October 13, 2021

5 benefits of using a student planner for children

What is a student planner?

A student planner is a time-management tool that helps students organize all the things they need to do throughout the week, semester and academic year at school. It makes it easy to plan out school work and stay organized.

The academic pressure placed on school children can be difficult to handle, especially since there is so much for them to remember all of the time. That is where student planners come in to help. The organizational help it provides gets students into the habit of keeping on top of assignments and all the work they have to do. Not only is it a place for them to record all their activities and academic responsibilities, it also allows them to easily see and assess their schedule and calendar.

Although traditional physical diary-like planners remain useful today, schools are becoming increasingly more digitally based, with many schools incorporating laptops and even iPads into their learning environment. It therefore only makes sense that school planners are now digital. The benefits of a digital planner align and exceed the benefits of a physical planner, so it is definitely something you should be considering for your school.

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Benefits of student planners in the classroom

There are numerous ways in which a student planner can elevate and improve the student learning experience. From developing organizational skills, to alleviating pressure off of parents and teachers, a student planner is advantageous for everyone involved. Here is a list of some of the best benefits of student planners in the classroom.

1. Reduces stress

Academic standards put a lot of stress on students. The fear of getting in trouble for losing track of homework deadlines is one of the biggest stress inducers for students across the world. Thankfully, school planners help students know exactly what they need to do and by what date. Moreover, as they know exactly what date their work is due, they can optimize their time management during the week.

2. Increases productivity

A school planner helps students better manage their time and increases their productivity. Procrastination is a big problem amongst students nowadays, as the digital world provides them with many distractions. However, if they know what work they need to be doing because they have written it down, it will provide them more incentive to actually do it. Without a calendar, it can be easy for students to push school work to the back of their mind. A student planner reduces the desire to procrastinate.

3. Easier for parents

Students, especially younger ones, who still rely on the guidance and encouragement of parents to do their school work, often fail to inform their parents that they have any homework at all. This leaves parents oblivious to the academic responsibilities of their child.

Thankfully, with a student planner, all parents need to do is log in to the student planner website to see all the work their son or daughter has to do that evening. This provides them with the necessary tools to motivate their kids and make sure they stay on top of their homework.

4. Easier for teachers

Student planners are also helpful for teachers. If a student is struggling with getting work done or paying attention to the content that they need to be studying outside of class, teachers can take advantage of the student planner to make learning easier for them.

Digital planners allow students to not only remember the homework that they have to do, but also break it up into more manageable chunks and create smaller tasks to make what might otherwise be an overwhelming activity easier to do. Teachers can sit down with students who might be struggling with time management and help them break the work down into easier to handle chunks.

5. Gives students a break

Although the main objective of a student planner is to help schedule academic time, it can also be useful to ensure students do not get overwhelmed with work and have some down time to relax. If teachers are setting their homework with a prediction of how long it should take, it should allow students to calculate this time and factor in some time for themselves.

This personal relaxation time is essential to maintain a positive mindset and mental health amongst the younger generation. Even if it is something as small as a game of FIFA or a call to their best friend in between bits of homework, that can make a huge difference, and a student planner can help to facilitate this, without their academic performance being affected.

Tips to help your child learn to plan

Break up your work

Students often feel academic burnout. When teaching your kids how to plan their time, you should teach them to integrate breaks into their periods of work and study. Consider teaching your child about the pomodoro effect. With this method, it is suggested they work for 20 minutes and then take a five-minute break and then keep repeating this until their work is done. If they can factor this into their plan, they will get their work done far quicker.

Create checklists

A list is your best friend when it comes to planning. If you have created a checklist in advance, you know exactly what you need to do and it will encourage you to do it. Nothing feels better than ticking something off your to-do list. It is a brilliant tip for planning as it ensures you actually have a plan and is extremely easy to do at the start of the day, especially if you are doing it digitally.

Color coding

Although color coding might sound like a thing you would do on your child’s sticker chart, it is actually a brilliant tool for planning as it allows you to evenly distribute your time over things that need your attention. Therefore, if you have four blue tasks for a day, you know you have four cleaning tasks and if you have three red, you know you’ve got three work tasks to do. It’s that simple!

What is the best student planner?

A student planner is arguably one of the best tools you can use to help get your students organized and reach their maximum academic potential. Studyo’s school planner allows you to customize the timetable to your school's calendar, so you can input special dates, events, exam times, etc.

It is also an extremely easy system to use, especially for teachers who do not need to worry about inputting every individual piece of work into the system as it will pull all assignments directly from Google classroom. Students can manage tasks easily from their device. They can split up tasks into more manageable chunks and can easily tick off completed tasks.

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