My Erin Condren Planner... Again...

Okay, yes. My last post was about my planner. This post is also about my planner. Don't judge me, alright? I really like planners.

So I've already added some stuff to my planner. I customized the field trip page to keep up with my sick days used. I like keeping my own record of how many days I've used just for my own benefit so I don't have to wait for my monthly check to see how many days I used. 

I want to do something with the classroom volunteers section too but I don't know what. Thoughts?

I've just barely started putting some stuff in my June spread. Since the EC planners come with six weeks for each month, I'm going to use the unused days for monthly to do lists and other stuff.

I also started my first week even though I don't really have plans for it yet. Since I'll only be teaching six classes a day, I'm going to use the last column as just a general planning, to do, meeting notes, things to remember, etc. area. I also made some of my own stickers in addition to my The Happy Planner stickers to add to that column (see below).

I've gotten way too much stuff for my planner already.  This was a haul from the Target dollar spot area. 

The gel pens are precious but don't really work. The blue one works fine and the green one is iffy but the pink doesn't work at all. But since it was so cute, I swapped out the ink part with a regular boring pen that writes really nicely and now I have the best of both worlds; a cute pen that still works.

I love this stamp! It was $3 at Target. The ink that came with it isn't very good but.....

I bought some more at Hobby Lobby. $5 for all 12. Not too bad at all. 

I also bought a 1/8" punch to use to make my own inserts in my planner. It works great. The paper I tried it on was way to flimsy but I can tell it will work perfectly once I get some stuff laminated. I'm planning on making some meal plan inserts with five meals and the groceries needed to make them that I can swap out every week. The punch was $3.99, 50% off at Hobby Lobby. 

These adorable washi tapes were also 50% off! I love the skinny washi. It's perfect for dividing off sections without taking up too much room.

These Happy Planner stickers weren't 50% off but I used my 40% off coupon and got them for $3. 

These are all of the sticker sheets included with the pack I got. I love them. They are perfect for what I needed. I love the motivational banner ones that say things like "Get It Done" and "Make It Happen." And I like that there are some fun shapes and arrows thrown in too.

These are some stickers I made myself using Avery repositionable labels. I'm still working on getting them to print just right. You can see that one is a tiny bit too high and one is a tiny bit too low. It's a work in progress. I really love that these are repositionable. The Happy Planner ones aren't and I've already had to peel one up. I made a snowflake for snow days (even though I won't need those for months and months), a hydrate sticker to help me keep up with water intake, a To Do sticker (even though I like my Happy Planner ones better now), one to remind me to post on here, a watercolor one that I'm really loving, and an asterisk because you just never know when you might need one. 

I would love to see what other teachers are doing with their planners. What do you use the extra days on your monthly spread for? How do you use extra columns in your lesson plans? Secondary teachers: what do you use the classroom volunteers and field trips sections for? Does anyone have a good use for the sub page? I know I won't be leaving my precious planner for a sub! I'd love to hear your thoughts on customizing your Erin Condren teacher planner to fit your needs!

Kelsey

My Erin Condren Teacher Planner!!!

With all the stress and excitement of getting a new job and getting ready to teach secondary for the first time, I decided to get an Erin Condren Lesson Planner to (hopefully) keep myself organized next year. All Erin Condren teacher supplies are 25% off to celebrate national teacher month!  And while doing my research, I found lots of elementary teacher blogs posting about EC planners, some secondary teachers, and zero art teachers of any grade level. So I thought I'd post about it here and maybe another art (or music or theatre or really any kind of) teacher somewhere will find it helpful.

First, I decided to get the "Be Kind or Be Quiet" cover. It wasn't my favorite design (although I do love it) but it was my favorite quote. My favorite design was this paisley one but in the end, the quote won out.

I added extra checklist pages; 14 pages total for $5 (it's free for the first 7), and an extra sheet protector; 2 total for $1.50. I haven't decided for sure yet if I'm going to use the checklist pages to keep grades but I wanted to at least have that option if I decide to.

I'm really glad I got the extra sheet protectors. I printed my frameworks in a condensed format and put them in the sheet protectors so I can have them for quick reference. Now that I have it, I wish I had got two more. I have my Art I and Art History I frameworks printed and put in the pockets and I wish I had two more for my 8th Grade Art and Art History II frameworks too.

I also decided to get some accessories since the planner was 25% off! I got a three pack of the band to hold it closed, the adhesive pen holder, and a (free) teacher t-shirt. The t-shirt was free because I spent more that $75 before I used the coupon code. However, when it came in, there was no t-shirt. I contacted and they got back to me within a few hours to say that they were so sorry and that they had run out of t-shirts before my order shipped and offered to give me a $15 gift card which I happily accepted. It will stack with my $10 coupon code so I have $25 to spend on anything on the website. I really wanted the t-shirt but if that's not an option, I'm totally happy to get store credit instead. They were super nice about it.

If you're already considering an Erin Condren teacher planner, I'm sure you've seen the walk through on a million sites so I'll just give you a quick view with a couple of thoughts with how they'll work for secondary art. 

Lesson planning pages. I'm going to use these to write a quick description of what we're going to accomplish that day as well as the main framework I'll be addressing. Since I only have six classes a day, I'll section off the last column and use it as a to do list/daily tasks, etc. 

Missed you while you were away. Don't know if I'll use this. I may start off the year trying to see if I like them. My gut tells me that with as many classes as I'll teach throughout the year, it will just be a waste of time to try to keep up with absences in my planner and on the computer. I may use it only for keeping up with absences just on test/quiz and critique days but not work days. I'll let you know. 

Year at a glance. I'll definitely be using this page to jot down project ideas that I know I want to accomplish each month as well as major things like Youth Art Month and art contests. 

Graph paper. OMG. Graph paper is a doodlers dream. I love graph paper. I intend to make some seating charts for my classes I have all year (Art I and Art History). For my 8th graders, I may do two seating charts to a page or print them and keep them in my Keep It Together folder and use the graph paper for other purposes. 

Here's the sticker sheets that come with the teacher planner. Geared much more for elementary teacher in my opinion. I'm planning on making or buying some of my own that fit my needs a little more. 

Instagram photo of some of the work I've done on it so far.  

If you're interested in getting an Erin Condren Lesson Planner or any other EC product, you can use my referral link, and we'll both get a coupon for $10 off!

Do you use an Erin Condren planner as an art teacher or secondary teacher? What are your thoughts? What pages have repurposed to be more useful for you?

Kelsey

Disclaimer: I wrote this post because I love my Erin Condren planner. I did not receive anything for posting this. If you follow my referral link above, we will both receive a $10 coupon code via email, the same as any other EC customer would if they shared their referral link. Once you have set up an account, you will have your own referral link that you can share with others.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are my favorite. They were my flowers at my wedding. They're all over my house. So Vincent Van Gogh's sunflower series is one of my favorite things to teach. This was one of my favorite kindergarten projects last year and since who knows when I'll be teaching kindergarten again, I brought it back this year.

I start by showing the kids this picture and talking about sunflowers. We talk about the parts of the flowers; stems, petals, etc. Then we talk about what else is in the picture; background, vase, table. I also tell my kids that the artist who made this artwork is Vincent Van Gogh and at the end of class, I'm going to see if anyone can remember his name and they might get a prize. 

Once the kids get to the tables, I pick some little helpers to pass out supplies. Each kid gets one of each of the following:

• Scissors
• Glue stick
• 9x12" turquoise paper
• 9x6" Orange paper (last year I had a perfect tan color to make the vase but I guess I forgot to order it this year :( )
• 9x6" yellow paper
• 3x6" green paper
• 3x2" black paper
• 9x2" brown paper

After everything is passed out, we all start together. I don't always love follow-along projects (what I call "Pinterest Projects") but this one ends up with tons of variety even when we all make them together.

First, glue the brown rectangle to the bottom of the turquoise paper. 

Next fold the orange paper in half long ways (hotdog) and cut out a vase. We talk a tiny bit about symmetry here but I don't spend a ton of time on it. 

Then I ask my kids to point to the bottom of their vase and then the middle and then the top. We only put glue on the bottom and middle and then glue it on the brown rectangle. 

This is the part when it starts to get fun/stressful depending on the kid. We put our scissors up. We're done. No more scissors. We use our fingers to tear green stems and glue them behind the vase and then tear yellow circleish shapes and glue them to the top of the stems. And lastly, we tear tiny black circles to glue in the middle of the yellow circles.  

 And we're done. This is just one example of how they can turn out. Each kid has really unique flowers, even if the other elements are similar. 

Do you have any projects that you just love to teach that you always bring back year after year? Does anyone else have students that FREAK OUT when they have to tear paper instead of using scissors??

Kelsey