I’m not going to lie, finding bullet journaling was a life-saver for me when it came to teaching. I was fortunate enough to get into bullet journaling at the end of my first year of teaching, when it was VERY obvious that I needed a system to keep up with all the busyness that teaching has to offer. It certainly helped me avoid being a scatter-brained mess!

Crushing “teacher life”

Hi team! Jess or JashiiCorrin from YouTube / Instagram here bringing you 10 ideas for teaching-related bullet journal layouts. The bullet journal system is absolutely perfect for teacher life! Its flexibility and customisability really lends itself to teachers in all areas of education.

Having been a secondary science teacher for the past 7 years, I know how much there is to do, and keeping track of it all can be a very daunting task. For all my teaching peers, I’ve got 10 layout ideas to share with you today!

Supplies

For our teacher bullet journal work today, I used the equipment below which you may also find helpful. Remember you can use my code JASHIICORRIN10 for 10% your orders at Archer and Olive!

• A5 Archer and Olive notebook
• Pens of choice
• Markers of choice

Rather watch, then read? For a quick overview of the layout ideas we have in this blog post, as well as a glimpse at some more, check out the video below!

Let’s get organised!

Teaching-related future log

Starting at the start (a very good place to start), we have the teacher-version of the future log! On this one you would note meetings, holidays, test dates, due dates, and other happenings. Taking any future log-style spread, you just need to adjust it to fit your academic year. Some people may prefer to keep it in the style of month-by-month, but the example we have here is broken down into four terms. The mini-calendars on the side can have their days colour coded to represent different happenings, such as holidays, sick days, teacher only days, and anything else!

Depending on the structure of your academic year, you may want to consider the best possible structure for your teaching future log. For more ideas of future log styles, you can of course check out my video on the topic!

Term planner or lesson scheduler

This layout idea is once that I came up with in my second year of teaching as a way to see, at a glance, all the lessons I had planned for the upcoming weeks. This one works in the basis of having a main column for each week, which are divided horizontally into the days of Monday through Friday. Each weekday takes up 6 rows; one for each of the 6 school periods we had at my school. Obviously, if your school timetable operates on a different daily structure, this one would need some tweaking. However, this would have to be hands-down the most helpful teaching related layout I’ve used! For more information about its structure, I do have a separate video which you can find with this link.

Mark book

Dutch doors are one of my favourite things to use in my journal, and this layout idea is perfect for it. For the mark book we have here, our student names are visible down the left hand side. This gives me more room to record my mark book items over multiple pages. What you record on a layout like this is up to you, and it doesn’t have to include assessment marks; you can also set up “mark book” style layouts for attendance, work completion, etc. Make sure you also leave yourself a little extra space to accommodate any roll growth.

5/10/15 minute teaching tasks

We all know how busy teaching life is, and its hard to fit in all the things. The idea behind this layout is how we can best use the tiny pockets of time we might have during the day. The ideas I’ve listed in this layout are just suggestions, so in setting one up for yourself, make sure you have a brainstorm of what you can realistically do in each time frame. Remember, rest is productive too, so if you need to take a breather, go for it!

Special assessment conditions

This reference page idea is for our students who get particular conditions they are eligible for during assessments. We refer to these as “special assessment conditions” at my school, but they include things like readers, writers, extra time, rest breaks, specific printing requirements, and more. Having a reference for all of your students with these condition requirements can be super helpful when it comes to planning your assessments and making sure that those conditions can be met.

Command term glossary

I don’t know about you, but I often have difficulty in clearly explaining the difference between command terms to students. In a system like MYP which is what we used at my school, command terms often had very specific meanings too! Having a handy reference for these command terms and their meanings would have been hugely helpful! Of course, the example I have here is for command terms, but you might want your glossary to be for something else. For example, terminology for a course you’re not overly familiar with use, acronyms your school commonly uses, etc.

Before term X checklist

Another one of my most-used teaching related layouts, the “Before term X” checklist has grown to be one of my teaching staples. Commonly I’ll set this one up before the end of my current term as a list of the things I want to achieve before the next term to make sure I come back fully prepared. Nothing worse than getting back to school after the holiday break to then remember a bunch of things you forget to do! I’ve broken this one down into different sections, including things to do for particular classes, making to do, printing to do, and other general tasks.

Words of appreciation log

Teaching is hard. On good days, it’s easy to know that this is one of the most rewarding professions out there, on other days though the busyness and stress can make that harder to remember. Having a reference page to go back to can be a good way to pick your spirits up when you need it. We never like to feel our efforts are wasted, so having this reference page to help uplift us is a nice addition. These can be words of appreciation from students, colleagues, their families, or you might have some words of appreciation for yourself that you want to include.

School year bingo board

I do have to say, bingo boards are one of my favourite bullet journal additions. Whether they be for self-care, productivity, or in this case for school life, I just find them to be a really fun addition to any setup! For the school year bingo board example here, I’ve populated it with some different happenings that I could expect in a typical school year. This is a mix of positive things, and ones that aren’t so great (looking at you, “meeting that could have been an email”!). A fun add-on to this idea is outlining some potential prizes or rewards for getting parts of your bingo board checked off as a way to treat yourself throughout the school year.

I’ve also made you a printable bingo board that you might want to include in your planner! This one has two versions; one with pre-populated potential school happenings, and a blank copy for if you want to add your own items!

Where I get teacher discounts

A super fun issue I often run into is paying for my purchases somewhere only to find out later on that they offer teacher discounts! Safeguard yourself against such happenings by setting up a discounts log in your journal. On this one I’ve got a space to write the place I get the discount, what the discount is, and how it’s redeemed. Technically, Archer & Olive doesn’t so teacher discounts specifically, but you can always use my code JashiiCorrin10 for 10% off your orders. We love savings!

Want even more ideas?

I have an additional 47 teaching-related bullet journal layouts in the video over on my channel. Head over to YouTube, or press this link, to check it out!

Tackling teacher life

This is in no way an exhaustive list, but hopefully you’ve found the ideas in this blog post helpful; I hope you're excited to set up some new things in your journal! Don’t forget to grab your printable back to school bingo sheet, and tag me, @jashiicorrin, and @archerandolive in you teacher-related posts over on Instagram. We can’t wait to see what you make!