How do you know what you need to prepare for the next week (i.e. have ready for the start of the week, request form the library, etc.)? Do you just look through the scheduler and try to glean what you need to do, have it someplace else (spreadsheet), print a report? I am really liking the Organizer, but need a way to know what to prepare for the next week.
Crystal, do you have a lot of items to prepare? We usually have the same books going for several weeks at a time, so I’m trying o get a feel for how much prep you would be doing.
I use a calendar to mark which week I need request library books (I do this during the planning stage each term). Then I use a teacher planner and write in it a week ahead what lesson we’ll be doing for math or what poems to read etc. That helps me to focus on our week ahead so I can get out our supplies we’ll need for science or what track number for Spanish. If I didn’t have my weekly planner I’d waste a lot of time each day! HTH
I put “Mom” in as a student in the organizer, and put in resources like “start of Term 1”, “midpoint Term 1” etc – to come up on the dates that correspond to that.
You could easily add in “Time to request such-and-such book” with specific dates for things like library requests etc, if you know when you would need it. You might need to adjust the dates now and then if you do things slower or faster than you originally planned…
I don’t have a lot of items to prepare. I look ahead in our math book so see what I need to prepare or know. Most of our other books we own and it takes us awhile to read through them. Mainly, it would be items such as requesting library books (that are scheduled for history) or having a project ready that goes with science, geography, etc. Things that we don’t do daily or that I don’t want to take the time to do after we complete the assignment before. On Saturday or Sunday I like to look ahead at the week and see what’s coming up so nothing catches me by surprise.
thepinkballerina – I appreciate your suggestions. I did have a weekly calendar that I was updating and using in a spreadsheet but it was getting to unweildy, and I was only doing it for one student. I don’t like rewriting things onto a planner when I have already taken the time to enter them into a computer. So I am using the SCM Organizer trial to get past the unwieldy, re-writing issue. And it is meeting my needs.
I guess as I think through it, what would be helpful would be to have a report that I could print of when things fall. For example, the history books would be listed according to start date or use after date. Then I could see where in the cycle we are and what I need to request. I have a spreadsheet that I initially plan at the beginning of the year, but it would be nice to have everything in one place so I’m not flipping from one resource to another.
Here another question that I just ran into as I was inputting. I added project titles to one of my resources. But when I view it in the daily plan, that doesn’t show up. Only “Project 1” shows up instead of “Project 1 – needlepoint sampler”. Is there a way to force the new title to show up?
Is this a resource that you originally had scheduled with only project numbers and just edited to add the project titles? If so, you need to let the Organizer know that you want to use the edited version of the resource now. To do that, go to your Daily Plan or Scheduler and click “edit schedule” beside the title. When it pops into the Scheduler, you should see the new version detailed there. Make any adjustments you need to make, save changes, and you should be good to go.