PGCE Planner & Diary

Organisation is absolutely KEY in your Teacher Training year because there is so much going on all the time! You've got your assignments, your lectures, your lesson planning, working out when you're teaching and when staff meetings are - there is a LOT to manage. So that's why during my PGCE year I invested in two forms of planners to keep me in check, and it has saved my life!

Now you're probably wondering why on earth I really needed two planners, and in all honesty that probably isn't necessary for everyone, but it worked perfectly for me! The main reason for this is that I used my diary to keep up to date with what times I had lectures, specifically what lessons I was teaching when on placement and also as a place to keep all important dates, times and meetings in so it was all in one place. I also used my diary as my go to place for to do lists for the week. I often had daily to do lists too which sometimes went in here, but I mainly used it for my weekly lists to keep me in check!

I used a TK Maxx 'planner' as my dairy because it has so many useful sections and is laid out week by week with monthly overviews too! Each week it has little sections such as: 'top priorities for the week', 'doodle it out', 'small victories this week' and 'coming up next week'. I love all of these extras and used them every week! It is a 'Punch Studios' planner.

 Of course, I also used a Positive Teacher Company Trainee Planner too!

This was ideal for thinking of ideas for weekly planning on placement and for organising my lessons and ideas. I bought a 24 week planner as my course involved 3 placements, one 4 weeks and two 8 weeks. This therefore left me the right amount of pages for 'daily planning' for all three of my placements. However, you can buy a planner for each of your placements so they are separate! 

I loved that there were 'Targets for Development' pages as this was a great space to write in my targets and the actions I planned to take to reach them. There was lots of space for actions and to do lists for what needed to be completed on placement! There was a calendar section with each month nicely spread across two pages, giving lots of room for key dates. You could easily use this as you 'diary' section if you don't feel the need to have a separate diary like I did!

 Groups pages were helpful in writing down where everyone sat and how they were grouped! There were also pages for pupil focus which was ideal for me as we had to focus on three children in each placement and say how we would help them to progress.

There is a really handy 'This Placement..' double spread page where you can mind map your own ideas, resources and things to do on placement which I loved!

 

This was how I used the daily planning sections in my first placement and the start of my second placement where I didn't need a whole page for daily planning due to only teaching a few lessons a week. I then utilised the format so that it became my weekly planning pages instead! This worked well for me because I used each section to write down either what group work I had to plan, notes from observations I had taken or planning ideas for the lessons I would be teaching. I also used the 'Meetings' section at the back to make all of my staff meeting notes on placements.

 

As the weeks went on and I began teaching more lessons than one a day on placement, I started to use the daily planning sections as days rather than weeks. However, as COVID-19 hit, I was unable to go on my final placement. This meant my PGCE work all turned to online. I then utilised the daily planning pages in my TPTC planner to plan out what work I would do each day! 

 

 

I highly recommend both of these planners and don't know how I would've managed my PGCE year without them! Being organised is so important and will honestly be your saviour.