Planners become part of every student’s toolkit
November 15, 2021
Students received their student planners on Monday, Nov. 1. All students should have received them in their first hour classes.
The need for student planners were brought up in a meeting when a staff member suggested that they needed a way to help students organize their work and to help students not be so stressed from getting assignments done and remembering to do them, said Sutton Casey, language arts teacher.
“It came from some desire to help students struggling with their stress and grades,” said Mrs. Casey.
The student planners weren’t given to the students at the beginning of the year because none of the staff thought that the planners were needed. The staff didn’t anticipate the amount of stress students would have after returning to school after 18 months.
“This was an idea that came as a reaction to how we saw students struggling,” she said.
Mrs. Casey explained the best case scenario that the planners are used for is that teachers will stop class five minutes before class is over and have students write in their planner what they need to complete in that classes. “Ideally each teacher will do that each hour.”
If the student planner is ever lost, Mrs. Casey said that the staff has more planners. “We can provide you [the student] with another one.”
“We certainly don’t want these to become some sort of a punitive punishment if you lose your planner…Communicating with your teacher is a really important tool students need to learn and practice as well as their planners,” she said. “Planners are fantastic tools, but they don’t do any good in the bottom of a backpack, or left on the table, or stashed in a binder.”
“They really need to be an active part of your school day that you’re using and then you’re taking home to remind yourself.”
“I use something like a planner everyday so I know what I need to do to be ready for class the next day,” Mrs. Casey said. “I really hope that students learn to use the planner as a tool to become more scholarly and to experience more success in the classroom and to be eligible for activities.”