When I made Mac's class planner a few weeks ago I couldn't resist starting my own too. During my many semesters as a student, I would make myself a "master syllabus" where I would combine the class schedule, readings and assignments for each class organized by each week. That way I could look at everything I needed to do each week all at once. I had planned to do that now that I am teaching four classes, but I decided I wanted more after putting together a planner for Mac.
I waited until I had my syllabus from my fourth class (that started a couple weeks into the semester) then printed out all four. One of the first assignments in every class was answering a couple of introduction questions and sharing a photo. I made myself "cheat sheet" photo rosters for each class...otherwise I have absolutely no chance at learning 170 students names.
A few pages for notes, a calendar for each month and then a class planning page each week for the rest of the semester. Then I used a photo from my crazy crayon photo shoot for the cover. This was just spiral bound a couple of days ago and has already helped exponentially. I will never, ever teach another semester without one of these things.
