Tips of the Week!!

Hold on to your seats because I am going to give you lots of tips today. I am going to show how I set up my calendar and how I use my calendar to plan individual, group and classroom lessons.

First, EVERYTHING is in my calendar. If it is not in my calendar, it does not exist. I cannot remember everything I have to do in a day so I rely heavily on my calendar...with pop-up reminders.

Here is a look at my calendar for this week (I'm sure you can relate with having very little time to breathe). It's a little blurry but you get the picture. Our district uses Outlook but you can do the same thing with Google or another calendar.

I am going to point out several things about my calendar. Here we go.....

1. My calendar is color coded. I realize that I am a nerd and love things color coded but this actually really helps me know what is going on in my day at a quick glance.

2. I do not put kids' names directly on my calendar. I do not want to run the risk of someone seeing   names. I put their initials, grade level and teacher's initial.  For example, EH 4H (Emily Hansen 4th grade, Mrs. Hansen's class). Now, I often forget with whom the initials belong so I put his/her name in the notes section of the appointment.  

3. When I plan a meeting or a lesson, I am able to send an invitation to other people and they will also get a pop-up reminder. This is great for teachers to remember when they have counseling lessons.

4. I recently started planning within each appointment, as well. This is great because as soon as the reminder pops up, I open the appointment and voila...my plans!  Below is a picture of how it looks. (I also have the students names who are participating in a group but I took them out for this pic). I       try to plan ahead as much as possible so I cross out the lesson when it has been completed. I do the same thing for classroom lessons and individual sessions. If I have a YouTube video, I am able to put the link right in here. What a time saver!

If you have been following blog, you know that I am all about time saving and efficiency. I strive to find the best and easiest ways to organize and save time. I am able to access my calendar at any computer so it makes it so much easier to keep my plans within my calendar. I used to have papers galore in just plans alone. This even makes it easier to plan at home. No more lugging binders of plans back and forth. I can just open my calendar and plan my whole week (as much as we can plan) in one place!!!

I hope this helps you in your organizing endeavors! 

Please let us know if you have any tips or tricks for keeping your plans or calendars!!