It’s a good thing, too, because two weeks ago I took a fantastic road trip with my mom. (Note to self: Plan a trip the week after school gets out every year!)

Since we got back, I’ve been cooped up in the house, thanks to the PNW heatwave, and I’ve been surprised to see my mind turn pretty quickly towards prepping for next year. I’m sure part of my compulsion is that I’m teaching at a summer intensive course at the Micha-el Institute next week (you can still sign up!) but I’m also remembering how fun it is to dive into a new subject when I’ve got time to explore and I don’t have Monday morning’s lesson looming large.

So today I’m thinking about the most satisfying way to start your summer planning. 

Finish Your Reports

In general, I recommend finishing your reports before starting your prep. It’s difficult to dive into the planning with wild abandon when you’ve got that big task hanging over your head. 

That said, there have been some years when I have taken a more leisurely approach to my reports. I savor the experience and really live into the process of reflecting over the previous year. There is something to be said for really slowing down and giving each child your undivided attention over the course of the summer. But, the planning really shouldn’t wait that long.

If this is how you like to do it, create a schedule for yourself and do a little of both all summer long. Each day can have a little reflection and a little forward-thinking.

Map Out Your Year

The first thing I do when I start planning is sit down with the school calendar. To get a basic overview of the year, I highlight the breaks and count up how many weeks are between each break. This helps me start to envision where the blocks might go. Here’s what I did for our school year last night.

I tend to think about the school year as chunks of time from break to break, so my next step was to list the blocks and start chunking out that time.

So I wrote out how many weeks total, and then broke those weeks down into blocks. So in that first stretch (September-Thanksgiving Break), we’ve got 11 1/2 weeks, which maps out to two 4-week blocks and one 3 1/2 week block.

From there, I just look at my list of blocks and start slotting them in. I usually decide this based on seasonal projects and the inward vs. outward nature of the content. This year I plan on starting with a 3 1/2 week Botany block. Hooray!

Gather Your Resources

Over the years I have been a big fan of my local library. There is nothing more inspiring than finding the right area of the shelves, browsing the titles, and heading home with a big bag of books. It’s like book shopping — but free! I can’t tell you how many true gems I have found this way.

But I also can’t tell you how many times I couldn’t find a great resource that I remember using before. Just this morning I was desperately trying to remember a fantastic botany coffee table book I used years ago. I searched my order history on my favorite used book site, the local library catalog, and every search term I could think of — no dice. I wish I’d just bought it!

For this reason, a few years ago I decided to bite the bullet and buy all my own resources. Here’s my thinking.

1. Let’s face it. I’m going to be a Waldorf teacher forever. Those books will earn their keep.
2. Used books are cheap, and for some topics, the old books are the best anyway. This year I spent less than $100.
3. School resources get lost and stuck in colleagues’ personal libraries. I’d rather just have my own.

You may think it’s a little early to start gathering resources, especially library books. I mean, won’t you really need them when you’re teaching the block? Well, there are a few reasons to gather your resources now. First, it’s the fun part. There’s nothing that gets me more in the mood to plan than book shopping. I bought my books this morning and it got me so psyched I sat right down and started this post!

But the other reason is that it takes time for those books to get to you. Used books usually come from all over the country and they just take longer, and I’m not about to pay expedited shipping. Library holds also take time. There were a few books that I decided were too expensive to buy, so I’m just getting them from the library. With my name on the list this early, I’m pretty sure I’ll get them before the end of the summer.

But I’m telling you — if I end up loving those library books, I’ll keep an eye on the used book sites so I can add them to my personal library.

And because I’m such a book nerd, here are a few of my can’t miss fifth-grade books (in case that’s what you’re teaching, too). 

• The Plant vols. 1 & 2 by Gilbert Grohmann — I love this one so much I’ve bought it and loaned it out twice.
• Sequoyah’s Gift by Janet Klausner — Such an inspiring story for when you’re teaching the South in North American Geography.
• Buddha by Deepak Chopra — This biography of Buddha reads like a novel. Perfect summer reading.
• The Iron Ring by Lloyd Alexander — A great class reader for the India block.

Some others that I haven’t read (yet) but look promising:

• The Odyssey, translation by Emily Wilson
• The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
• The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wholleben
• Botany for the Artist by Sarah Simblet

So, those are the first things I do when starting my summer prep, and often that’s all I need to get the ball rolling. Once those books start arriving in my mailbox or coming in off my holds list, I can’t help but sit down and get reading. 

If you want more summer planning help, you might be interested in signing up for my annual Summer Productivity Course. It runs from late July through August and is designed to walk you through, step-by-step, the process of getting ready for the year. 

To get on the list to get more information about this course, click here and I’ll keep you in the loop.

The post 🤔 When Do You Start Planning? appeared first on A Waldorf Journey.

I’m switching to Substack.

I’ll go into all of the reasons why in a minute, but here’s the quick and dirty of what it means for you. (Or enter your email above to get all the details.)

What’s happening at Substack?

• Inspirational, practical weekly posts
• Premium content (downloads, coupon codes, etc.)
• Community participation
• Delivered right to your inbox

All for a $10/month subscription fee.

(Or join the free version for a monthly post. But keep reading to understand why you should passionately pay to support your favorite creators.)

Why the change? A few reasons.

A Community of Support

Back in 2010, A Waldorf Journey started as my sweet little corner of the internet where I could write about my teaching, reflect on those experiences and grow from them. I’m a writer at heart and composing those posts was cathartic as it helped me process what I learned in those early days.

But A Waldorf Journey has GROWN. And I’m not complaining. This growth has been oh-so-lovely. I’ve learned so much from this community and I’m filled with gratitude for the courageous, striving teachers, homeschoolers and parents I have met through this blog.

But it’s grown so much that I’ve become cautious about what I post. I don’t share (as much) about my challenges, failures, struggles and questions. I’m even more cautious about sharing the strivings of my students.

And though I hardly ever encounter unfriendly followers, these days I want to surround myself with a community of active supporters. I want the people who consume my work to be just as invested in the growth and development of this community and its members as I am.

I love the idea that by making that little $10/month contribution subscribers are saying, “I’m in. Let’s help each other grow.”

But there are some other aspects of this new platform that appeal to my writer-heart.

Focus on Content, Not Tech or Design

Back in those early days WordPress was NOT an easy platform. But I LOVED the challenge of figuring it out, and I loved expanding my skillset and working on creating beautiful web design. (I was so inspired by this work I actually went back to school in 2015 and got a degree in web design!)

A few things have changed since then.

• WordPress has become easier to use, but also a lot more complex. You should see the back-end of my website! It’s still fairly easy to write a blog post, but there are a lot of moving parts that keep everything looking pretty. Substack, on the other hand, is beautifully simple. Choices are limited, but sometimes limitation inspires the most creativity.
• I’m less interested in spending time to figure everything out. I’m still wooed by lovely design, but these days I just want to focus on the content. I keep coming back to the words I write and the messages they convey. I’m convinced that they’re what really count. Substack isn’t fancy, but it’s a place where words matter. It makes me WANT to sit down and write.
• I’m tired of thinking about internet-y things like SEO, page views, Facebook ads and beating algorithms. These are the tricks of the trade for making a living on the internet, but I’m completely disenchanted with it all. I want to connect with the people behind the metrics, not the metrics themselves.
• I want to write without thinking AT ALL about sales. Though I have the good fortune to write about something I love, the traditional online business game has me constantly figuring out how to weave sales messages and monetization into that content. Substack turns all that on its ear by allowing me to charge for the content itself. No more creepy sales messages finding their way in.

What it all boils down to is that I want to write about what I believe in. And I know there are lots of people out there, like me, who believe in it too. And I’m willing to bet they’re willing to put their money where their heart is.

Compensating Creators

The last reason for this switch is because I want to stand more fully in support of the creative world. There is so much out there — art, films, poetry, essays, photographs, memoirs, music — that make our world a richer place. Much of this content just doesn’t get picked up by publishers and producers. Substack disrupts this traditional model and allows creators to publish (and get paid for) content themselves. Being seen by the world is no longer decided by the powers that be.

If there’s one thing the past year has taught us, it’s that we need to notice and appreciate the gifts that touch our lives. And not just stop, notice and move on, but stand up for, sponsor and celebrate what matters to us. When people are free to write what they believe in and create from the heart, the world becomes a more beautiful place.

I hope you’ll join me in standing up for the creation of something you love and more actively supporting the growth of the other humans who love it too.

Meredith

The post Why I’m Switching to Substack appeared first on A Waldorf Journey.

• The 3rd grade shelter project
• The 4th grade animal project
• The 5th grade state report

We were talking about the best way to support students and parents with these big projects and recognizing that too often teachers assign the project (putting together a nice little document with assignment guidelines and due dates) but they don’t do much to support beyond that. Often students take the assignment home and parents and students are left to figure it out on their own. What ends up happening is that the results are all over the place.

(By the way, make sure you scroll down to get a free sample of my Grade 4 Animal Project Assignment.)

Some kids get a lot (too much?) parent support and their projects and written reports are impeccable examples of mastery.

Other kids don’t get enough support and their reports were written from their own imaginations, without any research.

I’m not sure which situation is worse because, when it comes down to it, students in either situation aren’t learning from the experience.

Just Right Support

So way back when (during my second time teaching fifth grade) I decided that the best way for students to receive the right amount of support was if I provided it. If I was the one providing the scaffolding, I could make sure that students got the help that they needed, without going overboard.

Physical Projects

Now, this is really difficult to do for those physical projects — and I confess that I haven’t yet found a way to support students with those projects myself. At my school, the 3rd grade shelter project and 4th grade animal project are physical projects that are still strongly supported by parents at home. But even with these projects, we can provide experiences that help students realize what they can do and how capable they are.

In 3rd grade, before handing out the shelter project assignment, we had a “shelter building project day” in class. We went out into the park, gathered supplies and worked to build miniature shelters with the materials we found. It was a great experience and really resonated with the message of the shelter block — that shelters are built for protection, using the materials that are on hand.

Though this was a great experience, when it came time for students to build their own shelter projects, the work happened at home, with support from parents, and we encountered some of the difficulties that this scenario creates (varying levels of parent support, varied abilities, etc.)

Years ago, one of my colleagues took on the challenge of having students build their 3rd grade shelters entirely in the classroom. It was an “at school” activity and though some parent volunteers came in, students were mostly on their own.

These days, the shelter project is such an institution at my school, I worried that some families would be sad to miss out on the experience of working on the shelter together.

Written Reports

So, though I feel like my hands are a bit tied with the physical projects, I know that I can structure the written report to create an optimal learning experience.

What I decided to do way back then (and have done for every middle grade report since) is break it down into manageable chunks and give structured assignments that combine to create the written report.

The fifth grade state report is the best example, so I’ll explain using that.

State Report Structure

The first thing I did (after students had chosen their states) was go to the library and check out a state book for every child from the same series. Choosing books from the same series meant that the structure of the resource was the same for every student and students could easily follow my structured assignment (it was right there in their book!).

I chose a state of my own. I picked one that I was pretty sure no one else was going to choose. I settled on North Dakota (no offense to all the North Dakotans out there — I’m sure it’s a lovely place.)

Then, I went through the resource and broke it down into sections. The series I chose broke down into the following:

• Introduction
• Geography and Climate
• History
• The People and Their Work
• A Tour of Your State
• Famous People
• State Facts

Then, for each section, I created an assignment with questions and clear instructions to answer the questions with complete sentences. When students did this, at the end, their sentences could be put together to create their report.

For this report, I gave the assignments in class and they turned them in at the end of the lesson (their resource books stayed in the classroom). I gave a new assignment every other day and on the in-between days they put their corrected assignments in their main lesson books. In 3rd and 4th grade, I gave the assignments as homework. Some students needed parent support to complete the assignments, but because it was chunked out so clearly, many of them could do it entirely independently.

With this clear structure, students were not left to determine their own structure or figure out what information to include. They just worked through the assignments and answered the questions.

This structured approach also helped break a multi-week project down into manageable chunks. This meant that students did not procrastinate and write the whole thing the night before it was due (a sure-fire way to prevent learning.) When I was talking with my colleague about it, she mentioned that she thought this was the most helpful thing about working in this way.

She said that her mind works so that she views projects and activities as either “now” or “not now.” The regular assignments bring a little more “now-ness” to the project.

Working Through a Sample

For the state report, as I mentioned, I did my own report on North Dakota and for each assignment, I read my responses aloud and showed the students how I found those answers. (It really was as simple as turning to the proper page in the state book resource!) I showed them that I read through the section and then put the book away before writing my answers. This helped address plagiarism, though learning how to translate the ideas of others into your own words is a complex process that takes time.

For this year’s animal project, I stumbled upon an even better way to work through an example. I gave students the animal project assignment for the week on Monday and on that same day, as part of our usual lesson, I presented an animal. The next day, for the review portion of our lesson, we worked through the animal project assignment for MY animal. This gave the students a chance to work through the assignment with support, about an animal that we learned about together, before doing it independently about their own animal. They realized how simple it was to answer the questions and almost all of them could do the work entirely independently.

Want to see an example of one of my 4th grade animal project assignments? Enter your email address below and I’ll send it to you.

Does this approach work for everyone?

I will say, this approach to report-writing works really well for students who need plenty of structure and guidance to get the work done. I have had some of my stronger students feel a little frustrated, longing to be more creative and have more freedom with their report.

In general, though, those students will ask for permission to do something differently, and, on a case-by-case basis, you can give them that permission. Still, I believe that even those students benefit from the clarity and structure of a more formal approach.

It’s that whole “between form and freedom” thing.

What are your secret strategies for supporting student project work? I’d love to read about them in the comments!

The post Waldorf Projects and Reports in the Middle Grades appeared first on A Waldorf Journey.

I am an absolute devotee of my paper planner. But I’m also not opposed to finding digital tools that make life easier. (I will always have a digital calendar and I love a good Google Doc.)

So it was only a matter of time before I discovered the online productivity community and tried out some new digital tools. In the past I’ve tried Day One, Evernote, Google Keep and iOS apps like Notes and Reminders, but none of them ever stuck.

Until I found Notion. Notion has changed everything for me. Here’s why.

Problems in Need of a Solution

Here are some of the scenarios that Notion has helped me resolve.

1. When I’m in lesson planning mode (which is pretty much always), I’ve got a zillion tabs open on my computer — lesson content, drawing ideas, phonics rules, etc. All those tabs slow my computer down and if the power goes out or Chrome suddenly crashes, all those links are gone.
2. It’s WAY too difficult to save links in a paper planner. When the alternative is command-C and then command-V, I just can’t be bothered writing out links by hand. So Google Docs were my go-to solution for saving links, but I don’t generally plan my lessons in Google Docs, so the content wasn’t all together and I often forgot about them when it came time to plan my daily lessons.
3. But links aren’t the only part of my planning that are in different places. I’ve got a sketchbook for my yearly and monthly block planning. Then I have a daily planner that has my daily lesson plan. On top of that, I’ve got the documents I created and shared with parents that lay out a map of the year. I need to consult all of them when I’m putting together my weekly and daily lesson plan.
4. When I put together my curriculum guides (available here on the site, shameless plug) I sit down with all of these resources and transcribe them into a pretty layout, inserting images, etc. and it takes a TON of time. With everything else I’ve got going on, it often just doesn’t happen (as those of you who are waiting for my 3rd grade materials can attest.)

Notion to the Rescue

Well, Notion has changed all of that. Here’s a little glimpse at my set-up so you can see how it works for me.

My School Hub

So, starting from a thousand miles up, here is my school hub.

Isn’t it pretty? I love that straight out of the box, Notion pages are just gorgeous. I’ve got a lovely header image, an icon, a quote and a photo. It’s just a delight to visit everyday.

Then, if you look, next to all of those little arrows (those are toggles, by the way) you can see the information I need to access when I’m in school mode. When I click on that little arrow, I’m presented with information that is formatted in a way that works best for that type of content. I like to use toggles so the info is neatly tucked away until I need it. It just makes the page look so much tidier.

• Today’s lesson — a pretty little gallery tile showing an image from today’s lesson plan page
• current block — the drop-down shows a link to my block-planning page. (More about that below.)

lesson plans — a list of lessons, in order, that link to the lesson plan page for each lesson

On the other side of the page, I’ve got other information that I access less frequently.

So that’s the pretty, accessible result that gives me access to all of the content. Now here’s how I go about creating the content.

Block Page

I started out by creating a page about the block. I started taking notes and recording my ideas. I chose a nice image that goes with the block for the top and just started typing my ideas.

Actually, you’ll see that these notes are in the past tense because I started using Notion after this block had already begun. A lot of these ideas are things I wrote about in my sketchbook planner, which is what I use for planning at the block level.

I’m thinking that my notes will include many more references and partially-formed ideas when I am using them to help plan the block (I’ll find out about that this weekend!)_

Lesson Chart

You’ll see that at the bottom of this page there is a chart, or spreadsheet, or, as Notion calls it, a database. Here is where I enter the details about each daily lesson.

Here is where the magic of Notion comes in.

Like any spreadsheet, you can define the columns however you want. You can sort the data by whichever column you choose. You’ll see that my columns are:

• Title (this is the new content)
• Lesson number (this is where the lesson falls in the block)
• Date
• Day of the Week (we tend to have certain review activities on particular days, so it’s good to track this.)
• Review (the review for that day)
• Bookwork (the bookwork for that day)
• Block name

In the image above, I have the database set to sort the content by lesson number.

But remember this page?

This is the same database, but instead of showing the whole list, I have it set to display in “gallery” view and to only show lessons where the “date” property is “today.” This means that today’s lesson automatically appears on my school hub page. Magic.

It’s this same database that displays the list of lessons on my school hub, too.

So cool.

Daily Lessons

Okay, now this is the best part. What do those daily lessons look like?

If you click on a lesson, you have the option to turn it into its own page.

When you turn it into a page, you can use a template that someone else built (there are tons already on Notion) or you can create your own template. That’s what I did. Here’s a screenshot of my daily lesson template (I actually couldn’t fit the whole thing in the shot, but you get the idea.)

First it displays the content of the database columns at the top of the page. (Honestly, I wish it was possible to hide this information and lots of people who use Notion are asking for this functionality.)

But then, I have a general notes section, as well as Resources, Warm-Up, Skills Practice, Review and Bookwork, and New Content.

It’s a pretty basic template, and I know lots of teachers use something similar, but I love that I can insert images, web pages and links to Google Docs (I can even embed them!) and have it all look so beautiful.

So when I’m planning my lessons, especially for this Local Geography block, which is making a lot of use of the internet, I just start researching and every time I find a good website, I just copy and paste it in as a web bookmark (that’s what’s in the Resources section.) I work on filling in that section until the lesson starts to take shape in my mind, and then I fill the new content section with my notes for telling the story.

Types of Content

The other great thing about Notion is the huge variety of types of content you can embed on the pages. You’ve got all the basics:

• text
• bullet list
• image
• heading
• database
• table
  But then there’s so much more:
• toggle list
• block quote
• divider line
• callout text box
• image
• video
• audio
• any kind of file
• web bookmark
  You can also embed all kinds of things:
• Google docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.
• Google maps
• PDFs
• a whole host of other things from apps that I’ve never even heard of.

Sharing Content

And then, get this, you can share any page in a number of ways.

• You can enter the person’s email address and share it directly with them (kind of like a Google Doc.) Great for lesson plans!
• You can share with a team and allow editing privileges. (Not sure I’ll make use of this one.)
• You can create a WEBPAGE out of any Notion page, and determine sharing privileges as you share it to the web. I am SO excited about this, and may just switch to providing my curriculum guides in this format, rather than pdf’s.

Just so you can see what I mean, if you click below you can see today’s lesson plan about the types of bridges in Portland. And if you’ve got a Notion account, you can duplicate the page and use it as your own daily lesson template.

Types of Bridges in Portland Notion Page

On this page, I embedded a couple of videos so I could show my students how one of our local bridges lifts and lowers. You can see how flexible and useful this format is!

This year, with my lessons being taught via Zoom, it just makes sense to put my lessons together this way. When we’re back in the classroom, I’ll probably continue with this format — just because the structure makes my planning so much easier, though I’ll either print out my pages or take more notes in my paper planner, once my lesson plan is complete.

Bringing It All Together

So this is how I use Notion for my lesson planning. But I’m also using it to stay organized in the other aspects of my life. (My handy blog post template is helping me stay organized while I write this post!)

I’ve seen some pretty beautiful life organization pages out there, so I created something I knew I would like looking at each day.

My mfphq page gives me a quick glimpse at all of the different parts of my life. (Further down on the page I’ve got a weekly schedule, tasks and regular meetings.

I also have a student directory (with a page for each student). I’ve got a link to our school directory (which I am always searching my email for!). And I have a delightful little “home” page with all of my big ideas for home improvement projects.

Everything in One Place, Sort Of

Now, I am LOVING Notion, and given that my eventual goal is to share my lesson plans with many of you, it is an absolute no-brainer for me. It completely eliminates the step of reformatting my content. But it’s not the end-all-be-all. Here’s why.

Notion will not replace your calendar. Because it was not designed as a calendar app, it just doesn’t have the same functionality. It will let you view any of your data in a calendar format, but that’s just not the same. Also, these days, when meetings require invites and Zoom links, there’s just no replacement for your Google Calendar.

Notion is fantastic at organizing tasks, letting you connect those tasks to projects and then showing exactly what your next best action should be. You just create databases of projects and tasks and connect them to each other.

And this is great for large, multi-step projects. But for little things, like returning the library books, I don’t necessarily want to go to the effort of assigning it a project or a category. And because Notion doesn’t function offline, it’s not the easiest thing to use when you’re out and about and randomly think of something you need to do.

I’m experimenting with a way of using Notion for these one-off things, because I’m almost always online somehow, but I haven’t formed an opinion on it yet. Lots of people use a different quick and easy app for those little things, or the stuff they think of in the moment, and then bring them in to Notion later.

Finally, there is a bit of a learning curve. Now, I love stuff like this, so I had fun tinkering and figuring it out, but I know plenty of people would not have the patience.

If you’re not a total tech geek like me and just want something quick and easy to organize your life, you probably wouldn’t make enough use of the functionality in Notion to make the learning curve worth it.

On the other hand, there are lots of pre-made templates already in Notion, and people create templates and share them freely. And Notion pages really are beautiful. I honestly enjoy looking at the pages I’ve created and I appreciate how they make my life look just so lovely and organized. And you don’t have to use complex features to receive that benefit.

More Information

If you are curious and you want to learn more, here are a few fantastic Notion resources I found on the web.

The Notion website.

A website called Superorganizers. Lots of blog posts all about Notion.

A Superorganizers blog post all about Ali Abdaal. Ali’s YouTube videos (he used to post about productivity on the iPad Pro, but now posts about all kinds of productivity, including Notion) are what first guided me towards Notion. Notion is really popular among students for note-taking (I can understand why!) and Ali was a medical student when he first started making videos.

But What’s the Point?

At this point in this blog post, I’m reminded of some of the critiques I’ve read of productivity enthusiasts. The critics say that these people (ha, me!) spend so much time on “productivity” that it sort of defeats the purpose. They should just go do the things, not worry so much about organizing the things.

And I get it. But there are a few reasons why I think it is still worthwhile to spend time on productivity. First, it actively enhances my enjoyment of my work (and everyday life.) I enjoy the time I spend getting organized and when I feel organized, I feel good about my work. Second, I do agree that it is important to ask the question, “Is this tool actually saving me time or is it just a distraction?”

Admittedly, at first getting Notion set up was a huge time suck (a fun time suck, but a suck nonetheless.) But now, each morning I just have to look at my HQ page to know what I’ve got going on and to click over to my lesson.

It also means that I can shut my computer down at the end of the day and know that my lesson will be ready and waiting the next day — not hanging on a hundred tabs in Chrome.

And, I will also say, I will never abandon pen and paper completely. I still find that I think and process differently when writing by hand. So my daily lesson planner still comes out. I just take notes in it from my daily Notion page.

What do you think? Do you have any productivity hacks? Any favorite apps? Share in the comments.

The post How Notion Has Completely Transformed My Teaching Life appeared first on A Waldorf Journey.

It’s been a summer FULL of work — no vacation this year — so I’m actually feeling a little ahead of the game. We’re starting out with online learning (another post about that coming soon), and I knew there would be lots to adjust to with that new modality, so I decided to get a good chunk of curriculum planning in the bag early.

Planning for Online

I also decided that, at least when it comes to planning, not to do anything different with curriculum prep. There are some things — different supplies and materials, for example — that require a different approach, but my regular block planning is looking remarkably the same.

I figure I’ll adjust as necessary, but the first step is to get the curriculum map figured out. Luckily, this step is the most fun and I always get excited and enthusiastic about the year to come when I start thinking through the stories.

Thankfully, this year is no different.

Waldorf 4th Grade Blocks

The first step, as always, is to map out the blocks on the school calendar. Here’s the order I’ve got them arranged in this year.

• Local Geography #1
• Norse Mythology #1
• Math #1, The Kalevala
• Human and Animal #1
• Math #2, Introduction to Fractions
• Norse Mythology #2
• Human and Animal #2
• Norse Mythology #3
• Math #3, Simplifying Fractions, Multiplying and Dividing
• Local Geography #2

You’ll see that I like to put the more outward facing blocks on the ends of the year, to allow for field trips (though our capacity in that regard will be pretty limited.

Block Planning

One other change I’ve made this year is that I’ve put together a Block Plan document that shows what the imaginative content, skill content and practice work. In the past, I’ve collected this information for myself and outlined it in my teacher planner, but this year I know that parents are wanting more information so they can track their students’ progress themselves. I actually appreciate the inspiration it’s giving me to get more-organized about the work. I’m hoping it will pay off during the school year when planning time will be much more limited.

The First Block — Local Geography

I’m actually really excited about my Local Geography block and I’m approaching it differently this time around. In the past, I’ve essentially taught a block on the indigenous/native perspective and a block about early settlers (for us that means Lewis and Clark and the founding of Portland.)

This time around, it just didn’t feel right to separate the content this way. I’ve been talking with indigenous teachers about how to approach the topic mindfully and every recommendation has been to incorporate modern perspectives, making sure the students know that the native experience is something that is happening now — not separate from other perspectives.

So, instead, each week I’m telling three different types of stories:

• An indigenous story
• An early settlers story
• A purely geographic/connection with nature story

And I’m breaking up the content by location. For the first block we’ll stay right around Portland; the second block will include the entire state of Oregon.

Field Trips

As I learn about all of the different locations around Portland — some that I’ve never visited before — I’m finding good excuses to go out walking with the dog. We’ve hiked all over this city and I’m getting excited about providing my students with hiking guides that they can explore as a family.

At some point we may be able to explore together in small groups, but we’ll start out with individual family explorations, and I think they’re going to have a lot of fun with it.

Academic Skills

As always, the beginning of the year is full of learning new rhythms and establishing routines and practices. This year of online learning (at least for the beginning of the year, that is) is no different. We’ll be figuring out how to work together online, which will actually be very different than what we did in the spring. (I promise a post all about it is coming soon.)

And though our focus won’t be too much on gaining new academic skills, we will do plenty of review, getting back in the swing of things and writing a report.

All About Me Report

When I went through my notes from last time I taught 4th grade, I saw that I had my students complete an All About Me report. I was new to this group of students, so I used it as a chance to get to know them better.

But it also ties in really well with one aspect of the 4th grade curriculum, which is continuing to support the students’ growing individuality. Being able to locate themselves — in space and time — is an important part of this report and greatly contributes to the development of the 4th grader. It will also give us a chance to explore verb tenses in an organic way, before learning about them more formally in our next block.

At this point — and, really, through 5th grade, reports are strongly guided. I give the students a weekly homework assignment with the questions I want them to answer. I make sure they know to answer the questions in complete sentences and then they put their sentences together in a formal report (after I’ve collected and corrected their homework, that is.)

For this report, each week the homework will have a different theme.

• Week 1: When I was a baby
• Week 2: My friends and family
• Week 3: When I first started school
• Week 4: Who I am now

Each week they’ll get three or four questions that will come together to make up that portion of the report. I’ve been using this structure for report writing for awhile and I find it really helps kids until they start to learn what a report looks like. Then they can start taking on structuring their report themselves. Until then, they’ll be supported by the regular structure of our homework routine, which will break the report down into manageable chunks.

I’m really looking forward to teaching this block (yes, even via Zoom) and I’ll definitely update you once the school year gets rolling.

How’s your summer prep going? Are you ready for the first day?

The post Waldorf Grade 4 Planning appeared first on A Waldorf Journey.

hobonichi for teachers

Because here’s the thing. This little (beloved) planner of mine is something of an acquired taste. And to be honest, there are things about it that make the Hobonichi less-than-perfect for teachers.

But the paper. Oh the paper. And the lovely understated lines and colors. And the fact that you get a page for every day of the year in a thin little book. (Did I mention the paper?) Well, let me give you a little picture of how I use this planner and what I like so much about it.

My Planner Evolution

A few years ago I wrote a post about how I used the Plum Paper Planner and then before that a different post about using a bullet journal to meet all my teacher planning needs.

And I really did like those systems. To this day, those posts are some of my most popular ones. It seems that there are a lot of teachers who love to plan. As much as I loved those systems, you know that if I’ve switched to something else, it’s got to be good.

These days the Hobonichi is my main squeeze. Here’s why.

Tomoe River Paper — the holy grail for the paper aficionado.

Tomoe River Paper is this incredibly strong but delicately thin paper manufactured in Japan. Only a few stationery companies use it in their products, and Hobonichi is the most popular.

What’s so special about this paper? Let me sing its praises.

• The paper is remarkably thin. It’s Bible-in-the-hotel-drawer thin. This means that you can have a book with a TON of pages, that is still thin and lightweight. My Hobonichi planner has a page for every day, in addition to weekly, monthly and yearly spreads (and even a few pages in the back for notes).
• Tomoe River Paper (or TRP, as it is known to its fans) is crazy strong for how thin it is. I’ve NEVER torn a page.
• This paper is also SO smooth! My pen just glides across those pages so easily, which is why fountain pen users really love this paper. It’s truly a pleasure to write on. Of course, the downside is that this means it has a long dry time. You can’t just write with your fountain pen and slap the book shut without having ink on the other side.
• It doesn’t bleed or feather at all. Even though the paper is SO thin — the ink doesn’t come through onto the other side (bleeding). And your written words stay intact without spreading all over the page (feathering). Now, you can see the writing on the backside (this is what we call ghosting) but that’s different than bleeding. And I’ve actually come to like the look of ghosting. It makes me feel like I’ve got a well-used planner and a productive life.

But the paper is just one thing I love about Hobonichi.

The Different Hobonichis

Hobonichi makes several different planners in three different sizes that fit a variety of needs. Which is the best Hobonichi for teachers? Let’s see.

The A6

This little planner was the first that Hobonichi made and these days there are a few different options.

• The Original. This book has yearly, monthly and daily spreads and is almost entirely in Japanese. I get one of these every year and use it for journaling, memory keeping and keeping score in family card games.
• The Original Avec. This is very similar to The Original but the year is divided into two different books.
• The Planner This is very similar to The Original, with a few differences. It has a black, textured cover, is almost entirely in English and has a more subdued color palette. You can get this book with either a Monday or Sunday start on the monthly spread. Last year I used this instead of The Original.
• The Day-Free This book was new last year. It has yearly and monthly spreads, but blank pages instead of dailies.
  

Here are some shots of my wee little a6 planner. It’s my personal planner — the planner of my heart and soul.

The A5

The A5 is called the Cousin and it comes with just a couple of options.

• Cousin This is the basic book. It’s got the entire year in one book with yearly, monthly, weekly and daily spreads (along with some extras.) It also comes in an April start (which corresponds to the Japanese academic calendar.)
• Cousin Avec. This is just like the Cousin, but the book is spread into two books — January-June and July-December. This is the one I get for my teacher planner.
• Day Free. Just like the Cousin, but blank pages instead of dailies.

Here’s a shot of my set of a5 Cousin Avec books (ignore the fact that they’re from two different years.)

The Weeks

The Weeks is the narrow and thin wallet-sized planner. It comes in two styles — the regular Weeks and the Weeks Mega, which is twice as thick because it has a bunch of blank paper at the back.

I bought one this year, thinking it would be good to have something to carry around with me, but I quit using it months ago.

How I Use My Hobonichi Cousin Avec

Okay, so right off the bat I will say that I would MUCH rather have my entire year in one book. This is my BIGGEST compromise when it comes to using the Hobonichi. Hobonichi started splitting the year for people who were filling their journals with artwork and decorations that made the book super-thick by the end of the year. I don’t use it that way, so that’s not my issue. But I don’t want to have a book that has half of third grade and half of fourth grade.

But, Hobonichi does not make a planner that works with the US academic year. The closest they get is the April start, for the Japanese calendar, but those daily pages end on March 31. That just won’t work for me.

So, my workaround is to get the Cousin. Because the split is July 1, it means that this year 3rd grade went into the January-June 2020 book, and 4th grade will go into the July-December 2020 book. It works out. The books for the next calendar year are released in September, so this means that right now as I’m planning 4th grade, I don’t have the book for the second half of the year yet.

It’s terribly inconvenient. But I make it work. I’ll get the 2021 books sometime around the middle of September.

Here are some photos of my third grade Hobonichi so you can see how I use it.

Yearly Spread

I usually use a highlighter to map out my block schedule on this yearly page. I guess I never got around to it this year. (I also make a digital document with my block rotation.)

Another Yearly Spread

This is another yearly layout. I have sometimes used this like an index. If I took notes on a daily page that I want to find later, I’ll the topic on that date here. But, again, you can see that I don’t use it that much.

The Monthly Spread

I use this quite a bit. I usually have a sticky note flag or bookmark on the current monthly page and it’s probably the easiest place to flip open to and write something down quickly.

The Weekly Spread

In this book, all of the monthly spreads are together, followed by all of the weekly spreads. Again, I usually have some sort of marker so I can find the current week easily. But this page gets the most action on Sundays when I map out the week ahead. I generally ignore the time stamps so I can fit in my full schedule.

I usually write a few words about main lesson content — noting the review, new content and bookwork — along with the rest of the class schedule and any current themes. (Oh, and don’t forget the football games.)

The Daily Spread

This is where the magic happens. I write out my main lesson, mostly with bullet points. I’ll often include more notes about the review portion of the lesson, but I usually just write the title of the story I’m telling. Though there is a lot of room on the page, there is not enough room for me to write out my notes for storytelling.

So, I have another book that I use sort of like a bullet journal where I write out notes for the stories, or anything else that won’t fit in my planner.

For this, I use the Hobonichi Notebook.

I have a little canvas cover that holds the current planner and notebook and that’s what I carry to and from school every day (well, back when we were going to school every day.)

I used that notebook all through third grade — writing all kinds of notes and random thoughts, in addition to my daily story — and I still didn’t use every page. I had decided to use up some of the other notebooks I have this year and not purchase another notebook, but now that I take another look at it, I’m not so sure!

What I Don’t Love About the Hobonichi

Now, I’ll preface this section by saying how much I LOVE my Hobonichi. The planning experience is SO pleasant that it makes me want to pull out my planner all the time. It’s made Sunday morning planning one of my favorite times of the week.

But, life is full of compromise, and here’s what I’m sacrificing by staying so devoted to my Hobonichi.

No roster pages. Most teacher planners have a bunch of lined pages at the back where you can write all your students’ names along the side and track grades, attendance, skills, etc. along the grid. I’ve switched to a digital solution for this stuff.

No academic calendar. As described above, they don’t make a planner with dates that perfectly match what I need. My makeshift solution works, but it means that I don’t have the planner for the second half of the year during my summer planning. It also means that I’m only carrying around half of the year with me. The upside is that it means less to carry. The downside is that if it’s October I need to write down something that’s going to happen in March, I won’t have that book with me. (But this almost never happens, so it works out.)

No fancy teacher-specific pages. That Plum Paper Planner I used to use had all kinds of fun teacher pages — sub plans, school contacts, parent communication logs, seating charts — useful stuff. But, you know, even though it was fun to fill those out at the beginning of the year, I hardly ever used them.

In the end, the pleasant writing experience of the Hobonichi has made me a convert. If you’re a paper and pen nerd like me, you might want to give it a try.

But don’t blame me if you find yourself coming up with a purpose for three planners every year. (And don’t join the Facebook group if you don’t want to be tempted.)

The post Hobonichi for Teachers: The Little Planner That Will Make Your Heart Happy. appeared first on A Waldorf Journey.