I Switched to a Google Slides Teaching Planner and You Should Too

If you're anything like me, you have really good intentions when it comes to your teaching planner. Cute papers, decorative fonts, and flair pens all get you really excited to write in your planner. But if you're also like me, December rolls around and you don't even know where your planner is, let alone what day it is.

Like I said, I have really good intentions with my planners. I have a pile of them from every year. They all look the same: Super detailed and color-coded in September, bullet points in October, Post-It Notes in November, "planner who??" in December.

I've tried Planbook, customizable planners on TpT (I even made one here if that's your jam), $50+ Erin Condren planners, and they all yield the same results for me. I thought I was a lost cause when it came to planners. There's something to be said for teachers because most of us can change on the fly or wing it from time to time, but I was starting to feel like a hot mess.

Now entering the chat: Google slides. I was fed up with planners but also my lack of planning and needed a place where I could organize my week quickly and hassle free. I'm on Google docs and slides for teaching all the time anyways, so one day I wrote down my plans on a slide. Guys. This was a game changer for me! First of all, Google slides is free. It's also user friendly, quick, simple, and made sense for my life.

Here's how I did it:

1. I created a slide with a table.

2. Days of the week go across horizontally, subjects go down vertically.

3. This acts as my 'master copy' and I duplicate it to create a slide for each new week. (new slide = new week).

4. Quick type in a target and lesson for the day, specials, extra happenings, etc.

5. Add some links to videos or resources I want to use.

6. That's literally it!

This probably sounds so brainless and simple (because it is) but it has seriously been life changing for me. I'm on my laptop frequently throughout the day anyways, so to be able to quick pull up my plans and edit them is so convenient. I went from hardly ever planning to planning all the time! I went from a planning peasant to a planning queen!

I've shared this with so many of my colleagues and teacher friends and they've loved it! They customize it for themselves and what works for them. Get my template in my TPT store HERE! Happy planning!