#computertoo

This app will CHANGE YOUR LIFE as a teacher. While it was originally only a website and iPad app, it has recently become an iPhone app. Let me tell you, planning for me as a student teacher was ridiculously hard. I struggled with it a lot in the beginning. My most recent mentor teacher really helped me figure out how to plan not only for the next class, but several weeks in advance. 

The one thing about planning in advance, is that you can’t, and won’t, always make a lesson that’s perfect for your classes. What might work well for 2nd period, might fall flat in 3rd. This is where Planboard swoops in to save you. Like many beginning teachers, I planned my units out on school/teacher preparation templates. While these templates helped me incorporate guided instruction, guided practice, the hook, etc. they weren’t the easiest to differentiate with. It was also a tedious and time consuming act to navigate between one or more template to make sure that an observer or administrator had the right template. For my own benefit, Planboard was MY scheduling tool. It helped me to edit my plans and write them out in a way that I understood it. It would also send me emails to tell me if I had planned for the next day or not. I was able to set up specific periods and either copy and paste the same plan or differentiate as needed. 

I didn’t get the chance to utilize the app as much as I would have liked to because it only came out recently. But, (if you have data on your phone or access to wifi) YOU CAN PLAN on your commute. So every time you are in line for coffee, while in the bathroom (gross but efficient), wherever you are required to wait you can get your planning done! This should hopefully give you some extra time to grade. I know I always needed it.