Our Purpose

Our goal is to provide a spot for tested, successful, and meaningful activities for practical teachers to utilize. Look for these regular features in addition to weekly blog posts: Tech. Tip Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday (quote or picture with no additional narrative), Doodad Day (reviews of items we use in the classroom).


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Plan Book

Well, I recently purchased a birthday poster from ReallyGoodStuff and a Literacy board game from LakeShore - so, I don't suppose it's too early to talk about a plan book?!  As you begin to think about 2013-2014 SY, I want to share a electronic plan book I discovered in April.  Everyone I show it to gets excited about the possibilities it offers.

In the past, I have used the spiral bound plan book, and I have even attested I like to handwrite my plans.  Obviously some electronic versions have perks, so I began to use a template I built as a table within Microsoft Word.  Then this past April, a teammate came to me with contagious excitement - she found  www.Planbook.com !  I was using it within a week, as part of 30 day FREE trial.  And I mean free - no personal information or credit card needed.  By the end of April, I became a paying member, but I cannot express my willingness to pay $13 a year.  Yes, per year.  

Favorite features:

  • Readily available at home, work, phone, iPad, etc.  (just need internet access)
  • Color code choices (we all like a pretty plan book, right?)
  • Template feature (type in those repetitive lesson parts, or consistent items such as lunch, just one time!)
  • You have the ability to bump a lesson (and all following) one day forward, move it to next week, etc.
  • If a planned lesson takes longer than expected, hit the extend button and it will move following lessons ahead a day (or more if you choose)
  • You can attach documents, SmartNotebooks, etc. to the lessons.
  • Next year, the lessons are there to move forward - attachments and all.
  • Minimize on your interactive whiteboard, and have ability to hot link to referenced websites or open attachments for viewing.
  • You can share plans with colleague, students, Administration by giving them your 'read only' password.  Or give your personal password to a colleague for joint access or co-planning.  
  • Customer service is outstanding!  I spoke with a real person and they helped me with a technical problem - pleasantly and quickly.
I'd recommend you use a day of your summer to poke around this site, maybe even try out the free trial.  I love it!

1 comment:

  1. I absolutely LOVE planbook.com. I've played around with it and plan to fully utilize it for the upcoming school year. Thanks for sharing :)

    ReplyDelete