Self-monitoring is a metacognitive skill and is outside the scope of this post, but study skills is clearly a skill that can be taught in the classroom.  And a key component of study skills is…yes, you guessed it…time management.

And a student planner should teach time management.  Not through some supplement stuck in the back.  Time management, aka organization and planning, is learned over time through the repeated and systematic use of the right tool, in this case a student day planner (daily planner) that visually causes the brain to organize different compartments of life.

Layer in different learning styles, personal styles and a host of other factors and it’s apparent that kids are going to “get it” at different times in their academic career and the best we can do is ensure that they have the right student planner in hand when the time is right.  Remember the old saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher will arrive”?

So should you be investing in a student planner?  Yes and No.   “Yes” if you are committed to ensuring that students leave school with the time management skills necessary to succeed in college (and by extrapolation to succeed in the workforce), then you should be happy to spend the money necessary to ensure students learn this skill.  Because that is the question…How to better prepare my students for success in college.

“No” if you are planning to spend money on weekly planner (one week over 2 pages) that is not much more that 5 note cards taped on a page.  You get what you pay for…because the question for you is really “how can I help my student write down their homework assignment.”  My next post will dig a little deeper into this subject of weekly planners versus daily planners.