Ed. note: App of the Week picks are now being curated by the editors of Common Sense Education [1], which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. Click here [2]to read the full app review.
Planboard [2]
What’s It Like?
Planboard is an organizational tool (website and app) for lesson planning and tracking standards coverage. Start by creating a free account with Chalk.com. Next, create color-coded subjects–which can be further organized into sections if the subject is taught to more than one group, or class, of students. Then, add subjects to a schedule using a built-in calendar. Creating and organizing lessons is the final step; templates are available and editing tools allow users to embed videos, attach documents, include links to Google documents, and more.
Price: Free, Paid
Grades: K-12
Rating: 4/5
Pros: It’s easy to keep track of classroom schedules, as well as add standards, attach PDFs, and add videos to lessons.
Cons: Setting up lessons and personalizing a schedule takes quite a bit of time up front.
Bottom line: Although it requires a lot of setup time, this snappy tool centralizes the essential components of lesson planning.