14 Feb Artful Agenda Careers: Planning With Teachers
An undeniable fact: the best part of Artful Agenda is its users.
Every week for the next few weeks, we will highlight how people in different careers can use this digital planner to their advantage.
This week, the focus is on teachers.
Before creating apps, Katy Allen, the founder of Artful Agenda, was a high school teacher and cherished many aspects of that work. Now, as a mom, she has a special place in her heart for teachers. Their ability to go above and beyond while making such an impact on the lives of children is nothing short of extraordinary.
Six teachers currently working in the field were interviewed to learn about their personal experiences with Artful Agenda.
Here’s what they said.
Artful Agenda Has Useful Tools
Firstly, everybody agreed that Artful Agenda offers a variety of tools to help teachers with their everyday tasks.
For instance, Kentucky teacher Brittani says: “I love that I can have my to-do list with my calendar! I also love that I can connect all my calendars to Artful Agenda.”
Marti, a Teacher from Lubbock, Texas, agrees that “being able to have my school calendar automatically integrate with Artful Agenda” is super practical. She also likes that there’s always space for her tasks thanks to the daily planner view. It makes the scheduling process incredibly straightforward.
Michigan Teacher Heather goes one step further, expressing her happiness that she can “move items from one day to another if I don’t get to that particular activity in class on the day I had originally planned for it.”
Bottom line: teachers find this digital planner to be easy, simple, and convenient.
It Increases Productivity
Artful Agenda has been enhancing teachers’ productivity levels.
Alexa, a Teacher from Alma, Arkansas, says: “It has helped me organize and keep track of everything going on better because I am not having to search for which post-it I wrote it on.”
Brittani is in 100% agreement: “It helps me keep track of my to-do list much more efficiently.”
In terms of prioritizing, Ohio Teacher Jessica likes the fact that she can “move tasks to different days if needed.”
Heather goes one step further and claims that Artful Agenda is the perfect planning assistant: “I can work on my planning from my office computer, my couch and in the hallway on my phone in between classes!”
One thing that’s almost universally true about teachers- they don’t turn their teacher brain off very often. Artful Agenda is a tool that can help them fit planning into every corner of their day.
Artful Agenda Encourages Organization
Speaking of planning, it’s well known that mapping out lessons is one of the most important tasks a teacher will undertake.
Brittani explains: “Between lesson plans and meetings, we are always planning our next steps. However, we tend to be creative as well. Especially in the Elementary world.”
She continues: “We want things to be efficient but also cute! I feel that having Artful Agenda allows us to express our creativity but also keeps us organized!”
Outside of the adorable options for planning, teachers have deadlines and data to constantly stay on top of.
Marti says: “Staying on top of various due dates and tasks for my special needs students is critical” and she is thankful that there is a planner that exists to aid her with this.
Teachers Love That Artful Agenda Is Digital
Finally, teachers seem to appreciate that Artful Agenda is digital.
Alexa initially had her reservations. She claims: “I loved buying cute planners.” She had a big desk paper calendar for work and an Erin Condren planner for home and personal use. However, she says: “I just had a hard time managing both and making sure I transferred everything onto each one and it never failed that I would need something on the work one when I was home on the weekend.” She continues: “My favorite thing about Artful is that I still get the paper planner look, yet it’s digital and I always have it with me on my phone.”
Emily, a Teacher in Mayfield, New York, agrees and says: “I love not carrying my planner everywhere.”
Furthermore, Jessica says that Artful Agenda makes her “more likely to record in the digital planner” and keep up with it.
Artful Agenda keeps teachers organized, on track, and with fewer items in their teacher bags—truly a winner all around!
The Takeaway: Teachers Adore Artful Agenda
Staying organized is key for teachers who juggle numerous responsibilities while inspiring their students.
It is heartening to see so many teachers using Artful Agenda and integrating it into their daily routines, positively impacting the lives of their students. The goal of Artful Agenda is to make planning fun and purposeful—and it sounds like these teachers are knocking it out of the park!
Sima Mathew
Posted at 16:53h, 08 MayI would like to see the following on any updates to the planner:
Address book
Notebook pages that can be tagged to the event/date or vice versa. Easier to go to a meeting and take notes and then come back to that meeting day for the notes that were taken. It can also be a place where you could put down your thoughts, ideas, drawings so that it would be available later for reference. I keep a notebook of my notes, but I have to flip through a lot of pages to get to the right spot. With this, I just need my iPad and pencil when I go to meetings.
Katy Allen
Posted at 16:46h, 03 SeptemberHi Sima! These are great suggestions, we will add them to our suggestion box. We already have plans for a few of these features as well. 🙂
Trish Ambrosio
Posted at 18:35h, 30 AprilI tried Artful Agenda some time ago and then dabbled with many planners after that. Artful Agenda has the best google and ical integration hands down! Now that I have committed to making this digital planner work for me, I would love to see the “meal” section customizable so I can replace it with a lesson topic for the day section. I have 5 preps as a high school teacher and it would be great to use that bottom section of the weekly and daily views to contain what I am covering that day. Any chances that is something in the works?
Rosemary Morrison
Posted at 03:30h, 01 MayHi Trish! Currently the title is already customizable, just click on the pencil icon to change it. It is on our roadmap for the future to also make all of the boxes in the day view with the ability to be either a check list or paragraph style.
Kate
Posted at 00:40h, 02 MayIs there any plan to bring family sharing into play?
Rosemary Morrison
Posted at 15:14h, 02 MayHi Kate! Please submit your suggestion through your Artful Agenda in the Tech Support section under the category Artful Suggestions. Let our team know what you are interested in seeing in a family sharing situation and we will put it on our list for developer’s consideration in the future.