Paper vs. Digital Lesson Planning: Why I’d Pick Common Planner Every Time

Most of us at Common Planner were former teachers, and we all used paper planners at some point. Lori, our Head of School Sales & Support, still has hers tucked away for safe keeping. We know what we liked about paper planners and what we didn’t. This post is for anyone who’s ever wondered if switching to a digital planbook like Common Planner is actually worth it, and why I think it is.

If You Love Your Paper Planner, I Get It

There really is something exciting about a brand-new teacher planner at the beginning of the year—or just planners in general. I’ve got a stack of them I never use. Oops. You pick it out, make it cute, grab the highlighters (maybe stickers even??), and get everything set up exactly how you want it. But once school gets started, paper planning gets a lot less cute.

And your planner isn’t just for holding lesson plans. It’s holding reminders, meeting notes, things you can’t forget, and all the random things that keep each day flowing. Then the week changes (snow day? lesson ran long?), and now the thing that was supposed to keep you organized is making more work…

That is why I’d pick Common Planner over a paper planner any day. What you want is a planbook that can easily adjust with you (like in a few seconds!) instead of making you redo and rewrite things.

Move Your Lessons Without Rewriting Everything

Let’s say Monday’s lesson runs long. In a paper planner, you’re crossing things out, squeezing things in, and trying to make the rest of the week fit. In Common Planner, you can just move your lessons forward with a couple of clicks and keep on going. I know, pretty darn cool if you ask me.

This is awesome when:

• students need more time
• you lose a day to a snow day or unexpected absence
• long assembly or someone pulled the fire alarm

Instead of reworking the whole week, you can adjust it in a couple clicks. That way your planbook stays nice and clean, and you do not have to waste time rewriting what you already planned.

Plan Ahead Without the “This Is Going to Mess Everything Up” Feeling

When you know your plans are easy to adjust, it feels a lot safer to plan farther ahead. You are not stuck thinking, “Why would I build this out now if I am just going to have to redo it later?”

In Common Planner, nothing is permanent. You can update your plans as the week changes, and it won’t screw up everything you’ve planned ahead. That makes it a lot easier to use a good planning day to the fullest when you have one.

Reuse What You Already Built

With paper, you are basically starting over every year. Even if last year’s lessons were great, you are still rewriting them into a new planner. That gets old fast. Very fast.

In Common Planner, you can copy your planbook from year to year. So when a new school year starts, you can reuse what you already made, update what needs to change, and move on with your life. This opens up time for improving the lesson every year and differentiating it so it works for the current year’s students.

Keep Your Materials with Your Lesson

One of the most annoying things about paper planning (at least for me it was) is that your plan is in one place, but your materials are everywhere else. Your slides are in a Google Drive folder, your handout is in a filing cabinet, and the link you need is in one of your 23 open tabs.

In Common Planner, you can keep your lesson and your materials together, always. That way when it’s time to teach, you’re not doing a scavenger hunt. You pull up the lesson and you’ve got everything you need, even if it’s 5 years down the line.

Make It Feel Like Your Planner

If part of what you love about a paper planner is that it feels personal (and fun!), you can still have that in Common Planner. You can customize your planbook with:

• colors for each class
• color choices for text and highlighting
• built-in background options (100+!)
• your own custom background uploads
• use emojis! (sorry, not sorry stickers)

That way it still feels like your planner (and cute!), just without all the erasing and crossing things out.

Why I’d Choose Common Planner

If paper planning really does work for you, I get it—do your thing. But if you are tired of rewriting lessons, starting over every year, or hunting for materials when it is time to teach, Common Planner makes that whole process pretty stinkin’ easy. You can adjust plans quickly, reuse what you already built, and keep everything in one place.

Try It in Your Own Planbook

Try planning one week in Common Planner, then pretend you had a snow day. Move your lessons forward and see how quick it is!