The Blair Finch Project
Common Curriculum Planner
It's time to have paperless lesson plans, right? So many of us create lesson plans in a word processing application and then print and lose the plans over and over all week long. So, it's time to look for an electronic planner that fits your needs as well as offers more opportunities that the old paper and pencil just can't offer. There are many electronic planners out there but the Common Curriculum Planner caught our attention. It's a dream program for all those Type A teachers out there! Common Curriculum allows you to create your own classes and put those classes in a weekly schedule. This is nice because you can see who you will have music class when and what you have planned for each class. You can easily copy plans and drag them into other classes. You can share your plans with another teacher or your administrator. The state standards and core curriculum standards are at your fingertips! With a few simple clicks, all standards are there to browse and select. (The arts core curriculum standards are not there yet. We am hopeful with time they will be added.) It is not the most user-friendly at first, but well worth navigating and exploring.
It is also possible to view Common Curriculum Planner on a mobile device as well. With that said, there is a message that appears on mobile devices stating that the mobile version of Cc isn't quite ready and for a good experience, one should use the computer version for the moment. It is easy to create lessons on the computer and the mobile device works well when viewing the plans for reference before or during a lesson. We hope that Common Curriculum will create a mobile app and have communicated this feedback to them.
This is my favorite view first thing in the morning. It reminds me of my daily schedule as well as the lesson title to refresh my memory. I can also scroll along the side to read the specific lesson details and access links.
This is great when planning units, and they transfer right into your calendar!
When you share a lesson, this is how it appears. I like to share my lessons with myself so I can access them off my iPad to easily carry all my PDFs and links with me where ever I go in the classroom.
This is my favorite view first thing in the morning. It reminds me of my daily schedule as well as the lesson title to refresh my memory. I can also scroll along the side to read the specific lesson details and access links.