About a week or so ago, feeling overwhelmed by the length of my to-do list and needing a break from actually accomplishing anything on it, I picked up my iPad and sketched out (what I thought was) a pretty to-do list.

Once I finished, I shared the image above and link to the PDF on twitter just for fun (grab a copy here, if you need a pretty to-do list to make you happier, too). Ms. Ellman (@Msjelleman) responded to my tweet, “I love this. I need to look through what you’ve made more to see if you have something like this for students? I can’t find a good digital student planner that works for my high school students.” I let her know that I’ve never created a student planner, but I’d be willing to try – and then we started collaborating on what should be included and how it should look.

My first try started with a weekly planner page created on an 8.5 x 11 inch google slide so that students (or adults) could print or type digitally:

I also worked up a cover, page for students to store links and write in their schedule. This wasn’t what Ms. Ellman was envisioning, so we kept working – but if this might work for you – grab a copy of the rainbow planner HERE.

After brainstorming more with Ms. Ellman, we decided to include two pages per slide to make it look more like a real open planner. She also asked if I could make it more “fill-in-able” (which I loved because I, too, make up words when the right ones can’t be found) meaning I needed to make it more obvious for students – who possibly haven’t made using a planner a habit – what to write and where.

While a lot of the images are in the background of the slide, the words for the classes, empty boxes, and places for notes are all completely editable!

If this might help your students this year – grab a copy of the template above and share it with them!

Just in case you missed them – here are the links to each of the templates shared in this post:

Big Plans To-do List

Rainbow Stripe Planner Template

Teal Planner Template