Teacher Week '13: Organizing for Instruction

Y'all this is going to be a quick post, because let me tell ya... we are back in school and it's Wednesday night and I'm exhausted!  That alarm clock is not very friendly these days!  If you've been following along, you know that I have been linking up with the fabulous girls over at Blog Hoppin' for their week of fun called Teacher Week '13.  You can check out the calendar below to know what to be looking forward to and also to see if you want to catch up on some posts!


I will have to come back by and share some more organizational tips that I use in my classroom when I'm not so exhausted, but for now, I'm going to focus on ONE of my favorite online finds from this summer to keep me organized with my instruction.  Check out this bad boy from April at A Modern Teacher....


First of all, let's talk about how cute this teacher planner/classroom organizer is.  April from A Modern Teacher did a remarkable job with the design!  I mean, the black and white damask and hot pink is just adorable.  The picture does NOT do it justice, but remember I'm a tired teacher who is posting at the last minute with pics from her iPhone - don't judge :)  April's file is fully customizable, so of course I featured my favorite font designer Kimberly Geswein on the front cover.  Her fonts are beyond awesome.  Check them out {HERE}.  The one featured on my teacher planner/classroom organizer is KG Eyes Wide Open.  Isn't it pretty?!  If you don't think so, don't worry, she has plenty of other styles in her store!

OK, I must get past the prettiness of it and talk about the contents.  The entire file can be printed as is in a PDF format or she offers a fully customizable option as well.  You get to choose!  Since I'm pretty tech savvy, I opted for the customizable version of the file and made it work perfectly for me and my schedule.  I was able to use her awesome design skills and simply go in and change the dates, subjects, times, etc to work for me and to make it as pretty as I wanted of course! :)  {That IS important, right?!}  Check out the inside of my planner/organizer below...

Common Core Standards - That's where you start, right?

Yearly Planning Pages

Monthly Planning Pages

Weekly Planning Pages

Notes Pages (How pretty are they?!)

There is a LOT, LOT more to this planner/organizer.  But out of respect for April, I didn't want to give too much away!  I promise you she didn't leave ANYTHING out!  Anything you could possibly want/need in a classroom planner and classroom organizer is included in the two files below.  Both the Lesson Planner and the Classroom Organizer can be found in her TPT store and she is wonderful to work with, so I'm pleased to give her a shout-out, because this bad boy is going to help me out so much in organizing my instruction right down to the planning!

A Modern Teacher's Lesson Planner
Click {HERE}

A Modern Teacher's Classroom Organizer
Click {HERE}

Oh, before I leave you, let me add that I printed from my home printer so that I could print in the pretty colors and I could get it double-sided just the way I wanted it.  I printed the front cover and back cover on card stock and laminated.  Then I took it to Staples and they spiral bound it for me for $4 - what a great price for a fully customizable planner and organizer!  I combined the two products into one notebook to condense.  This little gem makes me WANT to plan!  :)

Now, go link up with the Blog Hoppin' girls and share your own tips for organizing your instruction.  I promise I'll be back with more organizational tips later, but this one was definitely worth sharing.  :)

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