Happy Tuesday! Today kicks off a summer blog series called, Back to School Basics. It’s easy for August to sneak up on you and kick your booty! This summer I want to help you be ready without sacrificing any of your precious summer! Each week I will give you a tiny task to accomplish and some resources to do it! Let’t get right to it! 

This week’s task is to set up your 2018-2019 school year calendar and for Pete’s sake, choose something that works for you! 

1. Pick a system, any system! I have tried a million different calendars, teacher planners and apps. At one point I even tried keeping a personal planner and teacher planner and that was just silly! Honestly, I have to turn my lesson plans in online so it’s a total waste of time for me to write them! The best system for me is using one planner for everything.  My favorite is The Happy Planner! This year I am using the Mini Planner because it’s the perfect size to throw in my purse or teacher bag!

I still like having an actual paper planner because I like to write things down and keep other notes, business cards, lists in it too. So be honest with yourself, if you buy a planner every single year and never use it past September; don’t buy one! Do what works for your in real life, even if it’s not super cute! If you do like using a paper planner, here are a few things I like to use in my planner…

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2. Print out a copy of your district’s calendar and add the dates to your calendar. You know you want to start counting down the days til Christmas break! If you keep a paper planner, print a smaller copy of the calendar and use washi tape to tape it in so you always have it handy. 

3. Add birthdays and any other important dates! Don’t forget about your teammates or any other important people in the school that you might want to remember! This year I started typing important dates by month and then just printing them out because they don’t change year to year! 

4. What else is going on?  Weddings? Vacations? Do you need a substitute? What about professional development? Make note of anything else coming up! It will feel so good to have everything on the calendar! Plus it can’t sneak up!