Setting Up My Planner for Summer Break

It's summer break and that means no lesson planning for a few months, and a much more relaxed schedule in general! But I've learned I still function best using my planner, even when I have far less to write down- I end up more stressed when I try to put my planner away! Here's how I switch up my teacher planner in the summer months.

1. Remove old monthly and weekly pages

It is an awesome feeling, and a great way to help me process the school year that has just ended and emotionally and mentally transition to summer break, when I take the monthly calendars and weekly lesson planning pages out of my planner. It makes my planner a whole lot slimmer and lighter too! I take the time to flip through the pages and remember everything that happened before I take them out- it's like looking through a scrapbook or photo album- which helps a lot with my transition from the hectic school year into summer. The abrupt switch from the hectic school year to summer break can be tough, actually, but taking the time to remember and reflect, and then physically remove those pages from my planner, really helps.

2. Set up a summer at a glance calendar and summer bucket list

Actually I set up my "summer at a glance" calendar (which is just the 3 summer month calendars all on one page) before the end of the school year so I could start planning all of the vacations etc and keep track of dates, but I do highly recommend it. Even though I do add in the monthly calendars for summer months just like the rest of the school year, having the major travel/ camp dates for the whole summer on one page is really helpful. 

The summer bucket list is something I've been doing for years and it really helps me stay focused on my goals for summer vacation- no, not just work things, but mostly family things, home things, and self care things that I tell myself all year, "I'll have time for that during summer break". You can read more about the different ways I've set them up over the years, and how I think about categories of items to keep on my list, in this post.

3. Add in summer monthly and weekly pages

I used to go straight to adding in next school year's pages as soon as school got out but I don't do that anymore- not only have I learned from the pandemic that you can never take schedules or calendars for granted that far in advance, but I like having the concrete reminder of the switch from school year to summer break to keep my brain from jumping straight into planning and preparing for next year. The beauty of the #PlanMyWholeLife planners is there are lots of weekly planning pages in the "business" section of the printables that have just enough space to note basic things like play dates and meal plans but take away the extra unnecessary lesson planning space. 

If you want to see all of this in action here's a quick video of my process to help you visualize how I use my planner all through the summer! 

Do you use your planner over summer break? I know some people throw all calendars out the window entirely, and some continue using the same planning pages they do during the school year- I've found this happy medium works best for me, but I'd love to hear what other teachers do in the comments.