Why use student planners in the classroom?

A student planner is a planner given to students in order to create organization and better communication. With these planners being a part of the classroom experience, students are more likely to keep track of their assignments, set personal goals, and enhance communication between teachers, students and parents. The four main ways student planners can enhance learning are as follows:

  1. Improves Organization:Organization does not come easily to most students. It requires a conscious effort and a great deal of planning; qualities that some students lack. Most often students gets confused and frazzled with having to keep up and plan for their many classes, assignments, test dates and so forth. Due to lack of organization, students’ work or grades often suffer.Student planners provide an easy and creative method of taking note of their commitments and deadlines. It gives them a systematic approach to recording necessary information on a daily basis. These are then referred to over the course of time, enabling students to prepare and be ready with their class requirements and activities.Teachers can also assist by using the student planner as an “exit ticket.” In this, students are instructed to have their planners reviewed by the teacher before exiting the class, so as to ensure that they have not missed any vital information.
  2. Tracks Achievements:Student planners allow students to keep track of their goals. They can use the planner to write down their to-do lists and goals. As they accomplish goals throughout the week, they are able to build momentum and get inspired to work harder. Goal setting is a great skill to learn for school work as well as succeeding in life after school.
  3. Enhances Student Responsibility:Having a planner gives students freedom to plan, organize and keep track of their work to the best of their abilities and requirements. This has a dual benefit in that it increases the student’s accountability to the commitments planned as well as provides them with a structure that contributes to their success. Using these planners, students are able to take full responsibility and accountability to complete their work.
  4. Promotes Communication:There is always a chance for miscommunication to take place when conveying information to parents through students.The Use of planners helps to overcome this challenge as it serves as an excellent line of communication between students, parents and teachers.Planners can have a separate section allowing teacher-parent communication. Teachers can write regarding student performance, dates for school activities or about school policies, while parents can use the space to inquire about the student or inform the teacher about any need or difficulty faced by the student.Using student planners in the classroom can help students stay on track and succeed to the best of their ability.

As technology devices become more hand-held and increasingly accessible to all ages and areas of society, a reasonable question that we love to answer from our customers is “Why buy printed planners”
We dove into scientific research on screen reading and writing versus good old fashioned paper and pencil. The process of handwriting uses both visual perception and haptic (sense of touch) skills.

Studies Have Shown

  1. The act of writing the physical letter of a word makes the writing process more intentional and enhances the cognitive and language development
  2.  Some brain imaging studies have shown that certain hand movements in handwriting support the visual recognition of letters.
  3. In typing the hand no longer authentically creates the letters, so haptics is no longer involved in writing the word.
  4. Paper provides a more tactile experience than reading on screens: Research has found that rather than being just a “brain” activity, the brain views the text as a tangible object.

Additional Benefits

  1. Greater flexibility for recording thoughts, sketching out ideas and brainstorming.
  2. Virus and crash-free, and it doesn’t need to be charged!
  3. Better retention of information through written notes.

SOURCE: Success By Design Planners