As a teacher for more years than I care to admit, I have a number of favorite and often used apps to help me manage the classroom.
Today’s students are more technologically savvy than in years past, and many carry smartphones and tablets in addition to a personal computer. That means teachers need to keep up and a digital planner is a good place to start.
Planning With Planbook
An app that caught my attention shortly after the Mac App Store opened is Planbook. It’s a lesson planning app for teachers in the classroom.
Using just your Mac, Planbook lets you plan classroom lessons, create and attach handouts for students, track specific lesson standards and use an online service for students and parents.
Planbook gives you the option to enter up to 15 classes a day in a scheduling system that matches your school’s schedule.
That means it’s good for A/B schedules, rotating schedules, and more. Once created, lessons can be moved forward or backwards in the plan as you adjust to changes in the classroom or curriculum.
Reports on a lesson can be printed for students, substitute teachers, students who were absent for a length of time, or even for administrators.
At first glance, Planbook looks a bit like Calendar but with options and event entries more suitable for a classroom and courses.
There are entry locations in the app for multiple courses and classrooms, assignments, basic lesson standards, and a quick click view of each day, week, or month.
Planbook comes with filled in sample Planbook file so you can see how it’s done.
The real work, of course, is filling in the lesson plan. Planbook gives teachers the space, but won’t do the work for you.
Lesson plans are shareable, too. Save as a PDF, print, or email a PDF lesson plan to students, other teachers, parents, or administrators.
The Planbook Connect website is an online location where teachers can share lesson plans and assignments with parents and students. Setup is simple and the account is free.
Planbook is a useful tool, but still requires old fashioned elbow grease to get the lesson plans created and saved.
