First, I usually sit down with my planner and I think about my week. I ask myself these three main questions first:

1. When are my Team Planning Days?

2. Are there any meetings I have this week? When are they?

3. Is there anything due this week?

These are the events that aren't going to change, and I have to work around those three parts of the week. Once I have the answers to those, I plug those into my planner. 

Next, I plan other parts of my week to include:

1. When is copy day? (Pro tip -- never copy first thing in the morning, EVERYONE does that. Pick another time).

2. What day am I going to collect my resources? (This includes read alouds, guided reading books, math activities, science and social studies)

3. Do I have anything involving technology I need to prep?

4. When do I need things graded by?

When I plug these in, I make sure to place them on days that are pretty empty. 

For example, I am not going to collect math and Language Arts resources on my Team Planning Days. I usually wait until later in the week to do that. I usually only grab science and social studies on those days because they don't require a lot of time. 

When it comes to copy day, I usually split that into two days. I usually save Monday for all of the copies that I know I will do the following week (yeah, on somethings I am a week ahead). Those copies include Words of the Week, word work center activities, and writing activities. These are planned out for the year, and I don't need to wait for a team planning day to plan for those. 

Anything else that pops up on a day to day basis, I just place into an empty slot. I try not to overwhelm myself by giving me many things to do on a given day. I usually only allow myself 3 activities a day, that way I don't feel overwhelmed. 

If you would like to use this free planning guide ,which includes a weekly, daily and team planning pages, just subscribe next to this post. 

Again, these are ideas that work for me, and hopefully, they will work for you in the classroom. Just remember to follow the guide set above -- start with the events that won't change for the week, then fill in the rest of the week with events that can be done at any point throughout the week. Stick to this, and you will be on track in no time.