It's been a hot minute or two

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 The start of this school year has actually gone pretty well. There were some bumps in the road but things are smoothing out. 

1st bump:  I have not taught freshmen in 3 or 4 years. They are different. They are far more like middle schoolers than they are like upper classmen. It took me a few weeks to figure that out but I think I've got it now and things are getting better. 

2nd bump: Covid. We had a lot of students out in the first few weeks for quarantine or waiting on tests or whatever and it had developed into a huge problem on how to handle assignments for them. I have worked it out, it's not perfect, but it's working. 

3rd bump and the reason for this post: My teacher planner is not working. I bought a bullet journal over the summer because I don't like most of the teacher planner layouts. I'm on a block schedule and they just don't really work for me. I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted in a planner and I thought I had a pretty good design. Used it for a few weeks and realized that I wasn't completely happy with it and altered it a bit. Now I've used the altered one for a few weeks and I'm still not thrilled with it. So I decided that I needed to do some journaling and try to figure out what exactly I want in a planner and how to go about getting that. 

So let's begin. First I need a place to not only keep notes on the lessons so I know what I'm doing, but I also want a place to make notes after a lesson so that I remember for next year. 

Second, I need to be able to make notes on the individual classes as sometimes we will do something slightly different in each class and I want to remember that.  Also, I would like a space to note absences and behavior issues so that I have a record of it. 

Thirdly, I need a place to note my meetings and events so that I am aware of them. 

So I'm honestly thinking that maybe a planner with a before school area at the top, an afterschool area at the bottom and the blocks in the middle (btw - this is vertical planner) would actually work best for me. But I want the blocks to be large enough to write in. 

I just played with the planner for a little bit and seriously could not come up with something I am happy with. I think what I need to do is put all my lesson plans online - god, I hate that - and use my planner only for keeping notes in. Of course, if I just make notes on the lesson - how it went, what worked, what didn't, and behavior - there would be enough room in there for what I need. Then I could transfer the lesson information to the online lessons at the end of the day or two days. 

So it looks like it's back to chalk - which I love anyway - and going to kind of repurpose my planner slightly. 

I think I can make this work. I just need to be very disciplined in entering things in chalk. I can do this. 

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