Tool Kit #4
Planboard App
Resource: Planboard App
How to access this resource:
· Follow this link: https://www.planboardapp.com/
· Access my blog: http://evaneyk.weebly.com/ and check out Tool Kit #4
This is a view of one day:
Summary
What? Planboard is a digital planning tool that helps teachers manage their lesson planning, organize their schedules and integrate tracking standards and outcomes. This tool is FREE, allows you to organize and personalize your schedule. Collaboration features allow you to share lesson plans with other teachers, access shared lessons and search for lessons by keyword.
How? Setting up Planboard is easy and very user-friendly. Once you have registered, you can access this tool online from home and school. The day plan feature allows you to customize your timetable to reflect your unique teaching assignment, including colour-coding your classes for a seamless, visually appealing calendar. Teachers from elementary to secondary can use this tool to efficiently organize their day plans in a simplified manner. No longer requiring any paper documentation that is time consuming and constantly in flux.
Why? Simplify your planning, reduce the time spent on hand written paper-documents that are subject to change, easily shared, upload necessary documents for specific lessons, incorporate standards, learning targets and outcomes, create and build your own outcomes and targets.
Going paperless? This tool frees you from lugging around a coffee-stained tomb of whiteout filled pages. Reminders can be added on the sticky-note feature to ensure you attend to all those important responsibilities and meetings.
Require a guest teacher? Your plans are already made and simply need to be shared with the guest teacher.
Choose from the daily, weekly, or monthly view to balance short and long range planning with ease. Plans change—Planboard keeps your planning neat and tidy in one location. You can copy and paste your work, upload your files as needed and link digital resources to your Planboard. Work smarter, NOT harder!
Who? Teachers and educators that are constantly on the go in busy classrooms, schools and division offices. Our days never pan out as we anticipate. Having a streamlined plan is efficient and effective, while allowing for changes without the hassle and, at times, mess that written planning entails. 21st century learners are linked to their devices on a daily basis, and this application facilitates planning using a digital platform that is user-friendly and hassle free.
Are you old-school like me? Love your planners and get excited when you highlight something off that to-do list? I didn’t think a digital planner was for me…until I tried Planboard. The setup was super easy—no frustration at all, which is usually when I throw in the towel! I was really excited to share with colleagues who have all given rave reviews.
Why I chose this resource:
Many of the tool kit items I have explored were student-centered and I was looking for something to share that served educators themselves. While creating a student centered environment is critical to implementing inclusive practices, we cannot forget to support ourselves too. We can only serve our students as well as we prepare ourselves, and a Universal Planning Tool, such a Planboard, fulfills many of the criteria. Furthermore, the planning practices vary so drastically from teacher to teacher, that I wanted to share something that can accommodate and fulfill the needs of a wider variety of educators (coaches, learning support staff, administration, EAs etc.) The personalization features of this tool are so numerous that anyone in an educational setting could find it quite beneficial. Planboard can really be as detailed or simplified as you would like it to be. Additionally, Planboard is financially beneficial. I have experienced working in schools where thick, heavy planning books were provided to all teachers (huge cost and blow to the budget right there) and who fills out the whole thing by the end of June anyways? It seems these planners are made to last 3 years while their pre-printed dates are limiting. I have also purchased a plethora of planning tools of my own, some blank and requiring weekly addition of dates and times—inefficient and time consuming, others filled with useless pages of archaic assessment pages that do not reflect my practice. Planboard—being FREE is a great bonus as it does not impact our personal budgets either.
Affordances
· User friendly
· FREE
· Malleable—it can accommodate a wide variety of educators in multiple capacities
· Digital--access to personal device (iPad, computer, tablet) required
· Neat and efficient
· Standards, curricular outcomes are built in
· Collaborative functions
· Easy to personalize
· Designed with the teacher in mind—features are classroom friendly!
· Accessible from anywhere
· Colour-coded classes
· Rotating schedules
Constraints
· Digital platform—requires internet access and access to personal device (computer, iPad, tablet)
· Alberta curriculum is not built in, but can be added as personal standards
· No place to doodle :)
· Requires flexibility and willingness to try a new tool
· Moderate learning curve if uncomfortable with digital tools
· Learners who prefer a paper and pencil format might not find this tool a good fit
· Security concerns—cannot track student data in the same location
· Does not link to digital tools already in place (ie: Google Drive)
Putting this tool in place
Essentially utilizing this tool comes down to personal preference. I would highly recommend exploring its functions further, however it is not necessarily something that can or should be implemented across an entire school or division. For those interesting in exploring further, it would require access to internet and a computer or personal device. Establishing a degree of comfort with using a digital application planning tool is essential to the implementation of this resource. If the teacher/educator is not at ease using the resource, or has limited access to internet or personal device, the effort required to make this application a fluid part of the planning process risks becoming frustrating or difficult for the user. Reliable access to internet it critical.
Administration who support digital applications and encourage paper-less practices would be requisite. For a new teacher, or pre-service teacher candidate the approval of their teacher advisors would be helpful as they would be able to share their planning and could collaborate throughout placements and teaching practicums. During an evaluative year, teachers who implement the program could share their lesson planning with their evaluator, therefore support from administration would be valuable in this instance as well.
Overall, the Planboard App is helpful in meeting the needs of educators who hold a variety of positions within the education system and can perform to the specifications and needs of each individual. It is Universal in its design as it can satisfy the planning and collaborative needs of many teachers who seek a streamlined and user-friendly organizational tool.
How to access this resource:
· Follow this link: https://www.planboardapp.com/
· Access my blog: http://evaneyk.weebly.com/ and check out Tool Kit #4
This is a view of one day:
Summary
What? Planboard is a digital planning tool that helps teachers manage their lesson planning, organize their schedules and integrate tracking standards and outcomes. This tool is FREE, allows you to organize and personalize your schedule. Collaboration features allow you to share lesson plans with other teachers, access shared lessons and search for lessons by keyword.
How? Setting up Planboard is easy and very user-friendly. Once you have registered, you can access this tool online from home and school. The day plan feature allows you to customize your timetable to reflect your unique teaching assignment, including colour-coding your classes for a seamless, visually appealing calendar. Teachers from elementary to secondary can use this tool to efficiently organize their day plans in a simplified manner. No longer requiring any paper documentation that is time consuming and constantly in flux.
Why? Simplify your planning, reduce the time spent on hand written paper-documents that are subject to change, easily shared, upload necessary documents for specific lessons, incorporate standards, learning targets and outcomes, create and build your own outcomes and targets.
Going paperless? This tool frees you from lugging around a coffee-stained tomb of whiteout filled pages. Reminders can be added on the sticky-note feature to ensure you attend to all those important responsibilities and meetings.
Require a guest teacher? Your plans are already made and simply need to be shared with the guest teacher.
Choose from the daily, weekly, or monthly view to balance short and long range planning with ease. Plans change—Planboard keeps your planning neat and tidy in one location. You can copy and paste your work, upload your files as needed and link digital resources to your Planboard. Work smarter, NOT harder!
Who? Teachers and educators that are constantly on the go in busy classrooms, schools and division offices. Our days never pan out as we anticipate. Having a streamlined plan is efficient and effective, while allowing for changes without the hassle and, at times, mess that written planning entails. 21st century learners are linked to their devices on a daily basis, and this application facilitates planning using a digital platform that is user-friendly and hassle free.
Are you old-school like me? Love your planners and get excited when you highlight something off that to-do list? I didn’t think a digital planner was for me…until I tried Planboard. The setup was super easy—no frustration at all, which is usually when I throw in the towel! I was really excited to share with colleagues who have all given rave reviews.
Why I chose this resource:
Many of the tool kit items I have explored were student-centered and I was looking for something to share that served educators themselves. While creating a student centered environment is critical to implementing inclusive practices, we cannot forget to support ourselves too. We can only serve our students as well as we prepare ourselves, and a Universal Planning Tool, such a Planboard, fulfills many of the criteria. Furthermore, the planning practices vary so drastically from teacher to teacher, that I wanted to share something that can accommodate and fulfill the needs of a wider variety of educators (coaches, learning support staff, administration, EAs etc.) The personalization features of this tool are so numerous that anyone in an educational setting could find it quite beneficial. Planboard can really be as detailed or simplified as you would like it to be. Additionally, Planboard is financially beneficial. I have experienced working in schools where thick, heavy planning books were provided to all teachers (huge cost and blow to the budget right there) and who fills out the whole thing by the end of June anyways? It seems these planners are made to last 3 years while their pre-printed dates are limiting. I have also purchased a plethora of planning tools of my own, some blank and requiring weekly addition of dates and times—inefficient and time consuming, others filled with useless pages of archaic assessment pages that do not reflect my practice. Planboard—being FREE is a great bonus as it does not impact our personal budgets either.
Affordances
· User friendly
· FREE
· Malleable—it can accommodate a wide variety of educators in multiple capacities
· Digital--access to personal device (iPad, computer, tablet) required
· Neat and efficient
· Standards, curricular outcomes are built in
· Collaborative functions
· Easy to personalize
· Designed with the teacher in mind—features are classroom friendly!
· Accessible from anywhere
· Colour-coded classes
· Rotating schedules
Constraints
· Digital platform—requires internet access and access to personal device (computer, iPad, tablet)
· Alberta curriculum is not built in, but can be added as personal standards
· No place to doodle :)
· Requires flexibility and willingness to try a new tool
· Moderate learning curve if uncomfortable with digital tools
· Learners who prefer a paper and pencil format might not find this tool a good fit
· Security concerns—cannot track student data in the same location
· Does not link to digital tools already in place (ie: Google Drive)
Putting this tool in place
Essentially utilizing this tool comes down to personal preference. I would highly recommend exploring its functions further, however it is not necessarily something that can or should be implemented across an entire school or division. For those interesting in exploring further, it would require access to internet and a computer or personal device. Establishing a degree of comfort with using a digital application planning tool is essential to the implementation of this resource. If the teacher/educator is not at ease using the resource, or has limited access to internet or personal device, the effort required to make this application a fluid part of the planning process risks becoming frustrating or difficult for the user. Reliable access to internet it critical.
Administration who support digital applications and encourage paper-less practices would be requisite. For a new teacher, or pre-service teacher candidate the approval of their teacher advisors would be helpful as they would be able to share their planning and could collaborate throughout placements and teaching practicums. During an evaluative year, teachers who implement the program could share their lesson planning with their evaluator, therefore support from administration would be valuable in this instance as well.
Overall, the Planboard App is helpful in meeting the needs of educators who hold a variety of positions within the education system and can perform to the specifications and needs of each individual. It is Universal in its design as it can satisfy the planning and collaborative needs of many teachers who seek a streamlined and user-friendly organizational tool.