I am so excited to share my OneNote teacher planner with you! I have designed this planner so I can switch to digital planning next year for my teacher planner but still have the look and feel of a ‘pretty’ paper planner. I decided to use a Mid-Century Modern theme as it feels so bright and hopeful with an optimistic view of the future. I created all of the graphics for the planner with some inspirational help from images found online.
Background
I have taught in the US and England, and I have done my best to make this planner adaptable for teachers. I do teach secondary, and I have based the planner on my own experiences. If you teach elementary/primary, you might find you need to make some adaptations. The first planner I received from my school in England had daily planner pages, which seems to be the norm. I much prefer a weekly overview, and that is what I have incorporated into this planner. I have also tried to create stickers and pages that will be useful to a wide audience. This means you might find some parts that don’t apply to you. If this is the case, just delete the pages you don’t need.
Why OneNote?
I know a lot of traditional digital journaling is done on tablets using apps like GoodNotes and Notability. I love using GoodNotes, but it’s not practical for my daily teacher planning as I am not always comfortable with bringing my tablet to school with me. With OneNote, I can access the planner on my school laptop, and school desktop computers, as well as my personal devices like my iPad. I can easily type in notes but also draw and write if I’m on a tablet. Additionally, my lesson plans can contain links directly to my teaching resources housed on OneDrive. If you use Office 365 apps at your school, it just makes a lot of sense.
What does it look like?
For each month, there is a monthly overview calendar and weekly planning pages. The main part of the planning pages have a horizontal weekly layout, but there is a vertical weekly layout option available in the template section of the planner if you prefer this style of layout. The weekly planning pages are built into a table, so the space will expand as you type giving you as much space as you need for your planning. The planner also includes sections for yearly overviews, school information, student information, notes, stickers, and templates.
Here are a few screenshots to give you an idea of content and design, but the planner has over 200 pages, and it would be impractical for me to give you a screenshot of all of them. Instead, why don’t you follow this link to have a look through the planner before deciding if it’s for you?
Downloading the Planner
You have two options for downloading this planner depending on whether you use a personal version of Office 365 or a school version of it. Follow the directions for the version you are using. Not sure? If you’re account ends with a school domain, it’s a school version. If you account ends with @outlook.com, it’s a personal account.
Personal Version
- Download the OneNote Bright Future planner file.
- Unzip the file.
- Log in to your OneNote account.
- Go to the OneNote notebook importer.
- Find the location of the unzipped planner folder, select it, and click open to import it.
School Version
You will need OneNote 2016 on your computer to import and open this file. If you do not have OneNote2016, you can download it for free here.
- Download the OneNote Bright Future planner package file. New! If you teach Sunday-Thursday, here’s a version for you!
- Open OneNote 2016 desktop app.
- Find the location of the planner package file and click to open it.
- When prompted in OneNote 2016, make sure you save the planner file to your OneDrive and not your local hard drive. This is what will allow it to sync across all of your devices
- Save the planner, and it will start loading. You should be good to go.
Unfortunately from what I have read, OneNote package files don’t play well with Macs. If you are using a Mac, you might not be able to open the file initially. You might try the steps above on a PC. Once you have your planner saved to your OneDrive, you will then be able to open it on any device, including your Mac.
Please let me know what you think!
I have spent hours creating this planner, and I am sharing it freely as I know how expensive teacher planners can be. I also know it can be scary to take the plunge to digital, especially if a cost is involved. So I would love it if you could provide feedback on the planner after you have had a chance to start using it. Here’s a quick form to fill in and all fields are optional. I will use the feedback to improve the planner and to also create new pages as needed/requested. If there is something missing that you would absolutely love to see in the planner, please let me know, and I will do my best to create it. If you absolutely love the planner and are looking for a way to say thank you, you can buy me a coffee.
Technical Difficulties?
I hope you don’t have any technical difficulties accessing and installing this planner. However, if you do have any issues, I will try to assist you as my time allows. Just send me an email.
Your planner looks amazing!! I flipped through the pages of the sample and with our district making the MS Teams switch in the fall, moving everything to MicroSoft sounds awesome. However, when I try to download the OneNote Bright Future planner package file, I get the message “This item might have been deleted, expired, or you might not have permission to view it. Contact the owner of this item for more information.” Has anyone else encountered this issue?
Are you using a Mac? If yes, that could be the issue. If not, try using a different web browser. If you continue to have issues, please feel free to email me, so we can further troubleshoot your issue.
I’m having the exact same issue. Did you find out how to fix it? I’m UK based not sure of this makes a difference. Thanks for sharing this resource it looks amazing and I can’t wait to use it.
I have fixed it, and it should work now. It was a OneDrive issue, so I’ve moved the files to DropBox.
That worked! It’s just as beautiful and easy to use as I anticipated! Thanks for the quick response and the quick fix. Have a great week!
I am so glad that fixed the issue, and I am so happy you like the planner. Thanks for letting me know you got it to work.
I’ve fixed the issue by moving the files to DropBox for download. You shouldn’t have any issues now.
Amazing !!! I would love to know how you created these so that I can create my own templates for my subject. Thank you so much for sharing
I used Affinity Designer, a vector imaging app, on my iPad to create all of the artwork. I then saved the images as png files, uploaded the images to OneNote, and for most of it, set the image as a page background.
I am having the same issue as above, unfortunately and it is not a MAC. What a shame because I think it looks amazing!
I’ve updated the download links, and it should work without any issues now. I’m so sorry about that. OneDrive sharing doesn’t always play nicely.
What a speedy response, thank you. I shall give it another go 🙂
I don’t have a dropbox account. Am I still able to download without buying an account?
You don’t need a DropBox account to download the file. Just dismiss the login screen, and click on the download button.
I have a mac and did what you said about using a pc to download. I saved to onedrive. When I go into my mac, the file says it is created on an older version. It then tells me to dowload it and it won’t download on the mac. How do I access the files?
Hi! You need to open the file for the first time in OneNote 2016 on a PC. When it asks you where to save the OneNote planner, you need to save it to your OneDrive and not the local hard drive. Let the planner unpack and completely load the new notebook. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to access the file in all versions of OneNote across your devices, including your Mac.
I was looking forward to looking and this and using it, however I am on a mac and don’t have access to a PC. If anyone finds a work around I am very interested.
If you’d like to send me an email, there is a way for you to get it. I can walk you through the steps. It’s a little more time consuming but it works. Janellewilson@mrswilsonscience.com.
This is brilliant, I have been trying to create my own of this, but I keep getting really frustrated and giving up! Thanks so much. Once I get my timetable for september, can I quickly paste it across the weekly pages? Thanks again
I’m trying to think of a way to make this process easier. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything.
Maybe share it with her and then she can copy it into her OneNote
Thanks so much for the planner it is genius! I was wondering the same as January above. I have my timetable for week A and B and wondered if there was a quick way to paste the lessons that I have on each day of the week? Thanks again.
I’m trying to figure out a way this might work. I think when I did try at one point it didn’t work the way I wanted it to. It pasted a table into the table, which isn’t right. If I figure out a way, I’ll let you know.
Thank you so much for sharing this!!!! I truly appreciate you posting it free. I wanted to create one, but I am not into the details.
You’re welcome!
I really like the retro 50’s style of graphics. Would you happen to have a personal planner (non-school) in this style for sale?
Apologies for the super late reply, but did you see the Goodnotes personal bullet journal post?