple, Life: A school year later...Erin Condren Teacher Planner (updated)

If you need a lesson planner to prepare for 2015/2016 school year, the latest edition of the Erin Condren planner comes out July 7th!

This is my review after using the planner for the entire school year.

(Link for $10 off at the bottom of this post)

Previously, I wrote about the phases of my lesson planning. I am sold on the Erin Condren Teacher Planner. I also had shared the unboxing of my planner and what I liked but I decided to share how I used it and the overall usage now that the school year is completed.

This is my planner after the last day of school. Pages are crammed in and notes are in the planner as my organizational skills whithered away during the last few days.

The planning pages worked well for me. I added Avery 5770 labels to type the start times of my schedule on the headers. This a timely task in the beginning and then during mid year when our schedule changed, but I loved how neat and clean my planner looked instead of handwriting in each block.

I used washi tape to divide smaller blacks of space for specials and lunch/recess times so that I did not waste blocks.

I did not utilize the monthly calendar as much as I had planned but I like the space to add notes. After each double calendar layout, there are double note pages and then one more note page. I utilized these a lot during staff meetings and trainings.

(Sorry for the blurry picture but I just wanted to give a brief shot of what I did without giving away too much information.)

I added extra checklist pages and got creative with how I used them as the the year went along but it's a pretty standard layout to utilize how you may need.

A few things that I did not utilize from the planner but would like to find a way to use it next school year.

Graph paper

Year Plan pages-I wanted to use them but our district had very detailed curriculum guides that I never added lessons to this section.

Absentee Log-my school has an overall high amount of absences, with an average of 7 days with a few students with up to 18 plus days. I had a hard time keeping up it using the log, so I recorded patterns or long absences. I also used for noting if the student was absent during testing.

Some of the stickers. Like the "furlough" stickers. I don't know if that is common in other areas but in Northern Colorado, it is not so it is not a practical sticker.

I decided to rip out all of the extra sticker pages that I did not use to add to planner next year. I also trimmed the edges of the pages I did not use and try plan to use them for clipboard checks or data.

Overall, it held up really well. Nothing ripped, snagged, or wore out in any way. $50 plus may be a lot but if it works for you and you enjoy it, it's totally worth it!!!!

Now I am ready for my next planner and prepping it for the 2015/2016 school year.

Out with old and in with the new. I recently purchased a deluxe notebook with calendar (my version of a life planner since I missed the 2015 planner and didn't want to wait until mid summer).

I ordered a similar cover because I was so attached to it.